Forum
>
Site Discussion
>
Thread
Log in |
Register
Lately we've had to process way too many merges of duplicate uploads, to the tune of 50-100 per day.
In order to cut down on this, I ran a script to find the 15 or so users whose uploads most frequently end up in merges and applied additional throttling to their upload counts. You are one of these users. Specifically, 31% of your uploads from the past month have ended up in a merge, whether by winning the merge or losing. (In your case you have 38 merge losses and 9 merge wins.)
If you want to get the restriction removed, spend the next few weeks uploading pictures that don't get merged, or have other uploads merged into them. This means: don't upload pics which others are also likely to upload.
After that, message me and I'll take another look, and remove the restriction if your stats look good.
Lately we've had to process way too many merges of duplicate uploads, to the tune of 50-100 per day.
In order to cut down on this, I ran a script to find the 15 or so users whose uploads most frequently end up in merges and applied additional throttling to their upload counts. You are one of these users. Specifically, 31% of your uploads from the past month have ended up in a merge, whether by winning the merge or losing. (In your case you have 38 merge losses and 9 merge wins.)
If you want to get the restriction removed, spend the next few weeks uploading pictures that don't get merged, or have other uploads merged into them. This means: don't upload pics which others are also likely to upload.
After that, message me and I'll take another look, and remove the restriction if your stats look good.
Sorry but how does that make sense?!.. What if someone uploaded a picture first then another user uploaded it again and it got merged.. Would it be fair for the first user to be punished for a mistake that another user made?!..
It would give people reasons to annoy others.. For instance, if I'm a bad person and i don't like a specific user, then i can upload something he already uploaded and we both will end up restricted.. Not important for me but it will annoy the other person, especially if he actually did nothing wrong!!!
The main thing is not to focus on the latest and greatest, since that’s where we usually see a rush to upload before everyone else, but results in the largest number of duplicates.
We aren’t intending to punish people, but rather trying to find a way to reduce the workload due to a large number of duplicates.
Maybe we’ll find a better solution along the way, but for now we are trying to evolve things.
Sorry but how does that make sense?!.. What if someone uploaded a picture first then another user uploaded it again and it got merged.. Would it be fair for the first user to be punished for a mistake that another user did?!..
It's not that anyone is making a mistake, it's that when you upload hundreds of images a month and 38% of them end up in merges, it's a systemic issue with the kinds of images you choose to upload and in order to reduce our workload we would like to have less of it.
There are other users who have uploaded more images than you and yet only 3% of their uploads ended up in merges, so it's not the sort of thing that just happens accidentally.
It would give people reasons to annoy others.. For instance, if I'm a bad person and i don't like a specific user, then i can upload something he already uploaded and we both will end up restricted.. Not important for me but it will annoy the other person, especially if he actually did nothing wrong!!!
My advice is to spend more time thinking about and changing your upload habits than worrying about hypotheticals that aren't happening to you.
It's not that anyone is making a mistake, it's that when you upload hundreds of images a month and 38% of them end up in merges, it's a systemic issue with the kinds of images you choose to upload and in order to reduce our workload we would like to have less of it.
There are other users who have uploaded more images than you and yet only 3% of their uploads ended up in merges, so it's not the sort of thing that just happens accidentally.
My advice is to spend more time thinking about and changing your upload habits than worrying about hypotheticals that aren't happening to you.
Sorry, it seems like you are exactly punishing those who upload more. I am in agreement with Captain. It appears that you are targeting individuals like us who upload more. In your last paragraph to him, you're basically saying that you want to change his upload habits, which indicates that you're blaming him. So how is that not targeting certain users?
Sorry, it seems like you are exactly punishing those who upload more.
No, I'm throttling the users who upload a lot of duplicates. There are a lot of users who upload a lot but only a very small portion of their uploads are duplicates. For example, there are two separate users who, within the past 30 days have uploaded just over 600 pics each, yet only 3% of their uploads are duplicates. I am not throttling them. You, however, have 26% of your uploads resulting in a merge.
So how is that not targeting certain users?
I am definitely targeting certain users. I don't think I ever claimed otherwise.
But at least you have to do it the right way.. Some users upload lots of pics and a portion of them get merged.. Why you just don't throttle the one whose uploads got merged into others?!.. Why also throttling the one who uploaded the better or the earlier picture?!.. It's not his fault that another one uploaded a duplicate or a lower quality post and got merged in the process.. And answering your question about why lots of my uploads end up being merged whether i win or lose the merging?!.. Because simply i upload posts of popular fbbs.. Fbbs that many others are trying to upload as well.. And please don't tell that the solution is to look for less popular fbbs to upload their posts.. It's not a solution.
Oh and one more thing.. I upload a pic/vid and it waits in the queue.. Then i found that there is a duplicate of this pic.. A duplicate that wasn't there when I uploaded it.. So why the website or whatever it's called accepted 2 or more posts of the same thing?!.. It doesn't happen all the time when it gets me a message that the post I'm trying to upload is already in the website or the queue.. Sometimes the uploading process getting accepted in the queue then it turns out that there's a duplicate in the same queue.. A duplicate that no one knows it's there since it's still in the queue?!.. So whose fault is that?!
Why you just don't throttle the one whose uploads got merged into others?
This argument is less helpful to you than you might realize because in the past 30 days you were also the #1 user if you just count merge losses. You had 51 of these, which is more than literally any other user on the site.
But let me explain the reasoning for also throttling merge winners.
Let's say there is a hypothetical user who uploads 100 pictures of Ruby Rivera. Meanwhile, 100 other users each separately upload one of those pictures. Our user wins most of these merges, although in many cases their upload is only marginally higher quality than the duplicate (as in, you have to look at it really closely and even then you're not sure), or they're just winning because they beat the other user to it by 5 minutes.
From the staff's point of view, if this user had simply not uploaded anything in the first place, the content on the site would be pretty much the same but the staff's workload would have been reduced by 100 merges. It doesn't matter whether or not the user won their merges, this still holds.
This user isn't providing a service to the site. The site isn't better off because of their uploads. This user is just out to get "upload points" or whatever at the expense of the staff's time.
Therefore we throttle the user. This has two possible outcomes:
The numbers in this scenario are a bit exaggerated but otherwise this is pretty much exactly what's happening right now with uploading trends.
And please don't tell that the solution is to look for less popular fbbs to upload their posts.. It's not a solution.
It is exactly the solution. Please enlighten me why you think it isn't.
So why the website or whatever it's called accepted 2 or more posts of the same thing?!
The automated duplicate detection isn't perfect and only outright rejects files if they are byte-for-byte the same as an existing image. If you're getting stuff from instagram, they store files in many different versions and sizes so it often doesn't trigger this.
So whose fault is that?!
You are getting too hung up on "fault" and "blame" whereas what I care about is what's good and helpful for the site and what isn't.
I'm seeing two issues here:
Images in the upload queue are invisible to normal users. I guess most uploaders are checking if an image they found has already been uploaded, but if it's in the queue they won't see it and upload a duplicate. Do we need this queue? I don't upload much, so I don't care if it disappears, but maybe more frequent uploaders have a different opinion.
The way this site works favors uploads of popular models - and this is only getting worse. When an image is uploaded, there are several ways in which it may get noticed and be favorited. First: after it is uploaded it appears in the 'Recently Posted' section. It won't stay there for long: about 10 - 30 minutes, depending on the number of recent uploads, I'd say. Second: when someone comments on it, it will appear in the 'Recently Commented' section and stay there for maybe 30 minutes. This doesn't happen very often. Third: when the image accumulates enough faves, it will be shown in the 'High Score Today' section. And this is the Holy Grail, the place where you want your uploads to end up, because instead of being shown for just 30 minutes, it may stay here for days, making sure lots of users will see your upload, and give it even more favorites. So far, this is equal for every upload. But then there is the fourth way: subscriptions. If there are two images, one from a model with ten subscriptions and another from a model with thousands of subscriptions, even if the quality of the images is comparable, the second image is much more likely to end up having (much) more favorites than the first one - which is likely to result in more subscriptions for the model. So when the next images of both models are uploaded, the gap between the number of faves will be probably even wider. I can see why users want to upload images from popular models: they get faves faster, and more. So if you want to stimulate users to upload more images of lesser known models, it could be an idea to do something about this. For example by delaying the notifications by 24 hours - the subscribers will still receive a notification, but it won't work in favor of the models with many subscriptions. Or there could be a new section, which shows recent uploads of models with less subscriptions (or maybe the Recommended for You section could show more lesser known models).
I'm seeing two issues here:
- Images in the upload queue are invisible to normal users. I guess most uploaders are checking if an image they found has already been uploaded, but if it's in the queue they won't see it and upload a duplicate.
Exactly.. And the users just have to pay for uploading a duplicate that they don't even know yet it's a duplicate in the first place..
Why my uploads "Queue slots" is null from 3 days. Only "daily upload" is available. Do you have change rules? Thx
Do you have change rules? Thx
Yes, we added more restrictions.
Do we need this queue? I don't upload much, so I don't care if it disappears, but maybe more frequent uploaders have a different opinion.
I'm not sure, people seemed to like it when I introduced it, but all it really does is make uploading a bit more user friendly in that you don't have to keep checking back to see if your upload slots have replenished. It doesn't actually increase the total amount you can upload over time if you were to check your upload slots very often. I suspect it's partially a convenience thing and partially psychological in letting you feel like you can upload a bunch all at once.
But then there is the fourth way: subscriptions. If there are two images, one from a model with ten subscriptions and another from a model with thousands of subscriptions, even if the quality of the images is comparable, the second image is much more likely to end up having (much) more favorites than the first one - which is likely to result in more subscriptions for the model. So when the next images of both models are uploaded, the gap between the number of faves will be probably even wider. I can see why users want to upload images from popular models: they get faves faster, and more.
You are right, this is a systemic issue.
For example by delaying the notifications by 24 hours - the subscribers will still receive a notification, but it won't work in favor of the models with many subscriptions.
Interesting idea, although I suspect what this would do is just delay the flood of favorites by a little bit but the pics would go to the High Score section regardless.
It's also possible that we're overestimating the impact of subscriptions; rather, it's not the subscriptions and notifications themselves causing this, but rather the fact that the models really are that popular and well-liked, and the subscriptions are just a downstream effect of that rather than the cause behind getting them into the High Score section.
Or there could be a new section, which shows recent uploads of models with less subscriptions
That's an interesting idea, I kind of like it. Would have to put some thought into the exact criteria that gets pics to show up in this section.
(or maybe the Recommended for You section could show more lesser known models).
That section already tries to control for the number of favorites on pictures, although it doesn't control for overall model popularity.
You could make the queue visible to all users, so they can see what images are queued and they avoid posting them again
Some users might, but I kind of doubt most would go to that effort when they already can't be bothered to check the existing uploads not in the queue.
Just seems unfair to punish someone for uploading a pic/vid, then that same pic/vid gets downloaded. The first user should not be punished. Plus, like someone else said, i may upload a pic/vid and it’s already in someone’s queue, which I can’t see. How is that my fault? Just please let me know when I can upload more than 1 pic/vid a day
Thank you
Plus, like someone else said, i may upload a pic/vid and it’s already in someone’s queue, which I can’t see. How is that my fault?
Since you and captaincharisma both brought this up, I was curious how big of an effect this actually had.
For every single image, the site keeps track of two timestamps: First, the time at which it was uploaded, and second, the time at which it was posted. For images that are uploaded into the queue, posted time is the time at which it gets out of the queue, so the uploaded time is earlier than the posted time. For uploads that don't use the queue, these two timestamps are the same.
So I reran my script for the 30 days prior to when I implemented this policy, except I made it keep track of a new number: a counter for how many uploads you have that got merged, where the image yours was merged into was uploaded before and posted after your image's upload time. This is a proxy for: was the other image in the queue at the time of your upload?
In fact this number is a little generous to you because it also includes images that had been on the waitlist, which are visible to you, not just the queue ones, which aren't.
So, here's the results:
CaptainCharisma, of your 53 merge losses during that period, 3 were merged into an upload that was in the queue (or on the waitlist) at the time of your upload.
djmatthews, of your 39 merge losses, 1 was merged into a queue or waitlist upload.
Based on this, I conclude that "the other upload was in the queue so I couldn't see it!" is not a significant factor at play here.
Well.. The thing that I can actually promise to do that from now on I'll be more cautious about uploading pics or vids that are already posted and visible on the site.. I'm gonna check it out before pressing the upload button..
As for the invisible ones in the queue.. It's something we all have to cooperate to think of something about it that makes it easier for both the mods and the users..
But there is another thing.. Sometimes someone uploads a pic or vid that is already on the site but the newer post wins the merge because it's of a better quality.. So actually it's not only about being on the site already, but also about the quality factor.. Which confuses me a lot because for me as a user I can't get hold of a specific rule or concept to work with.. Sometimes certain posts win the merge for being of a certain quality.. And other times other posts loses the merge however they are the same conditions of the ones that won before.. So this also need to be clear for me and i believe for many others to know exactly how this works.
Thanks.
Hi..
I just have a question.. It's been a week since I have 0 queue slots.. So i need to know what do I have to do to prove myself worthy and have more queue slots back?!.. I can't be able to prove anything if i can't upload posts for the mods to judge and make a decision, if you know what I mean.
Thanks..
You should be getting one daily upload slot, yes? In fact I see you have uploads from the past few days so you must be.
I answered your question in my first post in this thread:
If you want to get the restriction removed, spend the next few weeks uploading pictures that don't get merged, or have other uploads merged into them. This means: don't upload pics which others are also likely to upload
I used to be allowed 5 pics in the queue, but now I am only allowed 2. Why?