Auto-return submissions after a period of inactivity (no editorial approval / rejection, review)#152

After, for example, 2 months of inactivity, as in no approval or rejection, or approval but no review, a submition could be returned to the writer for resubmition.
This will prevent writers from chasing the editorial team, and will also limit any backlog to whatever given period chosen.

Not sure about this… many writers submit an article or two and then just abandon the site. Many would not think to resubmit an article. Even active writers might not notice the “return” email. I’d hate to see a good place get effectively rejected just because it was at the end of a long backlog. And I don’t know how the Places team reviews articles, but having them come in and out of the queue like that would likely complicate tracking things for them. Especially considering things are not always published in the order they are received.

Thanks for this feedback @Adam and @Mikewalker . We definitely recognize an issue with the growing backlog of submissions and hope to address the main issues with that process. A resubmit feature could be a good stopgap solution for regular contributors but we definitely want to consider the submission process for new writers too.

Also noting it’s similar to this suggestion: https://atlas-obscura-digital-product.nolt.io/17 to allow writers to request an update on their submission. The main issue being that submissions can slip through the cracks / take a while to be reviewed in our current process.

Yea that’s why I’d make an auto rejection, maybe also blouncu it to the top of their added or whatever to make it clear that it is back. But in the end it’s up to the user to check I would say.

Also maybe too similar to make a new suggestion, but is there a way to give it a queue? ‘Like you are number 201’ and it has to be wooted or returned by the staff when it is at 0. Same for editing.

But maybe that is too restrictive for the writers? In that case id opt for auto rejection.

Yes, the backlog is too big and the editors will never catch up. Better to kill it sand start again.

I’ve suggested deputizing volunteers to help with the backlog before. Nothing ever came of it. Perhaps it should come with a caveat that you can’t promote your own entries.

I would be strongly for this, mainly because the amount of submissions is clearly too much to handle for the team and the majority just get lost for ever. If you bounce them, then they get a chance to be reconsidered again.

I think that making it active (rather than passive like a button) is instrumental to help the process actually improve.

Just wondering if this is being considered, I still believe that it would he a good move