Contribution Manual

Thank you for considering contributing to this knowledge base. Screen List is community supported, most of the information on the platform is submitted and edited by people like you. Read this manual before attempting to contribute to avoid running into easily avoidable troubles.

Just to quickly get started before you get bored of reading this completely necessary guide, here are bullet points of things you should internalise whenever contributing.

• Always contribute accurate information.
• A film is the root of everything on Screen List.
• Each person or company must be attached to at least a single film.
• All films must be South African or be international co-productions where a South African production company is involved.
• Avoid creating duplicate pages of people, companies or films by searching if they already exist.
• Film names must be in the title case whenever possible.
• Keep your reputation in check (this is critical, read the Reputation section in this manual).
• Read this manual! Seriously, bookmark it and revisit it from time to time.
• And remember to have fun!

Moderation

To ensure accuracy of the information submitted by users, every piece of it is moderated and approved. When you submit a new film, company or person the page status starts off as, ‘to be moderated.’ All pages that are not yet moderated are restricted from many of the platform’s surfaces, they are intentionally harder to discover unless you search for them or go to the user profile of the person who created them. Once a page’s status is ‘moderated’, it then becomes discoverable everywhere. If a user updates the information on a moderated page, its status turns ‘to be moderated’ until the updated information is approved by moderators. This system aims to limit the dissemination of inaccurate information.

Locked pages

Other than the moderation status labelling on pages there are also other systems in place to combat information inaccuracies. Pages that are filled with accurate information and have very little to no missing information may be locked by moderators. Locked pages cannot be edited by anyone, not even moderators. You cannot upload or remove photos related to a page that is locked. If information on a locked page becomes outdated, users can submit updated information to the moderators through a feedback box on the page. This is to protect mature pages from interference and vandalism.

Hidden pages

Lastly on information accuracy there are hidden pages. In our pursuit of information purity we must be pragmatic, sometimes some users may create new pages of films, companies or people that already exist on the platform either through ignorance or malice and others may intentionally create malicious pages. In both cases the moderators are able to hide a page. Hidden pages cannot be accessed by anyone except moderators. Moderators may decide to delete a hidden page or fix it, then unhide it.

Reputation

Reps are a measure of your contribution to the platform, it is important and it cannot be understated just how important it is to monitor them. Generally, all new accounts are given zero (0) Reps when created. And this is the critical moment (the reason why you should read this manual) where a user must decide whether they are going to be the antagonist or protagonist. Reps are volatile and it is important to always have a lot of them to shield yourself from the volatility. There are two numbers to remember, negative one hundred (-100) and one thousand (1000). These two numbers are powerful enough to determine what you can contribute, if at all.

1000 Reps

Accounts with less than 1000 Reps are restricted in what they can contribute, they cannot create new pages, upload or remove photos and add or remove roles of people or companies on a film. All they can do is edit what is already there, the details of films, companies and people as well as the attributions and descriptions of photos. This editing entails filling missing information or rectifying mistakes.

-100 Reps

Accounts with less than -100 Reps cannot contribute anything, it is effectively jail and the account is put on the moderators’ watch list. Moderators review the contribution history of an account that is put on the watch list, the account is blocked if it is found to be malicious and if the drop in Reps is not a result of prohibited actions, the account’s Reps will be reset to 0 Reps and it will be removed from the watch list. After all, there are second chances here on Screen List.

Algorithm

Whenever a page is moderated, there’s an algorithm that assigns Reps to contributors, depending on the quality and accuracy of your contributions you will get a score that will be added to your existing Reps. This is what makes Reps volatile, bad deeds are punished and good deeds are rewarded. To stay on the good side of the algorithm is to contribute accurate information. And remember, if you see your Reps decreasing when you know very well you did everything correctly you should not worry about the consequences of hitting below -100 Reps because the moderators will be there for you.

Contribution quota

As robust as the reputation system is, it does not solve spam or malicious intent and that is why we have the quota system. Basic accounts whose users are not verified by administrators to be real people who can be held accountable in the real world for their actions on this platform are subjected to daily contribution quotas. By design most accounts will be subject to this quota system and one will know if it applies to their account when a circular usage percentage counter appears on the button left of their screen at all times when they are logged in.

How quota works

Within a 24 hour period, accounts that are subject to the contribution quota system can only contribute 15 times. It automatically resets as time elapses. Although it might be limiting to eager good contributors, it is important to remember that not everyone shares our good intentions. On the bright if one is able to consistently contribute good accurate information to the maximum of their 24 hour quota all the time until they increase their reputation to 1000 Reps, the moderators will take note of this and invite the user to go through the verification system after which they will no longer be subject to quotas. This process may be automated in the future for everyone’s convenience.

Thank you!

The measures and guidelines outlined in this document may seem to be stringent and dissuade contributors but it is important to remember the knowledge on this platform has real consequences, accuracy is paramount.

Again, thank you for contributing! South African cinema needs you.