I know you don't like autosubmitters...

[RobUK]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

I have a bot that does some of the total grunt work for me. I added it when I got tired of getting every virus, worm, and crappy piece of spyware tossed at my system.

I sympathise. I spend a lot of time each week taking crap like that off end-users' systems. The shit is everywhere :-(

Originally Posted by RawAlex

However, that doesn't negate the requirement to check (and re-check) each and every remaining submission by hand.

I just bet. I can't see any conventional software ever being up to that job. Hmmm, I wonder if some kind of weak AI might be a possibility though? Not my field, of course, but maybe something "trainable" - a bit like a neural network?

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Most common mistakes?... crappy wallpaper

Particularly Russian wallpaper?

Seriously, though, do you think these errors count as genuine mistakes, or are folks just trying to beat the system and gain an advantage? If the latter then there's nothing to be done but keep weeding them out. But if they're genuine errors then there might be some possibilities. What if there existed some kind of pre-upload site checking utility? Something akin to a link checker / HTML validator that would point out obvious flaws, much as a LL's bot does?

If such existed (maybe it already exists?), it might save work for the LLs AND the submitters in that the biggest clangers could be fixed before the site was even submitted? I suspect it would probably help newbies like me more than experienced submitters, but then I'd guess that you don't have much difficulty with submissions from experienced submitters anyway. Just thinking aloud - feel free to point out that I'm talking crap again

Rob