Is my game getting blackballed by IndieDB? Thread

I've submitted a Kickstarter news item twice and both times immediately Archived, and now I see other items being Archived for no reason.

Indiedb.com

Meanwhile I see tiny articles with less content getting approved constantly, and for Kickstarter campaigns even.

What gives?

Here is an image for proof:

Why would the Sheeple article suddenly get archived at the same time as my KS article got archived?

did you check the "archive" box when you posted your news?

Check as in "look at", or check as in "click the checkbox widget"?

Because I've never even noticed an "archive" box before, nevermind checked it...
it might be my mistake ... but personally it would be more fun if you guys are censoring me.

Should I submit again?

NaturallyIntelligent wrote: I've submitted a Kickstarter news item twice and both times immediately Archived, and now I see other items being Archived for no reason.

2 pictures are not enough to get featured: Indiedb.com
No media included: Indiedb.com

It is possible your articles were immediately reviewed and archived. Here is a related thread with some tips: Indiedb.com

NaturallyIntelligent wrote: Meanwhile I see tiny articles with less content getting approved constantly, and for Kickstarter campaigns even.

Proof? Where are examples of "tiny articles" on Indie DB? Only on Slide DB articles with just 1 picture are approved - if you see any articles on Indie DB without at least 3 images, it is either 1) author removed staff-added media (including some media is always obligatory, whether it is developer- or staff-embedded), 2) a rather rare exception to the site guidelines, for example a recent article about Olvand: Indiedb.com was let through with only 2 images because of the rich textual content; usually those exceptions are reserved only for release news which goes through a milder reviewal process

Both tons of fresh media as well as some textual content (describing your recent progress) are extremely important - one passage and 2 pictures are not enough, usually.

NaturallyIntelligent wrote:

Why would the Sheeple article suddenly get archived at the same time as my KS article got archived?

That would be odd if it was automatically archived. But the only case when an already featured article is archived is
- when the user submits another article on the same rotation day (either the new or the previous article is archived as there should not be two articles for the same game frontpaged on the same day)

And it seems you submitted two articles with (almost) the same media content on the very same day:
news article Indiedb.com Jan 27th
feature article Indiedb.com Jan 28th

Same goes for 2 or more articles submitted with the same media content just for the feature on the frontpage - normally they are treated like no new fresh content was included and consequently archived (an exception is made for release news, but not progress updates reusing their old media to get featured).

There is like a hundred images in my news, but they were consolidated into 1 PNG and 1 GIF.
Took quite a while to make those images...

As for the old sheeple... I made an animated GIF and a ~3 minute video! That wasn't easy for me.
Then in the next dev update it was a brand new ~8 minute video!!
That was a tremendous effort on my behalf.
I have no idea how you can claim those are almost the same content.
True I did repost the video from the day before - because it was a development update about that video.

It feels you guys are being unfairly harsh towards this project. Maybe it isn't a project you like, I understand.
But it is beyond tough to program a complex game and then do all this article writing and video production etc at the same time,
sorry for not including more pictures or writing longer texts, I try to be brief to save time for coding but that's not what you are after.

ANyways, thanks for your explanation, I will try creating another new article to your standards and submit again...

NaturallyIntelligent wrote: It feels you guys are being unfairly harsh towards this project. Maybe it isn't a project you like, I understand.

We are not editors, we don't pick what is shown on the front page based on personal choice, If you meet the standards your news will be shown.

Whilst i appreciate promoting and programming your game is a challenge, we try to make it easier for you by having a standardized set of rules to ensure your news isn't missed.

My news guide covers publishing in detail.
Indiedb.com

Some other thoughts, Rather than combining all your screenshots into one gif, add 3 screenshots, Use gifs to show off smaller features in action and a video to showcase what cant be shown in gifs.

Edited by: TKAzA

NaturallyIntelligent wrote: There is like a hundred images in my news, but they were consolidated into 1 PNG and 1 GIF.
Took quite a while to make those images...

Well Slain's post contains a mash-up too: Indiedb.com but also other images as well, not just 1 consolidated picture (+ 1 other one). In this respect, the more the better, both textual and media content alike.

NaturallyIntelligent wrote: It feels you guys are being unfairly harsh towards this project.

Not just harsh towards your project - but harsh towards all indie articles as we have tens of indie articles coming through, if all those news pieces were approved for the front page, your frontpaged article could be bumped off the front page in 3-5 hours, and during the rest of the day, bumped off 5 times over.

That is why there is huge demand for being harsher towards any sort of indie news piece. Lately even mod and app news requirements were slackened - but expectations for indie news (especially indie articles featured on Mod DB) went higher.

By the way, your article Indiedb.com was triple-featured on Mod DB, Indie DB and Slide DB. Your news usually is making it through only to the Indie DB / Slide DB frontpage. Nobody should spam the front page with 3-4 articles submitted on the same rotation day, and the same "rule" applies to submitting "just" 2 articles to take 2 spots on the front page. Indiedb.com sported more content than Indiedb.com and it indeed received a ton of visits from all 3 sister sites. Only high quality indie news makes it to the Mod DB front page.

Hey just retrudging this up. Thanks for your help guys and for this site. I didn't mean to sound accusatory, just concerned - tho now I see it was just my bad! You've been fair to me all along. hugs!

Anyways I've resubmitted our Kickstarter news - as I understand it you are allowed 1 KS related news item, and I figure since none of them went featured, I could still get one up. Please let this one go thru! Our campaign is almost over and needs every drop of exposure it can get...