Audio Scouting

[PsychoGoldfish]

I just installed the first iteration of the Audio Scout system. Anyone familiar with the art portal will know what this is, but for those who don't, here's what it is:

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/member/unscouted_list/

Up until today, any new artist had to sit around with their thumb up their ass hoping a moderator would approve them. Now, any audio artist who is approved to submit to the portal can browse the list above ans scout for talent.

When you scout a user, they will be sent a confirmation request informing them you are trying to make them audio portal members. Once they accept your invitation, their stuff will be listed in the portal. This should make it a LOT easier to get people included in the audio community and when a new breakout artist comes along, one of you guys will have the bragging rights of being the user that scouted them.

You WILL be accountable for who you scout, however. If you invite a bunch of blatant rule breakers, or people simply submitting complete shit, the moderators can not only ban you, they can prune your membership. This will unapprove your memebership to the audio portal along with that of everyone you scouted, everyone they scouted, and so on.

Keep in mind, this is still an early version of this system, and there will eventually be more refinements to it. I just wanted to give it a bit of a soft launch to make sure the core functions all work before I get too far ahead.

The next update will most likely involve a way for all logged in users to look at unscouted submissions. Users will then be able to recommend users making it easier for talent scouts to fish out the diamonds on the rough.

[Buoy]

That's amazing.

So are all the audio mods dismissed now or what?

[Back-From-Purgatory]

PG... I so wanna sex you right now.

No more black hole of a list, rejoice!

[PsychoGoldfish]

At 9/11/12 11:01 AM, Buoy wrote: That's amazing.

So are all the audio mods dismissed now or what?

Audio mods don't need to handle approvals anymore, but they will be around to make sure people don't abuse their newfound scouting privelages and will still ban anyone posting stolen work.

[N0sSyndrome]

This is the best news I could read today.
Been waiting for almost a month to be confirmed now D:
Also, I like scouting :3

[Buoy]

At 9/11/12 11:36 AM, Salbakra wrote: This is the best news I could read today.
Been waiting for almost a month to be confirmed now D:
Also, I like scouting :3

I would scout you, but I'm getting this

[Back-From-Purgatory]

At 9/11/12 11:41 AM, Buoy wrote:

At 9/11/12 11:36 AM, Salbakra wrote: This is the best news I could read today.
Been waiting for almost a month to be confirmed now D:
Also, I like scouting :3

I would scout you, but I'm getting this

Odd, I just scouted the last person to post in the awaiting approval thread and I didn't get any such error.

[liljim]

At 9/11/12 11:41 AM, Buoy wrote: I would scout you, but I'm getting this

Can you try him again and see if you get a more informative message?

[RampantMusik]

At 9/11/12 10:57 AM, PsychoGoldfish wrote: You WILL be accountable for who you scout, however.

Unless there's more to this than you're telling us, then that sounds like a terrible idea, because:

[moderators] can prune your membership. This will unapprove your memebership to the audio portal along with that of everyone you scouted, everyone they scouted, and so on.

So, what happens if:
- Member B is scouted by Member A. B's audio, at that time, consists of a fairly bad track, but it doesn't break any rules and it seems like they put some effort into making the track. B goes on to scout C, who also has an original composition. However, the next song uploaded by B is a remix containing a copyrighted a cappella. Why should A and/or C be held accountable for B's actions? (We see something similar in tort law: passengers are generally not held reliable for a driver's actions in a lawsuit, unless there is some special relationship between the two, such as the passenger owns the car or is a parent or guardian of the driver.)

- Member B is scouted by Member A. B's audio is permissible on the audio portal as it breaks no rules and contains no copyrighted content; however, A's audio is illegal BUT A has already been approved by a moderator who did not recognize the audio as stolen. Will B's membership be revoked because of A's actions?

Basically, what I'm getting at is that your statement is very broad and overreaching. Would individual cases be reviewed or does the domino effect automatically come into play? And if the cases would still be reviewed by the audio moderators, especially given the probable amount of undiscovered rule-breaking audio in the Portal, wouldn't that somewhat defeat the purpose of switching to the scouting system in the first place?

[N0sSyndrome]

I think you are over analyzing, the post says "Could be" in which case I understand "If you approve MANY rule breakers, there will be consequences." I do not think any useless bans will happen.

[Buoy]

At 9/11/12 11:56 AM, liljim wrote:

At 9/11/12 11:41 AM, Buoy wrote: I would scout you, but I'm getting this

Can you try him again and see if you get a more informative message?

No luck, still just getting array. Same result when trying with my phone or internet explorer on a different computer

[RampantMusik]

At 9/11/12 12:08 PM, Salbakra wrote: I think you are over analyzing, the post says "Could be" in which case I understand "If you approve MANY rule breakers, there will be consequences." I do not think any useless bans will happen.

How many is "many"? Three? Eleven? Eighty? Everyone waiting to be scouted? What if someone has scouted "many" rule breakers, but scouted equally as many upstanding members?

And even then, there's still room for human error: the moderators are not infallible. People who should have been approved have been accidentally banned; people who should have been banned have been accidentally approved: the only difference is that now one bad judgment could affect more than just one person.

[RazzleDazzleBeatz]

I like the scouting idea, but I believe Rampant has a great point. When is the line drawn?

[N0sSyndrome]

And even then, there's still room for human error: the moderators are not infallible. People who should have been approved have been accidentally banned; people who should have been banned have been accidentally approved: the only difference is that now one bad judgment could affect more than just one person.

Ok, got a point there... It's still in an early stage though.
They just need to refine it to avoid such a mess.

It would be a good thing to know where the line is drawn though, I agree.

[LazyBucks]

I like the concept, but I agree that its a bit rough right now, I'd like to know where the line is drawn with the whole rule breakers etc.
The last thing I want is for my permissions to be removed over 1 bad egg.

Regardless, I think its a good progression for the Audio Portal, gives the power to those who have been here a while a bit more, I like that.
Think I'm going to try it out now, I'll have a look for someone who deserves to be scouted.

[Back-From-Purgatory]

I'd just like to point out to the people concerned over the Pruning thing that being unscouted does not mean you are banned. All it means is that you'd have to be scouted again, hopefully by a more reputable member of the community. It won't stop you from submitting or being able to share your music.

[PsychoGoldfish]

At 9/11/12 12:49 PM, Some-paranoid-people wrote: this system is scary because you give moderators power to moderate us..... where do you draw the line you fascist bastards?!?!?!

The line is really just based on common sense. If you aren't being an idiot, you have nothing to fear. If you are concerned about a rogue mod going on a prune bender, we keep a log of all mod actions and can undo them, so mods are also held accountable.

Keep in mind, the art portal has been using this same system since it launched and it gets far less complaints than any of our other moderation systems. Its a proven system.

[SuperBastard]

At 9/11/12 02:07 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote: the art portal has been using this same system since it launched and it gets far less complaints than any of our other moderation systems. Its a proven system.

Yes. I'm elated to see this system in the audio portal now too, since I spend a lot more time there than the art portal these days. Gives me something to do aside from the occasional review.

[BrokenDeck]

At 9/11/12 10:57 AM, PsychoGoldfish wrote: I just installed...

This is awesome Josh! You guys are fantastic! Keep up the awesome work!

[Wurfel-Waffles]

Awesome!!

Now I have more things to do as a contributor. Just need to watch out for punters and bad eggs...

[LemonCrush]

So, I was scouted, but my stuff isn't in the portal...I searched my song title, and my screen name and found nothing?

[Back-From-Purgatory]

At 9/11/12 03:51 PM, LemonCrush wrote: So, I was scouted, but my stuff isn't in the portal...I searched my song title, and my screen name and found nothing?

You can't search for your name, that will not yield results... I found your song here.

It is on the portal.

And I'm the one that scouted you... Go me.

[PsychoGoldfish]

At 9/11/12 03:51 PM, LemonCrush wrote: So, I was scouted, but my stuff isn't in the portal...I searched my song title, and my screen name and found nothing?

One quick way to tell you are a member of the protal... you will have the vote bar on your submissions. Unscouted stuff can't be voted on.

[LemonCrush]

At 9/11/12 03:57 PM, Back-From-Purgatory wrote:

At 9/11/12 03:51 PM, LemonCrush wrote: So, I was scouted, but my stuff isn't in the portal...I searched my song title, and my screen name and found nothing?

You can't search for your name, that will not yield results... I found your song here.

It is on the portal.

And I'm the one that scouted you... Go me.

I know you scouted me! Thanks (though I'm not exactly sure what scouting is...)

[PsychoGoldfish]

At 9/11/12 04:05 PM, LemonCrush wrote: I know you scouted me! Thanks (though I'm not exactly sure what scouting is...)

It basically means you are a member of the audio portal now. Users can find your work in the portal, and anything new you submit will show up on the list of recent audio. You will get much more exposure.

[LemonCrush]

At 9/11/12 04:10 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote:

It basically means you are a member of the audio portal now. Users can find your work in the portal, and anything new you submit will show up on the list of recent audio. You will get much more exposure.

Oh ok, awesome!

[googi]

Well...before coming to the forums, I was having a look at my project to see if it was approved and saw that I was 'unscouted', then instinctively I clicked the recommendation link..so yea If i am somehow scouted (by myself :P) feel free to unscout me.

[PsychoGoldfish]

At 9/11/12 04:21 PM, googi wrote: Well...before coming to the forums, I was having a look at my project to see if it was approved and saw that I was 'unscouted', then instinctively I clicked the recommendation link..so yea If i am somehow scouted (by myself :P) feel free to unscout me.

Eventually we'll make it so anyone can browse through unscouted music, and that 'recommend' button is how they can tell audio scouts they liked your song. Scouts can sort the list of un-scouted users and sort by the number of recommendations they have.

In the meantime, if you are not scouted, bug your friends to recommend you and you will stand out more.

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

YES YES YES AND YES. This will take away a lot of work from the Mods and give them more time to focus on more important matters like rule cleaning up the portal! Thank you SO much for implementing this feature. I think its a fantastic idea.

I am going to go scout the FUCK out of people. (and say no to a ton of others)

[Back-From-Purgatory]

At 9/11/12 04:33 PM, PsychoGoldfish wrote: In the meantime, if you are not scouted, bug your friends to recommend you and you will stand out more.

Speaking of the recommend button... where is it? Am I totally blind? I swear I've looked all over the song page and I can't find it.