Gallery vs Pictures Section

[Admin 14,790]

I like the gallery, it allows for more well organised content, proper picture discussion/rating etc...

However, the Pictures section is a fundamental part of this site - after all, PeeFans is ultimately a forum more than anything else.

Are these two things overlapping too much, or is there a place for both? How do people decide where to post / which to look through?

There are pros and cons to both, and I'm perfectly happy to let both remain as they are, I'm just wondering people's thoughts about having two separate (and almost competing) areas for pictures on the same site?

Thanks.

[Admin 14,790]

Sadly, not all gallery pictures seem to have been restored during the reupload of images. There is no logical explanation for this that I can see.

Since members are also reporting issues even accessing it for also seemingly no obvious reason, it does beg the question whether it's worth keeping?

I appreciate this would be a shame, and especially disappointing for the members who have worked on building great albums, but perhaps they could be reposted in threads in the pictures section? A thread is essentially the same concept as an album.

[Ozabot 63,259]

Pros and Cons:

P1. In the previous vesion of forum images, posted in threads were resized to matchbox label or even poststamp size without any opportunity to see full-sized image and the gallery was the only place where you could see normal picture.

P2. I don't know about other posters, but in my gallery albums only about 5% of pics are repeated in threads because I've had my own conception of posting pics in threads and albums.

P3/C1. Only the previous version of the gallery had user-friendly interface and functionality. In today's version you need 3 and more clicks to see picture in full size.

And...

C2. Let's look at the statistic of gallery visiting and viewing in this year. From January till March I was practically the only poster in the gallery with about 10-15 posted pics and with 5-6 views per picture. In April Steve had posted a lot of pictures with 0-3 views per picture.

So the result is obvious - The Gallery is not interesting for the most part of forum memders at least in this version.

But beeing an active poster my choice is "Both"

P.S. Maybe there are not so many forum members who like pictures in hi-res?

[Admin 14,790]

26 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

Pros and Cons:

P1. In the previous vesion of forum images, posted in threads were resized to matchbox label or even poststamp size without any opportunity to see full-sized image and the gallery was the only place where you could see normal picture.

P2. I don't know about other posters, but in my gallery albums only about 5% of pics are repeated in threads because I've had my own conception of posting pics in threads and albums.

P3/C1. Only the previous version of the gallery had user-friendly interface and functionality. In today's version you need 3 and more clicks to see picture in full size.

And...

C2. Let's look at the statistic of gallery visiting and viewing in this year. From January till March I was practically the only poster in the gallery with about 10-15 posted pics and with 5-6 views per picture. In April Steve had posted a lot of pictures with 0-3 views per picture.

So the result is obvious - The Gallery is not interesting for the most part of forum memders at least in this version.

But beeing an active poster my choice is "Both"

P.S. Maybe there are not so many forum members who like pictures in hi-res?

Would you be willing to repost some of those albums as threads in the pictures section?

[Ozabot 63,259]

11 minutes ago, Admin said:

Would you be willing to repost some of those albums as threads in the pictures section?

It depends of the future of the Gallery:

"No" - if the gallery will be

"Maybe" - if not

I think it's two different types of content - gallery album is long-time storage and thread is current, dynamic and actual for 2-3 days without renewing

[Admin 14,790]

6 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

It depends of the future of the Gallery:

"No" - if the gallery will be

"Maybe" - if not

I think it's two different types of content - gallery album is long-time storage and thread is current, dynamic and actual for 2-3 days without renewing

What if we had a pinned thread to act as a sort of directory, allowing specific albums to be found more easily? 

[Ozabot 63,259]

 

23 minutes ago, Admin said:

What if we had a pinned thread to act as a sort of directory, allowing specific albums to be found more easily?

And we'll get the whole page of pinned threads? There are 59 albums in the gallery now.

In this case it's better to create new section  "Members Albums" 

But imagine any Steve's album of 1000+ pics in thread format(

In the gallery it's 30+ pages of thumbnails

[Admin 14,790]

9 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

 

And we'll get the whole page of pinned threads? There are 59 albums in the gallery now.

In this case it's better to create new section  "Members Albums" 

But imagine any Steve's album of 1000+ pics in thread format(

In the gallery it's 30+ pages of thumbnails

I meant one pinned thread entitled 'Member Albums', and people can request their albums to be added to the list if they're a specific niche/category, making them easier to find. It was just a thought, as I feel having all the pictures together would provide a better experience, especially given there are currently numerous problems with the gallery.

Since you and Steve have put so much work into uploading there though, I am happy to be outvoted on this if you both think the galleries are beneficial. 

[Ozabot 63,259]

8 minutes ago, Admin said:

I meant one pinned thread entitled 'Member Albums', and people can request their albums to be added to the list if they're a specific niche/category, making them easier to find. It was just a thought, as I feel having all the pictures together would provide a better experience, especially given there are currently numerous problems with the gallery.

Since you and Steve have put so much work into uploading there though, I am happy to be outvoted on this if you both think the galleries are beneficial.

I've looked one more time to 2017 gallery statistics:

Posters -2, Steve and me

Posted images - better to ask Steve, let it be about 500

Max views per image - 6 (SIX!)

For example, any picture posted on reddit gets ~1000 views at first day

And conclusion is: if you turn off the gallery right now, nobody except You, Steve and me will notice it tomorrow:)

 

[Admin 14,790]

10 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

I've looked one more time to 2017 gallery statistics:

Posters -2, Steve and me

Posted images - better to ask Steve, let it be about 500

Max views per image - 6 (SIX!)

For example, any picture posted on reddit gets ~1000 views at first day

And conclusion is: if you turn off the gallery right now, nobody except You, Steve and me will notice it tomorrow:)

 

I agree with your conclusion to a large extent, but I really value the contributions both of you have made to the gallery, which is why I am reluctant. Though it's true, compare the views the Pictures section gets and it's clear that people would value your posts there far more.

I think I will temporarily disable it to see how we get on without. I'll keep everything saved there (at least those images that do still work after the site went down) so we can potentially return to it - as if it were fixed and advertised better I think it could work. Right now though, let's focus on the Pictures section?

If either of you need view to the gallery to access your pictures/albums in the meantime, please let me know. I'll also see if there's a way to fix the permissions problem and images that aren't loading.

[likesToLick 10,216]

I posted one album in the gallery with just a few pictures,  but received very few comments or ratings.  It seemed like not many members were looking at the galleries.

By contrast,  when I posted images in the forum more people commented and rated,  so I concentrated on posting there.   I used thumbnails or hotlinks to image hosting sites in order to display high resolution pictures, and a number of people said they liked that.

Later my user name became locked out of the galleries (it still is) and I could not use them at all, not even to see the images I posted.

With the new forum software,  we can also have high resolution images in threads,  and we also have a search function for descriptions in posts.  I think with these new features we can live without galleries if necessary.

One thing that would help would be if we could implement member tagging on posted images.   Say Ozabot posted a nice outdoor peeing picture of a woman in a forest,  then when I saw it and liked it,  I would add tags to his post like "outdoor",  "public", "forest" or whatever was appropriate.   Then any other member who wanted to see "forest" peeing, for example, click on the tag "forest", and it would give them a list of other posts with the same tag.   You can see an example of how this works on spankbang.com,  a video hosting site where members can tag each other's uploads.  It has the advantage that it makes no extra work for the person who posts the picture, since other members can tag it themselves.

I also like your idea of having a single sticky thread with links to the themed image threads.  This would help new members to find them.

[Admin 14,790]

8 hours ago, likesToLick said:

I posted one album in the gallery with just a few pictures,  but received very few comments or ratings.  It seemed like not many members were looking at the galleries.

By contrast,  when I posted images in the forum more people commented and rated,  so I concentrated on posting there.   I used thumbnails or hotlinks to image hosting sites in order to display high resolution pictures, and a number of people said they liked that.

Later my user name became locked out of the galleries (it still is) and I could not use them at all, not even to see the images I posted.

With the new forum software,  we can also have high resolution images in threads,  and we also have a search function for descriptions in posts.  I think with these new features we can live without galleries if necessary.

One thing that would help would be if we could implement member tagging on posted images.   Say Ozabot posted a nice outdoor peeing picture of a woman in a forest,  then when I saw it and liked it,  I would add tags to his post like "outdoor",  "public", "forest" or whatever was appropriate.   Then any other member who wanted to see "forest" peeing, for example, click on the tag "forest", and it would give them a list of other posts with the same tag.   You can see an example of how this works on spankbang.com,  a video hosting site where members can tag each other's uploads.  It has the advantage that it makes no extra work for the person who posts the picture, since other members can tag it themselves.

I also like your idea of having a single sticky thread with links to the themed image threads.  This would help new members to find them.

The tag feature has been added to the gallery, which I have now decided we will keep as I have fixed the permissions problem. Obviously more people will view the images now it is accessible. 

Please do add tags to posts you like, as often the uploaders don't have time to go through each image doing so.

Please let me know if it's working okay. :)

[likesToLick 10,216]

26 minutes ago, Admin said:

Please let me know if it's working okay. :)

I can't find any control or button to let me add the tags,  what should I be seeing please?

[Admin 14,790]

8 minutes ago, likesToLick said:

I can't find any control or button to let me add the tags,  what should I be seeing please?

When on an actual image page (i.e. a page with just one image and the comments section underneath etc), there should be a small 'add tag' button under the username of the person who uploaded it. Please let me know if you can see it, as it may only be possible for uploaders to add tags to their own content.

Update: Yeah, currently not letting other members add tags. Will see what I can do.

Update 2: I guess commenting 'Tags: x' would have the same affect in terms of searching. :/ 

[likesToLick 10,216]

I have opened an individual picture of the gallery that I have uploaded.

My avatar and user name are beneath the image name.   Below that is the upload date,  then a grey horizontal line, then a link to "report image".

I can't see anything near there that looks like an "add tag" button, sorry.

[Sophie 24,410]

I never used the galleries to be honest, most of the photos posted didn't interest me and I find the current software annoying and clunky to use. The steps just to view an image full size for example. I would like to just click the photo and see it in full resolution. Instead of clicking a button which doesn't really do much, and then having to click again to view full size.

 

But saying that, I hardly view the photo topics on the forum either. I go elsewhere for my photos.

[Ozabot 63,259]

1 hour ago, Sophie said:

I find the current software annoying and clunky to use. The steps just to view an image full size for example. I would like to just click the photo and see it in full resolution. Instead of clicking a button which doesn't really do much, and then having to click again to view full size.

Totally agree. Classic gallery format "thumbnail - 1 click - fullsized image in new tab" is the best.

And if the gallery and the forum softwares are independent, I'll be highly glad to return to the previous gallery version.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Ozabot

[Ozabot 63,259]

4 hours ago, Admin said:

gallery, which I have now decided we will keep

It's great!

But where is the "Members Albums" button?

[Admin 14,790]

4 hours ago, likesToLick said:

I have opened an individual picture of the gallery that I have uploaded.

My avatar and user name are beneath the image name.   Below that is the upload date,  then a grey horizontal line, then a link to "report image".

I can't see anything near there that looks like an "add tag" button, sorry.

The permissions are a mystery on this software; I'll keep looking for a solution but in the meantime commenting tags has the same affect. Better yet, when uploading the picture, describe it (e.g. Forest pee.jpg) etc. Though I realise that's not always possible. 

1 hour ago, Sophie said:

I never used the galleries to be honest, most of the photos posted didn't interest me and I find the current software annoying and clunky to use. The steps just to view an image full size for example. I would like to just click the photo and see it in full resolution. Instead of clicking a button which doesn't really do much, and then having to click again to view full size.

 

But saying that, I hardly view the photo topics on the forum either. I go elsewhere for my photos.

Fair point about the extra steps, I don't use it often myself so hadn't really noticed that as an issue. The logic behind it is obviously to keep the forum/community element within the gallery too, e.g. with comments, ratings etc. Though I agree in practice it's not ideal.

Do you mind me asking what kind of photos you typically look for, and where you go instead?

38 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

Totally agree. Classic gallery format "thumbnail - 1 click - fullsized image in new tab" is the best.

And if the gallery and the forum softwares are independent, I'll be highly glad to return to the previous gallery version.

Unfortunately they aren't.

21 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

It's great!

But where is the "Members Albums" button?

The Members Album section has gone and those individual albums moved to the correct categories, because it had been wrongly labelled in the first place.

In my opinion, the current system makes far more sense: we have different categories of picture, and you can start a new album either in any of those categories, or 'uncategorised' if somehow your pictures don't fit in any of them. This makes it far easier from viewing images than having 90% of all photos in the same section (Members Albums). I've moved the majority of albums to the correct place, but haven't had time for all of them. I hope you can see what I mean. All your albums remain intact though, just categorised. However, some images aren't working, and unfortunately will need to be reuploaded by the initial contributors to fix them.

I guess for now we'll just leave the gallery and Pictures sections as they are and see how they get on? Then at least people have options. 

 

[Admin 14,790]

Whilst not a full solution, when browsing any album, you can select 'show as large previews' (it's the middle little icon to the right of the page numbers). You can then browse through them at a more reasonable size, and when you find one you like, right click and press 'open image in new tab'. Still not quite what you had in mind maybe, but a workaround that's seems slightly better at least?

[Ozabot 63,259]

34 minutes ago, Admin said:

The Members Album section has gone and those individual albums moved to the correct categories, because it had been wrongly labelled in the first place.

The Members Album was only additional element for easier navigation but it was very useful. For example I want to look likesToLick's album mentioned above, but I don't know the category of album and have to seek it through all categories. Is it good?

The only way now to find member's albums is to use "Albums" tab in member's profile - more time and more ckicks

[Admin 14,790]

20 minutes ago, Ozabot said:

The Members Album was only additional element for easier navigation but it was very useful. For example I want to look likesToLick's album mentioned above, but I don't know the category of album and have to seek it through all categories. Is it good?

The only way now to find member's albums is to use "Albums" tab in member's profile - more time and more ckicks

Surely if you're looking for a specific album by a member, it's quicker to go to their profile and look at their albums? As opposed to scrolling through the list of several pages of random uncategorised member albums? I appreciate that in the past what you're describing was maybe just as fast, but if we have over 1000 albums, surely it will make the process even longer, and finding the right images more time consuming. Besides, I would have assumed more people would be looking for certain types of pictures (e.g. golden showers) than a specific album by a specific member anyway. 

Please correct me if I'm missing something here. Of course if people prefer it the other way I will change it back, but in that case I see no point in having categories too, since they had less than 100 images in them combined, as opposed to the other 12,000 images all being in 'member albums' folder. 

(Just as a side note, 'members albums' is now 'uncategorised', so anything that didn't obviously belong in a specific category - e.g. likestolick's album - is still there).

[Admin 14,790]

The gallery is still vastly underused compared to the Pictures section. Is it time to focus all efforts on the forum side of things?

[Sophie 24,410]

4 hours ago, Admin said:

The gallery is still vastly underused compared to the Pictures section. Is it time to focus all efforts on the forum side of things?

I cannot remember the last time I used the gallery, I think it was because most of the things uploaded didn't interest me. Nothing wrong with the photos themselves, just not what I'm into. But saying that, it's very rare I visit the pictures section either. I get the majority of my pee images from a few tumblr blogs.

[Admin 14,790]

4 minutes ago, Sophie said:

I cannot remember the last time I used the gallery, I think it was because most of the things uploaded didn't interest me. Nothing wrong with the photos themselves, just not what I'm into. But saying that, it's very rare I visit the pictures section either. I get the majority of my pee images from a few tumblr blogs.

Could I ask why? A lot of images on tumblr blogs are just reposts of the ones on the Pictures section (and vice versa, of course). What would make you use our photo area more/instead? What type of picture is missing?