Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

We have two sizable changes happening, with the first one just implemented over the past day, and another coming soon with a separate news post.

Due to the huge number of new plugins being posted to share with users, and the small moderation team, there is no longer a line between "New Plugins" and "Approved Plugins". All plugins are now considered to be approved by default, unless a moderator ("Plugin Approver") marks it as unapproved due to breaking rules or being generally harmful. Plugin Approvers still have moderation rights in the section and can unapprove or re-approve plugins. The "Approved Plugins" and "New Plugins" subforums have now been merged, leaving only "Plugins".

Users posting plugins can post directly into this new forum, and not have to worry about users possibly being afraid to try plugins not marked as "Approved". Users are encouraged to use the forum's thread rating system to tacitly share their experience of how well a plugin is scripted and functions.

If you come across any issues with these changes, please post a comment in this thread.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Brilliance, with Part 1 I'm assuming there will be other parts? Any sneak previews or hints?

Also, the description for the plugins section is out of date. Figured I'd just post it here just in case it was missed.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

It was updated with the change, but it's perhaps worded a bit unclearly since you're the second person to mention that despite it being technically correct.

Currently, "All plugins that have not been unapproved by the moderation team."

I'm open to suggestions for alternate wording.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Is this really a good idea? I mean anyone can throw their code on the site, and harm users.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

The unapproved section is still a thing. Pretty sure they're also gonna trash plugins that do things like that like they were doing before but a lot easier with 1 section of plugins instead of 2.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Nothing has changed regarding standards, useless / bad / harmful plugins will still be unapproved / trashed.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

While I know a lot of end users simply download and drop on their servers, I tend to be very untrustworthy, so I ALWAYS check the sources before attempting to compile and use, and I'm sure there are many others that do the same, so the chances of someone posting something potentially harmful and affecting a large number of users without the mods noticing should be rather minimal.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

To add to this, the Report Post button should still be used in these cases to help alert the moderators, and in the event that any willfully malicious plugin is posted, the user will be banned.

This, too, is nothing new.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I've changed it to just "Post, find, and rate plugins here."

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Two things:

1. Are thread ratings actually displayed somewhere?
2. You can apparently rate your own thread. Or at least it appeared to accept it when I rated the NativeVotes thread.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Yes, both in the thread and on the topic listing - there is a minimum number of votes however.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

This should appease those who have been waiting for their plugins to be approved for some time.
As well, I agree with DeathChaos25 that someone could post a harmful plugin, but I review all new plugins to learn new things. So I doubt there will be one posted long enough to do any harm before someone catches it.
Overall, I like the change a lot.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

That is true, but the reason for this change was not enough moderators. Before we had a clear distinction between the plugins that would clearly work, and the ones that needed improvement. Now that distinction is gone. That's what I'm going for.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

The problem at the other end is that there were 1700+ (and counting) plugins that had little chance of ever getting proper review.

We do still have the data available to mark ones that were actually reviewed, but it seems unfair to the other (literally half of) posted plugins that would never get the same treatment, despite most of them working just fine.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I like the changes and look forward to the second announcement.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Following that change, shouldn't "Plugin Approver" become "Plugin Unapprover" / "Plugin Reapprover" :3 ? Unless we keep such a vestige from the past =P (which is simpler :3).

I see the change as realist, as there wasn't really a steady influx of approvers, nor of approvals :$. Also even an approved plugin could be/become malicious (for instance, wait for approval, then upload a malicious version; though I've no idea if this was done).

I'm not sure regarding the "Post, find, and rate plugins here." sub-title (do you call it that ?) though. I'm pretty sure some (probably new) people looking for a plugin will make a new thread asking a certain plugin. I think "Post, browse, and rate plugins here." might be better.

Red

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

There's no reason to give them a name, you could just call them regular moderators or administrators.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I'm probably totally spoiling Changes Part 2, but

Edit: To which I say "about time!"

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

This all happened cause I asked psychonic to Approve SourceBans: Reloaded.

Lol. :fox:

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Well, the cat's out of the bagel now.

A free, (crappy) Steam game (of my choice), to the first person to know where that reference is from WITHOUT consulting a search engine.


More details on this change coming in the near future.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Either Lil or (more than likely) Angelica, Rugrats movie. I think it was the first movie.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I believe that it predated the first movie, but PM sent.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Not a huge fan of this change. It seems completely unnecessary. I liked being able to look through the new plugins forum to check out any thing new that might have been posted in the past day or so. It's going to be a lot more difficult to do this now as new threads will be pushed pages back by existing ones being bumped up.

I realize you guys are under staffed and the plugin approval process moves slow. But having a sectioned off forum for plugins we know have been checked through and are safe was ideal. I assume you must have just been tired of people bitching at you to look at their thread for approval. Saying that people might be afraid to try plugins in the new section is ridiculous. If anyone is afraid to try a plugin just because it hasn't been approved, they need to stop visiting this forum because they obviously have no idea what they are doing in the first place.

This change really isn't that big a deal but it's really irksome. I have no idea why people are praising this change on this thread. I guess it's the people who had plugins pending approval and were bothering you in the first place.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

It was at a point for a while where it was not moving slowly. It was not moving at all.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Sort by "Thread Start Time" rather than "Last Post Time".

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

The forum supports sorting by thread start date. Refer to the display options at the bottom of the page when viewing a subforum.

I also have some ideas for the future to increase plugin discoverability.

I agree that it borders on being ridiculous, but it was happening.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Now that there is no New Plugins section, I have to find other things to be all passive aggressive about.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I didn't know that was a filter option on the forums because I have never had to use it before. It's still slightly annoying that I have do that extra step each time but what ever I guess.

I still feel like it was a completely pointless change. It seems pretty obvious that this was done to stop complaining from the people who submit code to the forums and not any other reason you listed. Maybe that in and of itself justifies merging the forums, since they are the ones keeping it alive with content. I don't understand why they give a shit about their plugin being approved in the first place. Probably impossible, but I'd love to see some stats on how many accounts have never browsed or downloaded plugins from the new plugin section, I bet it's negligible.

Anyway I'm ranting about nothing now. I just don't like it and I use these forums a lot and I'm entitled to my opinion so fuck off.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

You're surely entitled to your opinion, but here I'm not sure if you're accusing us of outright lying or just claiming that you know us better than we know ourselves.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Since we're on the subject of new releases, is it possible that we merge the MapChooser code from 1.8 to 1.7? Someone just pointed out to me that the NextMap plugin doesn't seem to get along well with the more descriptive names that TF2 Map Workshop maps can use. Case in point, "workshop/arena_byre.ugc454142123" has the last character cut off and that's one of the shortest map paths of a workshop map in long form.

A fix for this was merged into 1.8 back in late June as part of Pull Request #226.

Edit:

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Sorry, which cset do you think should be backported? Not that this is the proper forum nor thread at all.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

We probably need a report button in Plugin subforum to remove bad plugin asap.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

A report button already exists on every post, as well as private messages.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I actually liked a forum where I could see the new plugins.. Its so messy now.

Suggestion: What about having a "new plugin" section and then just move plugin to "plugins" after two weeks or so (without inspecting them)? Just so people have a chance to see the new plugins in an easy way. Or maybe create a forum that shows the latest XX threads created in "plugins" ?

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

This was addressed both 8 and 9 posts above your own post. You can tell the forum to sort threads by date created.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

So.... can every plugin utilize the "servers with this plugin" field now?

I also find the forum names weird. "Plugins" and then right next to it "Unapproved Plugins". The former needs a better adjective behind it so it looks less awkward on the main page. Maybe like "Released Plugins" (bad example)?

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Yes.

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

I agree.

(+ find --> browse)

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Re: Changes - Part 1: Plugin Posts and Approval
 

Suggestion: Move the order of the forum such that it is:

Plugins | High-Traffic Plugins | Plugin Gameplay Ideas & Requests | Unapproved Plugins

That makes it a lot less awkward IMO. Furthermore, if unapproved plugins are plugins that people shouldn't use, it deserves to be at the far right of the list.