mind you, some changes to parameters that qualify disqualify realms from being released could possibly be more useful, while requiring less programming work.
I think the problem, pre moderating system was mainly having realms to do with just being a cluster of towns and ruins on a single island, more then it was having fine tuned/crafted realms.
The star system might actual be more impactful in distinguishing these realms as i'd assume realms of low/low quality (ones that currently don't pass through moderation) would be rendered lower 1-2 star ratings, while i'd imagine the realms that just pass the current moderation queue would see your typical 3,3 1/2 ratings.
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Otherwise, one problem with moderation currently is that their isn't really a good indication of what bits and pieces your missing. One example was I associated tags to all of my encounters, thinking that this was needed by default. I then was confused that i had tags which weren't being used, thus needed to be removed...i mistook these for flags and had a bit of confusion which eventually was cleared up.
Likewise, things such as organization of realms and putting them together in an easy to digest way (for moderators) might have to become a base requirement (in other words your realm should be invalid, when checking, before going through the submission/moderation process)
I'm generally leaning more towards making things more open source (i.e letting the designers and community sort out the good from bad) while letting off a good load from the moderators and just having that job for sorting out the major problems in submitted realms (foul language, gold farms, etc.)
with that, the suggestion for 'report issue to realm designer' as well as a 'report issue to moderators' with the ability to pull realms temporarily to fix problems & a harsher punishment for putting nasty stuff in your realms, would probably ensure that you avoid alot of the ugly stuff.
That said, most of this would require less work, and could even be handled post update (no coding...well apart from the the report buttons, which use the same code as async notifications would with some modifications) It might be worth uploading a mini update, mid month for this alone anyways, as realm design might be a big draw (or expectation) for the influx of players.
Otherwise, advertising the realm tools as "cooperating with snapshot" that involves QA and is treated like official snapshot approved content might be the way to deal with it to limit the false expectations going into the whole thing.