Why your first uploads wait for review

When you submit a mod, it goes to staff before anyone else can see or download it. It goes live the moment it's approved. A new account has proved nothing yet, and a mod site's worst day is a harmful file reaching people's games, so a person looks first.

Right now every submission waits for review, from every account.

How an account comes off review

The plan is that an account is on review until it has four approved versions. After that, a clean upload goes live by itself once its file check passes.

• It counts approvals, not days. An account that waited a week has proved nothing. One with four approved versions has.
• Rejections don't count. Four approvals means four, however many tries it took.
• Versions and gallery albums are counted apart. Four approved versions say nothing about your screenshots, so your first four albums are reviewed too.
• Verified creators and staff skip review.

What puts an account back on review

• A moderator removing something of yours for breaking a rule sets the count back to zero.
• A warning whose points still count puts the account back on review until those points expire. See Warnings, points, bans and how to appeal.

Uploads that always wait

Some uploads go to a moderator whatever your standing:

• A file the malware check found suspicious, couldn't open, or couldn't scan.
• A file that exactly matches one another author uploaded.
• A new version of a very popular mod sent from a new device or an unusual place, in case the account was taken over.

While you wait

• The mod or version shows as "Waiting for review" on its edit page.
• Nothing waiting is public. A pending mod has no page others can open, and a pending version can't be downloaded. The version already out stays up.
• You get a notification when it's decided. An approval can carry a note. A rejection always carries the reason.
• A version that's waiting can't be deleted, and you can't start another until it's decided.

Staff aim to look at each submission within a day.

What a reviewer looks at

The reviewer opens the files and reads the page beside them: that the archive opens, that what's in it matches the title, description and screenshots, that it's in the right category, and that other people's work is credited and shared with permission. The reasons a version is sent back are listed in Why uploads are refused most often.

If it's sent back

A first version that's sent back returns the mod to a draft. Fix what the reason names and submit again. If you think the decision was wrong, you can appeal it within 30 days from Appeals.