Question about Moderators

Quote by Jen

Usually 2-3 weeks for silver or below. 2-3 days for gold/platinum. there are around 100 in the queue at any given point, but gold/platinum go in at the top. Hope that helps.

Is it typical for a moderator to claim a submission and then sit on it for days? I am platinum level and have started going through an already-published series and making minor edits, and the story currently in the queue has had the "this story has been assigned to a moderator and can no longer be recalled" note for at least two days now.

When you resubmit a story with content changes, mods have to read the whole thing, so it's the same as if it is the first time.

The queue is quite busy with lots of new submissions, competition entries and then resubmissions, too.

Just a little patience, please.

Quote by AvidlyCurious

When you resubmit a story with content changes, mods have to read the whole thing, so it's the same as if it is the first time.

The queue is quite busy with lots of new submissions, competition entries and then resubmissions, too.

Just a little patience, please.

[Standard disclaimer that I know the mods are volunteers and are very busy, and that I appreciate their work.]

I can be patient when I understand how the system works, but I don't see why a mod would claim a submission and then sit on it for days, preventing any other mod from claiming it and possibly approving it faster. That's the frustrating part.

I was under the impression that the mods' view allowed them to see tracked changes, making a resubmission with only a few changes a relatively quick job. I could be mistaken, but I have read posts and/or PMs cautioning authors to not copy/paste the entire revision because then the mod has to review the entire story.

Quote by Chet_Morton
making minor edits... I have read posts and/or PMs cautioning authors to not copy/paste the entire revision because then the mod has to review the entire story.

That's true.

To augment what AvidlyCurious said, we do have a story differences feature, which sometimes works depending on how big the original story is, how many changes have been made, how long ago it was submitted, and which way the wind is blowing. Stories from before the switchover to lush v2 for example—and some newer ones that contain formatting styles brought in from some word processors—sometimes send it into an infinite loop, meaning we have to read the whole story again.

If you give an indication in your mod note of the rough number/extent of changes you've made, it may mean a moderator who is pressed for time could know to grab your story and whip through it. Assuming the diff feature works, of course. That's not to say anyone should make false claims in the hope of being looked at faster! We're pretty good at spotting people gaming the system.

Please bear in mind that if you are resubmitting frequently and hogging precious moderator time, we may sideline your story for a short while to give people further down the queue a look-in. We're trying to balance fairness with speed, while maintaining quality standards and it takes time. It may also be that the moderator grabs a story with every intention of reading it, and they get sidelined in real life and can't get back to it for a day or so. Any number of factors can influence the time it takes.

Rest assured, as AC says, it will be processed in due course.

Edit: and coincidentally re-approved while I was typing this.