Revamp process for requesting mainsite submission removals

[VinnyVideo]

Currently, the process for requesting mainsite submission removals isn't terrible, but it is a bit clunky.

As a submitter, if you want a submission removed, you click the "Request Removal" button from the submission view. Once a mainsite QC staffer approves your removal request, the submission will no longer be accessible on the site. This process requires a manual approval to make sure your request is legit, just in case a malicious user hacked your account or something.

Once the submission is removed, the system automatically deletes the database entry, making it very hard to restore your submission if you change your mind. Yet the file itself isn't always removed, resulting in ghost files cluttering up the system.

Here's an alternative workflow to consider.

1. User clicks "Remove Submission" button.
2. Submission is marked as "Removed by user" in database, making it no longer visible when you click on the submission page or run a search.
3. Site staff receives a notification (no action required) that a user removed a submission.
4. Submission's database entry and file are purged after a certain amount of time (maybe a year?)

This delivers quicker results for submitters, less work for site staff, and improved ability to restore a submission if someone changes their mind.

A similar process could potentially be used for declined submissions - site staff could view declined submissions for a certain amount of time.

[luckygames]

While it's a good idea to store deleted posts for a year, this could lead to a buildup of requests and become cumbersome. Although not deleting them for a period of time allows users to recover their deleted data, it would require storing a lot of data simultaneously, which could be a bit of a hassle. The best solution would be a retention period of one or two weeks or a warning like "This cannot be recovered. Do you want to continue?" before deleting anything, thus avoiding problems. This is just my opinion, as I'm not an expert in this area.

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[VinnyVideo]

@luckygames Space shouldn't be an issue with this plan. The database entries themselves take up a trivial amount of space. Game files can be fairly large, but we don't currently have an automated way to delete game files that have been removed.

We'd want to set up a script that runs periodically (maybe every month?) to purge the database entries and files for submissions that have been deleted.

Course clear! You got a card.

[luckygames]

Ah well, if space isn't the problem, then great, right? But maybe it's true that having to delete things manually can take up valuable time that could be used for other more important or worthwhile matters, after all, instead of reading things that I suppose if they want to delete them it's (at least from hacking) because they don't want them. But anyway, everyone has their own opinion!

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