tsurara

Chatted a bit with Evol tonight and asked a bit about the gallery in passing. He commented on how the content has improved but seemed to think that the gallery is "unbrowseable" in it's current state. Seems as though there are too many images for only three categories... those three categories are getting a bit muddled.

"Line Art" is still looking spiffy as it is... but "Female" "Male" and "Group" are turning into a bit of a pile (with 72 pages in "female" at last count).

Immediate issues:

-Group currently includes mech/mecha scans (about 100 of them) and object/element/logo/background scans (I have no idea how many)

-all categories have actual photos mixed in with animated scans (while actual photos could probably be in their own sub-category under each)

-sorting images within categories as text and text-free may also be an option (since some users are unwilling or unable to clean or remove text)... but this may affect the quality/effectiveness of the search engine the way it's currently configured.

There is no reasonable way to sort images by series with the current upload system (drop down menu), it would hurt way too much for everyone involved... but is there a way to require an additional "series" field or create some custom sub-galleries (similar to the current "Favorites" function) that could be linked from elsewhere (perhaps the graphics forum)? I suppose I can do this manually, by tagging each series with a different serial number and then running searches, the results of which could be saved under series titles in a sticky index thread... but that would REALLY suck for me. Like... suck more than just about anything else could possibly suck X_X;

I'd like to see the gallery keep improving, but I'm at a bit of a loss of what to do next.

Ideas?

Dragon Ball

I don't think we need more sub-level categories just for sorting. Eg:

• banners -> animated banners
• banners -> banners text-free

It will just add to the complexity of navigating throughout the gallery. Furthermore, doing this would mean some categories only have a few images in them.

tsurara

Then something needs to be done to address the poor search engine.

There's no point creating resources that are difficult to access, imprecise to search and impossible to browse.

The only area that would become more "complex" is the current drop-down upload system, which is already nightmarishly complex and annoying. No one's asking for new categories with no content. Every category that has been mentioned as a possibility ALREADY has at least 100 images that would fit within it.

Dragon Ball

Sorry, I don't have the time nor expertise to develop a new search engine. This is a paid product that has been installed and with full-time developers looking after it. Feel free to rally support for a better search engine at PhotoPost.

Unless chief can come up with something....

Chiefblackhammer

I can't edit Photopost's scripts per the license agreement they are really firm with that (And hammer doesn't plan on being sued)...until I get the new gallery built there isn't much we can do for SEO. I have decided it would be easier to roll it out in phases so I will try to have phase 1 done in a few weeks.

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Dragon Ball

Don't know if you are aware, but you are allowed to edit and modify as much as you want the photopost scripts. The scripts are all unencrypted to allow edits where you want. I have already done this to a certain extent.

The mods there even give suggestions on how to change certain areas to achieve your goals.

tsurara

you heard the man!

chief! FIX IT!

*pokes chief with a large stick*

Chiefblackhammer

lol, sorry I misread it...you CAN edit it if you have a license...which you do have...my bad...anywho...let me look at the search.php and see what can be done to help with searching. I will also look at their website for topics on SEO...they may have something or someone I can talk with about it.


Any luck with turning off non-members ability to see the gallery DB?


Big question, what exactly is the current search NOT doing that it should? What changes are you looking for? I have read the above but adding fields like a series isn't as much a search engine issue as it is a classification one. That would require adding a field to the database and then updating all related pages to include the new field...a bit of work but I can look in to that if needed.

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