Friday Q&A

Questionable Administration

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to another edition of the Friday Q&A. Thanks for joining me again. Each week, I discuss whatever complex issues are currently facing our community, in simple terms that even my most ignorant readers can understand. Today, I'll be taking a look at the recent drought of theme contests. This post is not a repeat from 2007, 2008, or 2009.

Q: Why is it so hard to get a theme approved?

A: This is a question that I would really like to ask of Fark's administrators. It seems like every week, someone is complaining about the lack of themes in the Photoshop queue. Clearly, there is a portion of our community that favors that type of contest, and absolutely no shortage of theme submissions. Yet somehow, we're lucky to have one or two themes approved per week.

Q: How long has this been a problem?

A: Lack of themes in the queue is not exactly a cutting-edge topic. I've probably discussed that subject at least a dozen times by now. Except for a few brief interludes (often caused by a Zerg rush of theme submissions to the TotalFark queue) we've had to contend with this same problem for several years. Despite their popularity (amongst both PSers and fans), only a handful of themes are typically approved each month.

Q: How can we get more themes in the queue?

A: That's a question I'm afraid I can't answer. As previously stated, the only success we've had in the past was to submit massive amounts of themes, flooding the TotalFark queue and giving admins little option but to green at least some of them. However, last week that tactic fell short on multiple occasions. The interest is clearly still there, but for whatever reason the powers that be are only letting one or two through per week.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Sorry I can't offer more solutions to Theme Crisis 2010. Perhaps you can refer back to my suggestions from 2007, 2008, or 2009. A sizable percentage of PSers seem to prefer the more freestyle form of image mangling these contests provide. Despite previous flirtations with heavier theme approval, current administrative policy appears heavily biased towards "O" submissions. Hopefully Fark's management can be persuaded to give the voters and artists more of what they actually want.

Stay tuned for more faltering optimism from the Doctor!