How contributing works
CartDisc knows what a release looks like because a collector put one on a table and photographed it. Everything below is what happens after you send one in.
What a contribution is worth
Approved submissions earn XP. The order reflects effort and scarcity rather than importance: a front cover is the photo most releases already have, and the back and the spine are the ones nobody bothers to shoot.
- Contribution
- XP
- Front cover
- 10
- Spine
- 8
- Back cover
- 8
- Disc / cartridge
- 6
- Manual
- 6
- Barcode
- 5
- Product code
- 5
- Inside artwork
- 4
- Insert / extra
- 4
- Release information
- 3
A better photo of something already published earns nothing. It still goes through review, and it still carries your name on the release — it just isn't scored. Otherwise a release that already has a cover would be worth 10 XP to every collector who owns a copy and a camera.
Levels
Your level is your approved XP, and nothing else. There are few of them on purpose: they exist to recognise people who keep showing up, not to be a progression to grind.
- Level
- From
- Collector
- 0 XP
- Contributor
- 50 XP
- Archivist
- 250 XP
- Curator
- 1,000 XP
- Historian
- 3,000 XP
Badges
What kind of work you have done, next to how much. They count releases rather than ranking people, and they are worked out from your contributions every time they are shown — there is nothing to claim.
- Badge
- Counts
- Full sleeve
- Front, back and spine of the same release
- First on record
- The first approved contribution a release ever had
Review
A moderator looks at every submission before it is published. A rejection always comes with a reason, in the moderator's own words, on your contributions page.
You can have 25 submissions waiting at once. It is what stops a script queueing a thousand plausible-looking photos faster than anyone could review them.
What usually gets turned down
Wrong region
Grand Theft Auto V is here as a PAL pressing and as an NTSC-U one, and the two sleeves are not the same artwork. A sharp photo of the PAL box is still a rejection on the NTSC-U release.
Grand Theft Auto V · PlayStation 3 · PALImage too blurry
A spine is a few millimetres of text. On something like Spec Ops: The Line the whole point of the photo is that the lettering can be read, so the blur a front cover survives is fatal here.
Spec Ops: The Line · PlayStation 3 · PALDuplicate submission
Borderlands 2 already publishes a back cover. Another photo of the same back is not a gap being filled — it goes through review as a replacement and scores nothing.
Borderlands 2 · PlayStation 3 · PALIncorrect release
Batman: Arkham Asylum has a first NTSC-U pressing, a PAL Platinum and a Game of the Year Edition, each its own release. The Platinum sleeve with its red band belongs on the Platinum one.
Batman: Arkham Asylum · PlayStation 3 · NTSC-UGlare or obstruction
A PS3 case is glossy. Photographed head-on under a ceiling light, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition comes back with a white rectangle across the logo — shoot at a slight angle, or with the light off to one side.
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition · PlayStation 3 · PALWatermarked image
The Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit cover that turns up in a search is usually lifted from a listing, with a seller's logo in the corner. Photograph your own copy instead.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit · PlayStation 3 · PAL
Start with a release you have in front of you
Open it, and the contribute picker will show you which slots are still empty. The back and the spine are almost always among them.
See the contributor ranking