SC4Devotion LEX Updates - Now on HTTPS

[catty]

The decision to change the LEX to having two tiers to it ... LEX Certified and Non LEX Certified was something that has been under discussion by the admin staff since last year in the end we decided that the pros out weighted the cons, how its going to work, or if it will work and whether people's concerns are valid re quality is still

   

Be assured we will be keeping a close eye on the LEX and what gets uploaded on to it.

-catty
Global Moderator

[JoeST]

ooooh, that's a big change indeed

[BarbyW]

One of the main reasons for this change is the lack of scrutineers. Over the years they have become less and less so we made the decision to have the 2 tier system. Potential uploaders have lost patience with the length of time it has taken to get approval and have given up on the LEX. Hopefully this way we will get more good stuff here and they will get approval. Rubbish will NEVER be approved and the LEX will NEVER degenerate into the STEX.

[Girafe]

Potential uploaders are really few, and we know them. I would maybe have be better to grant these people the right to upload their work here instead of everybody.

However the fact that now high quality content will be mixed with other content could be a problem on the "older uploaders" side.

Indeed if older uploaders reached LEX rights and decided to put their work here is for a prestige question. I just fear that this opening will decrease the prestige of the platform and could be less attractive compare to the STEX which drags much more uploads.

Finally there are less scrutineers, but you will need people to administrate the LEX so it's balanced.

On a more technical side, the color difference between LEX certified and non certified is not enough pronounced IMHO. 

[MandelSoft]

Rubbish will NEVER be approved and the LEX will NEVER degenerate into the STEX.

Common, isn't that a bit overstated? Even the STEX has changed and more and more quality stuff can be found there too. Just look at the oeuvre of Jasoncw, Darknono35, Bipin, Reddonquixotte or even my own STEX profile. You'll see what I mean...

[threestooges]

I think it has been said well already, but I think it bears repeating. The decision to open the LEX is not because standards have changed. Not by a long shot. We expect anyone who uploads a file here to be proud of their work, and for it to be of the standards we have come to expect.

To that end in particular, we ask that you, the user, use the reporting and rating options as a way of keeping tabs on that. We're still evaluating what gets posted as far as certification goes, but we don't want something that is otherwise good to sit in a queue. Who likes waiting in line?

If you see a problem with a lot, however, and you don't think it measures up, feel free to report it and it will be looked at and handled accordingly. I highly doubt, with the people in the community here at SC4D, that the LEX will be flooded with garbage. To the contrary, I expect this will open the doors for quicker production and publication of quality material.
-Matt

[Tarkus]

To further add to what my fellow staffers have said:

Rubbish will NEVER be approved and the LEX will NEVER degenerate into the STEX.

Common, isn't that a bit overstated? Even the STEX has changed and more and more quality stuff can be found there too. Just look at the oeuvre of Jasoncw, Darknono35, Bipin, Reddonquixotte or even my own STEX profile. You'll see what I mean...

There's certainly some great stuff on the STEX (all the folks you mentioned are key parts of that), and I don't believe it was Barby's intent to denigrate that work, but more to address the concerns raised by a few on this thread that our policy change might mean that we'd welcome things like this without judgment.  Should someone use their newfound upload abilities to proliferate things like that, rather than allowing it to remain on the exchange, we'll just remove it.  We're not dropping our standards, but rather, we're changing how we enforce them, getting rid of the long and frustrating queues inherent in the previous candidacy process, which graduated an astonishingly low number of fully-certified uploaders.

We're going to be monitoring the effects of the new policy very carefully, refining it as necessary, taking the feedback of our userbase into consideration.  Additionally, we now have additional administrative staff on the LEX to help keep an eye on things.

-Alex

[JoeST]

Would it be possible to let users chose to have the "don't see uncertified stuff" constantly on? That might placate the fears of those that don't want to see it?

[catty]

Would it be possible to let users chose to have the "don't see uncertified stuff" constantly on? That might placate the fears of those that don't want to see it?

That doesn't seem very fair to the non-certified LEX uploaders who want to upload to the LEX, and while I may not want a tug boat it was nice to see the first non-certified plugin get uploaded to the LEX.

-catty

[FrankU]

Ah! So there will be the possibility to upload files and in fact all users will be some kind of scrutineer: if they find something wrong they report it and that will lead to a check of the upload?
That would be nice indeed. Maybe a "proved perfect" file can get the "certified" mark? So tha ther is a visible difference between the not yet proven and the certified work?

[catty]

Hi FrankU

I think you will find the LEX Certified and non-Certified uploads will be one of the things that gets tweaked, so there is a more noticeable difference between the two, and yes you are right we are hoping that people will act as scrutineers and report problems and also if

Maybe a "proved perfect" file can get the "certified" mark?

and become LEX Certified yes that's one of the goals we had it mind with the LEX upgrade.

-catty

[jdenm8]

I'm happy with the changes made and in the long term it can only be good for the LEX.

Yes there may be the odd trash upload, but it's easier to keep them out than it is to screen every single thing coming in. The stagnation in recent years caused by a lack of interest in the Scrutineer system by those who are needed to run it is testament to that. If someone can't get one of their first valid uploads on the LEX because it's always caught out by some technicality after months of waiting, chances are they'll become STEX-Exclusive, as has happened with a few members.
Not only that, we can't rely on those few who have a back door past the barricade to port the content from the best BATers to meet the restrictions.

Great work guys, I only have praise for this.

[CasperVg]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments - I will continue to try my hardest to improve the LEX for everyone - uploaders, content creators and users.

Changelog for today:
+ Made distinction between Certified and Non-Certified files clearer (temporary graphics)
- Removed "Latest LEX Comments"
+ Added "Latest Comments" (it now shows the 5 latest comments on LEX lots with links to the lot in question, instead of the fairly useless and sparsely used "overall LEX comments")
* Cleaned up search result pages a bit
* Cleaned up the front page a bit
* Fixed bug with the "My Files" page (thanks Girafe!)
* Fixed people with long usernames screwing up the look of the comment section for a lot

I would also advise everyone to read the Updated LEX Upload Policy.

Also, I would like to get some input from people who use the "Add to Download List" feature in combination with the BSC LEX Downloader. Does it still work after all the LEX updates?

[catty]

...Also, I would like to get some input from people who use the "Add to Download List" feature in combination with the BSC LEX Downloader. Does it still work after all the LEX updates?

Yes it does, I'm just testing it now ...... its currently downloading a number of files I added to my download list, its also found a number of files it says has been updated since the last time I used it ...................... its now downloading those ones as well   

-catty

[CasperVg]

Thanks Catty, glad to hear it's still working.

In other news, I've did a complete redesign/overhaul of the "Upload a File" page. It's now much more modern/simplistic, and the styling is more up-to-date with current webdesign techniques. The new form is also a lot smarter, and will actually detect some errors/missing data before submitting, which should mean the "You have entered invalid data-gorilla" has less work to do and the user-experience is much more fluid.

Check it out at http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_upload.php or by clicking the "Upload a File" button on the left sidebar.

[Girafe]

If you edit a file, it works fine but on top of the page it's written "bad entry"

[mgarcia]

Great work on the updates guys. 

[RepublicMaster]

Great news for the LEX! I hope to see some more quality uploads.

Just to let you know, when you click for more information about the format for dependencies, it directs you to the main forum instead of a thread.

[CasperVg]

@ Girafe: Strange, I tried editing some files and got the "Data recorded correctly" message every time. Can you give an example of the action that causes it to derp out?
@ mgarcia: Thanks!
@ RepublicMaster: Heh, that's right.. I still ehh.. have to write that format thread.. Not looking forward to it XD

In other news, redesigned the file description pages today.. looks a lot more modern now and also scales down gracefully all the way to 480x320, which means it should be easily viewable on mobile.

Examples:
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2990
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2987

[Girafe]