Should the exchange become "exclusive"?

[patriots_1228 51]

Ive been wondering this for a while, but it really started to annoy me this morning. I thought i  was on simcity.com!!! since the last time i logged on, We had one spam upload, six craptastic lots, four BATs that were good, and then 2 "in between" uploads. incase you cant count, that means

4/13 STEX uploads were quality. at devotion that number would be like 13/13. The reason is they have an exclusive exchange where you need to earn the right to upload. Personally i think ST should adopt a system sort of like that, only it wouldnt be as exclusive. I would just like it if we didnt have those simcity.com uploads here. 

Pros

-Higher quality exchange

-less spam /locked files

-gives new BATters time to improve before they actually upload

-less craptastic uploads

Cons

-Might discourage some new BATters from trying

-would probably cost more money

-Spammers/Lotters will probably try and behead me for suggesting this.

Im not looking for anyone to flame at me and tell that "the exchange is for everyoneto share there stuff even if it sucks", im just want to see what others think about this "issue"

[Glenni 1,447]

No, because even some of my uploads would never have reached through then.

[mjig_dudy 11]

Yes, but only to a certain degree, the restrictions would have to be pretty relaxed, meaning stuff of reasonable quality could still get in, and it only excludes spam and crap.

Also if this were implemented, i would suggest all members who have got a rating of 8 or more, be allowed to upload.

[patriots_1228 51]

mjig_dudy you pretty much said wut i beleive.

Glenni-are you kidding me? i havnt seen an upload from you i havnt liked!

[Glenni 1,447]

Oh you mean slightly less regulated? oh well, then i am all in for it, because if it was exactly like SC4D even most of my uploads from last portion of 2006 wouldn't have reached through...

Things like this has to stop though:

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=18118

he even just uploaded some pics from the zip of the dumpster models i released....

What the HELL does the texture for the lid of this has to do with a lot?!??!

Seriously, i wonder if some of the uploaders on STEX are even 13, i suspect some are under that...

[patriots_1228 51]

LOL i no thats exactly the purpose of this, to get rid of those things and the "simcity.com style"

uploads

[coultharda 135]

I think the STEX should stay completely open, and feel strongly about it.

The idea of requiring permission, say an 'Upload Licence' or somesuch would definitely put off many new and small-scale BATters, I reckon I might not have started BATting had such restrictions been in place. Also people from other countries who may not have a perfect grasp of English would possible not understand the restrictions and so we could lose some valuable uploads from Non-English speaking people.

Perhaps, pure rubbish uploads, like the truck stop we saw should be removed as opposed to locked, but apart from this, I think the STEX should remain open and free for anyone to upload, be they newbe, beginner, intermediate, or Pro. Some of the best uploaders here had a less-than-spectacular start, but by exposing them to criticism and advice on the STEX they could improve the aspects. A BAT thread is only good to a limit (I mean, mine never gets replies for example).

I'l finish by using you as an example Patriots (Nothing personal, just since you started the thread...). Your earlier BATs were a bit of a mixed bag, some were rather nice, others like your first American Football stadium needed work, and you were told so. What happened? A few months later you uploaded a better stadium, and I'm sure if you did another now, it would be even better than that. The STEX encourages improvement.

[patriots_1228 51]

sorry for the double post but by those things i mean Spam, not the dumpsters

edit-

coultharda-good points! however i think newer BATters who need to learn and improve could still do that, they could start a thread and upload the BATs there, until they have improved enough to upload to the STEX.

[Krio 626]

If STEX become exclusive, my poor BATs wont pass! HAH HAH! Really.

[Mayor Abe 3]

While I, not planning to become a BATer anytime soon, have no real right to comment on this, I must agree. SC4D has better quality new uploads, but Simtropolis has more aceptable and medium quality uploads. Also, exactly who still uploads to the SC4 website exchange? I've never seen anything decent on there. Also, I think it should become a limited exclusive,. that would prevent any [self censored] uploads, while letting inexperienced batters who actually try still upload, or create a new 'beginer's' exchange, on which experenced batters will vote on the inexperenced ones and those voted below a 3/10 will be baned from uploading for 3 months. I think that would be good

[MrCinatit 30]

Nah, I believe the STEX should remain free from exclusion.

Even if there were to be a relaxed exclusion - where would we draw the line? Who would make the decisions - surely it would not be left to only a couple of people? If it were left to a large group of people, then would people be willing to wait for the item to be decided upon (a day? a week?)?

Yeah, there are some which are not quite up to task - but those very quickly fall off the front page and from memory. Believe it or not, but there were some poor uploads three years ago - but we chose not to remember those.

Freedom is the way to go.

[Glenni 1,447]

our old bud Vanderaap still releases at simcity.com exchange

[patriots_1228 51]

Mayorabe-about the simcity.com thing. people still upload there but its very low quality and often not the persons work. when someone says" i think you should upload this to simcity.com" it means its not very good.

Mrcinatit- I would probably say dirk and the STEX mods would do it, but this is my opinion, Dirk would have the final say.

[Albatross Domain 2]

Course no one has seen anything lately from SC4.com, not since EA usurped their product line and website, a few years ago, such as not being able to log-in to it.. since then the reason we have so many fan-sites specifically dedicated to SC4-DE... I just hope that when SC5 comes the quality will remain the same on ST and as well as SC4Dev. I am looking forward to it. Besides more than the majority of the fan sites listed on Simcity.ea.com are no longer running.

[Abc987 3]

I think that if there were restrictions, they would have to be very easily passed, but just enough to not let those craptastic uploads get through. Also, even if we didn't have those BATs that were just okay, imagine what a drop of uploads there would be on the STEX. People do still use those lots as maybe fillers sometimes.

[Bazkur 34]

As a downloader and not a Bat'er I'd think that some sort of quality control at this point would be nice. The site has become so big that there is a lot of "junk" being uploaded. I don't want to discourge new people from creating new Bat's but should they be on the STEX?

My ideal site would have a quality control group setup and approve all new Bats before they made it to the STEX. Users could upload like they do now and then it would set in a queue for a group of people, possibly elected, to look at and test the Bat before giving this thumbs up. This would have to be a rather large group of people since so many Bat's get uploaded and would be a big task. But if 3 out 20 "Approvers" gave the thumbs up that would be ideal probably.  [Edit] Possibly even give the Approval Board the ability to give certain Authors to Upload without Approvel.  An Elite group if you will.

Maybe another section for "This is my first bat" would be good too. It could have a retention policy set on it for like 5 months or something. If it receives enough votes then it would be queued for Approvel to go on the STEX. If after the retention policy it didn't have enough votes, it would be move to save valuable space.

Anyone else think this is a good idea?

[2ch.net simplayer 180]

If there is somebody who could complile a "list of good stuff".........

I am thinking of "good stuff for sci-fi theme" list

[Simfan34 11]

Originally posted by: Glenni Oh you mean slightly less regulated? oh well, then i am all in for it, because if it was exactly like SC4D even most of my uploads from last portion of 2006 wouldn't have reached through...

Things like this has to stop though:

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=18118

he even just uploaded some pics from the zip of the dumpster models i released....

What the HELL does the texture for the lid of this has to do with a lot?!??!

Seriously, i wonder if some of the uploaders on STEX are even 13, i suspect some are under that...quote>

He also used the word yo. That made me mad.

[Q-Tips 37]

I cant see any problems about how it is now. If there is anything you dont like, then dont download it. Ok, it do happens crapp is uploaded, and that should be deleted.

But if you see someone's upload that you might think is real bad. Wouldnt it be better try help that person and tell him how to do it better instead of banning him? It doesnt sound very welcome for new members who wants to try become any good.

And of course a first upload will be one of the worst upload he/she will do. No one is born perfect. So if the first upload gets bad rating (for example only 6), then the uploader should loose the chance to show his improvement?

[mjig_dudy 11]

I wouldn't say there should be a committee to decide every single upload, i would say members get upload rights.

The way this would work is if someone wanted to upload the STEX they could start a thread detailing their work, when it is good enough for the STEX limits (for some this would be immediate) they would be given upload rights, meaning any future Content can immediately uploaded without going through a 'committee' first. This would remove all the hassle of having to wait ages for an upload to be approved.

[1dera3 29]

Even if it did become exclusive, I think we should give the mods an ability to completly remove simcity.com-type stuff from the STEX. Locking it doesn't do anything but take up some space, which may add up after while (judging by the quality recently ), and all of us know that the *rude people* who are uploading this *poop* aren't going to do squat/zilch/zip/anything.

And what about rating the creator of the lot/BAT, instead of the lot/BAT itself? We could ban entire users from uploading to the STEX. Just an idea, though. (Actually, maybe those *rude people* are going to rate decent lots poorly and ban us from the STEX... hmm...)

[neongamer 3]

@ Glenni:

Seriously, i wonder if some of the uploaders on STEX are even 13, i suspect some are under that...

I was twelve when i uploaded my one-stand soccer field, and that got mainly postive reviews

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

I think we should adopt a kind of system, but relaxed, only to kick out faulty bats/lots, spams, and viruses.

EDIT: I think that any BAT that actually works should be allowed on the STEX, so new batters don't get discouraged, I just don't want any more of these spam uploads.

[GMT 389]

I think patriots started to talk about an interesting thing, and I'm pretty much with him when it comes to crap on the stex.

if I take a look, we have almost 11k files here, the really awesome stuff would go within one quarter of it, the ok stuff would take another 2 quarters and the often mentioned crap the remaining quarter.

thing like the "truckstop" really annoy everybody who looks for good content.

the comparison with the exchange at jeronij's site is wrong either, cuz literally the elite (apart from japanese batters) have found a place there.

EDIT: means not that there are less good ppl here, but the difference is remarkable by browsing though, because uploading to the exchange over there is not free for all

but when it comes to the stex, my opinion is that the simtropolis has grown over the lot-editor-age. means that the time for low-quality lot-editor stuff is over here at the st. there're exclusions to make here, but rare.

and, to get back to the amount of files, a hard cut in allowing low quality (or even a renewal of stex content as in getting rid of too old, too crappy stuff) would also contribute to the st as a physical object

[patriots_1228 51]

Originally posted by: neongamer @ Glenni:

Seriously, i wonder if some of the uploaders on STEX are even 13, i suspect some are under that...

I was twelve when i uploaded my one-stand soccer field, and that got mainly postive reviews quote>

Same thing happened to me, was like maybe 6 days before my 13th birthday when i made my first STEX upload.

Originally posted by: ilikehotdogsalot I think we should adopt a kind of system, but relaxed, only to kick out faulty bats/lots, spams, and viruses.

EDIT: I think that any BAT that actually works should be allowed on the STEX, so new batters don't get discouraged, I just don't want any more of these spam uploads.quote>

 

While new BATters could just show there stuff in a BAT thread, and then, once they had improved to the point where they are STEX eligible, they can upload there stuff to the STEX.

Originally posted by: Q-Tips

But if you see someone's upload that you might think is real bad. Wouldnt it be better try help that person and tell him how to do it better instead of banning him? It doesnt sound very welcome for new members who wants to try become any good. quote>

 

I do that. I write paragraphs on how it could improve, but no one ever listens. maybe if the only way to get it uploaded is to make it good and put in the effort, more BATters will become skilled. That was my problem. I always could do the same things, its just that i didnt want to put in the effort, and thought that i could make a BAT in 1 hour.now its taking me weeks going on a month to finish my BATs.

Originally posted by: jrhnemo I think that if there were restrictions, they would have to be very easily passed, but just enough to not let those craptastic uploads get through. Also, even if we didn't have those BATs that were just okay, imagine what a drop of uploads there would be on the STEX. People do still use those lots as maybe fillers sometimes.quote>

 

yea, i agree. if the uploader put effort into it, its okay, and its not craptastic or spam, than it should be uploaded.

---

just thought i would do an example with my BATs, to show everyone wut i beleive would pass and wouldnt.

In

NEBB Exchange Place 

NEBB Suburban Office Park Small

Out

NEBB Federal Reserve Bank 

NEBB 111 Huntington Avenue 

NEBB Prudential Center 

chances are, noone here has used the "out" group in there citys. those who have the "In" group probably have used it in there city least once.

[Voar Tok 4]

Originally posted by: ilikehotdogsalot I think we should adopt a kind of system, but relaxed, only to kick out faulty bats/lots, spams, and viruses.

EDIT: I think that any BAT that actually works should be allowed on the STEX, so new batters don't get discouraged, I just don't want any more of these spam uploads.quote>

That's basically what we have now already.

Now, about the idea of the STEX mods regulating what goes on and what doesn't, one of the problems with that is that we don't have time to personally check every file before it goes on the STEX.  If someone submits something, none of us have to approve it for it to get there.  We will take care of the problem stuff, but as time permits us.

Also, Dirk has said before that he isn't going to restrict the exchange in any way.  Unless he has since changed his mind, which I doubt.

[Glenni 1,447]

In

NEBB Exchange Place 

NEBB Suburban Office Park Small

Out

NEBB Federal Reserve Bank 

NEBB 111 Huntington Avenue 

NEBB Prudential Center 

chances are, noone here has used the "out" group in there citys. those who have the "In" group probably have used it in there city least once.quote>

Are you mad?!

All the "OUT" BATs are more than good enough for STEX you know....

[patriots_1228 51]

but no good enough for the STEX i want!

my first prudential center was awful click the link and sheild your eyes!

[Krio 626]

patriots: I have used your towers.

[spa 970]

And thus the inevitable finally registers. Fifty-five of the stex's highest quality custom content creators have basically left for Devotion, which has meant fewer quality uploaders here. A small minority of the BSC crew, myself included, still upload here but most don't. Right now there is a hole and it's only in the last few weeks that it has become evident for all to see. Getting more restrictive would be one solution but it would be more productive for Simtropolis to work on growing new talent. Constructive criticism for the new and aspiring in the Bat workshop area would be more useful. Perhaps all uploaders should have a thread started in their name once they start uploading on the stex even if they don't start one themselves where the community can comment.