[DEV] New uploading process in the make

There are a lot of problems at the moment with uploads, for example:
- A new users sometimes have to wait weeks before something they upload get put online.
- Some users just upload everything, even watermarked, pro, dirty...
- There is no upload limit as of this moment, resulting in long waiting times because of a queue of over 20k+ pictures.
- There is almost no penalty for people who break rules willingly

I have been thinking of a way to make it more fun for everybody to upload something and don't have to wait ages till their content gets put online. My idea is simple but has to be refined before I can start making this. Lets start with the basics:

1) Deny images on upload that are smaller then: 500x375 or 375x500 (maybe needs tweaking)
2) Scan for duplicates at upload with MD5 / SHA1 and maybe Perceptual Hashing (is slow now and only used at moderation only) and deny on upload
3) Set a upload/queue limit for users depending on behavior of past uploads
4) Easier way for user to see why content was deleted or rejected
5) Visually see what is in your queue (thumbnail overview) and a way to manage your own queue to remove things that shouldn't be their.
6) The better you keep by the rules, your uploads get put in front of others with lower "trust status". New uploaders will always get put in front.
7) Automatically remove upload rights when to much penalties are given.

Point 4 could help with determining the upload/queue limit of a user (Point 3). This should be a system that has rewards and penalties, a penalty lowers the queue limit and a reward highers them. Good users shouldn't be punished for users who upload everything they get their hands on. Now we have to think about a way to calculate this "trust status" for a user.

Penalties should be given for these reasons: Watermarked, Underage, Gross, Unrelated to the site, Photoshopped, Upscalled/Low quality. (If you have any other reasons please reply bellow).

Rewards should be given for these reasons: Accepted, Accepted for high quality (please help me think of more).

How would the reward system work? Should we put a weight on every action and calculate a score that represents the "trust status" of a user?

Any idea here is welcome, please help!

I think most of this sounds good, but I have a bit of a problem with "New uploaders will always get put in front." To me, its kind of like punishing our long term good members by saying, "for your awesome work in the past, and all you have done for the site, we are now going to make the person who has never contributed anything to the site our priority."

I liken it to the deals that some companies offer new customers "open a new checking account and get a TV" When the customer who as been with the bank for 30 years gets nothing.

My solution would be to give sponsor members first priority and then oldest most trusted members the next priority. I think you should reward the people that have stuck by the site and have contributed financially and with content, rather than the person who is brand new.

Just my opinion.

Yeah, it doesn't sit so well with me either, but I get it. We don't want new members to get discouraged and never return to the site if it takes 2+ weeks for their uploads to go through.

I would like the ability to review what's in the queue, though. That'd be a nice feature to have.

Quote:

Originally posted by Diz-X

2) Scan for duplicates at upload with MD5 / SHA1 and maybe Perceptual Hashing (is slow now and only used at moderation only) and deny on upload

Don't automatically reject reposts because it helps cleaning the gallery (when more than one similar pictures are found).
Also, sometimes, the new uploads has a way better quality/size than the one in the galleries. In this case I often delete the old one and accept the better quality one.
Denying on upload would prevent those two things.

As for the system itself :
You can add "pros", "sideways", "multiple pics in one" and "personal informations" for the penalties.
Cropped, reposts and too small (if filtered automatically) would be rejected but would not give a penalty.

To avoid the issue of new users being to much in front (compared to trusted users), the upload limit at start should be quite small (50 pics for example). So even if the new users get to go first, their queue would be significantly smaller than trusted users.
Then, they would follow two path :
- their uploads are crappy : their "trust score" decrease so they keep their small queue limit but lose their priority (and maybe get an upload suspension in the end)
- their uploads are good : their "trust score" increase so their queue limit grows and their priority remain high (only new users will be on top of them).

Quote:

Originally posted by kylecook

I would like the ability to review what's in the queue, though. That'd be a nice feature to have.

This feature already exists but is reserved for queue mods. The reason for this is that if every mod had queue rights (which happened at the start of the new version), they would focus on picture deletion (as this is the only thing you can do there) and not enough on accepting pics.

Quote:

Originally posted by Sugarpie

I have a bit of a problem with "New uploaders will always get put in front."

Perhaps this would work in conjunction with the new uploaders having a much smaller initial maximum queue size.

New users always get smaller initial queue size; For example 50 as omuh suggested.

How are you going to implement this at the beginning - does everyone start with a 0 'trust' score and have to prove themselves? If not, what level of upload amounts does each existing member get?

Quote:

Originally posted by mikeyeven

I agree with Sugar pie on the sponsor members getting some priority, but I think new members should get some too. I only say this because I see so many that join the site upload pics, get tired of waiting to see them posted, and never come back.

It appears to me that other than giving new members (or new contributors) initial priority, this system would not so much GIVE priority as it would REMOVE priority from members who's contribution don't meet the standards. There would be basically one higher priority group including new members, sponsor members and high quality contributing non-sponsor members (such as jhope and others) This sounds like a good thing to me.

Am I viewing the concept accurately?

It sounds like a fair way to keep the low quality / non-conforming content out while making the high quality content available faster.

The whole idea of the system is to let new members contribute and let quality members profit the same.

On the whole initial trust lvl, i have to think about how I would fix that... but it's a process That's why I involve everybody and give everybody a change to contribute in this new system.

Edited my post to add "sideways" and "multiple pics in one" as penalties

Speaking from the moderator side of things, there are a few things I'd like to say:

1) Bring back the 'permanent delete' button. I see people constantly reuploading pics after they've been deleted, which just adds to our workload.
2) When duplicate pics come up when I'm going through the queue, I always save the oldest one. Trying to find the 'best' pic when you have 15 duplicates would be way too time consuming, it may penalize the original uploader by having their pic deleted and it could potentially mess up series. If you'd like to only keep the best, I'd suggest adding file size and dimension info on our screens. You can't always go with the bigger pic (dimension wise) because people are uploading resized pics all the time.
3) If an extra step is added to let users know why a pic has been deleted, it will add time to the review process and you won't be speeding up anything. In fact, I think it would be slower than it is now.

How dare you use logic, curse you Screwy!

Couldn´t agree more - as long as(s) we just have the good chance of more great looking females on my DT - Quicker

Quote:

Originally posted by Diz-X

5) Visually see what is in your queue (thumbnail overview) and a way to manage your own queue to remove things that shouldn't be their.

Definitely like this idea. I know in my queue I have a watermarked that I didn't catch until it was too late. And if you're going to punish someone for uploading an unacceptable picture they should definitely have a chance to remove it before said punishment.

Quote:

Originally posted by screwy

Speaking from the moderator side of things, there are a few things I'd like to say:

1) Bring back the 'permanent delete' button. I see people constantly reuploading pics after they've been deleted, which just adds to our workload.
2) When duplicate pics come up when I'm going through the queue, I always save the oldest one. Trying to find the 'best' pic when you have 15 duplicates would be way too time consuming, it may penalize the original uploader by having their pic deleted and it could potentially mess up series. If you'd like to only keep the best, I'd suggest adding file size and dimension info on our screens. You can't always go with the bigger pic (dimension wise) because people are uploading resized pics all the time.
3) If an extra step is added to let users know why a pic has been deleted, it will add time to the review process and you won't be speeding up anything. In fact, I think it would be slower than it is now.

Good input!

On point 3, I am going to add default options, simple buttons instead of delete you can choice between options... so the clicks will be the same.