Sam_Protagonist
As many of you have already noticed there have been some unusual levels of moderation activity lately, and subsequent to the recent change in moderation policy there are some additional issues with the moderation system at present that we're working to resolve.
To begin this overview of how moderation works and what you can do to avoid your level being blocked here's how the system is designed to operate :
When a "Good Grief" report is filed through the game the level in question, its comments and associated screenshots are placed into a queue to be checked over by the moderation teams at SCE. These teams are located around the world and the moderation queue is checked around the clock to ensure that levels which should be removed from visibility are dealt with as quickly as possible. It is a common misconception that issuing a Good Grief report automatically blocks a level from being viewed, and this is not the case. The only time a level becomes unavailable is when it has been blocked by a moderator.
The tool used to check levels provides moderators with an exploded view of the level and all the parts used to make it up, including screenshots that were sent with the moderation report. This tool is designed to differentiate between how the level was when it was loaded and what happened during play - so if an antisocial user were to play an inappropriate sticker in your level before reporting it the sticker would show up, but would be associated with the player who placed it, not the level creator.
The same is true of comments and screenshots posted at the beginning of the level - these are associated with whoever placed them, not the original creator.
In the event that a level is moderated the creator will receive a message stating that the level has been blocked, preventing it from being seen by other users - at no point is a level removed from the servers, even if it has been moderated. In the event that the moderated level gives away prizes that can be reused by other creators, or the level itself is copiable, all of the levels using the original content are automatically moderated. This is the area that catches most unsuspecting creators out, and the message received following automatic moderation states that it is due to an item used in the level design rather than the level itself.
It's a straightforward system, and in almost all cases works exactly as intended catching only the levels that should be removed from the game, however as with everything else human error does occur and there have been a couple of incidents in the past of this having happened which have since been cleaned up.
At present, however, some outstanding levels which have been moderated are being investigated again as there are inconsistencies that have shown up in the past couple of weeks. This doesn't mean that if your level has been moderated lately it'll definitely return, neither does it means that there was definitely an issue of some kind, this is purely part of the ongoing process to ensure that the system is working as intended.
That said, if you've had a level moderated since the start of December and you honestly believe it was mistakenly blocked please PM me here with your PSN ID and the title of the level, and it'll be added to the list of levels being double checked.
We're working on making the moderation system more transparent so that the concerns that have been raised lately can be addressed, and in the coming weeks there will be more on this subject, starting with some guidelines on what "grey area" content would warrant a level being moderated; as the game has to be suitable for users aged 7 and above there are limits on how scarey or violent the level can be, and it may be that some acts of moderation have occurred out of levels straying over this line.
I realise that the lack of clarity in this area doesn't help, but improvements are coming.
