New Collective Rule - Gallery Posting Limits

[TeraS]

It has come to the attention of the Collective Admin through the concerns of a number of members that the posting rates for some artists on the Collective is causing harm to the overall well being of this site. In the past there was a gentleman's agreement that limited the number of posts to ten per day per artist. This seems to have not been sufficient as some members are posting well above that rate. As a result, the Admin and Mods of the Collective have taken the decision to set a posting limit for artists on the Gallery.

You may post up to 10 images per user per day on the Collective. Members exceeding this rate of posting by a large margin will be warned and if they continue to do so, will be banned for one week. Second offense will mean a one month ban. Third time will mean a permanent ban.

Please make note of this rule.

The Collective Admin and Mods

[Mike226]

Just to be certain what is defined as a large margin? 15, 20, 25, etc?

[TeraS]

Mike, the idea of this rule is to be fair to everyone that posts something. If you post the occasional thing over 10 images we won't care. If you go and post a huge number of images one day, and do it again the next, and the next and so on, we are going to have issues...

The idea is that people are considerate to others. That's all we are really asking.



Tera

[AStrangeGeek]

We're trying to do this such that we give people leeway. It's really targeted at people who tend to post pic floods and do it over and over and over again (NO NAMES, please). However, the old rule of "please don't post floods" is not working so we've been forced to tighten it up and give some more definition to it. So we're not going to bean-count here and get on your case if you post over the limit OCCASIONALLY. But we have to specify some sort of a more definite limit so we have something we can point to if we feel someone is abusing it.

[tranz2deep]

I understand the site posting limitations, and having had to backtrack 120 pictures on one memorable occasion a year or so back, I understand it perfectly.

For those with a prolific tale to tell, I have noticed a possible solution; PDF files. These have been used for sets of 8 or so pictures without any hassle, and each PDF only takes up one posting slot.

Just a possibility..

[MzNicolette]

Traz,

we certainly encourage PDFs and similar, as they do make everyone's life easier!

[loosegoose]

Traz,

we certainly encourage PDFs and similar, as they do make everyone's life easier!

but like teaching Creationism as a science, it is not yet compulsory

[The Velvet Vortex]

Traz,

we certainly encourage PDFs and similar, as they do make everyone's life easier!

Very likely true for most of our members, MzN. However, PDFs especially - and to a lesser extent BMP and even PNG files - take a long time to download on a dial-up line. I routinely skip them. If the thumbnail looks intriguing, I sometimes start a d/l and judge by the top 20 - 30% of the image whether to continue. I did d/l a complete, expansive BMP a few days ago; it took just over 11 minutes at my server's maximum dial-up speed (in practice, intermittent bursts of 50667 bps separated by briefly slower periods).

My personal constraint lies in the need to conserve cash after spending a very large sum for skilled nursing care for my late wife. Beyond my own considerations, there are broad expanses of the US where dial-up is the only option. I have no idea what percentage of our membership relies on slow connections. I hope it's very small.

That being said, and in the spirit of the recent-uploads discussion and its outcome, I support using PDFs instead of flooding. I'm willing to miss the works presented as large files. Not happy, but willing.

[buffmuffin]

it took just over 11 minutes at my server's maximum dial-up speed (in practice, intermittent bursts of 50667 bps separated by briefly slower periods).

My god man. You live in a desert.

MOVE! there is no INTERWEBZ where you live. NOTHING DOWNLOADS HERE!

MOVE TO THE INTERWEBZ!

With apologies to the late, great, Sam Kinison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNoJ2BzSRU

[JHB]

but like teaching Creationism as a science, it is not yet compulsory

Oh, goose, give us one more presidential election cycle and we'll make it compulsory!!  


James

[loosegoose]

A new gallery does not mean the 10 picture limit no longer applies. 

[gbcliff]

Can someone clarify how the new gallery's posting limit works? I posted 10 images yesterday but still am unable to post today with the warning that I am at my limit. Is it calendar day to calendar day or no more than 10 in a 24 hour period?

Is it using my local time or GMT for the calendar?

Thanks,

Sorry I am a pain.

[gbcliff]

Nevermind. I tried again and was allowed to post 2. It appears to be a 24 hour period.

[TeraS]

It's exactly 24 hours yes as a set delay...



Tera
Admin

[Allister]

I think it's pretty reasonable. Might help the forums load faster.

[MCaesar]

It's exactly 24 hours yes as a set delay...

Out of curiosity, assuming one uploads 10 pics in one day, does the 24 hour cooldown start from when the first pic is uploaded,  or the last?

I think it's pretty reasonable. Might help the forums load faster.

The primary reason for the limit is to prevent some users from "flooding" the front page of the gallery with prolific posting and pushing other artists down and off before anyone has a chance to see them.

I doubt the amount or rate of uploads affects the server's performance at all.

[Allister]

Well something does because about 40% of the time the forums take a long time to load.

[TeraS]

ASG and I are aware of that issue Allister and we are working on a fix for that at the moment. A future update to the Gallery is coming as well when we work out some changes to it on the Collective Test Forum...


Tera
Admin

[Allister]

Ahhh, good to know.

Likely you'll need to drive to the data center where the servers are, then yell at them and bang on them with your fist. They should get the message and sort themselves out.

(It worked for that old Compaq Proliant)

[Etalla]

I don't suppose that this issue: http://www.hypnopics-collective.net/smf_forum/index.php?topic=20797.0 is in the mix of issues/changes to be addressed?  I'm not trying to be pushy, it just seems that this discussion provides an opportune moment to ask.

[TeraS]

It's perfectly fine Etalla...

In truth I'm not sure that it is or isn't... I haven't read through the entire version change list as yet nor have I actually had the time to get into what's changed in the use of the Gallery as yet.

Currently we're going to deal with the slow down issue first, then turn to the new version of the Gallery and work that out...

As an aside, here's the list of changes. I highlighted the one that I think you're looking  for Etalla:

+Added moderation logging to log key actions made by gallery admins in the gallery along with a Moderation Log area
+Added alt tags on image listing areas in the gallery using the title of the image
+Youtube external videos now pull in an image from youtube for the video preview image
+Custom Fields can now be added globally instead of just category level specific
+Custom Fields can now be edited
+Individual User Folder Custom Permissions
+New sharing options added for Reddit and Pinterest
+Now inserts keywords into SMF Tags if you have the smf tagging system installed on topic posting
+Updated top userbar tabs in the gallery code optimized
+Unapproved comments now visible to admins/comment owners when viewing a picture/video
+Added index to date column on gallery_pic table for better performance when date searching
!Fixed bug with uploading videos failing if no preview picture included.
+Video Addon now built into SMF Gallery Pro -
Upload formats supported: avi,flv,mov,mpg,ram,rm,rpm,swf,wmv
Supports YouTube and some other common embed video sites.
Can have a user uploaded thumbnail if none is specified uses generic video image
Settings to set the max file size, player height, player width, show download link, show html linking codes
Membergroup/category level permission to control which group can upload videos.
+Not filling in all the information/errors on add picture/add video page no redirects back to the page with information already filled out instead of a fatal error. SMF 2.0 only.
+Added user information to the myimages page. Stats include total pictures,comments and views total
+Added setting to redirect back to the category instead of the users myimages page by default
!Admin email notifications/tweet clean up single quote display
+Some linktree tweaks in a couple places display/style improvement
+Template/style tweaks throughout the gallery.
+Added Auto Tweeting main category setting for items posted in a category
+New image effects system.  Effects including the following: Blemish, Brightness, Contrast, Crop, Draw, Effects, Enhance, Orientation, Redeye, Resize, Saturation, Sharpness, Stickers, Text, Warmth, White
+Added setting to create a default personal category gallery for a user the first time they visit the gallery
+Added notification system for gallery admins on pictures waiting approval, comments waiting approval, reported comments and pictures.
+Added checkboxes for gallery admins on image listing page to do bulk operations such as delete, unapprove, move images.
+Total Favorites and who favorited added to the view picture/media page if you have the favorite system enabled
+Added member group color links to many areas of the gallery
+Added gallery navigation bar/tabs to report picture, report comment, view ratings, and view viewers pages
+Added Facebook Like Button as a sharing option on the view picture page
+Added option to search exif make and model
+Added new setting on add/edit category to post to a specific topic when enabling the autopost features for a main category
+New setting to count member comments as posts
+Alternate table row styles in different sections of the admin area to make it easier to read
+Added checkbox approve/delete comments on the approve comments page
+Updated html markup style to improve display for SMF 2.0
+Better Copyright Removal upgrade system
!Fixed paging sorting on the user gallery list page



Tera

[AStrangeGeek]

ASG and I are aware of that issue Allister and we are working on a fix for that at the moment. A future update to the Gallery is coming as well when we work out some changes to it on the Collective Test Forum...


Tera
Admin

I've isolated the forum lag issue to a heinous SQL query being generated by the gallery. Hope to see if I can isolate where in the code the query is coming from. if it's from some feature we use rarely or can do without, I'll just disable it.

[Etalla]

Thanks