I've been a member of photoSIG for just over a year now. I think it's great and it has really helped my photography. However, there are a few little niggles that eventually I decided to do something about. I'm aware that nobody has the time to program the site so rather than requesting features...

I wrote Link removed by ADMIN to make my experience even better.

I'd just intended it as a tool for myself, but recently a few people have asked me about it - so I thought I'd give it a wider audience. I've already released the feature that will produce an alert when you look at a picture from a user with a low crit.-ratio. There are several other features that I'm willing to polish up and release if enough people show some interest. See the Link Removed by ADMIN site for the download and more information.

Andrew

P.S. Please DON'T use this forum thread to ask the Administrator's (or me) to make any changes to the site. Firstly, they've asked that we don't and secondly it's a waste of time (see above). If you want to suggest new features for Link Removed by ADMIN, there are details of how to do that on the website.

P.P.S. Neither I nor Link removed by ADMIN is in anyway associated with photoSIG (other than me being a regular punter).

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From baba/David (30,019) on November 6, 2009 10:04:46 AM CST There are a couple of problems with that "system". One may be that is doesn't take into account nonconforming critiques. Two, there are members who wrote thousands of one and two word critiques so there ratios are astronomical, and yet they really didn't do the work. Also and more importantly, members who had poor critique ratios in the past and have gotten the message to write more are punished for past behavior when they are now acting as good "photoSIGitzens" and writing critiques. That doesn't seem fair to me. I will continue to take the extra time to check and see if they are writing critiques now, rather than what they did in the past.

From del/Administrator (0) on November 6, 2009 10:08:04 AM CST Good points. BTW, I though photosigitzen was the name of the reindeer with the camera in that Christmas poem. In harness between Donder and Blitzen, doesn't usually show up in photos. Del

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 6, 2009 10:17:15 AM CST David, Yeah - I'm wondering about making it (i) only take account of recent behavior and (ii) ignore non-conforming critiques. Sure, it will never be able to determine critique quality, but I think that would address most of your objections. I'll see what feedback I get through the mechanisms on the psTools site to decide what to do about this. (I don't want to open this can of worms again in this forum - the Administrator's and many others are sick and tired of it.) Andrew

From wdeon/Wayne (8,231) on November 7, 2009 4:12:12 AM CST I always double check for recent signs of rehabilitation so to speak. The tool would miss that I think. On one occasion a greeter jumped the gun a bit with a reminder to keep up the ratio. They hadn't noticed 3 pages of recent critiques to go with maybe 10 new photos. Just shows that to be accurate one needs to look at recent photos and critiques. Looking at just one may misleadingly signal that the person isn't critiquing enough or that the person is posting too many photos. Not sure how close to perfect the script could get....... and maybe should be afraid after watching a few episodes of the Sarah Connor Chronicles (>_<).

From rla251/Ron (5,495) on November 6, 2009 11:06:52 AM CST Andrew, Great addon for fire fox and I sent you a little something through PayPal, keep up the good work. Ron

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 6, 2009 12:09:48 PM CST Ron, Glad you like it. Thanks for the donation - it's very much appreciated. If you want me to put it towards making a particular feature ready for prime-time, let me know. Andrew

From oledk/Ole (4,948) on November 6, 2009 11:49:41 AM CST Not commenting on the tool, I don't like the idea of you asking for donations before you are going to develop the tool. PhotoSIG is a place where we are supposed to help each other. To pay it forward. I know you will probably spend a lot of hours developing the system. But I, and thousands of other members have spent a lot of hours writing critiques.

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 6, 2009 12:19:06 PM CST Ole, The tool (in a limited form) is already available. If you're bothered about making a donation, just download it and use it. As you'll see from the screen-shot, the other features mentioned are already working sufficiently well for me to use them whenever I visit the site. If that's where it ends, that's fine by me. However, if other people like what they've got already and would like me to release some of the other features, I'm happy to do that - given sufficient incentive. Like you, I spend many hours writing critiques. (I spend about 30 minutes on each one and so people often comment that they're particularly detailed critiques.) That's what being part of this community is all about. I've gone further than that and released a tool that anybody can use - for free. All I'm saying, is that if you want more of the tool, then I'll need a few donations. Andrew

From stacy81/Stacy (251) on November 6, 2009 12:30:51 PM CST Andrew, that low crit.-ratio is very intersting, i am new to sig and use ie8 because firefox 3.1 crashed on my system but might try it again to give your tool a try does it block photo or just show ratio

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 6, 2009 4:44:59 PM CST Stacy, It displays an alert bar at the top of the screen (and removes the "Write a critique" link) if the crit-ratio is below a configurable limit (default 3:1). If you really want to write a critique all the same, you just click "Ignore Once". See the screenshot for an example of a feature that works in almost exactly the same way. Andrew

From dogothunder/Tim (5,595) on November 6, 2009 9:35:49 PM CST Why does it keep trying to open and install under Netscape Navigator v.8? That's what happens when I execute the xpi I downloaded.

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 7, 2009 7:50:38 AM CST Tim, psTools is only designed for Mozilla Firefox. It's a long time since I've had anything to do with Netscape Navigator. Andrew

From dogothunder/Tim (5,595) on November 7, 2009 8:15:41 AM CST I think you misunderstood my post. When I click on your file, Netscape is loading rather than Firefox. There must be some association set wrong I guess.

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 7, 2009 2:06:47 PM CST Sorry for the misunderstanding Tim. What browser are you using when you click on the download? If you're using Firefox, it should automatically recognize it as a plugin and install it (rather than download it). If it is an association problem, there are a couple of things you could try. Try Tools -> Options -> Applications. If there's an entry for XPI's then set it to Firefox (or delete it). Alternatively, if you bring up Windows Explorer and go to Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types you might be able to change/delete the association there. Andrew

From sheena/Administrator (0) on November 7, 2009 8:48:56 AM CST In future, before making a forum post about any tools created for photoSIG, it would be appreciated if the programmer runs it by the site administration first. Making and using a tool for oneself is totally their business, but when one makes a forum post about it and encourages others to use it it becomes our business. It's important to photoSIG that any tool for using the site published in our forums is in keeping with the environment we are trying to create and our TOS. For example, any mention of a kill file, or ignore function is not in keeping with the environment photoSIG is trying to create. Thank you.

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 7, 2009 2:18:53 PM CST Sorry Sheena. I'd tried really hard not to rankle the Admins with this thread - but I obviously failed. My apologies. Andrew

From sheena/Administrator (0) on November 7, 2009 10:49:02 PM CST I'm not rankled. If I was rankled you'd know it. I am instructing you and others in the appropriate way to post information about software they have created for others to use on photoSIG. And in fact this is the same thing I told you in 2008. The issues remain the same.

From jroessler/John (7,435) on November 7, 2009 9:27:01 AM CST Some technical questions I'd like an answer to before downloading and installing on my machine. Does it create any cookies? Does it make any additions to the Registry? Does it do any kind of transmission? Does it contain a complete uninstall? At a secondary level - assuming you were writing this is the spirit of an amateur: what language/programming environment were you using? Is there documentation on you created the interface to PSig?

From arr28/Andrew (1,160) on November 7, 2009 2:14:07 PM CST John, It doesn't create any cookies. It doesn't make any additions to the Windows registry. (It stores its settings within Firefox. You can see all settings from all plugins + more by going to about:config.) Firefox automatically checks for updates to all installed plugins. Therefore, your browser will periodically check the download to see if there's a new one there. No personal information is sent. Apart from that, it only communicates with photoSIG. Yes, it contains a complete uninstall (Tools -> Add-ons -> psTools -> Uninstall). I write software for a living but I wrote this in my own free time - primarily for my personal use. All Firefox plugins must be written in XUL (a Mozilla language) and javascript. Hope that helps, but do let me know if you have any more questions. Andrew

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