Because of popular interest in the community, and the positive effects of showing people's creations on the front page like this, SDS must go on to 2.0! However, the real question, is do we have a good system? Or could it be better?

Currently, new curators have to be hired every four months and curators seem to loose interest after 3-6 months. Additionally, each and every project has to be manually added to the gallery, which doesn't take too long- but there are a lot of projects so it adds up.

If you allowed everybody to add their projects to the gallery, it would speed things up and curators would spend much less time adding projects. However, many projects would be added that don't fit even if people were reminded. A system could be set-up so anybody could report a project as “Unfit for SDS” and an SDS curator would check it out. You may not like this idea because an inappropriate project could be shown on the front page. However, it would most likely be reported and dealt with quickly and inappropriate projects can already be shown by anyone: newest projects.

Do you like the idea? Do you have an idea? Should we stick to the classic system?

I vote you stick to the classic system: it's not worth the risk of someone bombing the front page with drawings of cats. Or worse.

Ideally, SDS shouldn't be a gallery at all, it should be a different system (maybe like a subclass of a gallery with more features). It should have a better system to suggest projects to be added, and a better way to manage curators.

Hardmath beat me to it!
SDS should be implemented into the code just like featured projects are.

There should be a special button for curators to add the project to the curated gallery.

I think that people adding their own projects is too much of a risk.

I do think that there should be temporary curators that have a 2-3 month shift, and permanent curators who are proven to be reliable.
It would be cool if the DS was more like a mini Collab Challenge with a set of items you need to use instead of a theme. (it would also be cool if the Collab challenge was integrated with the editor)

LS97
Hardmath beat me to it!
SDS should be implemented into the code just like featured projects are.

There should be a special button for curators to add the project to the curated gallery.

Whats the benefit of having a separate SDS button on projects?

stevetheipad

LS97
Hardmath beat me to it!
SDS should be implemented into the code just like featured projects are.

There should be a special button for curators to add the project to the curated gallery.

Whats the benefit of having a separate SDS button on projects?

It just seems right to have a feature that has been going on for quite a while get coded in.

Thanks for bringing this up, Stevetheipad!

At one point (before it was even on the homepage) SDS galleries were open, so people could add their own projects. And they got spammed, pretty hard. So I agree that making it add your own would lead to too many problems.

I can see two approaches we could consider:
1. Give the SDS curators better tools to make adding projects easier.
For example, when a comment on the gallery includes a link to a project, a small link or button should appear for curators. That cuts out several clicks for each add, since they only have to a. view the project, and then b. Click the add link (or don't click it).

2. Somehow crowdsource the adding of projects.
Perhaps we could come up with a system where each person who submits has to ‘rate’ 3 projects already submitted as a good fit, or not a good a fit for the SDS. That way we could set a threshold of “ratings” necessary for the project to be automatically added. For instance, if 3 Scratchers (probably not New Scratchers) have approved a project, then it goes in. If two have said it doesn't fit, then it's not eligible, and should be reviewed by an SDS curator or someone.

The thing I like about approach 1. is that if we implemented it, it could be used for *all* galleries, not just SDS. So if someone wanted to suggest a project for your personal gallery, or one that you help curate, it'd make adding it in all that much easier.

Lightnin
Thanks for bringing this up, Stevetheipad!

At one point (before it was even on the homepage) SDS galleries were open, so people could add their own projects. And they got spammed, pretty hard. So I agree that making it add your own would lead to too many problems.

I can see two approaches we could consider:
1. Give the SDS curators better tools to make adding projects easier.
For example, when a comment on the gallery includes a link to a project, a small link or button should appear for curators. That cuts out several clicks for each add, since they only have to a. view the project, and then b. Click the add link (or don't click it).

2. Somehow crowdsource the adding of projects.
Perhaps we could come up with a system where each person who submits has to ‘rate’ 3 projects already submitted as a good fit, or not a good a fit for the SDS. That way we could set a threshold of “ratings” necessary for the project to be automatically added. For instance, if 3 Scratchers (probably not New Scratchers) have approved a project, then it goes in. If two have said it doesn't fit, then it's not eligible, and should be reviewed by an SDS curator or someone.

The thing I like about approach 1. is that if we implemented it, it could be used for *all* galleries, not just SDS. So if someone wanted to suggest a project for your personal gallery, or one that you help curate, it'd make adding it in all that much easier.

Good ideas - I think the first one would be a better fit too.

Let's dissect the curating steps to see what could be made easier so it's a faster process:
1. Go to the SDS gallery
2. Find where the last curator stopped adding projects
3. Read the comment and open the link in a new tab
4.Play/watch the project and decide whether it fits
5. Click “Add to a gallery” and wait 2-5 seconds for it to load
6. Click “bookmarked”
7. Find and click on the gallery (wait 2-5 seconds for it to add)
8. Close the tab
9. Reply to the comment

I remember a long time ago I suggested a system where all links to projects converted into mini projects (Like shown in this alpha's profile pages featured project box) with little add and don't add buttons, which closed the mini project player when clicked. What was wrong with that idea? It'd take a while to load for curators, but once loaded, we wouldn't need to even go to any other pages.

stevetheipad
Let's dissect the curating steps to see what could be made easier so it's a faster process:
1. Go to the SDS gallery
2. Find where the last curator stopped adding projects
3. Read the comment and open the link in a new tab
4.Play/watch the project and decide whether it fits
5. Click “Add to a gallery” and wait 2-5 seconds for it to load
6. Click “bookmarked”
7. Find and click on the gallery (wait 2-5 seconds for it to add)
8. Close the tab
9. Reply to the comment

I remember a long time ago I suggested a system where all links to projects converted into mini projects (Like shown in this alpha's profile pages featured project box) with little add and don't add buttons, which closed the mini project player when clicked. What was wrong with that idea? It'd take a while to load for curators, but once loaded, we wouldn't need to even go to any other pages.

Ah, excellent - nice list of steps. So basically we could fairly easily eliminate (mostly) 5,6,and 7 and their long annoying pauses. That seems like the first place to attack the problem.

As to mini projects - we do have a small project player now, as you've no doubt seen. I'm not sure how practically it can be fit into the design of the gallery page though, or if it's worth it to save only a click or two. (Not that we shouldn't consider this for the future, it's just that too much redesign will slow down the release.)

Lightnin

stevetheipad
Let's dissect the curating steps to see what could be made easier so it's a faster process:
1. Go to the SDS gallery
2. Find where the last curator stopped adding projects
3. Read the comment and open the link in a new tab
4.Play/watch the project and decide whether it fits
5. Click “Add to a gallery” and wait 2-5 seconds for it to load
6. Click “bookmarked”
7. Find and click on the gallery (wait 2-5 seconds for it to add)
8. Close the tab
9. Reply to the comment

I remember a long time ago I suggested a system where all links to projects converted into mini projects (Like shown in this alpha's profile pages featured project box) with little add and don't add buttons, which closed the mini project player when clicked. What was wrong with that idea? It'd take a while to load for curators, but once loaded, we wouldn't need to even go to any other pages.

Ah, excellent - nice list of steps. So basically we could fairly easily eliminate (mostly) 5,6,and 7 and their long annoying pauses. That seems like the first place to attack the problem.

As to mini projects - we do have a small project player now, as you've no doubt seen. I'm not sure how practically it can be fit into the design of the gallery page though, or if it's worth it to save only a click or two. (Not that we shouldn't consider this for the future, it's just that too much redesign will slow down the release.)

Yeah, that sounds like a good start. Not to be pushy but when do you expect to have the SDS system set up here?

The good thing is that it's a back end thing- so if we monkey with it after the official 2.0 release, it'll only affect us curators (unless we do it for all galleries, which I'm not sure about).

stevetheipad
Not to be pushy but when do you expect to have the SDS system set up here?

The good thing is that it's a back end thing- so if we monkey with it after the official 2.0 release, it'll only affect us curators (unless we do it for all galleries, which I'm not sure about).

Not clear when we can get this in - hopefully by the release. Keep in mind though - this release process is different than past ones where we had to get it right or force people to download again. We can update anytime we like since we'll be in the cloud. We plan to continue to iterate on some things well after the release, as this platform makes that much easier.

I'm going to push for it to be a front end thing, for all galleries and their curators, since it seems quite useful. Have to sell several colleagues on the idea though - so it's not clear if it'll happen before or (hopefully) shortly after the release.

Lightnin
Not clear when we can get this in - hopefully by the release. Keep in mind though - this release process is different than past ones where we had to get it right or force people to download again. We can update anytime we like since we'll be in the cloud. We plan to continue to iterate on some things well after the release, as this platform makes that much easier.

I'm going to push for it to be a front end thing, for all galleries and their curators, since it seems quite useful. Have to sell several colleagues on the idea though - so it's not clear if it'll happen before or (hopefully) shortly after the release.

Colleagues: Help us curators! /alpha.scratch.mit.edu/scratchr2/static/djangobb_forum/img/smilies/smile.png" />

Lightnin
Not clear when we can get this in - hopefully by the release. Keep in mind though - this release process is different than past ones where we had to get it right or force people to download again. We can update anytime we like since we'll be in the cloud. We plan to continue to iterate on some things well after the release, as this platform makes that much easier.

I'm going to push for it to be a front end thing, for all galleries and their curators, since it seems quite useful. Have to sell several colleagues on the idea though - so it's not clear if it'll happen before or (hopefully) shortly after the release.

Colleagues: Help us curators! /alpha.scratch.mit.edu/scratchr2/static/djangobb_forum/img/smilies/smile.png" />