Freesound Forums

I uploaded my first sound today... and found out all files are moderated... how long does moderation usually take???

Hey there

The moderation process doesn't have an exact amount of time, but statistically it's somewhere between 24-48 hours. We do try our best to get sounds through the system as quick as possible and for the wait time to be minimal.

You may not know, but moderators are doing it on a voluntary basis, which means that the amount of sounds that get moderated per day is dependant on how many active mods there are. Since mods have lives and their own personal agenda just as much as you, it is unlikely for all mods to be working at the same time, therefore it varies when your upload(s) will be approved.

The speed in which your uploads will be passed will depend on the following:

- How many sounds are in the moderation queue.
- Amount of mods active and their current workload (some users have hundreds of sounds in a pack).
- Problems or failures encountered in the processing stage. (corrupt/unsupported file type)
- The state of your sound: perhaps a mod dealing with your uploads may have contacted you, and is awaiting a reply about description, legality etc.

As we are only human, of course there may be other slight factors which could delay your sound being moderated. But just so you are aware, we all care about making moderation as swift as we can, yet it can sometimes be a meticulous process, making sure each and every sound that passes through the system follows the rules and guidelines, sometimes it's a lot of sounds.

I hope this shed some light on the uncertainty.

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NOTE:
It is now possible to check the ticket of your sounds awaiting moderation. This is useful to see if a moderator has tried to make communication about your upload and is waiting a reply, that is if you have missed the e-mail.

To check tickets for sounds awaiting moderation go here: http://freesound.org/home/pending

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Appendix: A tip for everyone.

If you want your sounds to get through moderation as quick as possible without problems, describe well with enough detail about how the sound was made, where it came from, what it could be used for, etc. Note that we may ask you if it's possible to describe the sound in English, so for safe measure, enter the text in the English language.

Make sure it is tagged appropriately, if you are stuck for ideas on tagging, check the tags page to see if your sound fits the description of a few, or rely on automatic tag suggestions. Alternatively, you could use a few significant words from your detailed description to use as tags.

For the FAQ on describing and tagging, go here: http://www.freesound.org/help/faq/#sounds-2

Last but definitely not least, if you use other people's Freesounds either remixed or as part of a composition, even if they are modified, you MUST credit the respective user in your description if those sounds fall under any license other than CC-Zero; it is good practise to credit public domain sounds too, but not obligatory. It should also be noted that the license must be as restrictive as the source, for example: if you make a composition from 3 sounds and one of them is "CCBY Non commercial", your upload must follow suit. If you want to find out which exact sound you used and for links go to your Freesound 'home' tab and click on the attribution link underneath 'describe sounds'. We do strongly recommend the 'remix' function for other users' sounds that have been modified and re-uploaded.

Thanks for your patience in reading this far...

Happy hunting!

Head-Phaze wrote:
Hello justinrpg

The moderation process doesn't have an exact or even predictable amount of time. Although we try our best to get your sounds through the system as quick as possible.

You may not know, but us moderators are doing it on a voluntary basis, which means that the amount of sounds that get moderated per day is dependant on how many active mods there are. Since we all have lives just as much as you, it is unlikely for all mods to be working at the same time; thus, it varies when your upload will be attended to.

The speed in which your uploads will be passed will depend on the following:

- How many sounds are in the moderation queue.
- Amount of mods active and their current workload(some users have hundreds of sounds in a pack).
- Problems encountered in the processing stage.
- The state of your sound: perhaps a mod dealing with your uploads may have contacted you, and is awaiting a reply about description, legality etc.

As we are only human, of course there may be other slight factors which could delay your sound being moderated. But just so you are aware, we all care about making moderation as swift as we can, yet it can sometimes be a meticulous process making sure each and every sound that passes through the system follows the rules and guidelines; the sounds of which are in the hundreds!

I hope this shed some light on the query.

Happy Freesounding!

Updated with an appendix

Thank for the answer.

updated edit:

Note regarding language

Updated edit:

note regarding ticket view

Hello,
I have 2 that were uploaded on November 21 & 22 but have not been moderated and I see many others that have been done. Is there an issue with them or just back log??
thanks, 4BC

4barrelcarb wrote:
Hello,
I have 2 that were uploaded on November 21 & 22 but have not been moderated and I see many others that have been done. Is there an issue with them or just back log??
thanks, 4BC

I've just sent you a private message.

I've read the above and fully understand that you are people with ordinary lives and such. I've uploaded eight sounds since the 11/1 and no message recieved. Any info on how long it might take?

Metzik wrote:
I've read the above and fully understand that you are people with ordinary lives and such. I've uploaded eight sounds since the 11/1 and no message recieved. Any info on how long it might take?

Hi Metzik

Sorry for the wait, as of late I personally have been dealing a lot more with contact form submissions with the time I do have so the other mods should be attending to the usual stuff. I don't know what the hold up has been to your sounds, couldn't see any problem, so I have approved them just now. Thanks for the patience.

Regards
dp

Headphaze wrote:
Hi Metzik

Sorry for the wait, as of late I personally have been dealing a lot more with contact form submissions with the time I do have so the other mods should be attending to the usual stuff. I don't know what the hold up has been to your sounds, couldn't see any problem, so I have approved them just now. Thanks for the patience.

Regards
dp

Yes, sometimes information passes past us, no problem at all, many thanx for the help!

/Metzik

At least 24 hours in approval.

I wanted to drop a note of thanks to the moderators-- what you're doing is a delicate balance at times. Unfortunately, I sort of tested this last week. I had been out in the city in public spaces, looking for soloists and groups willing to be recorded, recording the acoustic experience of their performances in crowded urban sonic environments.

One group I recorded was a quintet wind ensemble group. The musicians themselves were comfortable with the recording, I mentioned it as they set up to perform and then recorded the whole set. Freesound's music policy seems clear, though I was curious about exploring the idea of a musical performance as a sonic event in a space, I felt that a 65-second long 17th-century brass instrument composition performed in a public space and recorded binaurally (e.g.: not useful for general sonic reproduction) might just squeak across the line in a grey area as far as the 'music' and 'musical sounds' guidelines work.

The composer was long-dead, the composition itself in the public domain, the performance in a public space, and the musicians were willing? All good, right? Well, it's not always so simple, is it? I provided attribution information for the recording, denying any ownership or proprietorship of the musical sounds, and the freesound moderator here dutifully reached out the ensemble group and its president overruled the verbal okay I had received from the musicians themselves at the time of the recording.

Somewhere in all this is probably a lesson for me about presuming too much, but also, I was impressed that it all worked as it should-- I attributed, the moderator communicated, and discovered a permissions issue that was not apparent to me at first. This would have resolved itself anyway, as I had reached out on my own to the ensemble group and made them aware of the recordings and what I was doing with them.

Anyway, I hope this prompts some discussion. What distinguishes a musical performance from a sonic event, and how do we demarcate the two in grey zones?

I feel like this turn of events was instructive to me as a noob here and that moderation here is working well.

chromakei wrote:
Anyway, I hope this prompts some discussion. What distinguishes a musical performance from a sonic event, and how do we demarcate the two in grey zones?

Aye, that was me who moderated that.

I've only be moderating for about 2 months now and have not yet fully grasped where the line should be drawn (of course, there is a lot of flexibility). There are some obvious rules set in place, but as you mentioned, the rules on this more casually-performed music is quite blurred.

Personally (and as a curse for studying law!) if the music was performed by a professional ensemble, regardless of whether it was a cleaner studio recording or a public performance on a street, I always try to contact the ensemble themselves and ask if it is alright with them for the recording to be uploaded (unless the description of the sound mentions they had permission of course!)

I've had one previous example where a user uploaded a sound that was designed and used by a professional sound designer working in theatre who had uploaded the sound to SoundCloud. After contacting him, he preferred for the sound to not be uploaded, and, well, I think it is right to respect that.

Of course, that is a sound effect and this is music, but I believe we owe it to the original creators to always clarify with them, be it a sound designer or a musician, whether they approve of the sound being uploaded here (this site is, after all, an incredibly extensive source for sounds used in thousands - millions? - of projects).

So back to your thought on where to draw the line - it is tricky!

Objectively, with as little personal opinion as possible, I would think that all recordings of casually-performed music should try to get permission from the musician to upload, as a courtesy to them and as a fail-safe to any potential copyright issues that could crop up should someone use the sound in a big commercial project and the original musicians that performed in the recording wanted to take legal action against that project.

But subjectively, as long as it isn't a studio or concert recording, then the event should really be deemed a 'sonic event' that anyone can use, in the same vain as church bells ringing in the distance or automated carillon performances in cities.

Anyway, that's enough of my thoughts - I am curious (though very doubtful) if the law has ever had to tackle this distinction. But hey, the law does have a tradition of taking centuries to catch up, so until then I suppose it is up to us.

Good topic for discussion!

Hi,

I uploaded three related sounds on Saturday evening, which seem to be ignored by the moderators (no one has assigned the tickets generated to themselves, or posted something on the ticket if there is something with the sounds that needs addressing).

Would it be possible for a moderator to look into this and let me know if there is an issue with the sounds I uploaded?

Thanks in anticipation

Paul

Glad to have found this thread. I've uploaded some sounds over the years, but not many. I had a chance to record some great squeaky door hinges and was surprised that they were embargoed. Now I see that you are actually listening to them all. The wait doesn't matter to me, I already have the sounds in my files... just happy to help the community by adding some new ones when I get a chance.

Ten days and counting - should I be worried that my submission "Space Hulk Engine Room" might have been overlooked or is it just because it is the summer break?

It has been slow lately, but usually [in my experience] it's much faster.

I ran out of coffee for a bit, but i'm feeling much better now.

really, there's been a lot of summer vacations and such but it's nearly caught up now..