Discussions

Search engine improvement

s_t_s - 19:45 12 December 2016 #

Hi there !

Just wanted to know is some improvement in the not-so-accurate search engine was in the pipeline. I still don't get why I cannot find what I am looking for :/

Also, can someone tell me why when clicking on prod to add a filter I cannot find 96kb prods ? Thought they used to be pretty common, more than 100kb or 64Kb for instance.

menace - 20:55 12 December 2016 #

s_t_s: Search improvements is a long-standing issue, and one we take very seriously. There is a ticket for it on Github from pretty much the same week we moved our tickets over there. See: https://github.com/demozoo/demozoo/issues/65

Unfortunately, we have a very limited amount of developers, and (literally!) hundreds of open issues, so when it gets attention is unfortunately down to the amount of user engagement (and no, "+1" on tickets is not user engagement :) ), and motivation on the part of the developers for a certain feature or enhancement. Make useful suggestions on the ticket, find useful libraries that may be helpful, or point your dev friends in our direction - that all helps :)

On the plus side we recently deployed some enhancements to search _results_ at least, that hopefully make it easier to sort the sceners from the prods from the graphics from the music. Feedback always welcome on that stuff.

As for 96k intros being more common than 64k, I'm gonna call bullshit on that :D Feel free to start a tag on any 96k intros though, and if there are, like 50 or more of them we'll definitely put that category in.

s_t_s - 08:03 13 December 2016 #

Great ! I had written a full comment but I had not logged in ! Now that I have logged in of course my reply has been deleted (f*cking awesome !)

To make long things short, I agree with you that there are major issues and I cannot help to improve the search engine.

I don't agree tho with you as far as 96Kb are concerned. In Atari parties we usually have boot intros, 128 bytes, 4Kb and 96Kb compos for size limited demos. As you said I will add labels to 96Kb intros :)

s_t_s - 09:06 13 December 2016 #

That's it ! I labelled 96Kb as many Falcon and Atari ST/e prods that I could find. Didn't count them all but I'm pretty sure we are close to 50. Please add 96Kb to the search engine now :)

menace - 10:40 15 December 2016 #

So, let it never be said that it doesn't help to get an admin to promise something, and then following through, and forcing him to make good on what he said.

https://demozoo.org/productions/?platform=&production_type=50

:)

s_t_s - 08:35 16 December 2016 #

Thank you ! Tho I'm not doing much, I like Demozoo a lot and Atari demos even more so that I'm trying to contribute. Just tell me if I can do something else to help here. I need to say that I'm totally green at code (well I used to code Basic on my Apple2E but that was more than 25 years ago :)

ltk_tscc - 10:11 16 December 2016 #

sts: Well for example adding screenshots and credits always helps :)

s_t_s - 16:28 16 December 2016 #

Erm odd, I am almost 100% sure I had posted a reply to you Lotek... Anyway guess I messed it up while I was doing something else at work :) Will do my best to add screenshots on Atari prods (coz the rest is crap of course :). Can I use snapshots from Atarimania ?

Also, why do some prods not show thumbnails while they show snapshots when clicking their name ? You can find an example at https://demozoo.org/productions/165425/

menace - 19:39 16 December 2016 #

s_t_s: Because they have a video link (in this instance YouTube), and in those cases we pull the image they provide to populate the screenshot field in place of proper screenshots.

ltk_tscc - 20:00 16 December 2016 #

sts: We prefer to have own screenshots... also the atarimania ones seem to be resized... atleast for the monochrome stuff.

s_t_s - 08:06 17 December 2016 #

@Menace : understood.

@Lotek : no offence but it sounds a bit silly to make new screenshots while some are already available from Atarimania. I used some snapshots from this website but also added an external link to Atarimania at the same time. Sounds like a fair deal to me :) I can also get in touch with the people behind Atarimania if you prefer to get legal authorization.

menace - 05:54 18 December 2016 #

s_t_s: We want to do our own screenshots for a number of reasons. First; a lot of sites impose limits on resolution and the amount of screenshots, etc. On top of that, there are the amount of incorrect or badly made ones, as Lotek mentions. We support any resolution, and several screenshots, and we want to populate those screenshot boxes with carefully created screenshots, in high resolution for modern demos, and original resolution for oldskool platforms. We believe in quality, and we believe that is part of the reason people come to our site - because we care, and don't just want to inherit older stuff - let alone steal content that others took years to create, which is just super-bad netiquette.

You're about three years too late to this discussion, sir ;)

s_t_s - 07:45 18 December 2016 #

menace : I can see your point but all I can do about snapshots is take them from STeem, the famous Atari emulator. About me being three years late, I think I started contributing (well if you can call comments and links a contribution) some time ago already ;)

Anyway keep up the good work fellows !

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