Comment Form And Commenter Rating System

[Fubster]

QUOTE(joeyd @ Aug 15 2008, 08:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

fubster...THANKS, that did the trick. Now when I click on a preview the comment box appears and then a new window quickly opens with the full size image to download if wanted. I can then close the full size window and the comment box is there to use or close as desired.

The comment box is a nice feature and yes I will leave more comments for all the great designers/artists who contribute their talents.

Your response and solution is much appriciated. joeyd

You are quite welcome - we really are trying to make the site better for everyone, and not pester or (what was that word MrHenry used?) nag anyone....so now that I have addressed what I thought was a pressing need, let me address MrHenryDog...

QUOTE(MrHenryDog @ Aug 15 2008, 06:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

its a good idea, but makes me feel nagged. im not a big commenter. if i really like a cover i'll comment and i look at a lot of full size covers wthout downloading them.
yes i know i should comment more, but an option to turn it off would be good

also will it keep nagging me once i am considered to be an excellent leaver of comments? ie is there a cut-off point when it will stop asking me?

Baz and I actually discussed the ability for a user to say "don't bug me anymore" when we first started talking about making a comment popup. But, two factors made us go without that ability: 1) Since this isn't truly a popup and can easily be ignored, we thought there would be little impact on those users who do not wish to be commenters. 2) It would have been a significant amount of additional code to implement the "don't bug me anymore" feature (I won't go into the technical details).

Our plan is for the comment box to always be there, regardless of commenter level. Even if there was a cut-off point, more downloads without comments would lead to a smaller ratio, which would lead to a lower level, which would eventually drop you out of that cut-off range..... Of course, I believe that a member who comments frequently will really like the box anyway - it is more convenient than having to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to leave a comment.

On a final note...when you preview a full size image, that image (jpg file) is sent from the server to your computer so that you can view it in your browser, i.e. it is downloaded. You may not save every full size image you preview, but in technical terms, you have downloaded that image. We have no way of tracking what the member does once he looks at the full size image (did he save it or not), so any "looks" at a full size image count as a download.

I hope I have been clear, I hope I have given you some insight into our thought process, and I hope you will not continue to feel "nagged" by the comment box. That really was not our intention, and we really do respect every member's right not to comment.

[Kernie]

Love the idea, been getting a lot of comments on my work, but it seems that some people (I won't name names on this forum) have just been typing random crap as a comment in an effort to boost their ratio. To me, that's pretty cheap on their part, I've been getting a few PM's where it's just said something like "xd" or whatever. Unless that's internet lingo (i.e., lol, jk, etc.) that I'm not aware of, it's not really a worthwhile comment.

Any ideas on how to enforce leaving an actual comment rather than garbage meant to give someone a yellow smiley?

[Fubster]

I'm not sure about enforce, but Baz and I are already talking about an enhancement to encourage meaningful comments. Also, with the problem that joeyd pointed out, some people may have been putting in those poor comments merely because they thought they needed to comment in order to download. Hopefully, going forward, the people who want to leave meaningful comments will be the only ones worried about what level they are.

Let us know if those garbage comments continue, or if they seem to clear up. I will be interested in knowing.

Thanks!

[sDaveHR]

QUOTE(Fubster @ Aug 16 2008, 12:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not sure about enforce, but Baz and I are already talking about an enhancement to encourage meaningful comments. Also, with the problem that joeyd pointed out, some people may have been putting in those poor comments merely because they thought they needed to comment in order to download. Hopefully, going forward, the people who want to leave meaningful comments will be the only ones worried about what level they are.

Let us know if those garbage comments continue, or if they seem to clear up. I will be interested in knowing.

Thanks!

fubster, you called this one correctly. Sadly, I entered several #8s in the comment box on one just because I thought I had to make some sort of an entry just for viewing the full size image. I honestly didn't realize "viewing" a full size image actually was a download even if not saved. Thanks for pointing this out to me. And, now that you have solved my problem of the full size window opening in my browser, if I view one or several full size images of a title and save one of them the designer can be assured that I will be leaving a comment. Again thanks, joeyd

[Fubster]

A few random thoughts on all of this...

• Notice the ratio required for level 4 (Articulate) is only 30%. I think the statement one of us made during design discussions was "Anyone who actually comments on 50% of the items he downloads is doing pretty [darn] good.
• We changed the titles of the levels, I have edited the announcement post in this thread with the new titles, so you can go back and see that if you wish.
• Not all comments have to be along the lines of "great work". Constructive comments are also allowed. If you download/view an item and decide it is not quite to your liking, feel free to tell the artist why you feel that way. If the artist is sensitive, and does not want to read those, he can put something like "positive comments only, please" in his description.
• The "enhancement to encourage meaningful comments" I was talking about is something we are calling "comment hints" - a randomized hint taken from a list will show in the comment box each time it displays. They won't be cut and paste hints, but "what do you think about the colors used?" type of hints. I hope to have this completed by Monday.
• HiResCovers really is the best site around...I believe most of the other sites are working off a "credit" system. This means that people like MrHenryDog, who like to look at a lot of the full size images just to admire the work, can do so without eating up credits. Twice now, I have posed the question to Baz if he would want to go to a credit system. Each time, the answer was an emphatic "no", which I followed up with "good".
• The amount of comments being left now is astonishing (even after I fixed the problem with some browsers that made it look like comments were mandatory). Sometime next week, I am going to post the comments/day stats for the month, and let you see the jump...

[zantasha]

Killer idea fubster & bazz...congratulation to both of you

[sleepyhead]

I'm the same as MHD - not a great commenter.
But I think this is a great addition and will prick me into commenting more and as for nagging, well I've got used to that over the years (lol) so I don't think that's going to be a problem.

[sauron]

Excellent idea mate. Love it

[faxon]

Absolutly love this , will defently comment when/if i get promoted !!

[nonini]

Great work on this fubster & bazzah

Cheers nonini