Report effect Similarity or Hide this EFFECT!

[lucato Profile Website]

Nowadays there is very similar effects, and IMHO it would be interesting to have a icon "Mark as Similar". So, you will have a "list of similar effects" in refine your search column, and from that list (all with thumbs) the user would click/mark a checkbox to identify two or more similar effects and a button to report to SPE team. The team would check and remove the "repeated ones" or very similar ones from the list, or ask to the creator to modify that a complain was made and so on. Maybe it is too much complicated to develope and manage, and also maybe it isn't a good idea for other reasons...

So another better idea would be the HIDE FEATURE. So, SPE would have a button "Hide this effect" in the Effect Controls, and it will hide for ever all effects marked as "Hide it". After hidden these effects, the user won't see any longer the effectis in the "All contributions"/Gallery effects list. So, if the user wants to retrieve a hidden effect, SPE would have a list of hidden effects (Hidden Gallery) that the user would see all them, use them from the hidden list, and also bring them back (select which one to show). So, the HIDE feature won't delete the effect, and users will be able to look their image with the hidden effects by looking into the "hidden gallery" and they can retry back some if they think that will use a lot or still keep in the hide gallery but use from there. So, in other words, they all will still be available for use.

Well, just a suggestion to shrink the list of not useful effects for each user.

Have a nice weekend
Luis (Lucato)

[Arwin Profile]

Hi lucato,

As it will be a nice option to be able to see similar effects as the effect you choose (in such case you can refine the effect search indeed), the effect upload system does not allow identical effects, they will be rejected.

SPE is using already an approach to determine if a effect is populair or not, as you can 'rate' the effect and using the effect is another way in popularity calculation, all 'poor' effects (or less used, because you will find definitely good effects while skipping pages in the gallery) will ranking down in the list and are not visible on, lets say, the first 5 pages.

An option for the author of an effect to delete the effect is something that I would like to see, because it happends that I revised an effect, like the Nice view is infect replaced by the Nice view v2 because the first one has a minor mistake in it.

But maybe others like your ideas, these were my thoughts

Regards,
Arwin

[andrewb2012 Profile]

Hi lucato,

I respect some of your comments, but not all. Firstly, I agree with you that the effect gallery can be overpowering and the search function needs to be developed. I am happy if the team includes a button that allows users to HIDE effects that they don't require or don't like. I too would like to see some reorganisation - perhaps a MAIN gallery showing the 'most popular' effects and 'new effects' (with sufficient time for them to be seen in the main gallery - I think the main gallery should have about 50-75 pages. Besides the main gallery, I think there should be an accessible ARCHIVE gallery where all remaining effects can reside allowing users to access them whenever they like.

I TOTALLY DISAGREE with your idea that users could flag up SIMILAR effects for the team to consider removing them. I'll tell you why - contributing users spend time and energy creating effects for other users to freely use - they do so on the understanding that a ranking system exists that could push their effects to the end of the gallery should they not be popular, but that they will remain in existence. I've made many effects that were considered extreme and by some unusable - but I've shown that just about every effect can be used creatively in the right hands (not necessarily at the simple push of a button, but by tweaking & manipulation). In fact I have had a number of users who have found uses for my effects that they initially thought had no practical use). If perchance a contributing user has to to reinstall Smart Photo Editor there is a possibility that they will lose the 'Local' version of the effect - their backup is in the SPE effect gallery (unless they had saved a 'Session' file) - so, if their effects were removed, then they cannot access an effect that they made. My biggest contention with what you say, is the inference that there is no worthwhile difference between many effects - according to you, these SIMILAR effects need clearing out. I don't really like thinking about effects in terms of similarity as such, I prefer to talk about VARIATIONS - each with a little unique element that can produced vastly different results. As you probably know I have contributed many effects to the gallery. When I make effects I often have target users in mind - there are users who simply want to use an effect 'as is' without tweaking and variations allow them the freedom to compare one effect with another before deciding on the one or the combined effects they will use. At the other end, there are many users who are not satisfied with simply using a effect 'as is' and want to put their own stamp on their creative output - these users are more likely to open up effects an do MANUAL edits to suit their needs. My effects are designed for different skill sets.

I just wonder how many truly SIMILAR effects exist - let me illustrate. I normally create series of effects and give the series titles. Users, can find a list of my effects in the 'User Leaderboard' - although, each effect is shown singly, series effects have numbers, for example, 001-054 - all you need to do is type in the name of the effects in the gallery search box (without the numbers) and the series should come up. You might consider each effect in my series to be SIMILAR - but that is a matter of opinion. As I said, I prefer to consider each effect to be a variation - sometimes the variation might not be that obvious - it might be in the effect structure and is only found by doing a manual edit. I use series as a way of helping users find groups of my effects. So, I've taken one series called 'Another Set Of Textures' and I applied over a dozen of the effects from the series WITHOUT ANY CHANGES WHATSOEVER - DID NOT USE ANY SLIDERS, DID NOT DO MANUAL EDITS - I applied them at a single click. Here are the results:

anigif.gif (1.73 MiB) Viewed 8383 times

I think I've shown that these are indeed variations and are valid effects in their own right - there are unique elements (perhaps subtle ones) to each of them - but at quick glance they could be considered SIMILAR. I don't take offence at much, but I would be offended if somewhere down the line a system was implemented that allowed my effects to be removed because of a subjective judgement.

Arwin's idea is one I would back 100%, and that is the ability of an effect author to delete an effect so that it is replaced by a better version. Effects have been removed at authors request by the Anthropics team (including mine), but it would be great to be able to have that control as an effect author. But that raises security issues for the company so it is unlikely that that will happen.

In concluding, I'm not aware of any effects contributed by you (although I may be wrong), but I put it to you 'How would you feel if effects that you had created and shared were removed in the manner you suggested'.

You have a right to your opinion, but I hope I have put another slant on your argument.

Kind regards,

Andrew

[lucato Profile Website]

Hi Andrew.
First of all thanks for your time replying the message and thanks for pointing and all explanations. I appreciated that.
Yes, you're right, I didn't contribute any effect yet, but I'm talking as user and not as contributor. By the way, congratulations for the efffects and thanks a lot for all contribuitions.
I may agree with you that the "Report Similar" idea, wasn't a good idea, first because one effect that may be not good for one user, doesn't mean that cannot be good for another user. ;0)

On the other hand, IMHO, the HIDE idea is a solution for users that don't want to get flooded of effects they don't like or are really just a little variation from another effect. It won't delete the effect, just hide them and if the user want to look again for the hidden effects, he would have access to the hidden list to retrieve the ones he wants to recover (unhide).

Regarding the REORGANISATION, I think this HIDE solution also would send the data to the server and instead of based on the ranking, because a bunch of users doens't rank the effects, would be the based on the hidden status from users, so by sending such data (hidden effects, it would inform wich effect is less used (more hidden), and this way would reorganise the effects. So, the unhidden would be the most popular. The new effects would hava an icon below them or on top of them like a new text flag/ribbon, or any other icon to represent new. Well something like that.

Regarding you commente about Arwin's idea, I agree also that an Update effect would be great if the creator would update its own effect "slot".

Best wishes and have a nice day.

[andrewb2012 Profile]

Hi lucato,

Thanks for your constructive reply. Glad you have reappraised the 'Report Similar' idea, as for the other aspects - I think we are like minded, I certainly don't have an issue with a 'Hide' button - your new idea about the use of the hide button to feedback to the system in order to rank effects seems good to me.

I've had a little look at your website (will look properly later) and was very impressed with your professionalism - best wishes in all your creative endeavours!

Kind regards,

Andrew

[lucato Profile Website]

Hi Andrew, thank you for your nice words. Glad you have enjoyed the websites. The 3 sites besides Brazilian Portuguese language are also in English, just search for idioma/language menu. ;0)
I had I quick look at you SPE blog too yesterday. Congratulations.
I wish you and your family Happy Hollidays.
Best wishes,
Luis (Lucato)

[eadams Profile]

@Andrew: I LOVE the variations of the boat scene that you posted!

@lucato:
I agree that it is important to allow similar effects - sometimes a minor difference makes a world of difference.

I don't like the idea of hiding effects because some effects only look good on certain images or certain types of images. When an effect looks terrible on one image, one might be tempted to hide the effect. Then when the ideal image does present itself, the effect won't be available.

I think that the tagging (keywording) and search functionality needs improvement. It is possible to tag an effect with a keyword, but the functionality is really hidden. Also, sometime the tags attached to effects are inappropriate.

[lucato Profile Website]

@eadams.

I agree with you that "some effects only look good on certain images or certain types of images", but also there are effects that doesn't fit or doesn't look good for any image in my taste, and each user has its tastes. So, IMHO, it is still a needed this feature idea. Besides that, as I said before, the HIDE feature won't delete the effect, so you will be able to look you image with the effects by seen the hidden gallery and retry back some if you think you will use a lot or still keep in the hide gallery but use from there. So, in other words, they all will still be available for use. ;0)