On a Report Retiring Spree

So...I've gone through all the open breeding reports tonight, and one of the thing that I'm seeing as a report reviewer is that there is TONS of outstanding reports...but most of them are shaded "pink".
 
As a reviewer, "PINK" means "ignore".  It means that a report has been flagged with a request for an update or change from the report author.  Our "to do list" as such, looks huge, and daunting, but it's actually overwhelmingly PINK!
 
As a reviewer, we're given the power to "retire" reports that are more than 6 months old from the original date of submission. I'm taking the initiative to go through the "pink list" this evening, and by and large I am retiring these reports, as MOST have been PINK since 2013!  

As a reviewer, we work really hard to go through the data that's submitted, so please, to all my fellow MBI participants, do us the courtesy of being careful when you first submit your report, but also following up and seeing a report through to completion.  All members who work as reviewers are volunteers with thankless jobs....the least you can do is show your appreciation for our efforts by committing to seeing YOUR hard work approved and added to the MBI database.  It's sad for me to be throwing away half-completed reports on things like rare Stenopus species or Dragonets simply because the MBI participant failed, in 1.5 years, to provide necessary corrections or information.  The reporter loses the credit and points, the reviewer wastes his/her time, and the MBI's database is a little less robust.
 
If you are the owner of any of these PINK reports that somehow don't get retired tonight, it's either because your report was too new, or I've seen hope yet for you to correct it.  I've even "unlocked" a handful of these flagged reports to encourage OTHER reviewers, who have been ignoring them, to take another look.  If you got deleted?  Well...I'm sick of looking at all that PINK on my "report reviewer to-do" list! 

Update - I'm now hitting some reports that are as old as 2011!  To say we gave you all fair warning is putting it mildly  Sadly we're retiring unfinished reports for things like Liopropoma carmabi, Hector's goby....really good things to have had in our Database.

It is amazing to see how many reports seem to be just abandoned. These are events possibly well worth the report but just need more information or clerification of details.

Thanks for doing this, Matt. I've been wanting to do it for a while but have hesitated. 

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I'll take the knock on my reputation LOL...I'm a mean ahole.

In the same spirit we have a couple that have two denied votes for reasons clearly determined, is it time to finalize the deny on those reports?

Mark it down folks, 1/20/15 at 10:45pm Central time, stuffs gettin done!

 
Generally, if something was denyed it was basically a very strong message to delete it (eg. a duplicate, clearly something fundamentally wrong that couldn't be corrected like the species it was filed under).  We can't retire a report until it's at least 6 months old, so yes, you can certainly vote to deny on those if you haven't already and they'll be dealt with.

 

Mark it down folks - first time in ages I've had ANY free time AND been ahead on all my work.  Except I am effectively avoiding cleaning the fishroom to do this instead. 

Someone else is going to have to look at the culture reports...I'm beat tonight!

Someone else is going to have to look at the culture reports...I'm beat tonight!

You guys certainly have more patience than I!  I am a paperwork wench though, I would have retired those reports on the 6 month and 1 day.  :lol:
 
Good job guys!  I haven't submitted a report in awhile (sigh), but I certainly appreciate what you guys do!

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

thanks God, and thank you Matt!
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

Wow, I didn't realize so many people just left their reports hanging and never tried to update it complete them. I would never have a problem with someone closing out an incomplete report of mine if I failed to respond for 6+ months!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken

 
There have been times where I wonder if people are simply not getting any sort of notification that there was a pending request...that might explain some.  Others seem to be instances where people got frustrated with the process and abandoned ship.  Back when we started, reviewers couldn't edit ANYTHING.  Thanks to some updates, reviewers can now make changes in reports, and those changes are tracked in the system as well.  So this allows us to fix minor things...like if someone input 80 for a temperature but didn't select F vs. C.  Or if we can clearly see that something was copied over from the journal but was truncated.  Still, we cannot update JOURNAL entries, which means the original poster is the only one who can fix their own mistakes.  This is further compounded by the fact that the review process takes TIME, and that there may be repeated requests (eg. I might find some problems but miss something, and then someone else comes along and finds another problem after the last ones were fixed).  

In the end, the first report is always the hardest, and it's important to remember that the reviewers even hold each other to the same standards (eg. in my last big push, I flagged both reports by KathyL and Mdoty...two fellow reviewers.  No reviewer is "above the review board").

I've found the best advice I can give is to be careful, thorough, and patient with the process.

 

I will admit that the large number of pink reports was a very discouraging factor, as a report reviewer.

I am very mistake prone….
 

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

You guys are on a roll! Many thanks to all for your time & efforts to review our (often flawed) reports & journals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ken