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We have added a new mini feature tonight: photos that get featured on the homepage now receive an automatic photo comment for that.

That way, you will automatically be notified when one of your photos made it up there.

The comment is made by 'Anonymous', which is a default for comments or PMs being generated by the system. (The PMs notifying you about new comments underneath your photos also come from 'Anonymous'.)

You can find one of the first comments underneath this photo:



The comment gets added only as soon as the photo is being displayed on the homepage. Unfortunately, we cannot give you an advance notification, for technical reasons. But I guess it's still good to know that the photo was up there.

It will also make it easier for the editors who are stuffing the queue that's feeding the homepage, to determine which photos already have been on there before, and when.

Hope you will like it!

(And I hope this will not trigger any new unintended mass-mailings again... )

I was about to ask about that when I saw that this photo had it:


The time on the comment confuses me though.

Zak wrote:It will also make it easier for the editors who are stuffing the queue that's feeding the homepage, to determine which photos already have been on there before, and when.

Not to mention the photographers who wonder which of thier photos have appeared on the homepage in the past.

I like it.

ShyFlyer wrote:I was about to ask about that when I saw that this photo had it:

That must have been the first one that got the comment - it was up in the queue when we tried to make the feature work.

ShyFlyer wrote:The time on the comment confuses me though.

It's the time when your photo started being displayed on the homepage. Should correspond with your overall time zone settings for the site.

What exactly does it read for you?

Zak wrote:What exactly does it read for you?

12 Sep 12, 23:45

The time stamps on forum posts are correct, though. Where I am, that time hasn't happened yet.

Dang, that's server time then. Which is UTC +2.
Okay, more work for tomorrow...

Zak wrote:Dang, that's server time then.

Oh. So...no time machine in the NAS hangar then?

A few thoughts:

1.) Definitely like the idea of the photo being tagged and/or the photographer being notified.

2.) I'm not sure a comment is the way to do it. I check photo comments on a fairly regular basis, because I want to reply to them in a timely fashion (otherwise I forget to do so), and just because they're interesting. Seeng 24 additional comments per day will make it a bit more difficult to sort through them.

5.) Is there a way the photo could be tagged, and the photographer notified, but not through the comments?

(cue Stefan saying "yes" and Ed saying "no")

Just food for thought....I still like it and will try not to complain too much.

vikkyvik wrote:I'm not sure a comment is the way to do it. I check photo comments on a fairly regular basis, because I want to reply to them in a timely fashion (otherwise I forget to do so), and just because they're interesting. Seeng 24 additional comments per day will make it a bit more difficult to sort through them.

5.) Is there a way the photo could be tagged, and the photographer notified, but not through the comments?

(cue Stefan saying "yes" and Ed saying "no")

I'll try a 'yes' answer that Ed should also be happy with: send us a concept, and the code, and we will implement it.

Seriously, of course, everything is possible. We can develop a completely independent feature for that. Which would probably keep us busy for weeks, during which we could not work on anything else.

Using the functions we already have made things much easier. It still took us 3 hours last night, though, but that was mostly because I am a total n00b when it comes to programming - Ed would probably have needed less than an hour, but he forced me to we decided that it would be good for the site if I started understanding the code as well.

The approach via comments has another advantage: it makes it easier both for members and for our photo staff to follow what has been displayed on the homepage. Especially when selecting the shots for the homepage, it's very helpful for our editors to be able to quickly check if a shot has been up there before, and when.

What we could consider is to enhance the latest photo comments list.

Zak wrote:I'll try a 'yes' answer that Ed should also be happy with: send us a concept, and the code, and we will implement it.

Ha, you wouldn't like to see my (lack of) HTML skills.

Zak wrote:The approach via comments has another advantage: it makes it easier both for members and for our photo staff to follow what has been displayed on the homepage. Especially when selecting the shots for the homepage, it's very helpful for our editors to be able to quickly check if a shot has been up there before, and when.

Certainly true. 'Twas just a passing thought of mine. It's still a good feature.

Did anyone else get a PM about photo comments last night?

I should have, I think, but didn't. Some "minor" changes to the script may have made it fall over, but right now I can't prove it...

(I need to get better at catching errors in these automated scripts, rather than just dropping them and wondering WTF in the morning.)

I've reverted the changes in the meantime.

ShyFlyer wrote:

Zak wrote:What exactly does it read for you?

12 Sep 12, 23:45

The time stamps on forum posts are correct, though. Where I am, that time hasn't happened yet.

It has now.

I just uploaded some changes to the code that generates these. (Less than five minutes of actual coding, 90 minutes of research - gotta love that phpBB "documentation". ) The dates and times displayed outside the forum, e.g., on photo comments, should now reflect the time zone and DST settings in your User Control Panel; if they still look off, please check your settings there.

ShanwickOceanic wrote:Did anyone else get a PM about photo comments last night?

I should have, I think, but didn't.

Same here. I think I should have, but didn't. Last one I received was on the 12th.

vikkyvik wrote:Same here. I think I should have, but didn't. Last one I received was on the 12th.

Thanks for that.

I put it back as it was, so you should get PMs (from Anonymous, most likely) tonight if there are comments on your shots today. I can't swear it'll notify about yesterday's because I don't know at what point it fell over.

ShanwickOceanic wrote:The dates and times displayed outside the forum, e.g., on photo comments, should now reflect the time zone and DST settings in your User Control Panel; if they still look off, please check your settings there.

It looks alright now.

ShanwickOceanic wrote:Did anyone else get a PM about photo comments last night?

The latest comment that I know of was posted at 1616 MDT. Didn't get a notice. It came from Lucas.

No PM for me this morning.

If you're due a comments PM you should have received it now.

The problem was with the comments by "Anonymous". The script attempted to PM the anonymous user, and it didn't like that. At all.

I'd included a check for that in the revised version I put up before, but when something else broke and I reverted the whole thing, I lost that check.

It's still notifying everyone, not just the photographer, about these automated comments. Sorting that is significantly messier... it's on the list.

ShanwickOceanic wrote:If you're due a comments PM you should have received it now.

Sender are you.

Zak wrote:Sender are you.

I forced the job manually so it would have had my user ID. When it runs tonight the PMs will likely come from Anonymous again. I want to be sure that happens before reinstating the change that makes them come from "netAirspace".

Before going to bed last night, I had three photos queued for the homepage. I received one PM notice about the first one in the queue:



I received no PM notice for the other two photos:




All photos, though, do have the homepage comment, which is the "important" thing I guess. Just thought you'd like to know.