Improving Image Share

[kalia]

I post this with much trepidation, because I have had a crappy week and I've not exactly been known for keeping the coolest head when it comes to this topic. :wink:

 

However:

 

Obviously, from the "call for originality" topic below, lots of folks are not entirely pleased with how the image share function works right now. I don't like it *and* theLeeHarvey doesn't like it, and I'm fairly certain that if he & I ever met in real life we would immediately both think to ourselves "Gods, I don't ever wanna see that person again". :D However, we apparently agree on one thing: the image share part of the site has great potential. Lots of great screenshots - the thing is, the ones he'd like to see more of & the ones I'd like to see more of are also apparently diametrically opposed. So how to please us both?

 

Here's what I see happening:

1-- Not enough people rate images. The ratings formula is working spectacularly now, and low/high ratings seem to balancing wonderfully. However, a lot of pics have 0 ratings but 100 or so views. So while being able to sort by ratings *should* reflect some popular consensus of greatness, there's simply not enough folks rating for that to be the case.

 

***Possible solution: Do away with numbered ratings & implement a simple "+" kudos-like system for images. You simply give a "+" to those images that you really like. Some will do that for almost every image they see, some will do it only for a select few. But overall, only those images that really move both types of folks will end up at the "top". And, as it has no negative troll potential, and thus doesn't require commenting/authorship, I think you might end up with the majority of folks "rating", rather than how it is now. That's the main drive for me behind it - getting more of those who view the pics actually rating them.

 

*** But now how do I suggest/receive critiques to improve screenshots??? Comments. And perhaps commenting could be optional? Then if I leave comments on & someone comes by & leaves me a lengthy New York Times-art-page-worthy dissertation on ways he/she thinks I can improve, it's all good - I asked for that by leaving the comments open. If I just need a place to host a pic & don't care what others think of it, I can turn comments off. Or if I'm having a really bad week & just don't feel up to it with a particularly personal screenshot or something, I can turn off comments on that shot.

 

 

2-- "I only like funny/scenic/nude/etc shots - and it's horrid to have to wade through all the nude/scenic/funny shots to get to 'em!" There's just no way around it - the Oblivion community has a wide variety of tastes, and I think it's a testament to the modders that so many can play the game in so many different ways. There's a humongous number of new screenshots uploaded here every day; easy to miss some spectacular shot that might just make your day. I understand the frustration of looking through pages of stuff that isn't to your taste to get to what is.

 

***Possible Solution: LHammonds has just the solution here - tags. I really think he has that handled, with author-submitted tags needing some sort of approval. That lets you tag images in multiple ways, too. If it were possible to have smart searching of tags (player character but not nude, for example), that would be great.

 

***Also, how about a "Random 5" sort of button that pops up 5 (or however many is easy) random screenshots, either within the "category" or "tag" or just in general? Great way to pull up some older shots, and stumble upon what you may have missed.

 

 

3-- All these screenshooters are just obsessed with being in the top 25/the top 25 is too boring/other top 25 complaints. Indeed, if you're gonna have a top 25, folks are gonna want to be in it. Just human nature.

 

***Possible Solution: What about a top 100? More people, more variety. I love Rogue Sun's pictures almost more than I love Floydian1's (and we all know I am [rightly, I think ;)] biased there) but I'm sure Rogue would like to be able to click a top list with many more styles represented. If we had more people rating in some way, it really *should* be a list with a much wider variety. That goes back to the solution for number one, having *something* like a simple button to click where folks are encouraged to "rate".

 

 

This may all be way too much work/coding to be done quickly or at all, but I don't know till I put it out there, do I? And perhaps no one agrees at all with any of what I've said, but it seems there's been a lot of frustration with a part of the site that, no matter what your tastes, seems to have a lot of talent on display. Why not work to get it the point where the enjoyment outweighs the frustrations, where everyone feels free to express him/herself in his/her chosen way (within site rules, of course), and still the best & brightest (as recognized by the community) have a place to shine?

[VictoriaG]

I'd go along with kalia in the above post.

[Sarya]

The kudos-like system is good, I believe someone already mentioned that, however that complete change from one system to another will be really hard and maybe unfair. I doubt many people will look through the entire gallery just to be fair to older pictures.

[kalia]

  Sarya said:

The kudos-like system is good, I believe someone already mentioned that, however that complete change from one system to another will be really hard and maybe unfair. I doubt many people will look through the entire gallery just to be fair to older pictures.

 

That's a good point, Sarya. I wonder if the current ratings could be converted?

 

And that does tie into: 1-- tags, the more the better. Smaller categories, easier to look through, easier to get to old images; and 2-- a button that pops up random pictures. I for one would probably easily spend hours hitting that random button & kudos-ing older pics. But that's just me.

 

I personally think the *current* system isn't quite fair to older pictures. How many ratings in total does any picture really get? With "wading through" the mulititudes of images, once something's a day or two old it seems unlikely to get much more attention. :shrug:

 

I believe the original "kudos" idea may have been Ismelda's, but I could be wrong on that. And of course, it may be nigh impossible for Dark0ne; I simply have never coded a website & have no idea. :biggrin:

 

Did you have suggestions of your own? Maybe everytime you go to look at images, you sigh to yourself "If only...."?

[Sarya]

Too many tags will be uncomfortable. There's plenty of adult-picture posters who do not bother with only one tag, how will it improve with many more tags? And there's too much pictures to make moderators tag them for their posters.

[VictoriaG]

Rating should be required when making a comment. Also as I've seen mention of in the other thread anonymous ratings/comments is a bad idea.

[kalia]

  Sarya said:

Too many tags will be uncomfortable. There's plenty of adult-picture posters who do not bother with only one tag, how will it improve with many more tags? And there's too much pictures to make moderators tag them for their posters.

 

If you can't upload an image without a tag, that'd fix that. ;) I believe in the other thread LHammonds was suggesting some sort of way for users to tag images: a certain number of folks tag, that tag gets accepted. But as I said, I just like the idea of tags & I think he's got the way to do it going pretty well, as was expressed in the other thread. I was under the impression you rather liked the idea then.

[Sarya]

I did. But that doesn't mean that can be easy. I reported far too many adult untagged pictures in my life.

 

Yes, that may be reasonable I think, but it would still not protect against bad ratings given on purpose. I saw such a matter and the person you discussed in your first post is not responsible for anything like that, I just checked. Others do.

[kalia]

  Sarya said:

I did. But that doesn't mean that can be easy. I reported far too many adult untagged pictures in my life.

 

Yes, that may be reasonable I think, but it would still not protect against bad ratings given on purpose. I saw such a matter and the person you discussed in your first post is not responsible for anything like that, I just checked. Others do.

 

I'm not so worried about bad ratings at this point. I mean, when the ratings formula wasn't working correctly, one bad rating outweighed 26 good ones. That's simply not the case anymore, and people can rate as harshly/generously as they want far as I'm concerned.

 

What I do see is pictures with nearly 100 views and at most 3 or 4 ratings.

 

And, btw, I never mentioned theLeeHarvey's ratings. At least he is rating. This is in no way a rant against him & I hope that's clear. What I'm saying is I disagree with his approach, I am sure he disagrees with mine, and yet we both agree the current Image Share part isn't really working ideally.

[Sarya]

Yes, that is clear. In fact, I think he gives a good example to follow (sorry about that phrase, I'm unsure how to build it). I, on the contrary, do not give low ratings as I don't rate pictures I could rate low - I know I won't be heard and understood by the authors.

 

And what about that formula... how is that a seven among several dozens of 10's can spoil it? There are pictures in top that are not 10 overall, but even as low as 9,05. That's odd, whenever it can be fixed or not.