There are currently 46 uncategorised games on the site. Would anybody like to help categorising them?? All you need to do is take a reasonably quick look at some of them to see if they're Sandpit-worthy, really.

If you'd like to volunteer, please email me at alex@textadventures.co.uk and send me a link to your public user profile (on the main site, click My Profile at the top, then there's a link on that page to your public profile).

Please, only volunteer if you've been active on the site for a while and know what sort of thing you're looking for!

This should only be temporary because at some point soon I'll be improving how games are categorised - see this thread: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4489

Any changes are at least a few weeks away though, and the submissions keep piling up...

Yikes, we currently have over 200 games awaiting categorisation.

If you have some spare time, then if you're a moderator already, would you be able to go through some of the recently uploaded games?

If you're not a moderator and have been around a while, then as per the above post, please let me know and I'll give you access to the categorisation functionality. It would really be a huge help!

I realise I said "changes are a few weeks away" back in August 2014. Err... I should probably get back on that.

I'm happy to help categorise, Alex, but I may need a few pointers in terms of what I need to be looking for.

How far into the game do I need to play (I'm not brilliant at logical / illogical puzzles - and even less so if the game is poorly written) ?

Or is it just a case of getting a feel for whether it's sci-fi / horror / fantasy?

It's really just a matter of seeing whether any real effort at all has been put into the game.

If so, it belongs in a category - probably the same category that the author suggests, although sometimes they suggest the wrong category (for example "Literature" is supposed to be for works that are based on an existing book, but sometimes authors choose that category incorrectly, presumably because they think their game has words in and therefore is literature).

Games belong in the Sandpit if they are:

- mostly incomplete
- test games
- a small school project of interest only to their teacher
- a small game clearly only for the author's own small circle friends
- full of typos and grammatical errors
- clearly the result of only a few minutes work
- just generally not worthy of being on the site
- etc...

Also, sometimes people create Twine games in the wrong way (using their browser's save function, thereby saving the Twine editor as an HTML file instead of exporting their game). Sometimes people publish Inklewriter stories that aren't actually accessible too. Sometimes people hit the Publish button in Quest with a completely blank game. You can put all of these in the Sandpit too, but it's better to delete them - you can't do that as a moderator currently, but you can let me know and I can do it for you.

Generally it doesn't take long to see whether a game should go into a category - it's usually immediately clear if a game is Sandpit-worthy. So when I categorise games I tend to only take a few turns to see whether there's anything there. Looking at a few objects is usually enough - you can see if they've bothered to write descriptions for them. If not, to the Sandpit it goes.

Okay, I've emailed you my profile link.

Thanks for volunteering! I've now given you moderator access - let me know if you have any questions using the mod features.

Okay, I'll take a look.

First question; where do I need to be looking for this backlog of uncategorised games you talk of?

And what do I need to do if the author has categorised it themselves? Do I simply need to confirm if I agree, and change it if I don't?

Also, what does 'Sandpit reason' mean, exactly? I know you've said why a game should be categorised as sandpit, but what am I supposed to do with the 'Sandpit reason' option after I've selected the main category?

It's the Uncategorised tag: http://textadventures.co.uk/games/tag/uncategorised

For each game listing you'll see a category picker, and you'll also see the name of the category the author suggested.

I won't have too much time between now and Christmas, but I'd be happy to give this a go. There are always so many languishing in the uncategorized section, and I hate to think of any game someone put a lot of effort too stuck there where almost no one sees it.

Holy crap! If Quest does have a BR, I think I know from where it stems.

Seriously, Alex, you need to add a delete option to the category list. 95% of the games I've looked at so far are going in Sandpit, and about 60% of these would be deleted if I had my way.

Just email me links to games that need deleting for now.

Emailed you a handful to be going on with. There will be more.

Just emailed you as well. Sign me up!

OurJud wrote:Seriously, Alex, you need to add a delete option to the category list. 95% of the games I've looked at so far are going in Sandpit, and about 60% of these would be deleted if I had my way.

I second that, OJ.

Can I offer a suggestion for a new category???

This is tiresome...

XanMag wrote:

"OurJud"

Seriously, Alex, you need to add a delete option to the category list. 95% of the games I've looked at so far are going in Sandpit, and about 60% of these would be deleted if I had my way.

I second that, OJ.

Can I offer a suggestion for a new category???

This is tiresome...

When I'm adding game after game to Sandpit, then selecting a 'reason for Sandpit' I keep praying there's an option for, "Because it's s**t!"

Just curious... how short is 'Too Short'. For example, I'm tempted to put the Frankenstein story in the Sandpit for length, but it isn't terrible written, there appear to be some choices that go different ways, but it's over in a matter of minutes. What do you think?

In the meantime, I'll leave it as uncategorized.

You need only 3 clicks to finish Frankenstein but it contains some text to read. As OurJud said there are much worse games uploaded so I would categorize it as horror. I wish there would be the possibility to rate a game as a moderatorwithout writing a comment so this game would get a fast one star.

Someone... save... me... the pain of it all..

I'll be happy to help! http://textadventures.co.uk/user/view/iugjycskz0ybakdfz5zuia/minecraftpsyco99

This is ridiculous! I think an entire ESL class posted class projects yesterday and today. 9 out of 10 are going sandpit because the grammar is so painfully poor...

I demand that my salary gets doubled.

you get money for this? I must talk with Alex

I think it's a safe bet that my salary will be doubled. Heck, it might even get tripled!!

I might be able to help moderate some games. If anyone needs help with that still.

I have "played" a lot of those games in uncatergorized and left them there. I left some of them that weren't TOTAL garbage for others to determine their fate. Of those I've played I'd dump them all in sandpit but perhaps I'm too cruel... Anyway, if any of you want to mill through some of those that have been sitting around a while, have at it.

A backlog seems to be building up again. If you've played the Uncategorised ones and don't think they're good enough to be in a category, could you put them in Sandpit? Other moderators can always move them out of the Sandpit if they disagree.

(I know this whole system needs reworking and I've been talking about it for a long time)

Alex wrote:A backlog seems to be building up again...

Ugh. About a week ago I whittled it down to about 25. Looks like "end of the year" school projects are being published publicly again - we're up to 71. I'm sure they are FABULOUS! I'll sift through here tomorrow and try to get that 'Uncatergorized' number down. Helpers appreciated!

I took it from 120ish to about 80 yesterday. Up to 95 already. Moderate away, moderators!!

I'll knock some more out late tonight.

Okay, so me and Google Translate knocked out a handful of the Spanish and German ones that've been sitting around awhile, and banished a really awful Warrior Cats thing to the litter box. Getting ready to head to my cousin's baby shower now but I'll try and move some more out tonight.

By the way, I would like to see all of grimwolf_theman reviews and comments removed if possible. It's obviously a troll. Bashed Zombolocaust and Deeper - both quite good games.

I've removed the 4 reviews they posted. Let me know if any others come up.

Another site that almost never sees them is getting end of the year school projects all of a sudden. Wonder if we dodged the bullet or if the flood is still on its way...

We did get flooded. I knocked out 40 on two separate occasions over 2 days. 80-ish total games. I'd say 5-6 made it through as non-sandpit. You can almost anticipate it. Ugh.

I'm glad it's summer (knocking on wood).

Yeah, I rushed through 40 games yesterday. We really need a better solution.

Thanks everybody, it's really appreciated.

I mentioned in another thread recently some small changes I'm planning to make to the game submission process which will cut down the number of submissions that need categorising - hopefully I'll get to that in the next few weeks and that will stem the flow a bit, then we can discuss bigger changes if necessary.

I don't know how you all manage to power through these so quickly. I guess I'm just lingering too long on individual games.
Can't help it, I'm a connoisseur of bad writing.

And then I agonize over decisions sometime. Like this one: http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/ ... -adventure

Too much effort to go in the sandpit? But it kills me to call it 'historical'.

As for this one, can anyone else even get it to load? http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/ ... hard-mayer

I looked at several of those "historical" ones and always passed on categorizing them. Not sure it's accurate enough to be historical and historical, IMO, implies educational. I did not find it really to be either. Perhaps throw it in "simulation"? Also, I cannot get that other one to load - phone or CPU.

Marzipan wrote:As for this one, can anyone else even get it to load? http://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/ ... hard-mayer

No, found several games like that and moved them all to sandpit.

I have a question. Currently my game is listed as "Adult" ...but at the same time, I'm working on multiple personalities for the game, two of which never see any component of adult content; ie no descriptions, situations etc. One of them is even "swear" free and the other reads more like an actual novel. The other two personalities is where all the "Adult" content lies.

In the beginning you pick your personality, but it is possible to switch between them throughout the game if you start behaving or dressing in certain ways, which the player is warned about in the beginning. So, if you keep a personality without the adult content, higher than the ones with adult content, you never, ever see or experience them.

With that said, once I finish remastering and rewriting all of it (the original game was strictly all porn, but I've been going through and restricting it to two of the four personalities) would it be possible to move the game out of that category? I ask because although there is porn in the game, it's up to the player themselves if they want to see any of it or not (which they are warned about in those specific personalities). If they don't want to see it, then they can easily avoid it and still enjoy multiple aspects of the game without worry like the exploration, story, characters and humor.

There is a lot to enjoy as well considering it's over 1100 pages and 300,000+ words at the moment in this current release.

I think as long there is porn in the game and a child could be affected it will remain in the adult category.

you'd have to create two separate games, removing all of the porn code from one of them (this would then be able to be outside of the 'adult' category), and the other game with all/any of the porn code, will remain in the adult category.

think of it this way: if there's porn coded into your game, a minor can access it: through playing the game, or diving into the code itself. You could have a perjury disclaimer (~ if you click/continue, you're legally asserting you're of legal age to view adult content, under the penalty of perjury) in your game description (before people play your game they have this to read) and everywhere in your game, and also at the top of your game code (to protect yourself legally), but that still means your game is adult rated, and thus must be categorized as such (for the site to protect itself), anyways.

I was thinking of adding the disclaimer and a warning of how the game works, but would that allow it to move out of the adult category? Just kind of sucks since searching for it doesn't work unless your signed in >.< !

Alex promotes Quest to schools, so it is not going to happen, I am afraid.

If any of you moderators habla espanol, there are muy mucho games in the uncategorized pile that could be sifted through.

Urgh. Well I guess it's nice Quest is getting popular with other communities, but copying and pasting into a translator isn't an ideal way to play any game. I'll have a look at them tonight, though.

Are we getting to the point yet we need Spanish or German categories?

German games are no problem, I will test them.

Maybe this idea has already come up, but is there a reason not to set published games private by default?

It has been mentioned (and worth mentioning again) and I think Alex is somewhere in the process of changing listing options for future updates?

Another thing that might help is, when people are creating a new account at textadventures.co.uk, make it so they have to actively choose between a regular account and an Active Lit account. For instance, ask them "Are you a student or teacher creating text adventures with a class?" and they have to choose yes or no. If some of the people who are using regular accounts are students and teachers whose needs would be better suited to an Active Lit account, it'd be good to try to redirect those people early in the sign-up process. That way the student projects that were never intended to be public anyway don't have to go through mod approval.

I tested two games written in Portuguese and left ratings and comments. I am not sure if it would be enough for you guys judging them, but may serve as a guiding light. Oh, of course I left comments in English!