Problems and Suggestions

**Make a simple checklist of what you want in a submission. **

It is stated in the FAQ. All new users should at least have the patience to read the rules, to keep things organized. Still, I doubt that there will ever be exact guidelines, as there are just too many walling styles and there will always be exceptions. A good way is probably to compare your work to similarly styled wallpapers that got accepted.

TALK with new users.
this would help newcomers, possibly, but then why should they be spoonfed when everything is explained in the rules. I understand what you mean by recruiting more moderators, but I think 593863 members is still a bit much to explain things one-on-one with.

** Cut a lot of the secrets about how the site is run.** I can already imagine the many ways this could be abused. :/ the current system has worked fine so far, why change it? It obviously depends on favs and comments anyway.

I think that the administrators of this site need to realize not all of us are experts in photo editing and wallpaper making.

the people on AP that do photo editing are not wallers. and if they were, their works would be certainly rejected. we do a lot of thing, from vector to paint. known as digital art. but not photo editing

This paper system I understand is designed to reward involvement. I do not understand the penalty for a paper being rejected and not being able to regain the lost papers when the problem is fixed. the paper system is to prevent leechers. and to make people learn when their work does not enter in the quality requirements. that penalty prevents people from doing the same mistake twice.

1) Make a simple checklist of what you want in a submission. This should be no more than a page of text. If it can't be said in that amount of space you need to rethink the guidelines. read the allmighty FAQ

2) TALK with new users. Take the time to explain what happened and why. I realize that with a large number of users this can be daunting but try recruiting more moderators if it becomes too much. mods have a real life outside AP, don't expect them to teach you how to do things. if you want to do something, fight for it yourself. this is one wallpaper fansite, not a psychatrist office. besides the combo of admins/ mods is already high for this kind of site

3) Cut a lot of the secrets about how the site is run. Ranking systems that are secretive help no one. Anime Music Videos.org is a large site that is very clear on how their ranking system works and it has never caused them any issues.

just one quote from one admin from one topic of someone that posted the same question

Just to put in a correction, it is more than just the amount of favs and comments but that is only for Bantam to know. Any further assumptions as to how it actually works is mre speculation at best. http://www.animepaper.net/forums/Problems-and-Suggestions/22069 And inquiries to how the ranking/grading system works is strictly off-limits.

Thank you for the thoughts, we'll take them into consideration.

One of the main thing about the site is that it is quite big and complex (meaning you can do a lot). Whilst this can make it seem a little daunting to new users, but it's also actually the thing that keeps a lot of the users coming back.

Here is your submission guide [readmore]Submission Guide straight from the Faq's

All wallpapers at AP pass through an approval process. There, your wallpaper is assessed by a mod, who decides whether it is acceptable for the gallery.

So what is acceptable?

Finished, quality wallpapers made by you depicting anime characters (or game characters in a similar style) from named series.

So how do you know if your wall is up to scratch?

Well, can you answer yes to all of the following question?

1. Is the wallpaper all your own work?

Using elements from other wallpapers in yours is not acceptable here at AP. Check out the scans gallery if you need some new material to work with.

You must include your signature on the wall to identify it as yours. Walls without sigs or with sigs that do not match your username will be deleted on sight. If a mod decides that your sig is not clear or that it does not make sense with your username or is in any way suspicious, it may result in the wall being deleted. As such, you should try to ensure that your sig is clear and that it requires no effort to understand or find - our time is precious and we aren't going to play hide-and-seek with the sig forever.

Please note that if your sig and username do not match you should explain the difference on your userpage - use the "profile" button above.

You must also include a description with your wall to explain it and to avoid any confusion. Descriptions are discussed below.

1. Is the character extracted well?

Off-colour borders, jaggy edges or eaten away lines mean you need to practice more. It also means your wall doesn't look as good as it could, which is what we want for all of the walls in the gallery.

Why not visit Session Zero for some extraction tips?

1. Did you plan the background?

How long did you spend planning the background? Does the background suit the scan? Does it capture an element of the show or something about that character?

If you go for a simple wallpaper style, then it really needs to be good. If it is in any way shoddy or looks like you were just covering up for a lack of skill, it will be rejected.

If you don't know what you're doing try Session Zero. That's what it's there for, after all :).

1. Is the background done well?

If you just used a few Photoshop filters you need to invest more effort. If you just used a gradient or a solid colour, that's probably not good enough.

If you just used a stock or you took a stock and used 1 filter, that's also not really good enough. The background is generally the area where you get to shine when you make a wall - try to really put some effort in it. In addition, it is important that the background contains a significant portion of your own original effort.

Other things you need to consider in your wall are the composition - how well does everything fit together and the colour choices. Do your colours clash - is your wall an eyesore that nobody would ever actually use?

We have nothing against simple walls here at AP, but they need to be done well and not just be an attempt to hide a lack of knowledge and skill.

Again, Session Zero is the place for you if you need help with making your wall.

1. Are all the elements clean and of good quality?

If the character looks messy, splotchy or has lines on it for no reason, you need to clean it. If the background is pixelated or messy for no good reason, you need to make it cleaner. If the final wall looks splotchy or the edges are unclean, you need to save it as a higher quality JPEG.

If the wall isn't clean and looking good it won't get in.

Now for the final test:

Be honest - could you use what you're about to submit as a desktop wallpaper for the next month and be completely satisfied every time you see it?

If so, we'd love to see it (but don't forget to add a sig and description ^_^).

Your new submission will be vetted against the above criteria by one of the moderators before it appears on the front page. You will be notified if they do not feel your wallpaper adequately meets the required standards and directed towards Session Zero.

Failure to meet the aforementioned requirements and the subsequent rejection resulting is accompanied by a paper fine. This fine is to make the community and those submitting take responsibility for ensuring their work is of standard before submitting it for approval.

If you can't answer yes, we'd love to see it and help you develop it over in Session Zero, NOT in the wallpaper gallery.

If you have posted in Session Zero and has not gotten any satisfactory or useful responses after a reasonable length of time, please contact hatesyou via PM, providing a link to your thread, and she'll be happy to give you a detailed critique.

Submission and Approval

When you first join the site, you can only upload ONE wall at a time. This means that you must wait for a mod to check your first wall and either approve or reject it.

If it is rejected you can uploaded one more wall, and so on until you get a wall approved.

Once you have uploaded a wall and it gets approved you can then upload a total of 3 walls in any 24-hour period.

These rules are in place to prevent flooding and the swamping of mods, and besides, who can make more than one top quality wall a day?

To submit a wall, press the submit button at the top of the page and follow the instructions. Make sure to include a title and description with your new submission.

All walls submitted by members pass through an approval process. So what does this mean?

It means that a moderator will examine your wall to see if it meets the required standards. The standards are covered by the 5 points listed above. In addition, you should note that only walls that are in normal wallpaper resolutions will be accepted. The list of accepted resolutions is given above.

Until your submission is accepted, the wallpaper will not be visible on the front page. If the wallpaper is rejected you will receive a PM detailing why.

If the wall is rejected, please do not repost it unless directed to by the mod. Instead, post it in Session Zero and ask for help or crit or whatever. For information on how to post, see the forum section of the guide.

If the wallpaper is accepted it will appear on the front page and people will be able to comment on it. People who "watch" you (see your friend list) will see the wall in their notification centre under the "friends" tab.

Please allow at least 24hrs following a submission before chasing. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that walls are approved in a reasonable time frame, sometimes there are lulls in the availability of mods and peaks in the volume of submissions meaning it can take a little longer.

We appreciate your patience.

To chase a wall, the best thing to do is contact a mod directly. For a list of mods, please see the staff group. Please note, however, that if we get a PM only 5 minutes after you have uploaded we will not be pleased and you could wind up getting a fine.[/readmore]

truth to be told, the FAQ is still made of TL ; DR if you get what I mean by Too Long, Don't Read.

as said, a checklist would be great, guide or no guide, that comes second to none.

The problem with condensed lists is that they can give the false impression that those are the only requirements.

Also, when you submit a scan it already says the following quite clearly at the top:

Please also make sure that your image meets the minimum specification for for your respective submission. For wallpapers the minimum dimensions are 1024x768 pixels. For scans, please ensure that the minimum scan height is 1200 pixels and the usable image is at least 1175 pixels .

The 1024*768 thing is automatically checked and so is the 1200 height for scans, but my point is that the 1175 pixels usable height is possibly the most important rule for scans, it's listed there as clear as day in a simple thing right where you submit... and yet dozens and dozens of scans fail to meet that requirement every day :/ (worse still many that fail are submitted by long term users). It's difficult to know how to get through to people who won't read anything at all, size of the guide and condensed lists aside.

Plus, I would actually argue that the guide isn't actually all that long--it can seem long, because of the font size and the fact most people scroll through, rather than using ctrl+F, but in actuality, our whole guide is less than the guides to most forums, and they have only about a tenth of the functionality.

Anyway, all that aside, points noted and I will take them into consideration as I work on some guide improvements.