Questions about the Moderation Queue

[James Carnarvon]

Hi there,

Firstly, I'm very grateful to GA for providing somewhere for aspiring authors like me to share and promote our stories. It feels like a great service to the community. As a new member of the site, I  totally get why my story chapters have to go through a moderation queue - it seems like a very sensible precaution. I've also worked on community web sites myself, so I've no doubt that the moderator(s) here are fitting their duties into small gaps in otherwise busy lives. As such, please don't take the following as a complaint in any way. It's just a friendly question.

The first three chapters of my story were approved pretty quickly - overnight, in fact (probably because I'm in a European time zone), but the fourth chapter has been awaiting approval for most of a day, and I haven't received any messages to suggest that there is a problem with the content. I see from your FAQs that the moderation queue is typically checked once a day, so I guess I just missed the window yesterday by posting late - either that or the mod(s) didn't have the time to get through everything.

Here's my dilemma: I am due to go away next weekend (I will still be able to use the site while I'm away, but I won't have access to my PC with my Word document on it), and I realised yesterday that, if I don't keep posting at a rate of one new chapter every day, the last chapter(s) of my story may be delayed by over a week. Knowing how my story plays out at the end, I think this would be... unfortunate... for my readers!

So, with that in mind, here are my questions...

• If I still have content pending approval, is it okay to keep submitting new chapters at a rate of one per day?
• If we do fall behind, can I submit the last chapter(s) as a single batch, with a spread of publication dates so that they can keep being published at a rate of one a day after I have gone on holiday?

EDIT: Could a third option be for me to upload the extra chapters in advance but leave them unpublished, then request publication at a rate of one a day - something I could do while I'm away?

Many thanks!

Edited August 2, 2019 by James Carnarvon

[Cia]

Sorry, James, I answered your PM as well, but I wanted to put this information here for you and others. Yes, if I miss the 24 hour window to moderate a chapter, authors can always PM me and that is just fine. Sometimes there's a moderation hang-up with the team reviewing a story or chapter, and sometimes I've just had something delay me. 

I typically ask that authors don't post a bunch of chapters live because I've had issues missing which chapter was the latest one posted to the queue and approved, say, chapter 5 instead of chapter 3. 

If you are familiar with posting and not having issues with your chapters being moderated for corrections, which you haven't been, you can use the post-dating system if you have multiple chapters ready to post. This allows you to post chapters, change the date and time (always do at least 24 hours later for the first one, or arrange with post-dating of several chapters with me first so I don't mess up your posting schedule with a missed approval) in the post-dating section at the bottom of the chapter rather than have the chapter post-immediately. As long as the chapters are spaced following GA rules (at least 8 hours apart, no more than 2 per day) then I can approve more than one chapter at a time. 

More exact instructions are in the FAQ on the post-dating system through the Help tab. 

I hope that helps!! 

[James Carnarvon]

Very helpful Cia, both by PM and here, thank you!