Ok, let me start by saying that I think ComicVine is a great site, by far the best site of it’s kind, and am very impressed with it’s scope and quality. I was glad to have found it. Having said that, I’m going to make an argument for a policy change. (Right now I can almost hear the red flags going up, along with the blood pressure of those in power). All I ask is that you hear me out, and weigh the merits of my argument before rejecting them out of hand.
It concerns the inability of those who post a cover image to later replace that image with a better or improved image (without going through a mod to do it).
Currently I am authorized and trusted to post a cover image, and make it the default image for that issue, without prior approval from anyone. But, after I do that, I am immediately not trusted to replace that image with a newer/improved version. Suddenly, for some mysterious reason, I am no longer trustworthy as far as that image is concerned.
As Jloneblackheart posted “no one but mods and staff can remove the old images. Use the removing content thread so they can take them off. It's a safeguard, not everyone with live edit is necessarily trustworthy.” If this is true, if not everyone with live edit is necessarily trustworthy, why then would they be given the power to upload images without anyone’s approval? It seems to me that if you are going to not trust somebody’s judgment, it should be when they are initially uploading an image, not afterwards.
At this point let me make it clear that I am NOT saying that someone should be allowed to replace someone else’s photo, of course not. I’m referring ONLY to those photos that they themselves have uploaded, and only if that person has over 5,000 points. The site knows who I am, I had to sign in using my username and password. The site also knows whether or not I posted a particular photo – the information is right there underneath the photo.
I would assume that ComicVine strives to have the best quality photos possible. Well, I would guess that people would be much more likely to go the trouble of replacing their images with better quality images if the process were simplified, not having to go through the whole thing of posting a message listing each image’s location and specifying which one is to be removed, and why, then wait for results until a mod eventually gets to it (and hope that the mod didn’t misunderstand and remove the wrong image – I’m not saying that this happens, but it’s always a possibility).
And I'm not knocking the mods if it takes a while for them to get around to making those changes, I know they are busy. As Aztek the lost once posted, “ugh, removing covers is the most annoying process in my holy arsenal of moderator powers…”. Well, Aztek, that annoyance could easily be lessened if people could be allowed to maintain those images they have taken the time and trouble to scan or find, modify, make improvements to, and upload. The quality of the site would ultimately benefit.
Personally, I know that some of the covers I have uploaded are not as good as they could have been. I have since then acquired software that has allowed me to make a lot of improvements to those covers, and have a lot of others ready to upload, but am reluctant to start the whole process of going through mods to replace them, or upload the others, because I know that maybe a few days or months down the road I may discover a better way of doing something and then I would have to go through the whole convoluted process again.
As I said, all I ask is that you weigh the merits of my argument. I know that it’s part of human nature to resist change, but please don’t reject them out of hand, don’t be a “parent” who comes back with a “because I told you so”. If my logic is flawed, please tell me how it is flawed. Explain to me why this would be a bad thing.I do not see a downside to this change, I really don’t. I hope those in charge will agree and at least give it a try. If for some reason it doesn’t work out, just change it back.
Anyhow, thanks for listening.(sorry this is so long, I got on my soapbox and couldn’t get down).
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