Okay, so firstly, I would like to say I think Devin has good ideas and points out various problems --especially with the hidden rules. However, I do disagree with some of them.
PSF would perhaps be faster, and better, agreed, but on the other hand, you have to take into account that the mods are also busy people. If they have to look over and approve every level-up request coming their way, it would consume quite a lot of time. Especially at the lower magic ranks, where players reach the next level rather quickly. The problem you speak of was a bit of an outlier because the player in question had written up a whole lot of magic threads and posted them all at once in the queue. In most cases, there's no 10+ threads of the same PC to be reviewed in a row. It's because there was no 'buffer' between the magic threads that this problem was a problem at all, causing several of his magic threads to be rejected at once by different reviewers. Additionally, as far as I know, no level up for that player's magic was requested, despite the player's level in said magic, which is another reason for the situation happening. Lastly, there's different opinions between reviewers as to what has to be done to level up in magic during a magic thread. Which leads me to the main reason I've come here.
I disagree with Devin's 3rd point. Strongly even.
As far as I know, progressing through the different tiers in domain magic is a result of the player pushing the spark to its limit. Thus, it makes no sense not to 'do anything special' during a level up thread. I think, especially when the player is at the end of their tier, they should indeed do something they haven't done before, something that warrants growth. It doesn't really matter to me if this means that the player has to use abilities of their level in a way that challenges them, or if it means that they have to use abilities from the next tier as a way of signifying their growth, but I feel that just doing basic stuff to level up in magic is not the way to go since it goes against the lore. While it really doesn't matter which method of level up is integrated in the game, the staff has to absolutely make sure that all peer reviewers are on the same page, and that players know about the correct way to level up as well. I've noticed during a discussion with another reviewer that we both interpreted what was required to level up in magic differently, so it certainly wouldn't hurt to make the wording of the guides a little clearer when it comes to that particular subject.
Personally, I would suggest that players have to reach the end of their tier (at 25, 75, and 150 points) before they can be allowed to level up. Once there, they should push their limit by using techniques from the next tier --in small amounts still, if they don't want to overstep-- to signify that their spark has grown. In essence, this thread would represent the time where a mage is between tiers, already too powerful for their current tier, but not powerful enough to handle the next without some difficulty. If you go weight lifting you can't train with 20kg for a month, and suddenly be able to lift 100kg one day. Just like you need to build up to that point, challenge yourself by gradually increasing the weights until you get to that 100kg, so too should a mage's spark gradually learn to cope with greater ether expenditure, more difficult techniques, etc, and grow because of it. This level up thread in between tiers should then be representative of this process. Until this thread is graded, and the level up is achieved, I too think it would be best to hold off on posting additional magic threads in the queue so the speed of the reviewer doesn't impact whether or not their subsequent magic threads are rejected or not.
That's just what I think, though.
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I'd also like to suggest a button in the "your posts" section of the site, with a link to the forum the threads are posted in, like we had on the previous version of the site. What I mean is that if you've, for example, posted in the reviewer's section --like this:
--there's an "in <reviewer's section>" (where the <> is a link to that forum) next to the name of the person who posted the thread. I can't speak for everyone else, but I personally use the "my posts" section as the central hub of the site, from where I go to the forums I've posted in. Without this link, I have to first open a thread, and then go to the forum. It's not that big of a deal, but it would make navigation a little easier.
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And I just noticed this, but I can't seem to upload images in the gallery anymore? Or maybe I just don't know how this one works. That's also very possible.