Feature Addition: PBase Topics

[lenightowl]

A BIG THANK YOU Emily ,
....for making the Photography Topics <a href="http://www.pbase.com/topics">random!</a>

[lenightowl]

Could we have an additional "more random" link below the thumbnails? Could we pleaaaaaase, Emily?

[mardoli]

I’m not sure I have fully understood the logic of “Topicsâ€

[mardoli]

... I noticed people create topics featuring shamelessly their own galleries.
Doesn't this look like self-promotion?
I thought the purpose of topics was to share other people's galleries

I’m not sure why it should be considered so shameful if someone included also their own gallery in a topic.
After all there is a forum called “Show and Tellâ€

[slug]

To Marisa,
Eventually there will be other ways of finding good topics other than just random selections. It's a very new feature and there are a limited number of topics so far so the random method is as good as any for searching through topics right now.

Topics have potential for exactly the reason you point out that anyone can create a topic with a selection of galleries to their liking.
You used Paris as an example. Paris is very different things to different people. One person might think photos of famous buildings represent Paris while someone else may only find photos of people in the city interesting.

A few years ago I made a rudimentary topics feature where only I could add galleries to a topic. I soon realized this was impossible, as trying to categorize galleries into a million possible topics would be a full time job for many people.
The next step seemed to be assigning a moderator to each topic. But if we assigned a particular person be in charge of the Paris topic, there would be many who disagreed on that person's selections. Or maybe that person would lose interest and stop maintaining the topic.

With the current system though, anyone can create any topic and maintain it as they see fit. If someone makes an interesting or useful topic, then other people could bookmark it or link to it. If someone starts a topic but loses interest or starts putting off-topic galleries in it, then it will be forgotten.

Topics are an experiment in organization. It may take years to develop into something great. But at least in the meantime it can still be useful to an individual who wants to remember certain galleries for their own purposes.

-slug

[mardoli]

To Marisa,
....
Topics are an experiment in organization. It may take years to develop into something great. But at least in the meantime it can still be useful to an individual who wants to remember certain galleries for their own purposes.

-slug

I fully agree with you on this point, Slug!
Thank you for answering. I do see your point of view and I think it's right.
Let's see how the potentiality of "topics" feature will develop.
I know you and Emily do a hard work to improve all features and it's not easy to please everybody all the time.
So I really appreciate when both of you take the time to communicate with Pbasers through forums.
Keep on like that!
All the best
Marisa

[hmetal]

A few of your galleries were blocked from the popular pages because of their content. Many people are offended by seeing any nudity on public areas of the site. So, we have to block certain galleries from appearing on the popular pages. We will have to do this for topics that are full of images that are inappropriate for the public areas of PBase as well. We are not targeting anybody by doing this. I had to do it to one of my own galleries.

I hope this helps clear things up.

Thanks,
Emily

Thanks for the reply, Emily. I appreciate the acknowledgement. Some notes/suggestions for you and slug:

- a few galleries were blocked? I only have 3 main galleries. I guess that means they're ALL blocked? My high key image is still not showing in popular galleries/photos and it contains no nudity ( it had 15 votes last I noticed - http://www.pbase.com/hmetal/image/45931886 )

- why not implement the features we need to self-police so that we can prevent ONLY certain photos from getting into the popular photos/galleries meta-gallery? e.g. let us mark our photos "mature content" so that those who don't want to see them don't have to. e.g. you would also add a mature content filter in each of our preferences and when ticked, those users don't see that mature content. Seriously, it is a trivial thing to do in PHP. Those who don't want to use the mature content marking feature can suffer with their images being blocked as you would make it a rule that nudity must be marked "mature content."

- if your ability to do the above filter system is limited, how about just blocking particular IMAGES from being shown in popular galleries, so that my "non-objectional" photos can be reinstated to popular galleries/photos rather than blocking complete galleries?

[emily]

Hey Ray,

We are working on a system that will allow people to choose what content they are comfortable with. So, the current system is only temporary. I hope this helps.

-Emily

[hmetal]

Thanks Emily. I can't wait to see it in action!

[bobfloyd]

... I noticed people create topics featuring shamelessly their own galleries.
Doesn't this look like self-promotion?
I thought the purpose of topics was to share other people's galleries

I’m not sure why it should be considered so shameful if someone included also their own gallery in a topic.
After all there is a forum called “Show and Tellâ€

[donrisi]

I am no longer seeing the topic button on any gallery in Pbase. Has the feature been removed?

[dang]

If someone has made a topic, then they won't have the button on their profile. I have several topics, and the access button is on my profile. It's also in galleries I've viewed today, so I don't think it's missing. Well, for me at least.