Community Applications and Their Potential

Hello,

I want to preface my comments and state that my post here is to foster discussion and suggestion for SR. It is not to insult or to criticize SR.

I’d like to address the current state of the Community Applications here on SteamRep. Currently, there are 22 open applications, with an average of 124 days of waiting time. Of those 22 open applications, 12 of them are currently over the estimated wait time of 90 days.

Of those 12 applications at 90 days or more, they have an average of 189 days waiting, 99 days over the estimated.

I understand SR is busy with their applications, and I sympathize, I’ve looked at the reports, I’ve seen the appeals, I know the stresses on the admins, but these applications are vital to SR’s future and its success.


The applications represent three vital aspects for SR. The future of SR, the caseload of SR and the strength of SR.

The Future of SR:

The applications in the Community Applications sections represent communities, ranging from a few hundred players to thousands, all these communities, big or small, influence what SR can become.

1. Firstly, the communities showed initiative and promise by applying in the first place. They are displaying an interest in fighting scammers and being a part of something larger than just themselves.
2. Many of these communities will be the large communities of tomorrow. Whether it takes months or years, they can grow and become the size of many of the communities involved with SR now.
3. These communities foster growth and education of younger players. Many of the traders or admins of these communities may make their way to becoming the admins and mods of the future SR.

The Caseload of SR:

As anyone who visits the SR forums can attest to, there’s an overwhelming amount of reports given to SR on a daily basis. SR, at the benefit of its strong staff now handles almost all new reports within 24 hours, but still older reports lay idle. And since so many new reports come in and so many are pending, there’s been a move to encourage reporters to report on Affiliate Communities.

1. Having more admins to help out and to spread SR helps the situation with these caseloads. If there are more Associate Communities there are, the more scammers that can be caught, through reports and active administration.
2. More Affiliate Communities can allow a larger spread of SR’s influence, including more servers running the plugin, more server staff pushing traders to check profiles on SR and more education for traders.

The Strength of SR:

This closely relates to the other two main points I addressed. Steam Rep’s influence, while great, is based off those that support it. The servers that run SR give it its power. Many of these servers end up applying to be further involved in SR and in doing so, increase SR’s power.

1. SteamRep draws from the people that use it, and honestly, there are doubts. Whether they are valid or not, they exist. The “Report.tf” project and numerous General Discussion threads are just small examples of this. I’ve been contacted before regarding the Community Applications and my opinion on the waits.
   • The longer the applications sit there, the more likely these communities lose faith in SR. While many won’t remove the plugin or discount SR, I’ve been in many discussions and VOIP servers where the wait times for SR Community Apps are the butt of jokes.
   • Another problem that has arisen is the spreading belief that SR doesn’t care about small communities, and that SR only cares about the “big guys” (the ones that are already established and have their names out there). The proponents of this belief cite Kritzkast and TF2-T as examples, showing that these two large communities were accepted after 7 and 71 days, respectively. While both communities deserve their banner, I’ve heard many take issue with SR saying “we can’t process apps faster than we are,” then approving two applications substantially faster than any other community.
   • SR’s current timeline for Community Applications is based off the fact that high report volume has delegated the Community Applications to a lower priority. While I understand this decision, it’s quite likely that SR is always going to be experiencing high report volume. Due to this, it may be in SR’s better interests to assign someone to moderate the Community Applications. Delegation of this activity could follow the same process as the reports. Once an application is “ready for review,” the admins can make the final approval.
   • Lastly, applications dealt with promptly can bring better communities to fruition. If SR promptly denies a community for “x reason” instead of denying them after 9 months of “x reason”, that community can work on that aspect, instead of spending 9 months doing something that can endanger itself and the trading community in general.
2. While I do not advocate opening the floodgates and letting every community get tags/banners, I would suggest that getting more communities involved would allow for SR’s reach to be greater. Having more communities affiliated with SR can only help spread the usage and strength of its anti-scamming message.
3. Having more communities associated/affiliated with SR can also lead to better communication and higher quality administration. SR serves as a hub filled with many of the most experienced traders and admins, all willing to give advice to newcomers. Admins from various communities can get to know each other, learn and expand their network. SR offers many resources and information, which can only benefit these communities.

In conclusion, I want SteamRep to be the best it can be. I want it to be known by everyone and to surpass any standard. This post was made in that hope, that this will be taken as a suggestion and a call to action for expediting the application process, not a cynical criticism. I have the utmost respect for the staff of SR and I hope you consider this post.

I know I personally have a bias as my community is one of the pending communities, but I felt it would benefit SR to bring this problem to light and wanted to get involved. All things aside, this was made on behalf of all the applicants and individuals who have spoken to me about this.

I know what you mean Joe. We're working on it and discussing it internally. These are all valid points to some degree though most of it is theory.

I am glad that there is discussion going on regarding it. I wanted to foster public discussion and perhaps bring about other suggestions.

Maybe after this week's workload I have (private, non-SR), I may have some look into them. But I had really 2 important guides in mind to write in that time.
Next week I wont have any time for anything, will be a week offline.

I thought I had seen a post regarding someone not posting Reports because they thought it was pointless since it took so long. I would encourage them to report every scam, especially since newer reports have higher priority and the majority of new reports are addressed within 24 hours of being submitted.

Inverse is true actually.

From what I understand reports are processed in order of arrival.

Having said that, some newer reports by their nature are simple to expedite (phish etc), and others represent a clear and present danger and thus need swift action, so I can see how it appears otherwise.

Clive is correct, I had spoken to Helen about it also.