I have 2 topics but I wasn't sure whether I should make 2 seperate forum-topics or not.

First one:
A while ago, post #362797 got deleted. It was flagged by Jeral: "Unpopular" and got deleted: "Quality control"
I didn't understand what unpopular meant so I asked in the comments. I got replied

downvotes always negative. -_-

and

Too much downvotes, which is another invalid reason to flag something

So I assume it got deleted because of the number of downvotes (score -9). But I'm a bit confused there. I can understand, that huge amounts of negative feedback on a post can be a valid reason to delete it. But 9 downvotes aren't that much. Also I think this is kind of a contradiction to the rule "Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that nobody else likes it."
And: If the amount of downvotes is a reason to delete a post, search for order:score_asc and you'll get loads of posts with negative scores. There's even a flash with a score of -264!

Could someone please clarify the situation?

And second one:
If you take the sum of all file-sizes of every post on e621, how much is that?
And how much is it without flash-files?

Edit: While I'm at it: e621 has an API. But I'm unable to find the documentation for it. Also: How much load can I put on that? Is it problematic if I iterate through every post and get e.g. the tag-list of it?

"unpopular" isn't a valid reason to flag something.
The post didn't get deleted because of the flag reason, it got deleted because the image wasn't good enough = "Quality control".

Just because the flagging reason is invalid doesn't mean the image won't get deleted for another, valid reason :-)

Munkelzahn said:
it got deleted because the image wasn't good enough = "Quality control".

Thank you for the fast response. I understand that so far, but why are there other "low quality" posts still not deleted? Let's take post #209268 as an example. I can't completely remember what post #362797 looked like, but as far as I can remember, it wasn't that bad (subjectively).

Because the site is run by moderator opinion, and every moderator operates independently and is not usually even managed by the body of moderators as a whole.

Things stay or go by dumb luck sometimes, as to who happens to look at it at what time and what mood they're in.

Posts that are deemed to not be a high-enough quality can still end up being approved if they have some other redeeming factor, such as being humorous or particularly relevant in some way (like being directly related to e621.net itself).

However, those are only possibilities, not guarantees. Right now, quality control is determined by a general understanding amongst administrators of what is "good enough" and what isn't. This obviously is not an ideal system, since "good enough" is going to fluctuate from one administrator to another, but it's not exactly easy to objectively define what makes a submission "good enough" in a site policy. That's why the rule is to avoid uploading off-topic and low-quality posts, because the administration can't guarantee that quality-control won't fluctuate, and so you're warned ahead of time that you shouldn't upload such material if you'd be bothered by it being deleted.

Looking at the deleted post you linked, I'm not sure that this would have normally been deleted for quality control, but it's kind of close. I think the deciding factor was probably the fact that the uploader (and I'm assuming artist) himself is the one that flagged it, indicating that he wanted it removed because it was not a "popular" post, and I guess that really bothered him.

Foobaria said:
Because the site is run by moderator opinion, and every moderator operates independently and is not usually even managed by the body of moderators as a whole.

Things stay or go by dumb luck sometimes, as to who happens to look at it at what time and what mood they're in.

You'd run across the exact same problem even if it was just a single administrator handling the approval of every post; one day they'll approve a post that the probably wouldn't have approved on another day, and vice versa. While yes, the moderator that sees it first does play a role in whether or not it gets deleted, it doesn't mean that that single moderator's own judgment of quality isn't going to fluctuate from day to day.

If you have some idea of how to maintain quality control while laying down specific rules and guidelines in a site policy that will lead to every administrator always making the same decision that every other administrator would make, I'm sure they'd love to hear it.

Char said:
*lots of words*

Thank you very much. That was very helpful.

Char said:
Posts that are deemed to not be a high-enough quality can still end up being approved if they have some other redeeming factor, such as being humorous or particularly relevant in some way (like being directly related to e621.net itself).

You mean I can upload this?

Char said:
If you have some idea of how to maintain quality control while laying down specific rules and guidelines in a site policy that will lead to every administrator always making the same decision that every other administrator would make, I'm sure they'd love to hear it.

APPROVE EVERYTHING!! :P

Xch3l said:
You mean I can upload this?

Technically yes but I still think that'd likely be deleted. :P

Char said:
Technically yes but I still think that'd likely be deleted. :P

It was based on a comment (on ask-backy) that said "Spike is Twilight's personal bad dragon" (or something like that), Backy-Mod deleted it, though.
I know the quality is not that good (all sketchy n'stuff), but I've seen similar that stayed. I'll try, what can I lose? (hope not the ability to upload :P )

Xch3l said:
It was based on a comment (on ask-backy) that said "Spike is Twilight's personal bad dragon" (or something like that), Backy-Mod deleted it, though.
I know the quality is not that good (all sketchy n'stuff), but I've seen similar that stayed. I'll try, what can I lose? (hope not the ability to upload :P )

Bad bad-dragon is an auto approval.