iTFDB Image Support

[jaydisc]

So, I've finally added the most requested feature to iTFDB: Image Support!

As a one man band with lots of other commitments my testing has not been multi-platform/browser encompassing, so as always, I'd love for my users to test it out and provide me with any issues or feedback.

I'd also like to welcome anyone who is not yet a user to come on in and have a play at www.itfdb.com.

IMAGE IMPORT

I wanted to maintain the current ideals of the site by implementing this in such a way that required the most minimal effort from the group. To achieve this, there are three ways you can add images to pieces in your collection:

1. Upload your own
If you upload an image, you decide if it should be shared. A good example of a situation you'd want to share it is if it's the official Hasbro supplied product shot of a toy. Also, you might just be a gun photographer and think others might just like your image. Conversely, you might be uploading private pictures of your own collection and just like keeping certain things private. If you're the latter, make sure you uncheck the checkbox to share as by default, it's on. Inevitably the default will change to err on the side of privacy, but at the moment, myself and others are vigorously uploading official product shots which by default we all want shared.

2. Shared Images
If someone has uploaded an image and indicated that it is public and can be shared, and it's associated with the same toy you are adding images to, you can choose it. No upload necessary :) When viewing the shared repository, the most popular images float to the top. I anticipate that this will likely be official photography, but would love to see the great photographic work of one of our users float to the top even more!

3. Your Images
Let's say you uploaded a picture of an entire shelf of your figures. There's no need to re-upload it for each figure in the picture. You can simply add the one photo to all of those figures.

You can add an infinite amount of any combination of these types of images to any piece.

COLLECTOR IMAGE VIEWING

When you are in the edit view for a piece in your collection, you will see a medium sized version of the first image you attached to this piece (assuming you have) and a vertical row of thumbnails of all the other images added. Clicking any of these will result in a lightbox slideshow view of all images in this piece.

You can rearrange the thumbnails to dictate which will be the primary image for this piece, and clicking the little (x) in the top right of each thumbnail removes that image from that piece. Note that if it is your image, it does not delete it, it just REMOVES it from this piece.

The default image for a piece is also now shown in list view.

PUBLIC IMAGE VIEWING

When a non-collector views toys from our library or a collector is looking at piece not in their collection, all of the shared images of that pieces are shown, again in ranking order, not only by usage, but also what order collectors positioned them in their thumbnails. ;)

The most popular image is shown in list view.

I'm currently experimenting with two positions for the thumbnails in list view: Far left vs. a bit nearer the center directly adjacent to the toy name. You can see the Far Left view when browsing the Library and the centered view while browsing your collection.

As always, any questions, please ask. Most existing users know how to contact me. New users can post here or use virtual any IM network to chat with me too.

Thanks!

[Paulbot]

On a quick browse of the library (http://itfdb.com/library/list) I think it's looking good as is. Does this raise questions of copyright though when it comes to images? Can you block people uploading images they saved from Seibertron.com or wherever? Can you legally use the Hasbro product shots?

It's nice to see the pics though. :)

[jaydisc]

And what better way to describe image support, than the use of images:

List View (in Collection)
http://itfdb.com/temporary/tf/itfdbimages/list.png

Slideshow over List View
http://itfdb.com/temporary/tf/itfdbimages/slideshow.png

Edit View
http://itfdb.com/temporary/tf/itfdbimages/edit.png

Upload
http://itfdb.com/temporary/tf/itfdbimages/upload.png

Choose a public/shared image:
http://itfdb.com/temporary/tf/itfdbimages/public.png

Choose one of your existing images:
http://itfdb.com/temporary/tf/itfdbimages/yours.png

[jaydisc]

On a quick browse of the library (http://itfdb.com/library/list) I think it's looking good as is. Does this raise questions of copyright though when it comes to images? Can you block people uploading images they saved from Seibertron.com or wherever? Can you legally use the Hasbro product shots?

It's nice to see the pics though. :)

A great question and one I've spent much time thinking about. Now, IANAL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IANAL), but my take so far is as follows, and that is primarily to follow the model of youtube and other similar sites. I can't police my users, but if there are any legitimate copyright claims made against an image that is on the site, I will respectfully remove it. Now, unfortunately, that means any collector that was using that shared image will have it removed from their piece, even if they weren't the one that uploaded it, but them's the breaks.

So, with that policy in mind, my recommendation to users is to still go after Takara/Hasbro supplied product shots in any way. In other words, if you come across what seems like a legit product shot, but it's got www.otca.com.au (for example) watermarked over it, I'm cool with that, because www.otca.com.au has no copyright claim over that image, and I'd suspect their only [legitimate] intention of branding that image is to identify if someone is stealing their bandwidth. With that in mind, I chose to not allow people to supply the URL of an image for uploading, as this would be a direct theft of their bandwidth for my site's gain. So, while potentially more costly, I will be hosting all of the images for now.

Now, non-official product shots, like pics from Seibertron's galleries, I don't want uploaded without their permission or consent, as those photos were clearly photographed by staff at Seibertron and I believe them to clearly have copyright of those.

I anticipate that as this grows (if it grows), needs will arise for me to build in features to allow people to report claims of copyright or inappropriateness through the site, and to help automate the removal of that content, but for now, please just let me know if you see any violations and I'll keep them clean to the best of my abilities.

And I'm extremely open to discussing this further if anyone else has thoughts or a desire to contribute on this topic.

[DarkHyren]

iTFDB is making great steps, I really like the image support.
I'll be adding more pictures over the coming days/weeks.

I'm currently experimenting with two positions for the thumbnails in list view: Far left vs. a bit nearer the center directly adjacent to the toy name. You can see the Far Left view when browsing the Library and the centered view while browsing your collection.
Personally I like the far left image position better then the centered one.
The only other options I wouldn't mind is the ability to decide if the shared image checkbox is defaulted on or off and an option for the slideshow in list view to display the first picture from each figure in the slide rather then display all the pictures you have for one figure alone.

Oh, noticed a possible IE bug, in Library more when I click a picture it blacks out the list rather then greying it out with a transparency.
I also just noticed that if I decide to "Choose one of your own images" I can't "Let anyone use this image".
I was wanting to do that so that I didn't need to upload the same picture 3 times for a multipack, but if I have to I will.

[Kyle]

Jay, it's been a long while since I last visited iTFDB and for some reason I can't log in using username Kyle. I'm not sure if I remember my password correctly. Can you please reset my password? Thanks.

[DarkHyren]

Oh, noticed a possible IE bug, in Library more when I click a picture it blacks out the list rather then greying it out with a transparency.Well, that was fixed up quick it seems, everything looks back to normal.
Your definately fast on fixing those bugs :D

[jaydisc]

iTFDB is making great steps, I really like the image support.
I'll be adding more pictures over the coming days/weeks.

Thank you x 2.


Personally I like the far left image position better then the centered one.

Anyone else got an opinion on this?


The only other options I wouldn't mind is the ability to decide if the shared image checkbox is defaulted on or off and an option for the slideshow in list view to display the first picture from each figure in the slide rather then display all the pictures you have for one figure alone.

I have added a checkbox for the image sharing default. There other one is a bit more tricky. I'll keep pondering that one.


Oh, noticed a possible IE bug, in Library more when I click a picture it blacks out the list rather then greying it out with a transparency.


Well, that was fixed up quick it seems, everything looks back to normal.
Your definately fast on fixing those bugs :D

I didn't get a chance to look at that yet, so I'm not sure why that's fixed, or was broken. Let me know if it happens again. Screenshots are helpful too. Also, what version of IE?


I also just noticed that if I decide to "Choose one of your own images" I can't "Let anyone use this image".
I was wanting to do that so that I didn't need to upload the same picture 3 times for a multipack, but if I have to I will.

You've raised something I've been wrestling with. Currently, whenever anyone uploads a photo, the toy it was uploaded for is stored with it. If it's made public, other users are offered that photo only if they are looking at the same toy. Now, if you upload a pic that has two toys in it, you don't have to upload it a second time to attached it to the second toy, but even after doing so, that image is still only tagged with the toy you originally uploaded it against. So, while the person who uploaded can use that photo a second time for any figure without re-uploading the photo, it is only available to others if they are looking at the original toy. I have been, and will continue, to think about how to solve that, but your suggestion has given me a good lead, so thanks for that.

There are a couple other glaring omissions in the image support, but I felt we could get started without them. They are:

1. Once you have uploaded an image, you can not change whether it's shared or not. The choice you make at upload time is currently unchangeable.

2. You cannot delete an image you've uploaded. While you can remove it from a figure, it's still present in Your Photos.

In both cases, I need to provide a dedicated "Your Image" gallery to provide an interface for the above two events to occur. If, before I have done so, anyone needs either done, just let me know and I'll happily do it behind the scenes.


Jay, it's been a long while since I last visited iTFDB and for some reason I can't log in using username Kyle. I'm not sure if I remember my password correctly. Can you please reset my password? Thanks.

Temporary password sent.

[jaydisc]

You've raised something I've been wrestling with. Currently, whenever anyone uploads a photo, the toy it was uploaded for is stored with it. If it's made public, other users are offered that photo only if they are looking at the same toy. Now, if you upload a pic that has two toys in it, you don't have to upload it a second time to attached it to the second toy, but even after doing so, that image is still only tagged with the toy you originally uploaded it against. So, while the person who uploaded can use that photo a second time for any figure without re-uploading the photo, it is only available to others if they are looking at the original toy. I have been, and will continue, to think about how to solve that, but your suggestion has given me a good lead, so thanks for that.

OK, I've implemented a solution for this. If the owner of a shared photo associates that photo with any other toys, that photo will be available to all users for any of the toys that the image owner has attached it to.

[DarkHyren]

I didn't get a chance to look at that yet, so I'm not sure why that's fixed, or was broken. Let me know if it happens again. Screenshots are helpful too. Also, what version of IE?Hmm, maybe it was one of those weird things that happen when one works on a site.
I probally just caught it when you were working on something, a temporary bug.
Well if it happens again I'll get a screenie. Oh, and I'm using IE7 (I think).

OK, I've implemented a solution for this. If the owner of a shared photo associates that photo with any other toys, that photo will be available to all users for any of the toys that the image owner has attached it to.Very interesting. Tried it and it works. Noticed it doesn't permanantly add pictures added that way to public (ie they disappear from public pictures when you remove the image from your gallery).
But it might be better that way anyway as this way someone can show others their pictures on a temp basis.

[jaydisc]

Very interesting. Tried it and it works. Noticed it doesn't permanantly add pictures added that way to public (ie they disappear from public pictures when you remove the image from your gallery).
But it might be better that way anyway as this way someone can show others their pictures on a temp basis.

Yes, this is by design. if you had the ability to un-share a shared image or truly delete an image, the same effect would occur.

Note that this will not effect collectors if they have added those pics to represent their own collection. The system does not yank away their images. However, if they delete a once-shared-now-unshared-image, they won't be able to re-add it.

[langzixinxin]

I like it.

BTW, it seems "takara animated" still not in the list yet. :rolleyes:

[jaydisc]

Thanks and fixed ;)