You can it’s called looking at the video length or most script makers put the length in the discrimination already he isn’t talking about organizing the script he just wants them banned out right
While i dont agree with the premise of this post, i would agree that having posts tagged with a length would prove useful like 5+, 15+ or 30+ minutes etc.
This is also something that has been suggested in the past
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The problem is that the tag limit is way too low so it wouldn’t really solve the problem and instead could make things worse. I agree that the organisation on this site could be a bit better.
The worst thing is people not filling out the details of their script, like length, video source etc.
I will just drop it here, the discussion died some time ago. Maybe you could express your opinion (without flaming) here instead:
While I understand the frustration, this topic could’ve been made in more civilized manner. There is no reason to ban people because they share short scripts.
I will suggest that there are 3 aspects to this problem.
- Input - How does the length of the script get set in the database?
- Display - How does the length get displayed in the topics list?
- Filter/Search - How does the filter/search capability incorporate the length?
Each of these is a difficult problem to tackle. An ideal solution would be one that balances the value of all 3, rather than prioritizing one over another. I don’t have any insight as to what the backend of what Eroscripts looks like, so I’m going to throw out some possible solutions based on speculation.
Solving issue #1 - How does the length of the script get set in the database?
I’m going to assume that Discourse provides some sort of scripting capability or API. I’m also going to assume we can add a field to the topics database for “Length”, and that it will default to null. Here is what the algorithm might look like:
- Check that the post is in one of the script categories. If not, Length field stays null.
- Parse the text of the topic for “Length: ” or “Duration: ”. Attempt to parse the time that follows that text. If the parse is successful, enter that length into the database and done. If not, continue.
- Open each attached funscript file, and parse the field “duration:N” where N is the time in seconds.
- If there is only a single funscript and it successfully parses the duration value, that value gets set as the length for the topic. If it is unsuccessful in parsing the value, then the length for the topic remains null.
- If there are multiple funscripts with the same duration value, enter the value as the length for the topic. If there are multiple funscripts with different durations, the length for the topic gets entered as an value that indicates multiple lengths are present in the topic. (e.g., “-1”)
The goal of this algorithm is to end up in 1 of 3 states. You either have a null length, a length value, or a value to indicate multiple lengths are present in the topic. The outcome of this solution should be the Length field in the database containing either null, -1, or a time value.
There are some potential difficulties with this algorithm. Paid scripts will be more difficult, as the funscripts themselves are not usually available within the topic. Those would have to rely on the topic creator to properly include a “Length: ” somewhere in their post. There is incentive for them to do that because when someone is going through the topics list, seeing a timestamp will look more professional and will also draw in people specifically looking for those lengths. Devil’s advocate is that by not including the field, they might get more clicks because people have to do a little extra work to figure out how long the script is. Another difficulty is if the “Length:” cannot be parsed because of misspelling, using a different word, etc. Lots of potential pitfalls happen when you try to parse a specific keyword from community-driven content. This could be overcome with a very thorough parsing algorithm that catches misspellings, etc, or it could be overcome with some clever scripting during the post that will warn the author when the length field is not found or able to be parsed correctly.
Solving issue #2 - How does the length get displayed in the topics list?
This one is likely the most technically challenging to solve. Looking at the Discourse site, I’m not seeing any examples of where they’ve updated the topics list to include custom data. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s impossible. Here are a few ways we might be able to do it.
Method 1 - There might be an API that allows us to add custom data to the topics list. If so, we’d only need to pull the Length field from the database and display it in a new column in the topics list.
Method 2 - We could build a hook into the database that when the length is entered, the title is updated to put the time in minutes at the front. So a topic titled “TheObsidianGeneral is a dummy” would be updated to look like this: “{3:42} TheObsidianGeneral is a dummy”. (I don’t suggest we do this method, as it involves modifying the actual title field in the database.)
Method 3 - Similar to method 2, but this would be done at the UI level. The underlying database value for the title would not be touched. When it comes time to display the title in the topics list, the Length field is added to the front of the title text after the title has been pulled from the database and right before it gets displayed.
Method 4 - Display the timestamp in the bottom-right corner of the thumbnail. This is my personal favorite, but could also be the most tricky to implement. Basically when the thumbnail is getting pulled from the database, or when it’s getting drawn, we throw some processing in there that overlays the timestamp based on the Length field.
The goal of solving this issue is making it possible for someone to see at a glance of the topics list how long a funscript is, so they can make an informed decision on whether to click it or not. This will allow people to visually filter out lengths that they are not interested in.
Solving issue #3 - How does the filter/search capability incorporate the length?
In theory this should be pretty simple. Assuming we have some sort of scripting ability or access to the API, we should be able to update the filter/search capability to include parameters based on the Length field. Depending on the community’s preference and the ability of the developer, we’ve got a couple different options:
Option 1 - Minimum and Maximum length fields in the advanced Filter/Search options.
Option 2 - A slider for minimum and maximum in the advanced Filter/Search options. (More difficult to implement and less precise, in my opinion.)
Option 3 - Checkboxes for predermined lengths. For example, <3 mins, 3-5 mins, 5-10 mins, 10-30 mins, 30-60 mins, >60 mins. You could check each box you are interested in.
If I had my way, I would go with a magical option 4, where we have min/max fields when you’re doing an advanced search, and then the checkboxes for if you’re filtering.
If you took the time to read all that, thank you! As we approach this problem, I think it’s important that we keep an eye on the end goal: a solution that will balance the importance and feasibility of each aspect of this problem.
I already mentioned that this community unfortunately has some individuals who could be labeled as idiots, setting unrealistic expectations and making demands that are completely unreasonable.
These few individuals are ruining what is otherwise a very pleasant community by engaging in abnormal and disrespectful behavior.
I took an extended vacation over the past few months and traveled around the world. Beforehand, I had prepared several scripts and got them ready for uploading. The reason not a single one of them appeared during my vacation was a comment like this. I don’t remember who wrote it, but I also don’t really care. Comments like that can quickly sap someone’s enthusiasm for the community. So, please consider your choice of words more carefully and reflect on the way you present yourself here.
It’s been emphasized numerous times that the demand to ban people for posting short scripts is utter nonsense. I fully endorse this viewpoint.
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The reason not a single one of them appeared during my vacation was a comment like this.
In other words, if we’re determining bans based on impact on the community, the only ones who should be banned are people like OP.
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think there should be a away to filter out shorter scripts from feed or from search; kind of like a time range search feature. yea but agree don’t remove them form the site. Its just sometimes ya want longer, some times you want shorter.
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i dont think a ban should be done but maybe a tag for short scripts? i think ones shorter than 30 seconds are more ridiculous to be honest
thanks i wanted to know what they said too lol
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The quality of this community is not damaged by allowing people to share short scripts.
It is damaged by you posting this kind of garbage. Or, the other day, a complaint about animated content.
You’re showing the worst kind of entitlement there is, which is that you want an entire group of people to be held to the standards of your personal taste. Grow up, and if you can’t handle being among others with different tastes than you, just go away. I’m pretty sure the community will manage just fine without you.
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What the heck ? :o
For anyone fancy a video duration tag here’s a discussion worth contributing:
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For a second there I thought I was on reddit.
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I feel like it would be great if these could be tagged on the site, and then in the future when there are some better tools to sort and shuffle through short scripts, we can grab them and enjoy the novelty of a bunch of short scripts. Currently I never grab anything that short, but it’s mainly because I can’t categorize them so rasily, especially with the Syncbot. I would like to keep the good ones in a folder somewhere and shuffle through them someday, so it would be kinda cool to have a “short video” tag for anything like 2 minutes or less.
I would be in heavy support of a tag requirement, just so that it can set expectations before clicking into the thread.
There is the len-0-2 tag now for these. It just takes time to get older threads updated.
And obviously this would also need the option to blacklist a tag (might be there already, didnt check).
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Very cool
Yes, there is. These might be a little outdated, but should point you in the right direction:
For multi-axis scripts, it is very difficult to produce a 2-minute video. If the video has complex shots, you need to repeatedly consider the actions. Of course, for actual use, the ideal length of the work may be more than 5 minutes.
The complaint made in the OP has already been addressed. It would be more useful to leave your feedback under the following topics:
This topic will be closed if it escalates further.