'skine.art.forums. » General Discussion

1. 

   Nick Powell
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   To all the contributers to the July challenge "Desserts"
   I was not sure that the idea of having a "winner" so to speak was that popular an idea judging from the posts on one of the previous threads.In fact it was the one that led to the evolution of the "theme jar" for deciding the subject each month, I believe!

   [In years to come the origin of the theme jar will be a mystery to newcomers so long as Bob doesn't drop it or use it for jam or something]

   The winner this month as far as I am concerned is everyone who has taken part we have all got something out of it, be it a headache thinking about it,the pleasure in taking part in it, or just from looking at the entries!

   Top of the faves were Susan Rudat and Joseph Tomlinson with 18 each.

   I am having a problem with the tagging system and sorting the entries so we need to standardize it this month will post more later.
   Thanks for taking part the theme for August is My favourite rocks.

2. Uncle Bob
   Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Nick
   Just read your comments in the other threads and agree we need to standardise the tagging system. Agree that we are not jurying entries but a better system of recoving information seems desireable as journalingarts scored 22 faves - shows we still have to improve our tags. Maybe Leo could advise. I'm a bit too old to take this new fangled technology on board - Ma heid's burlin'!

   Incidentaly - the "jar" is actually a Tuppeware box - unbreakable. All "themes" are printed from a spreadsheet which could be transferred to someone else if I decide to die or something. Maybe a short note could be added, at the start of each month, explaining to newcomers what this is all about. Saves them trawling through old threads
3. 

   Nick Powell
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Bob
   You have destroyed a legend in the making!! My mental image of you, your jar and scraps of paper gone!!

   Exactly what I was talking about bob I was not sure if journalingarts was an entry or not because of the tags I think I went by the date of posting, anyway not to worry, no offence intended if I got it wrong.I agree that this needs sorting and will see if we can sort out a system that works with Leo, see my other thread regarding this.
   I am off to Cornwall for a couple of weeks with the family but will check in every few days to see what you are all up to and see if we can get this sorted out so that most people get the tags right this month.
   I think that the way its going is good and people taking part are getting into it, not only that but we have a good representation of the contributers with it not being restricted to just the professionals or the amateurs such as myself which I think makes it all the more fun and interesting!
   There has been a lot of really good stuff done as a result.

   A standardized announcement is all that is needed at the start of each months challenge as you say giving the tag system etc.
4. 

   plasma_girl
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I think the way Bob did it this month was the best we can hope for; the announcement of the theme and then the list of how to tag it. I just copied that list and pasted it directly into the 'tags' field below my entry so that the cases and spelling would be the same.

   If I want to go hunting for previous entries, I usually go through two or three iterations since I know a typo or different capitalization will keep a 'mistagged' entry from showing up in my search results and that's just the nature of the beast.

   Overall, the little details aside, I find the monthly challenges great fun! I'm a complete amateur when it comes to this drawing/sketching thing, but I love having an excuse to make myself do it even when I'm really busy with other things (and I love how open and supportive this space is for those of us that are new and completely untrained in the field of drawing).

   Finally, whatever you say, Bob, I will still keep my romantic mental image of a lovely old jar up on a shelf, nestled among artfully arranged knick-knacks, holding handwritten scraps of paper waiting to impart a new challenge each month. :-)
5. 

   Capellion
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I just posted on the other tagging standardization topic how I think we should solve such typo problems, only to find my exact idea in this topic forum!! Great minds think alike!! However, regardless of the way in which it is ultimately smoothed over, I think there should be a notice on the front page of the website that advertises the monthly challenge (changing as the challenges do, of course) and how to tag such an entry to allow for searching and compiling of all entries from certain months, topics, etc.

   I think the advertisement on the front of the page would encourage those lost souls who have yet to find the forum section into at least viewing the thread comments, if not into joining our banter. I think such an ad would also promote more visitors to join the site, to take part in the challenge, to click their way over to the forum side of things and to overall more deeply forge bonds within this virtual community and across the world. Isn't that what all of this is about (since we've all established that picking a so-called "winner" is outside the spirit of the problem)?

6. Uncle Bob
   Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Nick/plasma-girl, Sorry to ruin your illusions about "The Jar". I did have in mind using a large ceramic jar but I would probably break it (Big Feet Bob and all that). I opted for something unbreakable. You will have to believe that ALL ideas are in this receptacle. You will have to believe that the "Jar" is well shaken before use. You will have to believe that the draw is completely impartial - here is a picture of my friend, Magnus, making this month's draw.
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/28475994@N00/3790911297/
   If you believe all that, well ........
7. 

   Joseph R Tomlinson
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   magnus, looks like a trustworthy friend. the tupperware...
8. 

   Rudat
   Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I love the Magnus picture, Bob!
9. 

   Leo
   Key Master
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I think we should make Magnus an official 'skine.art mascot.
10. 

    plasma_girl
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    I second the Magnus-as-mascot movement! :-)

11. Uncle Bob
    Moderator
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Magnus says, "That would be purr-fect"

12. roseindigo
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Not sure standardizing the tagging system will do any good. I just typed "my favorite rocks" into the search box and only some of them came up, and then there was an interview from one of our members named nachoyague. I've tried several times even to type in just the month and the year, and I get a mish-mash of postings that have nothing to do with the theme challenge. So what's going on? Because I would like to see all of them at the end of the month.
    Since I'm no computer genius, however, it may just be me. It just seems I've tried to type various things into the search box in all sorts of ways, and I get the same mish-mash result every time.
13. 

    plasma_girl
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    The same thing happened to me a few days ago, roseindigo; although I think it is something different in the search algorithm, since last month searching for July09 or desserts returned only the images with those tags and no bizarre interviews or seemingly random images. Now if I type in 'desserts,' for example I get only three results and if I type 'July09' I get an image with no tags at all and nothing to do with the theme challenge...I know this is different than the search results I got before, but there is nothing different on my end, so it must be a difference in the way the search is conducted.

    Anyone else with similar strange search results/lack thereof or suggestions for correcting the situation?

14. Uncle Bob
    Moderator
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Now I'm concerned as I will be posting the next theme in a couple of days. I have to admit that I have never used the search box to call up the current month's entries. I merely find someone who has posted an entry tagging - eg Theme challenge,August09, My favorite rocks then I click on either "August09" or "My favorite rocks" to call up this month's entries. I'm now not sure if what I call up is the complete list of all who have posted. Since time has caught up with us may I recommend we stick to tagging - Theme challenge,month09,subject eg.desserts as Nick suggested and I'll ask folk to copy and paste the tags to avoid different spellings excluding then. It would be interesting to see if all "posters" see their entries , displayed with others if they do what I've tried above.
    Help, everyone. Bob is floundering!!!!!

15. roseindigo
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Bob, it works better when I find a post with a tagged entry (as you suggested above), and I get more of the entries, but I'm still not sure they are actually all there. Besides, the search box should help us find them because toward the end of the month it would take us a while to find a tagged entry as a starting point, since much has been posted since then. Not sure I'm making myself clear, but I'm in a hurry today and don't have much time. Hope you know what I mean.

    Basically, there has to be an easier way to find ALL the entries!

16. Uncle Bob
    Moderator
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Hi Rose. I've spent some time looking at all of the Theme Challenge entries for July and August. I did this by scrolling through every picture then writing down the name and date of each one. This is what has been posted (unless I've failed to spot anyone's picture):

    Theme for July was “Desserts” - 9 entries
    July 28th Joseph R Tomlinson
    July 27th Nick Powell
    July 27th Capellion
    July 23rd Rudat
    July 15th Roseindigo
    July 14th Roseindigo
    July 9th Plasma-girl
    July 5th Trebor61
    July 3rd Jounalingarts

    Theme for August was “My favorite rocks” - 8 entries
    August 15th Ziza
    August 8th Joseph R Tomlinson
    August 5th Boulgakow
    August 4th Joseph R Tomlinson
    August 4th Roseindigo
    August 4th Roseindigo
    August 3rd Trebor61
    July 31st Plasma-girl

    If anyone out there thinks I have missed their name from one of these monthly lists it would be great if they could lets us know otherwise I'll assume that I got them all.

    Now (1 )– how to recall these in a list. Your are correct that doing a search, in the small box, is useless. If anyone at “Headquarters” wants to address this we would be so grateful. In the meantime I've discovered that clicking on a tag (below an entry) DOES recall all of the above in a list EXCEPT when the tag has been entered wrongly (I was guilty of this). In August's entries we had “August09”, “August 09” and “Aug 09”. Clearly this tag was not going to work so I tried clicking on “My favorite rocks” which worked (everyone entered this one as shown, correctly). This means that the best way to tag entries is to “copy and paste” from the intimation I'll send out at the start of each challenge. That way there can be no variation in spelling. Incidentally, in July's Challenge some entries were double tagged with “desserts” and “dessert” as folk were obviously unsure. This was not a problem.
    Now(2) – How to find someone's entry to access a tag. This is not an ideal solution but, perhaps, will do until Leo, or one of his helpers, finds a solution to the “search” problem highlighted, above. Try this:
    In the search box, type, say “rocks”. I did this and got 6 out of the 8 plus a HUGE amount of other stuff.
    Ignore the other stuff and click on, say “My favourite rocks” in one of the entries you know to be correct - you will get the complete list of 8 entries. You know they are all there as the above method has been proven to work. (I hope).
    Obviously this would not have worked if you click on “August 09” as this was wrongly entered by a disproportionate number of us but, when we get used to “cutting and pasting” this too will be a problem solved.

    The reason I've done all this is to satisfy, in my own mind, how to tag next month's challenge which will be issued on Sunday. Will this do in the meantime?

    PS clicking on “Theme Challenge” still gets all previous entries for ALL months.

    I'm away for a wee sleep, now.
17. 

    plasma_girl
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Thank you so much for taking the time to do that, Bob! This gives us all a way to search for what we want (it just takes two steps instead of one) and reminds us of the plan to standardize the theme entries. Thanks for working out the details and sharing; I can't wait to have a new challenge, this month has just flown by!
18. 

    Joseph R Tomlinson
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Bob, you are the man! Thanks for taking the time! I agree with plama_girl, this month did fly by! Enjoyed everyone's entries!

19. roseindigo
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Thanks Bob. Your suggestion works just fine. :-)
20. 

    Nick Powell
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Sorry people but this month time just disappeared and so did inspiration.

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