I'm tired of doing IotD
 

It's been a good long run folks, but damn, every goddamn day... it's finally gotten to me.

Should I make it an open forum? Where anyone can contribute an image?

WOW...no....make bruce do it.

or go every other day/week with him .....

srsly . . . ...Bruce...uh..."volunteered"!... . . . :::takes one step back at exactly the same time as everybody else:::

I asked him at one point... and axlrosen

If I volunteered, it would have to be "Image of the Workdays and Days I Don't Take Personal Days or Vacation Days and Days I Am Not Sick and Days I'm Not Swamped." Otherwise, it'd be fun.

'Toad? Don't tase me, bro.

What if we (Cellar members) voted on submissions before they went out for general (actual IotD w/ Blog view etc.) consumption?

Have an IotD "staging" thread.

What if it was IotW (image of the week)?

IotEoD?

image of the every other day?

IotSS

Image of the Summer Solstice

IothEtTHtit21st?

Image of the every third Thrusday that isn't the 21st?

srsly, if you open it up to general posting, it will lose all integrity. there will be multiple pics one day, none the next, etc.

appoint 7 people. give them mod status to that forum. assign 1 day per each. have standards, teach them how you do it.

i'd do 1 day per week for a quarter.

i mean a quarter of the calendar,.....not trying to negotiate salary here.

The voting problem... one thing that this vBulletin software is really bad at, is hooks to the outside world. I was able to code up the IotD blog view pretty easily because it's read-only, you know, in programming, reading something is usually much more trivial than writing it. Then I wrote a queue manager which holds pending images and the posts them when I press the "publish" button.

But the first time I ran it, it logged me out and changed my user title to the default. I shit you not. This is because I used some of the vBulletin functions to post the message, but didn't fully understand what else the function needed to do first. It does a lot of things with the user, before and after posting the post...

So it's hard to write additions where a logged-in user is verified to be logged in, then the user information is used to count a vote, then back to the old forums... and it wouldn't work to have people log in twice, they wouldn't do it.

More time for coding is wot i need

I'm sorry, I don't speak Undertoadinese.

(This is why I couldn't do it because I have no idea what you're talking about.) ;)

what?!

I was thinking more "manual" than that; still having moderators managing the selection (with open input from on the active board members, on an IotD "staging" thread) before going out to the actual "hits generator" thread. It would kill me if The Cellar lost it's magical "first page of Google" power.

Translation: Voting is broke.

Ahh, thanks for putting it in terms that laidpeople can understand.

I like to work with the simplest tools that can get something done: How about a daily Image Submission thread, posting closed at midnight, when a poll is created, which closes at midnight the next day, and the image that gets the most votes in the poll goes in the next day's IotD? Complex procedure, simple tools. All managed by moderators, like lumberjim suggested.

Users could even submit ideas for the clever IotD description. Maybe we could vote on that too. Hell, I'm just thinkin' out loud.

All I know is that Undertoad just tased me right in the heart. He has an "F" string on his axe, and it's my heart-string. Broseph.

that could be really cool. that way no one person has to stress over finding good material every day. they can spend a week just keeping their eyes open for that one special image.

i've never really been involved much in IOTD but I'd hate to see it go. a lot of cellarites have gained entrance from lurking in that area. i don't think i'd be good at it, but i'll help if that is what needs to be done.

I'd really hate to see the IotD go.

I'd like to help keep it alive, but I wouldn't want the responsibility of any one day or days. I like the idea of some sort of submission thread/queue etc. where the active Cellar community can participate to create the IotD. A closed thread that you can only see if you are an active user who is logged in. I'm not technical enough to know how it would work, but someone should be able to submit the image and text and then the Dwellars can vote on it, or you (UT) can click a button to make it so if you like it.

I imagine most Dwellars would get involved in the process if it was low key/ little pressure.

That could fly. Another weird hitch is that images should live on the Cellar servers when they become IotDs, and that makes work for me. It would be better if ppl could upload their own images to here, and then only view and use them here. But the programming for that is a security hassle.

the whole voting thing might work once....but every day? no wai!

srsly. that would be more work than just continuing to do it.

true. i think the only workable solution is obvious then. LJ will have to pick up the task of IOTD. no more than 2 pics per week of your cockpuppets. unlimited pictures of Jinx are encouraged.:ipray:

Do we want every IotD to be a cock? :)

one day a week i could do. then it would be like a homework assignment. I could take my time composing the text...and take it all very seriously. I call dibs on Wednesday!

Excess cock - surely an oxymoron?

The "Quality Images" forum is a result of a board decision 50-11 years ago to give Sheppsie sole control of IotD (because he was good at it and we didn't want IotD to get watered down) while allowing other Dwellars to post other pretty pictures.

IotD is essentially the bread and butter of the Cellar...it has brought many fine Dwellars to our establishment. But I can understand how it can become tedious as well. I dunno...I wouldn't mind helping keep it up on a daily, but maybe a little break on UT's part (week? month?) will recharge his battery and make him want to do them on a daily (or almost-daily) again.

That's true...

... but it also brought me.

I know...we're still smarting from that. ;)

How about having all people interested put their names in, say there is 25. Then beginning on Oct 1st, have the first person put up and image. On the 2nd, the 2nd, until the 26th, when person 1 puts one up again. When one person wants out, or can't post on their day, they post so in a different thread, and someone else takes their place. I would like to participate, but once a week, even for only a few weeks is a little much. closer to once a month would be perfect.

If you have more than one image, you could give it to someone who needs it. a separate thread could be used for that type of stuff, discussing IotD business.

my :2cents:

Point: IotD is the lifeblood of The Cellar.

The Cellar community could collectively submit the images, and collectively vote on the images. That way, there's no searching and deciding for any person or persons to worry about. The moderator duties would be to facilitate the process, and post the IotD based on the outcome.

-ing = a suffix of nouns formed from verbs, expressing the action of the verb or its result, product, material, etc.

-er = a suffix serving as the regular English formative of agent nouns, being attached to verbs of any origin

In this case, sycamore, I think you meant the latter.

alright then, here's how it's going to be.

we will all flood LJ's mailbox with likely pics. he will sort through them and pick the one he wants for any given day. Jinx will slap him and say "not another picture of your cock, dumbass! send that picture there." at which point he will remember his good fortune at having Jinx to keep him in line. Seeing as how he would like to enjoy her assets at some point in the future he will dutifully obey. LJ's job ends with pressing the "send" button.

Next Elspode will open his mailbox to find an image that needs text. He will delete the superfluous image of LJ's cockpuppet, and go to work creating engaging text to put with the real image(seeing as how he's the most eloquent MFer here). Elspode will save his text with the image and press the "send" button.

The appropriate moderator will open their mailbox to find this wonderful collaboration and they will post it, thus creating the next IOTD.

We will all clap, say good job, comment on the image, and go about our day. Once per week a lurker will register because they want to say something relevant to the IOTD. From time to time this former lurker will become a valuable part of the cellar.

TW will pop in at least twice daily to say, "george jr, mental midget, mba's..." before wandering off in search of his meds.

UT will go on about life relieved at the burden lifted from his shoulders. He will soon realize that he has compiled a large list of possible future IOTD's with relevant text. A few months later, UT will step back into his previous role because... well, he's UT. Some things just belong together like PB&J, or IOTD & UT.

OK, now - ready...BREAK!

I would do it in a heartbeat man, but I just can't get on the fucking PC every day.
*pissed*

How about just sticking a pic up - don't bother with text - we can provide our own.

well the obvious problem, of course. who is going to decide when we have "enough" text?

:rolleyes:

enough is enough

Aaahhhhhh!

At least none of the solutions sound really complicated.:rolleyes:

I wish I had an answer, or the time and set-up to do it.

Has anyone mentioned tag teaming? I think it would be difficult to remember whose day it is, but if someone did it for a month, then tagged another (willing) dwellar, someone would have to be on the ball for a month, but there would be an end in sight.

Eh, I got nothin'

If you trust my aussieness, I'd do it :)

With some one on one teaching from the Toad of course.

I could be in for once a week. I call dibs on Tuesday. Can't promise it would be up to the quality that UT's maintained, but I could find something at least moderately interesting once a week.

Five more people? C'mon, you could do a few weeks, and then guilt someone into taking your day, when you're ready to move on, eh?

Alternatively, I'd be willing to take over all of the tedious posting bit, if UT would show me how, as long as you fuckers submitted things on a regular basis.

Why don't we just take the 365 most active posters and give them all one day per year?

:devil:

I would do a day - don't care which one really.

The problem is not good pictures, it's the source, and the back story.... and copyrights/permissions.
It takes a lot of time to put all that together... daily.
If more people submitted the package, picture and source/back story, it would be much easier on UT.

Ah yes, the permissions. I'd forgotten all about that. That's going to be where the work lies. I'd be up for trying one day, although I confess most of the interesting stuff i see comes from the BBC -how easy/fast is it to get permission from them/their sources? I notice very few IOTDs seem to come from there.....

Most of IotD is a big copyright violation. Which is one reason it's a drag.

At one point I tried contacting the wire services about buying their stuff, and they weren't interested yet, maybe they are now.

I get permissions when it seems like the right thing to do, as when there's a private person involved who may not have wanted their stuff posted all over the net.

Only one person did not give permission.

Doc Searls, in giving permission for an image I did not use, said pretty much what I thought... paraphrasing, once it's on the net, it's public domain for all practical purposes. Really good Astro pics of the Day get regularly stolen and reused in everyone's livejournal entries. WTF images are routinely shared via email with millions (Hullo xoB!) They can't keep people from trading songs and even movies, so what hope do image owners have?

It's a strange world

Got something to share with us there, girlie?

UT, it has to be a controlled thing. IOTD has inherent integrity. That said, there's a lot of people on here that are well qualified to take it on in terms of ability and discretion, but time...? That's the sticky part.

I haven't read this whole thread, but I know Bruce to be an avid procurer of images, and most of them are not porn. He would be a very logical choice, if he would deign to take on such a responsibility.

Oh I can live with risking it permission-wise :D I just didn't want to get the cellar into trouble....

I agree IOTD is important -it brought me :D Also I'm not into the voting thing. way too messy. I like Jim's idea of one day each, and the idea of asking for a stand-in if you can't do your day.

...assuming xoB is unwilling. If he'll do it, then we're sorted!

While this is undeniable . . . .
The Cellar got along just fine when there were no images (of the day, or of anything else). I too would be sorry to see IotD go. But The Cellar would go on very well without it.

Maybe this is an opportunity to articulate exactly what makes the IotD special, and worth continuing, in the face of several hundred thousand social bookmarking sites and blogs. That might give us some insight into good ways to proceed, that would preserve what makes IotD IotD.

As most things, there's more to it than you can see on the surface, so I say bravo to Undertoad for handling it for the time that he did. It brought users and (sometimes server-crashing) hits to the site, but the real delight in IotD was the clever wordplay and running gags.

I heard about the Cellar by word-of-mouth (can't think of an equivalent expression) and I stuck around for the people I found here, who have been very gracious to put up with me. I've never joined a community based on a random image search.

I'm gonna have to agree with flint here...most other image sites or blogs are about the pictures...they're interesting and nice, the backstory is cool...but all of the comments are lame, useless, repetitive, boring.
The cellar is the cellar because of all of you guys, I would never have joined except that you're all such a fun group of people. IOTD is awesome, I would be sad to see it go...but even though it brought me here, you all are the reason I stayed.:grouphug:

Worst Case Scenario Contingency Plan:
 

UT, formulate your IotD criteria and a submission procedure. Reduce these to writing in simple language. Send it to each spammer that hits on the Cellar. Offer one day of posting [solicitation] privileges in exchange for each published [successful] IotD submission.

Let someone else do the legwork for you by turning a negative into a positive. It's for a good cause and a little spam never killed anyone :skull: (at least no one important).

Speaking from extensive experience...administering any program laden with laws and regulations (and often nuances thereof) is harder even than the actual footwork.

Just sayin': I'm not sure any of these solutions really lets UT off the hook in any way.

Dude, on the Cellar, if you go beyond "enough" text, someone will come down on you with both feet.

IotW?

Update?

I don't know. vBulletin has added a blog feature that I have to check out to see whether I am gonna reinvent the wheel. If what they have isn't good enough, I want to re-do the software I've written to queue and post the IotD, so that many of you can use it and there can even maybe be voting and whatnot. Then maybe we can add a schedule to it so that one person's pick goes up Tuesday, etc.

it seems to me like you must have shrugged like....wait, lemme re read it and count.....well, actually it was 3 little shrugs, and one long one at the end. You sound rather un-enthused, matey.