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Rubric Wrangler
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Jan 2021 at 4:17 PM Last edited by PharaohHound : 26th Jan 2021 at 12:45 AM. Reason: whoops typo
Default Guidelines++ Is Now Live
Alrighty folks, today I am very happy to announce the public roll-out of a big new update for MTS that we have been working on for.... hoo boy, well over a year now! The rubrics and guidelines systems have been the backbone of our moderation system for a while, and as proud as we are of them, to be honest they were beginning to show its age. It was difficult to navigate, difficult to edit, the rubrics were poorly integrated with the guidelines, and all in all we felt it had become rather unwieldy and was not serving uploaders as well as we wanted.

So, after a lot of staff meetings and hard work, we are now able to switch over to our Guidelines++ system. Built from the ground up, it includes such features as:
  • Guidelines and rubrics are fully integrated, all presented together
  • Almost all guideline and rubric text has undergone rewrites, sometimes major, to be easier to understand and make the rules more clear
  • Guideline text is now integrated directly into queue moderation threads. Click on the ? icon next to guideline name, and it'll pop right up! No more running around to scour the wiki for guidelines
  • The examples section of many guidelines offers picture and text examples to illustrate the guidelines
  • Built-in tutorials section for some guidelines to help uploaders who need additional guidance
  • Rubrics have been simplified by switching to a pass/fail system, rather than the previous star system

FAQs
How do I navigate and view guidelines in the new system?
There are three different ways. Viewing guidelines by category will show you only guidelines which have a section specific to that category. By upload section will show you all guidelines that apply to uploads in that section. By group will show you all guidelines organized broadly by what aspects of  moderation they address. For people who want to see the requirements for uploading their sim/lot/pet/clown car/etc, viewing By Upload Section  will get you what you need.

Have the upload requirements changed?
In almost all cases, no. While the guideline and rubric text are different, the overwhelming majority of edits have just been to make then easier to understand. The only change I can think of that may affect a significant number of uploaders is that from now on we will be requiring a back view of lots, a decision we didn't make lightly but decided was best after running into numerous issues where we were unable to see the back of the lot clearly from the front view and floorplans. Check it out here.

How will this affect uploads currently in the queue?
From the perspective of uploaders, not much. When your upload is moderated moving forward it will happen with the new Guidelines++ rubrics, but as mentioned above in almost all cases these still have the same requirements as previously. Any lot uploads already in the queue as of posting time will not be subject to the back view requirement listed above. If CR'd or rejected you will still receive a PM directing you to a moderation queue thread for your upload, which will contain all the relevant info, just presented with the Guidelines++ system.

Some of the new guidelines seem incomplete
While all popular upload categories have been addressed, for a few of the more obscure categories the Guidelines++ are going to be subject to some additional work. We chose to launch the system now, when we have guidelines in place that will handle almost all uploads and benefit the overwhelming majority of uploaders, rather than delay even further for the sake of some categories like pet markings which receive at most one or two uploads per year. We will work to bring all categories to completion over the next few months.

I've noticed a mistake/typo
We're only human (and volunteers, at that)! Please head over to site issues and make a post explaining what you've found. We'll do our best to resolve any issues as quickly as we can.

Other cool stuff on the horizon!
We've already held some closed beta testing for a complete overhaul of the Upload Wizard, and while that isn't quite ready to go public yet, it should launch in the next few months and I am so excited for everyone to get to use it (I've tested it and folks, I am in love). After that, we will be revisiting the way uploaders will be able to edit their uploads in the queue, which should also make things much more user-friendly, not to mention prettier. It's going to be a big year for MTS and we hope a good one for all uploaders!

The meadows are in bloom:
who has ever seen such insolence?

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