Modding on request threads please?

[MyShiningArmor 128]

I have a suggestion for the benefit of everypony on here, and its something that been buggijg me since day one. I never log off. I am very loyal to the forums and always have the site open on my phone 24/7 to watch my threads. Anyways. What has come to my attention is the lack of respect original posters have to their request threads. Whether its drawing or music, people seem to be posting ALOT of request threads, promising to complete these requests, and then just vanishing when one two many ponies asks for a request. I propose perhaps some sort of modding system for ALL of the threads that runs through say once a week, maybe twice, or even more frequently depending on the section, that checks to see if the OP has beeen responding to his or her thread. Nothing is more hurtful than a broken promise, especially when you need the requests for imspiratiom for a project foe your college grades. People on here are just neglectful of their threads and I teuly think it needs to be fixed.

[WhiteLightning 339]

I can see the potential in this.. but not entirely to be honest. It does seem like a quite hostile approach to the artist offering to draw requests.

 

Of course, I can also understand that the feeling of being let down is hurtful; I've experienced more than a few times myself. 

 

So, basically, I support it to an extent, but as long as we're not gonna introduce something like a 'Neglection means warning points' kinda thing. Although something like a friendly reminder to the OP saying that there are X new posts in a request thread he made might be useful. Yes, that's what the 'Follow this topic' button is for, but I mean in the form of an email or a PM.

Edited April 20, 2013 by WhiteLightning

[MyShiningArmor 128]

Well I meant like a bot that goes through and reads the posts and if the ops name is infrequent it pms them or gives like 1 warning point or just deletes the thread. Its one thing to have school and be giving the requests after school. Its another thing entirely to tell your requestors that "you have a life" and then go try to take on art from other threads and to nitpick your own to the point of insanity after you already have a written list.

[WhiteLightning 339]

Well I meant like a bot that goes through and reads the posts and if the ops name is infrequent it pms them or gives like 1 warning point or just deletes the thread. Its one thing to have school and be giving the requests after school. Its another thing entirely to tell your requestors that "you have a life" and then go try to take on art from other threads and to nitpick your own to the point of insanity after you already have a written list.

 

A bot does kinda seem like an idea, but I think something like a moderator would be more suited for this. The OP not posting does not always mean he's abandoned the thread. For example, the OP is on a vacation for two weeks.

 

Warning points however seem a tad too much of a punishment for me. If the reason they have for not posting is legitimate and they get a warning point, that will not end well I think. I think it will only cause frustration and anger. Then again, as said, a human moderator could solve part of that problem since a human can think things through, whereas a bot would simply go 'no post in 2 weeks? Issue warning.' without looking into the reason why the OP has not posted.

 

Also, deleting the entire thread is over the top. Sure, letting people down is not nice but deleting threads over inactivity of the OP... no, I find that to be simply too harsh.

Edited April 20, 2013 by WhiteLightning

[Zoop 8,384]

If you absolutely must have art, and you need it within a certain time frame you should consider paying for a commission. Artists that put up request threads are giving their services away without seeking anything in return. They're donating their time - time that could be used for other things - to draw things for other folks.

 

If an artist loses the inspiration to work on requests, that's their own business - they haven't been paid for anything, and nobody has any reason to expect anything from them. Does it suck when a request gets neglected? Sure it does - I've had a request go unfulfilled in a thread or two here, but I can't really complain - the only investment I made was a simple "Hi please draw my OC for me" post.

 

If there's a particular request thread that is truly dead and abandoned beyond any shadow of a doubt that keeps getting bumped, report - we would be more than happy to help set stale threads to rest... but to be completely honest, I don't see the idea having a beneficial impact on much of anything.

 

As far as bots go, if someone wants to make something for us we can explore the idea further, but... our developers already have their hands more than full with a dizziyng number of things.