i posted this in backstage aimed at staff members, just felt the community should know.


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im still making sure there arent any bugs in the submissions engine, but i want to say something about standards that i think is way over due.

i understand that many of you want cb to only have the highest of quality, but i personally think this is counterintuitive to bringing createblog to the masses. for example, lately (and one of the main reaons ive decided to seperate myspace layouts to div overlays and standard), is because increasingly i only see div overlay layouts. sure, div overlays are pretty and look great, but that only accounts for less than 1% of the entire myspace community. i think its a flaw in our logic to think that highering the standards even more will bring in more members. in fact, its just going to do the opposite. submitters will stop submitting their layouts, because they will fear (know rather) that it will be rejected. and without new layouts, people will visit createblog less often to check up on the new layouts, which means with less traffic theres just less opporunity for people to submit things. you see, its a downward spiral were going, if we maintain our current rediculous "standards" aiming to please only the measly 0.0001% of our potential audience. which says something especially if the staff members themselves dont have any quality layouts /graphics submitted to cb.

in anycase, im going to ask everyone to loosen up on teh standards. instead of accepting what pleases you, think in terms of the community. ask yourself, will someone out there use this layout / graphic ? if the answer is yes, accept the layout, no matter how you may feel about it. your perspective is very important, but only because you should be thinking behalf of the community, not yourselves.

i hope i made myself clear. if you disagree wtih my stance, feel free to tell me why.

^ Those standards have been the standards since May...

omg yes thanks you.
this is so good.
i have had so many layouts rejected for stupid reasons.
no offense but most of the official designers apporove and reject because of the way the layouts are made.
not because people would use them.
I think that no one person should get to approve or reject a layout.
maybe there should be like voting.
if three or more designers vote one way than that is the decision.
It may take longer but it would be better for the community.
just a suggestion.

yeah that would take forever to get your layout approved, we have tons of layouts coming in everyday. that's way too much time on a decision that 98% of the time can be made by one person without any problems.

but if it makes the community better then why does it matter??

because it isn't going to make the community better. if a layout is going to get rejected, it's most likely going to get rejected whether one person is making that decision or whether we take up a huge amount of time to vote per layout. the outcome isn't going to be great enough to warrant us redoing the whole system. it's not efficient. you really think we should vote on hundreds of layouts and wait for all our design staff to be online so they can vote? the queue will be backed up beyond belief and take weeks to get layouts through.

if someone's layout gets rejected and they disagree with the decision, they can always pm other design staff for second opinions. 98% of the time there isn't an issue with rejects. it would be silly to change everything to accommodate the 2% that have a problem. they can easily seek help themselves if they are that concerned with a decision.

alright then how would i get a layout re reviewed if i don't like the decision?

you pm any of the people listed in the following two paragraphs

Just a quick comment, but I can understand why some of your layouts were rejected. If you're unsatisfied with the feedback you were given on your submissions, you may always either respond to the staff member asking for clarification or PM another design staff member asking for their opinion. Sometimes you'll get the same answer from another Design Staff member, but if you want a second opinion, I for one don't mind if you PM me about it. I'm sure the other design staff members wouldn't mind either. Just PM them saying, "This was rejected, would you mind giving me some advice on how to improve it?"

That way, if you think you were given stupid reasons, you can receive additional feedback.

alright.
thanks so much!

Most of his layouts are jocked; they shouldn't have been accepted in the first place.

For example.

I have rejected a few, but some of the older ones are decent.. That last one was jocked? The site you linked looks like many sites that are out there that copy and paste CB code and steal a large number of our layouts, but maybe I was looking at it wrong.

Like I've told other DS , those type of sites, like Dani stated are not valid sources to use to say that they are jocked. Only because many sites like that steal layouts from here. So yea. Personal websites, different sites, proof from the actual owner, those are the type of things you can use as proof to say something is jocked.

Exactly! I know for a fact that the layout I had rejected would have been liked by soo many people. Like seriously. And do you know the reason why it was rejected? The friends box was a teeny bit wider than the other boxes and the reviewer didn't like the fact that my custom contact table didn't have a border like the other boxes. Honestly! I made that layout the same way I made the one before it, which got accepted. So I went to the one that did get accepted to see what the hype was about my supposedly wide friends box, and it was like 10px wider at most! Thats like 5 on each side. Gimme a freakin' break! And that whole border thing is soooo a personal preference. The worst part is, I forgot to save the code for it. I still have all the images but I don't have the time to go re-coding and stuff. And I will NOT add a border to my contact table to please some starch-sprayed stuck up reviewer.

Oh well.

For one they are giving you suggestions. If you feel that your layout is "OH SO GREAT!" You can PM other moderators and ask them for opinions. Give us a freakin break. Stop complaining over ridiculous things, and maybe try fixing your layout style. If it's the layout I think you're talking about it shouldn't of been accepted anyway in my opinion. If you're trying to get anywhere here you need to learn, things get rejected. GET USE TO IT.

We are not here to accept everything that comes our way. When crappy things get accepted, people complain. And then when your crappy stuff gets rejected... people complain. It's about time you get used to your stuff getting rejected, take it as feedback. Stop complaining. It's not going to get your layout accepted, so hun I don't see why you're even wasting your time. They are suggestions. Take them or leave them. If you don't want to listen that's your decision. IF you want to submit again..that's your decision. IF it gets rejected again maybe that means you really should work on your style.

WOW.

You know that CreateBlog isn't the only place you can submit layouts? Just because you assume that so many people will like the layout that was rejected, doesn't mean that we have to accept it here. Your pictures were cute, but that doesn't make your layout good. I've also sent you a message, if you'd like to discuss it from there.