Guide to helping your fellow updaters

[Blazzer 759]

Many people know that updaters are there to approve your work and give you TPE. And yes, that is not wrong. However, the job can be tough especially during Christmas or an event that keeps giving free TPE out like it’s growing from money trees. I’ve been updating for a bit now and have noticed some things that slow down the updating process significantly.

 

SO THIS IS A GUIDE TO HELPING YOUR FELLOW UPDATERS

 

First off, press conferences! I’ve seen far too many people linking the questions instead of your answers. The questions are made by someone else hence they are not for you to claim. However, I know that many of you don’t have the intention to claim the questions. For your information, updaters have a set of guidelines to follow and press conferences are not excluded. We have to check how many questions you answered and how much effort you put in as well. Yes, effort counts here. Anything less than a sentence or just one word and you’re claim will get denied. And that brings me to the next part, the minimum effort for a press conference. These are worth 2 TPE for 6 questions and 1 TPE for 3 questions, answered or asked. So please answer them with some effort and not treat them like nothing. These were originally put in place to help teammates know each other better ~ @Quik

 

Acceptable Press Conference

Not so good one

 

Your press conference doesn’t have to be like the one I linked as the acceptable one. It can be just 2 sentences but if you’re feeling chatty, why not answer like that? Makes the person asking the question happy when it’s not just 1 word answers.

 

Summary:

1. Use your answers to claim TPE. This will make things go faster as we don’t have to search for your post.

2. They need to be at least one sentence.

 

MOVING ON!

 

Media Spot/VHL.com Articles. Everyone does great here and there’s nothing much I can complain about. However, I am very picky so this one thing will help me at least. The WORD COUNT. Yes, I’m sure all of you know that there are minimum word counts to be met when writing one of these up. The media spot is worth 6 TPE for 500 words at least and the VHL.com article is worth 2 TPE with at least 150 words. BUT we would love to see people write roughly 200 words here. Like I said earlier, it’s the effort! Reaching the word count is important but you have to show it off otherwise it’s useless really. Place the word count for all to marvel at plus it saves updaters a lot of time.

 

I want to emphasize next on claiming the same article for multiple weeks. We shall start out with media spots. If your creative juices were flowing that week and you made a 2000+ word media spot, you are eligible to claim that for 4 weeks/1 month. Please state the week endings where you’ll be claiming the article. It helps us make sure that you’re not over claiming anything.

 

Media Spot Guidelines

VHL.com Article

 

So combining the both from above and to make our lives better, state your word count and date below at the end of your article. You only need to write the date if the media spot is going to be claimed for more than 1 week. An example is below.

Example: 1289 words, claiming for week ending 10/1 and 17/1

 

Couple more examples so you can pick and choose:

Just kidding no more examples because everyone is being naughty not putting dates (jk).  

 

MOVING ON AGAIN!

 

Podcasts! There are many podcasts out there now and it will probably keep coming. A large majority of these audios come with multiple talkative VHL souls hence it is very likely that there will be multiple claimers. BUT updaters can’t read your mind. Please bare that in mind, we are not psychics! We may approve your updates lightning quick (by accident) but we are not psychics. Hence, please state who is claiming the podcast and how long you are claiming it for. This ensures that we don’t get sus when you have another person claiming it.

 

Podcast Guidelines

The guideline will have this amazing table that makes things easier for you to figure out. All the math done. So a couple of podcasts that do this well is The Fishy and Spartan show, Three Podcasts playing at once just to name a few.

 

NEXT AGENDA TO COVER! WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME SO HURRY!

 

Reviewing! This is probably the one that requires the least effort but I do see some of you putting in critiques that are really for improvement. This is worth 1 TPE for each review and you can do a maximum of 2. Something that would greatly help updaters is that you link your damn post! Pardon my French but this is repeated in the press conference. Don’t link the article/graphic/podcast, just please don’t. We have to scroll through the thread, through multiple reviews and search for your post. It takes too long and rory might just deny your update like how he threatened the Christmas rewards.

 

There are also guidelines to reviewing someone’s work. Linked it below: 

Reviewing Rules

 

 

NEXT! HOW TO INDIRECTLY HELP US.

Do us a favor and don’t ask us when your update will get approved. Your updates will generally be approved within 48 hours and only if it passes 2 days/48 hours, you can come and talk to us. BUT DON’T BUG US. And don’t ask us to bump you up the queue as well.

Consequences of bugging us include:

1. Deletion of your player

2. Denying your updates

This is just a joke, don’t sue me.

 

The next way to help us directly is to not put in updates ahead for the week. Yes, this is a rule. We cannot/shouldn’t approve those updates hence it can jam the queue up. If you think the queue is always empty, think again. I have proof to prove you wrong. We try our best to make the queue look like what it is on the right so help us out here, TPE demons. 358 isn’t the highest ever because during Christmas, it reached 500+.

 

           

 

So to summarize once again.

1. If a post directs you to link to that post, for the love of all that is holy, don’t make an extra post saying “claim”. Just link to the original post.

2. Place word counts and dates of when you’re claiming the task so we can roughly have an idea of how many times you’ve claimed that one media spot. We also don’t have to count the words with a word counter.

3. Follow the guidelines set for each task because we (at least for me) don’t like to deny updates. We (at least for me again) want you to get that TPE.

4. Mention who is claiming the podcast with you (host) so we know not to deny that random person claiming it.

5. Don’t bug updaters about when your update will be accepted. In general it will be within 48 hours. Don’t bother them until at least after that point.

6. If you are uncertain how to claim something, ask an updater.

 

There it is. I know many of you do all this but it’s a gentle reminder. If you follow this, you might be able to get your TPE faster and not be on an updaters bad list. Most importantly, makes updating a lot smoother. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m nagging but I just want to help get to everyone out there that might be new to TPE sim leagues on how to claim. To those wondering how to link your own post, I have a few pictures below to show you how to.

 

First step: On the top right-hand corner, you have these 3 cute dots. Click on it and the dots are ticklish so a pop-up will be shown with maybe a bit more options since it’s your own post. But as you can see, this is not my post because I’m not a commish.

 

 

Second step: After clicking on the share prompt, select and copy the link. Then use it to claim! Easy as 123. #chicat

 

Thanks fellow updaters for your help and ideas, let’s keep this queue at 0!

1415 words, claiming for week ending 17/1, 24/1

Edited January 8, 2021 by Blazzer

[Gustav 6,262]

I like to do my part in keeping the updater job worth the pay by claiming 10 uncapped for the Gustav Improvement Fund every week.

[hylands 841]

thank you for shouting out 3 Podcasts Playing at Once

[MexicanCow123 901]

 

AMEN 

[Beketov 8,819]

Additional one that keeps happening no matter how much we mention it:

 

If something says “use this post to claim X TPE” or whatever, usually stuff the league is giving you, you DO NOT need to post “claiming X” or whatever and link to that. I know that seems backwards with the advice about press conferences but that’s work you specifically need to put in. If we are just giving something to everyone or to a list of people that have been tagged the OP is actually better to link to because updaters can quickly see what it is and that the person claiming it is, or isn’t, supposed to get it. If you link to your comment they need to dig back and confirm that you’re actually supposed to have it; which is made even more difficult when there are multiple pages of claiming spam.

 

So please don’t spam when we’re trying to give you stuff.

[Blazzer 759]

57 minutes ago, Beketov said:

Additional one that keeps happening no matter how much we mention it:

 

If something says “use this post to claim X TPE” or whatever, usually stuff the league is giving you, you DO NOT need to post “claiming X” or whatever and link to that. I know that seems backwards with the advice about press conferences but that’s work you specifically need to put in. If we are just giving something to everyone or to a list of people that have been tagged the OP is actually better to link to because updaters can quickly see what it is and that the person claiming it is, or isn’t, supposed to get it. If you link to your comment they need to dig back and confirm that you’re actually supposed to have it; which is made even more difficult when there are multiple pages of claiming spam.

 

So please don’t spam when we’re trying to give you stuff.

I don't know how many people will see this but thanks for adding this

[Juice 641]

17 hours ago, Blazzer said:

Consequences of bugging us include:

1. Deletion of your player

2. Denying your updates

 

[Blazzer 759]

Claiming week 1/2

[Blazzer 759]

Claiming week 2/2