Increase Max Upload Limit to 30 for Users With More Than 30 Approved Photos

[ChrisEdwardsCE]

Currently, the max uploads is 5 for all users. The photos team would like to increase the limit to 30 max uploads for all users with 30 or greater approved photos. The photo mod team is onboard with this change.

[coffee2code]

I'm just waiting until I add support for defining ALT text (#6173), which should be soon, before implementing this.

[coffee2code]

I've recently spoken to @topher1kenobe about this and what follows covers some of the concerns raised and potential solutions.

The Concerns

The reasons for the delay in the implementation of this request (at least for me) have been twofold:

1. Concern over moderator capacity.
   Implementing this ticket as requested will, obviously, lead to more photos being submitted than at present. I wanted to ensure that we have a sufficient pool of active moderators so that the increased load isn't too much of a moderation burden.
2. Concern over photo dumps by submitters.
   This concern relates to the fact that there will certainly be people who submit up to the maximum limit as often as they can. Coupled with the fact that moderation is generally sequential, that could mean that the entire Photo Directory front page at times is occupied by a single contributor. And even worse (in my mind) is that this could lead to a lot of the same type of pictures in large batches (i.e. 30 photos of different flowers). Part of the aesthetic appeal of a photo directory, particularly a front page, is seeing a variety of subject matter in the photos.
   
   Also, if moderators are efficient and a submitter is determined, there's the possibility that many dozens of photos from one person dominate many consecutive pages of photo archives, moreso if there is a lull with other contributors.

The Current Situation

Now that we have greatly increased the number of moderators and have a process in place to vet and add more, the first item is less of a concern. I think we'd still want to ease our way towards the higher limit with incremental increases to test moderation capacity.

However, the second item remains fully a concern. Because of this, in order to implement a much higher submission limit, a number of related changes need to first take place.

Proposed Related Changes

These are things that come to mind (there may be others that come up with more consideration or during implementation, and maybe not everything is needed):

• Restrict the number of photos published per day per contributor. This really should be enacted even at current limits, but becomes necessary for increased limits.
  • It would be most straightforward if the concurrent submission limit and the daily publish limit were the same value.
  • If we allow more concurrent submissions in the queue than can be published per day, then this implies that photos submitted beyond the daily limit will be held in a holding queue or otherwise kept from being moderated until the submitter's daily allotment is freed up.
• When allowing users to have the increased submission limit, instead of making it available after 30 published photos, we should additionally check that they also have a positive publish-to-rejection ratio. (e.g. someone having 30 published photos but also 25 rejected photos suggests they still aren't able to consistently meet our guidelines and/or quality standards; allowing them more submissions would add more moderation effort in these cases).
• The queue should be presented to moderators in a random fashion. This makes it easier to get a mix of photos (subject matter and submitter), especially if moderating from one photo to the next.
• The auto-redirect after moderating a photo should go to a random photo instead of the next photo in sequential order. Additionally, it could also seek out a photo not by the person most recently moderated. (Effectively reverts the change made for #6741).

Candidates for Immediate Action

Ultimately, everything I've proposed above has merit even if the submission limit isn't increased at all. However, the main debate is how much of a submission limit we want to go up to and whether we want to have a daily publication limit (which has more merit even now, but becomes more necessary the higher we make the submission limit).

In the meantime, unless there are objections, we can move forward with:

• Increasing the concurrent submission limit to 10.
• Implementing a daily publication limit of 10, though this may not get added immediately. (Note: Photos published that day will reduce the submission limit for that day as well since, at least initially, we have to assume that all photos in the queue might get moderated and published that same day.)
• Randomizing the listing of photos in the queue so they get randomly moderated.
• Randomizing the next photo loaded after moderating a photo.
• Recommending that moderators keep an eye towards the front page and moderate for variety when possible.
• Debating if a further increase, and thus much additional effort, is still warranted.
• If warranted, discussing and fleshing further actions to mitigate photo publication dumps.

[topher1kenobe]

I like the immediate action list and approve.

[coffee2code]

In 13171:

Photo Directory, Admin: Randomize the listing of photos in the queue.

This can be disabled by appending '&random=0' to the query string.

See #6524.

[coffee2code]

In 13172:

Photo Directory, Posts: Chose random photo as next photo in the queue to moderate by default.

See #6524, #6741.
Effectively reverts parts of [12549].

[coffee2code]

In 13790:

Photo Directory, User: Increase concurrent submission limit to 10 for frequent contributors (those with 30+ published photos).

Props ChrisEdwardsCE, topher1kenobe, coffee2code.
Fixes #6524.