Has anyone even tried to get into contact with Bart lately?  I'm sure he's busy, but do we in fact know he's aware of the issue with search and so forth?

I haven't been on long, but in my time here I've noticed some things on the site that could be drastically improved.   Also, I've noticed a lot of bot spam in the forums.  Usually people flag this quickly, but it doesn't give a great impression to new users, and it doesn't exactly give off the feeling of security, especially considering that email phishing scam a while back.  .  

Point me to the bot spam. I'm sure we can do something about that right away.

It's a very real problem.  I haven't been in touch with Bart in quite a while.  I try to stop in every now and then and clean the most obvious spam but there is definitely lots left and my time is quite limited by grad school demands.  On the plus side, we've recently added Medicinestorm to our modding lineup!  So there is that!

Excellent. Thanks!

One way for everyone to help fight spam is to click "Report Spam" as soon as you see a spammy comment. I noticed no one had flagged either of those two comments. (that, or the "report spam" button only works for me)

If you see spam and you don't flag it as spam, expect a lot of spam. If you see a spam comment but you're pretty sure someone else probably reported it as spam already... report it anyway. A lot of the comments that only one person marks as spam aren't actually spam. They're just posts that someone didn't particularly like. Seems like a lot of people see "report spam" and think it says "punish the person who made this comment because I don't like it". Heck, some of my comments are at the top of the "spam" list any time I point out a potential licensing concern. So it helps when more than one person thinks the comment is not legit.

Eh, the button abuse is not bad. It's pretty easy to tell it isn't spam. The hard part is finding all the actual spam.

This site is too awesome to die. I'd help resolve the administration issues if I can, but I'd need botanic or somebody to show me the ropes on the backend. Unfortunately, if Bart or the guys familiar with the code had the time to show me around, they'd rather keep spending that time fixing stuff.

Let me know how I can help :)

I don't know if it's an easy fix, but maybe the site could have an anti-spam feature in which there is a cooldown period between starting new forum topics?  I know I've logged on and seen 3 or 4 of the exact same bot-uploaded forum posts all done within a span of 15 minutes or so.  Unless there is something I'm overlooking, I don't foresee a 30 minute or hour wait between creating a new forum topic being extremely detrimental to the site.  If you are eeking to post another topic right after you just posted one, I don't think it's too much to ask to wait a little bit.  

I understand that it is as easy as using the "report spam" button, but not everyone has the sense of community to do that, or they don't have the time to monitor the forums.  In my opinion, it makes the site feel safer and more secure if preventative measures are taken rather than relying on the community to clean up the spam after the fact.  

Just my constructive feedback on the matter.

Well, that's the whole issue: OGA's one developer is indisposed, and nobody else can touch the code. If we had someone who could, the site wouldn't be in danger (except perhaps on the financial side, but that's yet another story). And access to the code is what we need, because the only alternative is to fork the website, and I've seen what that does to a community.

I'm quite happy to stay online and keep an eye on posts, if I see anything that I think is spam, articles that are not game, game art related and have links to other sites requesting monies or abvertising I will mark as spam.think that is all I can do to help.

There seems to be some assumption that no one is working on anything. That isn't the case. There is more than one admin with access to the code, but the problems are complicated. I don't believe the coders are so busy they aren't doing anything at all, but they are limited on how much time they're able to dedicate to the issues.

The problem is less about access to the code and more about understanding the site's code as a whole, being able to resolve the problems without causing more. It's like trying to fix a car's engine while it's flying down the highway at 120 KPH (75 in freedom units). Teaching more coders how it all works so they can contribute to the solution is difficult because training them takes away from the already limited time admins have available to work on the issues directly.

I'm chomping at the bit myself to get into the code and start fixing stuff, but I'm trying to give them the space to get out of the rut. Stuff is going to get fixed. :) It just might take a while longer. Your commitments and willingness to help where you can are nice to see.

There seems to be some assumption that no one is working on anything. That isn't the case. There is more than one admin with access to the code, but the problems are complicated.

I apologize. Should have known better. Thank you for being there. I'd offer to help myself, but Drupal doesn't agree with me. Definitely will keep reporting spam though, and promoting OGA. Going to be more patient from now on, too. :)

"However, all that said, search has been broken for far too long, I think it'd very hard to argue that the current situation is working and/or healthy for the long term."

Oh, for sure. I'm researching as much as I can about drupal's cron indexing problem and Apache Solr. I want that fixed!

Wasn't trying to be critical of your guys's comments. Was going for reassuring. D'oh!

(Despite Bart not being very visible it's best not to poke the back end stuff on the site.  Better to poke Botanic to poke it if you can).

No no, if course not. I spoke to botanic and won't be touching the code without his direction. I'm just gearing up so I understand it all first.

In general, maybe it would be an idea for the mods in general to post a little update post once in a while. It wouldn't have to be anything complicated, from personal experience(as a Krita dev/community manager person), people generally appreciate updates as it's an indication work is being done. You could have something incredibly simple like "amount of spam cleaned this week", or "cool resources submitted this week, and here's why they're so useful". Or perhaps articles about what makes CC 4.0 different from 3.0 for the game designer. Or that you would like more people to report spam.

Hell, not every fix needs to be a deep lying architectural fix. Making the css a bit more responsive would be super useful already.

Right now, OGA has a bit of a 'lights on but noone's home'-vibe, which I don't think is fair to anyone, and having an update once a week, once a month, would really help to dispel that feeling.

Anyway, I hope this isn't too intense of a feedback, but communication when things are uncertain is really important. :(

Here's the thing.  Mods technically have the ability to do that, but not necessarily the authority.  As I understand it, my modship was given for the purpose of deleting spam, marking licensing issues and occasionally smoothing over small conflicts.  Even if he isn't around much, it's still Bart's site and I don't want to overstep the bounds too much.  I also wouldn't have much to say these days; I'm drafting my thesis so I occasionally stop in to delete spam and check things on the front page that catch my eye, but I haven't been properly keeping up for a while.  I haven't even been updating my art collections.

I have suggested to him that he ought to put up a small update, both through direct and indirect channels.  It is embarrasing that our latest update is from last year and about a security failure, even if the actual damage was very minor.  I haven't heard back from him though.  I mean, I get it, he has two young kids now and his priorities have likely shifted.  Stuff happens.  Nevertheless, if I end up with more time after getting my degree I think I'll try to do more, permission or no.

It seems like the site could benefit from a ____ of the week / month feature. It is a good way to generate content without stumbling into writer's block. A couple ideas for topics would be tool, contributor, oga game, or submissions.

Submissions of the week would be particularly easy to do as it could just be taken from the popular this week section of the site

there are some really good ideas here.

From what i read here there is clearly some of us having issues with OGA and are unsure of its state of play.But this is going to be a difference experiance for everybody. I create art and upload it here and have absolutly no problems whats so ever,so to me I dont see anything wrong, however if i was a developer looking for art i may be finding some issues, this obvously has an effect on those that are uploading art.

I think the site generally runs as it should really, the forums are ok, uplaods are ok, links are ok, but again it depends on whos doing what to see how much effect the small issues are.

those that build websites from scratch knows only to well the problems that can arise and that they can be a pain in the arse to put right and take time,and its good to have some help to fix little things.That help is crucial and i think i speak for everybody here that the administrators do an incredible job doing what they do and we thank them massively and appreciate their responses on here.

But there is only so much you guys can do, and as Redshrike quite rightly says, "its Barts site" and they do not want to over step there boundarys. I think we can all apreciate as well that he has children, so do many of us, but it doesn't take a minute to post a about how he is or whats on going.

I think some are seaking some reasurance, so Bart if you are reading these posts, just pop in and say hello.

I hope you and family are well.

:)

@capbros all taken in good spirit my friend, i see what your saying, and your right it's not great for anyone searching for artwork, and that's what this site is all about in essence, to be that resource.

sigh.

its a great platform, I guess we will just have to be a little more patient.im sure it will get sorted.

I know there isn't anything that can be done about this until we have access to the code, but another suggestion is to edit the points system to not give people points for commenting on a submission.  I like the idea of the comments section being a place where other users can offer criticism, praise, or ask questions.  But there are a few people who are abusing the comments for points.  When someone is posting a generic comment like "sweet" on almost every new submission, it feels a little insincere.  Maybe other people don't feel the same way, and I probably shouldn't care, but I guess I would just rather have an empty comment section on one of my entries rather than someone saying "cool."

@MedicineStorm:

Regarding spam and false positives, would it make sense to weigh reports by the reporter's trustworthyness, which in turn could be calculated from their history (or lack thereof) of false positives? So that reliable reporters get immediate attention, even if they are the only ones to report a specific spam entry.

@Joth:

Regarding points for comments, I always considered "talkative" as a kind of anti-medal, a blemish.
I think (not a native speaker here) the word itself has ambiguous connotations: helpful vs tiresome. This translates to points for comments. They can be obtained - as you point out - by spamming. But also by answering urgent questions, in which case I would fully support increasing the helper's reputation.
Personally, I dread the day when I obtain the silver talkative medal. Hence I try to make my posts count, so that at that time I have a handy apology.

@caeles maybe implementing a comment "like" system would be the best way to award points.  It would disincentivize the act of posting throwaway comments.  I myself don't treat points with much importance, they are a somewhat nice reward if you post something people like, but when somebody's goal is to get points rather than try to make constructive additions of to the site, it can become a problem.

 The generic "nice work!" comment is sometimes really helpfull not for the site but for the begginer artist.

It encourages contributions (even if some of them are not that good yet)

But this is OGA, where everything is made up and the points don't matter!

That's right, the points are just like that CC-By-NC licensed asset you found somewhere online!  They just don't matter!

I'd "like" your comment, Redshrike, but there's no +1 button.  (<_<) (>_>) ~(*_*)~

im all up for having the search fixed, but pressing the BIG red button might not do it, and  just because we havn't heard from Bart doesn't mean that he hasn't been working on the site, and pressing this button could erase all of the work he may have been doing, id be very cautious about this.

I think the ones that are close to Bart himself should go and visit him and make sure he is allright.

Botanic assures me he is alive and well.  I haven't had any contact in several months.

Given the length of time this has been an issue, I have just unilaterally taken two actions on the search front. 

1. I have rebuilt the index (the big red button has been pressed). This can take quite some time, however I believe it may not solve the issue entirely. There is a deeper issue which requires low level server access to resolve.

2.  In the mean time I have added another search field to the advanced search page. The new "title" field uses a different search mechanism, so it will return results regardless of the state of the search index. The downside is that it only searches the art title, not all the fields on a piece of art.   

It seems to me that title limited search is more useful than time limited search, so if the re-index does not work, then we may have to consider replacing the main site search with the title search I just implemented. It would be great if people could try out the title search feature and let me know your feelings on using it instead of main site search, at least temporarily.  

@capbros I did think it would be kinda odd to be tinkering and not know about the forum posts without commenting on them, think his last post was March, so I was just a little concerned that he was actually OK.

im pleased to know he is.

@p0ss thanks for your work on the index.

Let's pixel!

As I suspected, the re-index did not work. The index is a Solr Index, and the Solr instance is currently not working. This will require low level server access which is beyond mere site administration. 

@capbros  My understanding of the search situation is this: 

1. Main search used to use Solr search, this is a high quality search which searches across all fields and is highly configurable. 
2. Main search now uses Drupal core search terms, this searches for a specific term across all fields, but is not very configurable 
3. Title search isn't really searching, it is actually filtering all art titles by *any* of the terms entered.   

One more thing,  I just checked the access logs, and Bart logged in about a week ago, so he certainly isn't completely AWOL.  I also know that he is a very busy guy, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.  

What would we post to the main page? We certainly have the capability to do so, but I don't think anyone other than Bart has ever posted an update and there is not really anything warranting an announcement.   

I have done some further work on search and you may notice the default search results are significantly different, here is the change log:

1. Changed the default sort criteria for search results, it used to primarily sort by post date, with an advanced option to sort by favourites or views.   It now defaults to sort by search score descending, with an advanced option to sort by favourites, views or post date.   (This means you can compare the new search vs old by changing the sort option)
2. Altered the search index priorities slightly to increase the influence of keyword relevance over other factors like number of comments and how recently it was updated
3. Experimented with adding an exposed date range filter, however it proved unsatisfactory so I have not implemented it. 
4. Experimented with a custom combined field global search field, but this too proved unsatisfactory.    
5.  Temporarily raised the minimum word index from 2 characters to 3, and lowered the number of items indexed per cron run from 100 to 50.  The idea here is that it is possible cron jobs are failing silently due to memory restrictions, so I am trying to make it as easy as possible for the index to  update.  These changes massively decreases the size of the index and the size of each cron operation, at the expense of providing worse results for terms like "16 bit".     (I suspect it won't actually help, since all items are showing in search results when you use the title filter, so i don't think the index itself is the problem. Still, it is worth trying as failed crons are a pretty common problem with larger sites which have been running for a long time. 
6. Cleared the site caches, in case some searches were mistakenly being cached.  
7. Noticed in the site error logs that solr search views are still being referenced by some views and generating warnings, however I haven't yet managed to track down the reference   

 Ultimately I believe the longer term solution is that the site needs to be brought down for maintenance, updates applied and a few database tables cleared before being brought back up. 

If anyone has feedback on these changes I'd love to hear it.  

I know this isn't going to happen soon, but another feature I thought of today would be an extra area on the home page for older art that was popular.  I guess for some people, they might not know exactly what they want to do in their game or what they should be searching for.  Having a section that could just show 4 or 8 random submissions from the past that were popular or well received could help jump-start the creative process for someone.  Just an idea.

Hi Joth, 

I put together a page of the most popular content from all time.

http://opengameart.org/popular

It is essentially the same thing as a blank search filtered by favourites. 

I couldn't think of a quick way to make it display a random selection of only popular art.  

I didn't want to add an entire section to the front page without permission, particularly one which wasn't ever going to change.  However, I have made a slight change so that the "Popular this week" title on the home page is now linked to this "Most Popular" page, instead of the "Latest art" page.   

  Hopefully that goes some way towards your request.  

Joth, after a bit more work there is now a "Featured Art" section at the bottom of the Most Popular page 

 http://opengameart.org/popular 

 It shows 8 random pieces of art with over 30 favourites, a cut off which currently equates to about ~250 pieces of art.  The section is cached for between 1 to 30 minutes, at which time it is randomised again.  

It would be trivial to add this section to the front page, but I won't be touching the front page without permission.  

Hey folks,

I feel like I should chime in here briefly to say that, yes, I still exist, and I'm doing fine.  The lack of updates on my part is due to a lack of time and not a lack of inclination.

I'm trying to keep a better eye on things here, but I'm going to be intermittent at best for a while.  If there are other people here who do have both the time and inclination to work on the site code, I'd be willing to talk about that. 

@p0ss: I just wanted to say thanks a bunch for stepping up to the plate on the search and popular items.  Is there anything I can set up for you that will make what you're doing easier?  SSH access, etc?

Bart

p0ss, that popular art thing is pretty great. I'm bookmarking it for my own use, but I hope it sees the front page some day.

Awesome!  I'm glad to see the site is improving and that we can bring in the community to make improvements.