Articles not being approved

[Ran D. St. Clair]

I am communicating here because no one is responding to my article submissions or the communication interface within the article submissions app.

I have 2 articles pending approval, one for a couple of weeks now. Either the system for requesting approvals is broken or no one is paying attention.

I suppose I can appreciate the need to approve articles to prevent something family unfriendly from getting through, though there is nothing similar to prevent forum posts from getting through. When it happens, hopefully rarely, they can be deleted by the moderators after the fact. Frankly, I suggest you eliminate the pre-approval process. It is just one more barrier to communication, and the buggy nature of the article entry interface is enough of a barrier already.

Ran D. St. Clair

 

[flitetest]

Hey Ran D.

I am sending your inquiry off to our moderator my friend! Hopefully we can get this resolved shortly!

Also thanks so much for posting and doing everything you do for the community! Love what you do and was a pleasure meeting you at FF WEST earlier this year!

Hope all is well and I look forward to more of your stuff!

Blessing,
Stefan

 

[Hai-Lee]

I submitted an article for approval a fair while ago now and it was eventually rejected. The reasons given for the rejection were quite fair but unknown to me prior to the initial submission.

You need to understand firstly there is no mechanism in place to support articles generated outside of the FT crew so all documentation INCLUDING videos must be provided before the article can even be assessed for suitability to be included in the articles section.

FT does not normally test build, Validate, or verify articles submitted as it is not cost effective, and the inclusion of "Third party" articles to the section is more of an ability than a service. If your article is not in the best interests of Flite Test or directs readers to the services of other competitor organisations it may not be in the best interests of FT to post the article in the Articles section.

Finally the last thing the Articles section needs to be is a section with hundreds of Articles on building the same aircraft using a myriad of, different materials, methods and sizes. So to give balance consideration must also be given overall balance of topics with the section.

Perhaps you might consider that with Flite Fest happening recently the resources of the FT crew have been stretched to the max and their attentions have been directed elsewhere. I am sure that things will return to normal soon and your article assessment will be finalized and the result forwarded to you.

Should there be enough interested parties in a particular topic or design then they could collaborate in constructing an article for consideration and possible inclusion in the Articles section in the future.

Have fun!

 

[Ran D. St. Clair]

I submitted an article for approval a fair while ago now and it was eventually rejected. The reasons given for the rejection were quite fair but unknown to me prior to the initial submission.

You need to understand firstly there is no mechanism in place to support articles generated outside of the FT crew so all documentation INCLUDING videos must be provided before the article can even be assessed for suitability to be included in the articles section.

FT does not normally test build, Validate, or verify articles submitted as it is not cost effective, and the inclusion of "Third party" articles to the section is more of an ability than a service. If your article is not in the best interests of Flite Test or directs readers to the services of other competitor organisations it may not be in the best interests of FT to post the article in the Articles section.

Finally the last thing the Articles section needs to be is a section with hundreds of Articles on building the same aircraft using a myriad of, different materials, methods and sizes. So to give balance consideration must also be given overall balance of topics with the section.

Perhaps you might consider that with Flite Fest happening recently the resources of the FT crew have been stretched to the max and their attentions have been directed elsewhere. I am sure that things will return to normal soon and your article assessment will be finalized and the result forwarded to you.

Should there be enough interested parties in a particular topic or design then they could collaborate in constructing an article for consideration and possible inclusion in the Articles section in the future.

Have fun!

You make some valid points, but I have to ask. Who are you in relation to the Flite Test Team, and do you speak for them in any way? Are you a moderator of some sort or is this just your opinion?

There is no mechanism to generate articles outside of the Flite Test crew? That doesn't sound right. Going back to the days of Chad Capper (forgive me if I misspelled the name) the intent was stated as a peer to peer channel to Elevate, and Educate. There was a 3rd E that I can't recall right now, Entertain maybe.

My articles happen to be very supportive of Flite Fest as a business and are designed around the products they sell, so I doubt that is an issue. My articles are also meant to be educational so that is also not likely an issue. My articles are also complete and ready to publish, though I will admit, they are just introductions with a link to the full article in a Dropbox account. I have found this technique necessary because the article entry interface is too buggy to handle articles of the complexity that I write.

I was unaware that there was a strong commercial component to the articles section. I assumed that it was similar to the forum in that all family friendly and respectful articles were welcome. I hope they are not filtering for other criteria as that would not be in the spirit of Flite Test. Content is the life blood of Flite Test and to choke off free content and customer feedback would be a bad idea IMHO.

Yes, I am aware of Flite Fest East, followed by Oshkosh. I am also aware that Flite Test is a business that has to function continuously despite these predictable events.

I am still eagerly awaiting some official Flite Test feedback.

 

[Ran D. St. Clair]

I see lots of new articles have been approved. It looks like there was quite a backlog. The immediate problem is solved.

 

[Hai-Lee]

If I have offended you I apologize as this was not my intent. I had intended to assist you with the emotional aspects of not being in receipt of a response to your submission. Call it MORAL support though it might have been misinterpreted!

As for my connection to Flite Test it is not official nor sanctioned but only as a very interested and dedicated supporter of their unique values and services which are as inclusive of everyone possible.

The commercial aspect appears to me that is not promoting their own interests but rather not promoting the commercial interests of others over their own.

As for my reference to the lack of article writing support outside of the FT crew is a reference to the general community of Third party article writers and not any reflection upon Flite test themselves.

Again I am sorry that you are upset by my responding on a public forum to your public post of your issues with the FT crew response to your submitted article. I do hope it goes well for you!

Above everything else please remember-

Have fun!

 

[Ran D. St. Clair]

If I have offended you I apologize as this was not my intent. I had intended to assist you with the emotional aspects of not being in receipt of a response to your submission. Call it MORAL support though it might have been misinterpreted!

As for my connection to Flite Test it is not official nor sanctioned but only as a very interested and dedicated supporter of their unique values and services which are as inclusive of everyone possible.

The commercial aspect appears to me that is not promoting their own interests but rather not promoting the commercial interests of others over their own.

As for my reference to the lack of article writing support outside of the FT crew is a reference to the general community of Third party article writers and not any reflection upon Flite test themselves.

Again I am sorry that you are upset by my responding on a public forum to your public post of your issues with the FT crew response to your submitted article. I do hope it goes well for you!

Above everything else please remember-

Have fun!

No offense taken and no upset. There was a slight problem with a backlog of articles and the problem is now solved, at least for the moment.

I think you are selling the community of article contributors a bit short. Articles can be at all levels of polish, and different people will find different things helpful or interesting. We should not be too quick to enforce "standards" lest we prevent communication and learning opportunities. This is a hobby after all.

Best wishes to one and all.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Point taken and understood, though in future a PM to a moderator rather than a Public Post about your problems with FT may get more direct response and the answers you were seeking from the "Horses Mouth".

Have fun!

 

[CrashRecovery]

Here is the low down on the articles. Fred AKA Flying Monkey is in charge of the non flite test articles. He has a pretty demanding full time job as a Park Ranger in Florida. Not only does he pretty much run the park day to day he also has to schedule volunteers there, schedule off site presentations and the real big one is working as a first line supervisor for forest fire crews in his area. Fred wears so many hats I think they would be taller than Marge Simpsons hair. Things can get backlogged at times but please be kind to the Monkey..... He might throw poop at you.... I am kidding of course but give Fred some wiggle room when it comes to articles. He might not post much in the forums anymore but he's still around.