Dear team of GTru, dear fellow uploaders, dear leechers and lurkers,
since a few days I am in a personal conversation with a Moderator of GTru. This conversation is very civilized but the issue we are talking about is not a plesant one - at least in my opinion. This is the reason I post here to find out if it is just me of if other people may share my opinion.
Before the discussion I want to give a short overview about the goings:
When I first uploaded I could't find any information about how long it would take for torrents to get approved.
So for my first torrent I waited for about three hours and everything was fine.
My second torrent only took 25 minutes.
My third torrent did not get approved. 24 hours later I PMd a Mod and got the message that I have too many other torrents active to get approval. Maybe the information, that I will find the number of active torrents I am supposed to have, when uploading a new torrent, by clicking on my username top left can be found somewhere - I just have never seen it. So I would have appreciated a message of some kind instead of just letting me wait until my impatience would drive me getting active after 24 hours. But anyway - I was aware it was my fault as I did something wrong.
My fourth torrent took 3.5 hours when I got the approval message. But it was not there - I couldn't see it. So again I PMd a Mod and found out that it has been moved to another category. Again my fault - I did look in the wrong place.
My fifth torrent took 45 minutes.
My sixth torrent took 8 minutes.
My seventh torrent took 6 minutes.
My eigth torrent took a bit less than two hours.
My ninth torrent was not approved after 1.5 hours - so I suspected myself to have done anything wrong again an PMd Brandon. It turned out that I did do everything right - just no Mod has had time.
By this time I had become somewhat irritated. What of a time would be normal to wait for approval - my experience went from 6 minutes to 24 hours, by clearly tending to less than an hour. From when on, the probability that it would hang for my own mistakes would be high?
So - after having searched the forums - I asked the Mod how long of a waiting time would be normal.
I got the advice to PM an online Mod after one hour of waiting time to ask for approval. I was very grateful because that sounded like a clear guideline.
From there on after 1.5 to 2 hours I PMd a Mod and everything was fine. Just that I used the ones in the forums instead of the staff list - my fault again. Nevertheless it went well for a few times.
But then - with my last torrent after 1.5 or 2 hours (I dont exacly remember this time span) I wrote one but nothing happend - the mod went offline again, then I wrote to another one - same game. Then - meanwhile after 4 hours I wrote a third PM - and this time I luckily found an approval Mod despite still bothering the forum mods.
This was the pre-story.
[box title=Statement:] I have made a lot of mistakes, sometimes due to my own fault, in other aspects I feel underinformed, in other aspects the information was present somewhere and I just missed it - what can be considered my fault again - although I feel it could have been presented in a more obvious place. Definately after 10 torrents uploaded I feel as unconfident as in the beginning. After an hour of waiting time I start checking everything in utorrent, on the site, with the torrent, checking PMs if there might be a message about anything that went wrong. [/box]
Then I got a message not to spam Mods with PMs assuring me that this will never speed up the process.
As I did nothing what I have not been told to do I was a bit upset and so a discussion went on.
After a few ups and downs I was finally told that I would have to wait how long it ever would take and stop trying to do anything to speed up the process (underlined by a quote from the upload guidelies). It was written in a very polite way and not offending at all but the message still was: Just shut up, wait and don't bother us.
And also I was told that the one MOd who told me to PM after an hour would be trying to be helpful to everyone…
To me this implied, that the others might see that differently.
Which left me very disappointed, seen that GTru lives from uploaders and their efforts. Without uploaders soon there would be probably not much left to moderate.
To me it seems worth considering if the "one-hour-PM"-Mod might be the one with the right attitude towards us uploaders.
[box title=I am very well aware of the following facts:]
All Staff does what they do in their spare time, out of enthusiasm, without getting payment.
If you do a Mod or Admin job right, its whole lot of work.
Despite their effort it may still happen that they are not treated well by users.
Everything they do is taken for granted.
This site can not live without the staffs enthusiasm.[/box]
[box title=But there are also these facts:]
That this site can not live without the uploaders.
Uploading much and frequently, preparing good well illustrated torrents is a lot of work as well.
Many uploaders do it out of enthusiasm and not for leeching benefits.
I am sure many uploaders would on request be willing to help the staff in various means.[/box]
Both groups have chosen what they do voluntarily. An uploader is supposed to upload (obviously). And the staff is supposed to help. These are the roles.
So what's wrong in "trying to help everyone"? What would have been wrong in telling something like "We are trying to approve as quickly as possible and if someone PMs after X hours waiting time it would be ok" instead of "Just wait etc" (like quoted above)?
At least my enthusiasm has suffered a severe drawback I must admit. Its not any more the fun it was before.
I am really considering just to download what I want and to upload whats necessary for my ratio.
I would like to hear everyones opinion who would be interested to take part in this discussion.
Best regards
PS: I have tried to tell the story as impartial as I could. Should anyone of the persons involved see it differently please correct me.
PPS: Excuse my long posting