GameCyte

As you probably already know, I love LittleBigPlanet, but I hate the way Sony has treated the user content post launch. Moderations are still being handed out left and right for no particular reason (in some cases), and no one knows what’s going on. Thankfully, in a new weekly LBP Q&A posted on the PlayStation Blog, Sony has basically gone and told LBP players that they’re looking into changing the system to better it. Slightly.

Said “Sam_Protagonist,” global community manager for LBP:

The level moderation process is something we’re continually improving. The small percentage of levels moderated have been done so after the community has reported them using the Good Grief tool. We never moderate levels that have not been reported in this way. The vast majority of moderated levels were due to offensive material, however we are evolving the way moderation happens to ensure that creators are made aware of why their level was blocked. More to come shortly.

The sooner the system evolves to include reasons for moderations, the better. Several levels, such as Azure Palace, are still being deleted whenever they’re re-uploaded. No one knows why Azure Palace keeps being moderated, either – not even Sony. When the level’s creator sent a message to Sam asking if Sony could just tell him why his level has been taken down again, he got told "I'd like to be able to give that information out, but at present due to the way that moderation works it is not possible to do so. We know where all the issues are with the system and it is being resolved, hopefully with more news very soon."

I'm not quite sure if Sam's response means "We aren't allowed to tell you why at the moment" or the less likely but sort of fitting "Our system doesn't keep track of why at the moment," but either way it's clear that all the little SackBoys and SackGirls need a moderation overhaul pronto. Sam's comment about levels only being moderated after being reported using Good Grief also makes me think that mass reports are still leading to stop-gap level removals without investigation. I know it's not "official policy" and probably isn't true, but when levels are as popular and well-known as Azure Palace a group of trolls would have a field day getting it removed time and time again. Having played it multiple times, I can't think of any reason but false flagging that it would be removed again and again. And if enough trolls reported the level once it came back up...

Either that, or Sony is locking the level to prevent it from coming online so they can sell it over the PSN. I'm fine with either conspiracy theory, really.

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