Media Default Sets & Locking (Curated Baseline Assets)

📋 Summary

Introduce curated “default” media sets for platforms that can be optionally locked or prioritized, ensuring users always have access to a consistent, high quality baseline of assets.

❗ Problem

Media quality and consistency can vary significantly:

• Official categories are often mixed with fanart or inconsistent assets

• High quality community sets exist but are not standardized in the database

• Media can be repeatedly changed, moved, or overwritten

• Users may end up with incomplete or inconsistent downloads

This creates an unpredictable experience when scraping media.

💡 Proposal

Introduce curated default media sets:

• Define a “default” set of high quality assets per platform:

  • Box art, carts, logos, etc

• Allow these sets to be:

  • Prioritized in downloads

  • Optionally locked to prevent frequent changes

• Credit contributors where applicable

• Allow users to choose between:

  • Default curated sets

  • Full database (including fanart and alternatives)

🧩 Use Cases

• A user wants a clean, consistent SNES library with minimal setup

• A contributor’s high quality set becomes the default baseline

• A user avoids downloading inconsistent or low quality media

• Moderation disputes are reduced for “baseline” assets

📦 Benefits

• Improves consistency and quality for all users

• Reduces clutter and unpredictability in downloads

• Highlights high quality community contributions

• Provides a better out of the box experience

⚠️ Considerations

• Requires clear criteria for what qualifies as a default set

• Needs moderation or admin oversight

• Should not restrict user customization

✅ Outcome

Curated default media sets provide a reliable foundation for users, improving consistency while still allowing flexibility for customization.