SHOW OFF YOUR PENS -new category?

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jeff

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Every album category has a gallery view.

Such as this for the featured pens album.

Edit: I intended to say that I can create an album into which anyone can upload.

Would there be a way of hiding all of the file information? just it kinda looks like a file browser more than one of those swish photo galleries.


I wonder how hard it would be to implement the ability to search the SOYP forum based on a specified number of likes. For example, if you could search SOYP for posts with more than 50 likes it would show you a pretty good selection of popular pens. Want to see more, search for 25+ likes. Want to see fewer search for 100+ likes. Want to see every pen, just go thread by thread like many do now.

I have no idea how hard a "like" search criteria would be to implement, but it would eliminate many of the concerns expressed in this thread. No pens would be singled out as more or less awesome than another, other than the expression of "likes" that already takes place. Those interested could find the more popular pens whenever they want. Nobody needs to make a decision on what to add to a gallery or what to exclude from a gallery. And there would be no separate gallery for anybody to maintain. It's all in the SOYP and people can choose to view it however they want.


Ed

Would be good if attributes were possible when posting a pen such as stating material type, so for arguments sake I could search for metal pens. I appreciate that would be alot of coding, and can understands Jeff's concerns about trying to integrate more with an update looming.

Jeff, just a thought... but rather than touching the forum, would hosting a photography gallery on the web server be possible? it could be integrated into the site just by links being placed on the forum which direct to it or opens it in a sub frame, if that's the correct wording.

Granted this one is a hosted online service, but serves as an example as to how they might be displayed.

Pixieset - Example

I quite like the design of the gallery on my website too, which is hosted by Wix. Not sure where we would find such a gallery as server side software though

Brad - we have a photo gallery - what are its shortcomings?

EDIT: (I gotta stop hitting post so fast!)

I really don't want to add another component into the mix. Importing and integrating get complicated.

Also, I can minimize the amount of data shown on the album page.
 
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BradG

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Jeff
Good to hear the one already in place is tweakable. Mainly just hiding what's crossed off here. I guess it's not really a big issue if the info is there, so long as the thumbnails are larger.

attachment.php



I like the three across view, but perhaps increase the size of the thumbnail x 3?

Just my thoughts..

Edit: I notice when you click the link it displays further info about the picture, which is where we could put the link to the actual thread and the name of the pen maker etc. As the same is loaded when you click on the picture itself, this link could be hidden too.
 

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Skie_M

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Would be good if attributes were possible when posting a pen such as stating material type, so for arguments sake I could search for metal pens. though

That sounds like a nice upgrade option ...

You could allow searches by tags that describe the target style of pens ...


Metal / Wood / Acrylic / Composite / Segmented / Cast

And further describe the type of components for the barrels:

Brass / Copper / Silver / Stainless Steel / Aluminum ect ...

For wood, what ever species ... for acrylic, whatever the item was named and by it's predominant color ... for composite, what items were included with the resin ... for Segmented, the major wood components or style (Celtic Knots, ect) and for Cast, the subject matter (sea life, thin blue line, stamps, ect)


When you upload a photo into your gallery, setting the appropriate keywords would make your pens more easy and friendly to find, and this would also encourage people to take the time to become more familiar with the forum software.
 

Smitty37

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I have no input regarding if or how this should be implemented and incorporated into the site. I assume that some way something could be done. I still have a couple of questions that will need to be answered regarding the basic idea.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of pens submitted to SOYP each year.

How will the decision be made to consider a pen for inclusion? Nominations? Pulling names out of a hat? Including every pen submitted to SOYP.

Once the decision is made to consider an pen for inclusion - who will make the decision on whether a pen should be included or not.

If a pen is suggested for inclusion and not included - will there be an explanation of why not? Who will make the explanation, will it be public or private?

Don't take this as opposition to the idea - I have already said I am neutral on that. But things being done without thinking them thru often wind up with unintended consequences that do more harm than good and I want this site to avoid them.
 

BradG

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As everyone had made pretty clear its not a hall of fame as the focus is on the pen not the artist, I suggest all pens what receive 50+ likes. No arguments. If it got 50 plus likes it was clearly popular for one reason or another and is worth flagging.

I would take it a step further with the other suggestions for first of its kind limiting it to unique pens, but I'm foreseeing alot of arguing and sniping. Most probably best to keep it at 50+ likes unless someone has another number in mind.
 

Smitty37

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As everyone had made pretty clear its not a hall of fame as the focus is on the pen not the artist, I suggest all pens what receive 50+ likes. No arguments. If it got 50 plus likes it was clearly popular for one reason or another and is worth flagging.

I would take it a step further with the other suggestions for first of its kind limiting it to unique pens, but I'm foreseeing alot of arguing and sniping. Most probably best to keep it at 50+ likes unless someone has another number in mind.
It seems that the criteria is changing from unique or special to popular.

How long do you think it will be before we are discussing how to "limit" the number of pens in the 'special' gallery? M;y guess would be about a year, possibly two. I could be wrong but I think that there will be a lot more "likes" given.

I have one of your pens BradG, that if such a site existed I would think belonged there because it is unique I don't know if it ever even was put in SOYP.
 

BradG

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Popular generally is unique and special. Not always but usually.

Smitty apologies if I've got this wrong, but wasnt it the Egyptian themed pen you have?
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/life-ra-kitless-105286/

So this one wouldn't have gone in based on the 43 votes :)
When I mentioned average joe pens these are the ones I was meaning.. referring to their shape. tubular in design, body and a lid. an average joe pen.

This is one I posted later, which received 100 likes.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/maybe-you-need-change-spark-plug-108476/
Unique in design - received a lot of likes. sure the odd one will slip through the net, but if it's truely that eye catching it will receive them.

Yes the thought of lots more likes in a year crossed my mind too, but we can play devils advocate until the cows come home. it's also a non brainer... if that happens we would just increase the threshold to a number everyone agrees on in the future, but we'l worry about that when we get to it.

By all means if anyone has another idea as to how it could work I'm all ears but the strongest suggestion I've heard so far is by like count.
 
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H2O

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jsolie

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Okay, I kinda glossed over page four and the last part of page 3.

At the bottom of each post is a "like" button. Many times when someone posts a really nice pen, there are both a lot of "likes" and a lot of posts about the pen. Usually there are more "likes" than posts. Note I said usually.

At the bottom of the SOYP forum (and at the bottom of every one, I would imagine) is a drop-down where you can specify a sort order. This drop down's options are currently "Last Post Time", "Thread Start Time", "Number of Replies", "Number of Views", "Thread Starter" and "Thread rating."

Of these, Number of replies, number of views and thread rating all give clues as to thread with a particularly nice pen.

I'm not sure what the limitations of the forum software are, but it'd be pretty neat to be able to have "Number of Likes" as one of these sort options.

That way, if you want to see pens that a lot of people like, there you go. Maybe some magic number could be derived by adding likes, views, replies and rating to provide some sort of nearly anonymous community ranking of a particular thread.
 
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