Skip to main content

Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines

Blog Post held under review for too long ISSUE

A topic by KG created 3 days ago Views: 50 Replies: 1
Viewing posts 1 to 2

I saw some with the same issue as me so I guess I'm gonna make this topic.
My post has been put under review for a week. I even sent an email to the support and got no response.

I understand that the team is small and working hard to solve various stuff but this shouldn't be a thing. I know moderation is necessary but I was just trying to make a post for my followers. I don't know if it's gonna end up in the public. Maybe it will that's why it's being reviewed? But in that case, please make it clear or make a new function that will help developers post stuff for only their followers to see. Such thing doesn't need moderation right out of the gate. If it's something bad then sure the moderator can do something about it later. It's very frustrating to make a simple post and have to wait for this long.

Moderator(+1)

I am assuming that both you and the previous poster are referring to itch.io's devlog feature? I do agree with you on all of the above, in any case. Seeing as this appears to be a pattern, I decided to test out the feature on a currently relevant ttrpg project - which is to say I composed and published a devlog for the game in question. In my case, however, the post became active instantly, as far as I can tell,  and no manual review or moderation process seems to have been triggered at all. It worked as it really ought to. Being a blog post within the bounds of my own account, and pertaining to my own game, there is, as you've noted, no reason why I shouldn't be able to draft it up, press "post" and have it appear. 

Given the difference in our experiences, I suspect (though, of course, I cannot be certain) that there is a secondary factor / extra step in play. Maybe there's an automated filter that's picking up on certain keywords and flagging your posts based on that alone? I am not a fan of how itch.io leadership handled the recent "adult content" fiasco (the communication and transparency simply weren't there, and no matter how small you are, when many people's livelihoods are in your hands, there is an inherent responsibility that they failed to rise to), it is undeniable that they found themselves between a rock and a hard place and were probably rather badly spooked by the whole ordeal. Who knows ... this may have led to weird, automated moderation measures as a sort of emergency stop-gap. This is all speculation, of course, but I wouldn't be too surprised to find that they've designated certain terms, even potentially innocuous ones, to trigger a review to cover their butts ...

It is, however, still very strange that this would affect devlog posts, of all things ... Of course, if you are referring to a wholly different blogging feature that I'm not even aware of, all of the above essentially goes out the window.