Someone asked “What does it mean that my game is in the unprocessed directory?” And I realized, hey, this isn’t written down anywhere.
So I figure it should be.
NOTE: I intend to update this head post as our procedures evolve. Feel free to comment or ask questions in this thread, but remember that the info at the top will change.
Uploading
There are two web forms that allow you to upload a file to the IF Archive. They’re very similar.
- You can visit this page at ifarchive.org.
- You can upload from IFDB by selecting “Add a game listing” and then “Upload it to the IF Archive”. (If you take this path, you must also finish filling out the “Add a game listing” IFDB form and hit “Save”.)
Both forms ask for your name, email address, a description of the file, and a suggested directory to place it in. (That last is optional; don’t worry if you don’t know.) They also ask whether you’re uploading your own work, and to agree to the IF Archive terms of use.
What’s the difference between the two upload forms? They both do the same thing. The IFDB form is just a convenience you can use while adding a game listing. If you use that form, your upload is associated with the IFDB entry, which makes it easier to update the IFDB entry when the file is moved to its final home on the Archive.
Once you complete the form and hit “Upload File”, the page should respond “Thank You For Your Upload”. If it doesn’t, something went wrong.
(It should explain what went wrong, but, you know, not if something went wrong with the explain-what-went-wrong page. Could happen.)
Incoming files
Uploaded files are placed in a private directory called “incoming”. You can’t see the incoming directory. This is on purpose. We have to filter out spam, off-topic trash, and “whoops that was the wrong file here’s the right one.”
So a (human) moderator does that, and then moves the file to the unprocessed directory. At this point everybody can see it. (As you can tell from the fact that I put a link there.)
Historically, it took a few days for files to move from incoming to unprocessed. This is because there was just one or two people doing it. We are now bringing more volunteers on board.
I think we want a target of moving files to unprocessed within 24 hours. We’re not there yet. We’ll see if it’s reasonable.
Unprocessed files
The next step is more work. The file has to be moved to its final home – games/twine, for example. Also, we have to write the little blurb that says “Game Title, by Person”. With maybe an IFDB and/or IFWiki link.
Historically, this takes… however long it takes. A volunteer logs in occasionally and moves a bunch of files. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but over time it adds up to a lot of work. People do it when they have the energy.
We’d like this stage to be faster, but I don’t know what the reasonable goal looks like.
Once the file is moved, we email the uploader to say that it’s at its final home. (I think! I’m not actually sure if David Kinder did that for all files. It seems like a nice goal though.)
If the file was uploaded via IFDB, the IFDB entry should be automatically updated to refer to the new location.
Updating your upload
You can always upload a new version of your game. Mention that it is a new version, and what the new version number is (or whatever). Please also fill in the “suggested directory” to refer to where the old version of the file lives.
We won’t throw away the old version. It’ll be moved to an “old” subdirectory (like games/twine/old) so that future historians can do their jobs.