User blog:Leolab/Update to Battle Reservation Policy: Expiration Dates

{{Leolab|Well, after languishing for a month on the Officer's Pub, this proposal is now up for User Review.

The Proposal
Set an expiration date on battle reservations.

Purpose
We all love to reserve our battle ideas, but sometimes it can get out of hand. Some people reserve ‘em, but then go inactive or worse, semi-active. Some, who I term “battle mills,” reserve all the ideas they have, and do so many that they have to auction some off. This includes battles reserved in areas other than the reservation hub, such as Userpages or blogs. Note that this only applies to having a battle in reserve - once the blog is up, you're good.

The two types mentioned above are the ones I specifically want to curtail. Not the authors who try to put time and effort into making and writing a good battle, and so have a slow pace. It’s the people who reserve battle ideas but are only active once in a blue moon, preventing others from doing them; the people who put quantity ahead of quality, and have written almost as many or more battles in their few months on this site as I have in my three years here that need limiting.

Time Period
As for how long the expiration is, it will be set at a year and a half – 18 months. In all honesty, the only reason people should be planning things farther in advance than that is if they were doing something huge, like my siege tourney. Anything else is just being greedy.

A time limit for collaborative battles, where two or more users are making a battle together, will be set at two years.

Aside
First, I’d just like to clear up a bit of terminology I’m going to use in the next few paragraphs. When I refer to something as a “project,” I’m talking about something that has a very clear, defined theme. Something like CvA, Marvel vs DC, or the Console Wars. “Seasons” are not projects, nor are general things such as “reality battles” or “real vs. fiction”.

I’d also like to reference one specific moment from chat yesterday when I brought this up while I was at work – a moment which I think exemplifies my point exactly. One user (who shall remain unnamed) said that they had battles planned for over a year in advance, using their usual voting period of one week as a reason that it would take that long. This entails that they have over 52 battles planned, as of now. To be quite frank, that’s far too much for a single user, especially since none of that is part of a project.

Exceptions
Now, large projects can and should be given exceptions, such as Pach’s CvA: Midnight Carnival. Other exceptions could be made for things that will come out in more than a year or two – for example, if someone had reserved a fight with Aiden Pearce the instant they heard about Watch_Dogs at E3 last year, they would be given an extension since it doesn’t come out until November; if you want my honest opinion, though, I think reserving fights when you know very little about a warrior is a horrible idea.

Users can also apply for exceptions for individual battles in the forums. Should this go through, I will create a new section in the forums for such requests and am willing to go through the requests myself. Requests for exceptions should be accompanied by a reason why; guidelines would be set in a thread.

Cleanup
The Reservation Hub will also be periodically cleaned up by staff to make this easier for us. If a user wishes to assist, they are more than welcome.

Summary

 * Proposal to set an expiration date on battle reservations
 * Expiration time suggested at 18 months or 2 years; willing to take other suggestions.
 * Exceptions will be granted for projects, as defined above, and on a case-by-case basis

So, comments, questions, concerns, etc.?

And one thing, completely unrelated – have all the previous motions been hardcoded into out policies? If not, that needs to be done.}}