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    #61
    Guys.. try keep it nice and constructive ok? Thanks.

    I thought Xabby3's idea was simply to split the vids on a point such that the 2nd vid starts with the model naked. We already do videos in several parts, it's just a matter of splitting them differently I'd gather. Not sure that's possibly right now, but giving people choices ain't bad now is it?

    Comment


      #62
      Getting back to the improved lists. I wondered about the descriptions below the pictures, will the descriptions translate to these "Tags"?

      Comment


        #63
        I like the idea that Garion mentions

        ...including a somthing like "editing your own video", where we put all the footage up, and you use thumbnails ever n seconds to choose an "in" and "out" points, then click download, and download only the bits you want.
        I'll look forward to using it, if and when it goes live, as Frans says "...giving people choices ain't bad now is it?" although I suspect only a relatively small number of members will use it on anything like a regular basis.

        tom

        Comment


          #64
          Originally posted by briggfair View Post
          Xabby3, if you want to see naked models only, as on any cheap porn site, .
          Sadly, cheap porn sites are not erotic. Virtually no sites cater for what I'm looking for, which is the quality of AW combined with more nudity. A kind of naturist themed AW if you like. If my new toy business takes off, I'm going to create such a site, a video site with a fairly fast strip and long, tastefly and artistic nude scenes, maybe with role play e.g. 2 models doing a ad-libbing a job interview and so on.

          Comment


            #65
            Originally posted by tom2c7777 View Post
            I like the idea that Garion mentions
            I'll look forward to using it, if and when it goes live, as Frans says "...giving people choices ain't bad now is it?" although I suspect only a relatively small number of members will use it on anything like a regular basis.
            tom
            I'll probably use it too, it will help cut a large video file down to size by leaving out much of the preamble for models I'm not that keen on.

            Comment


              #66
              Originally posted by garionhall View Post
              This is not the case - the Photographer (almost always the one who shot the shoot) chooses which images are selected. But it's everyone's goal to have a set we're all happy with, and it's really rare there is a problem between the model, shooter, me, or the members (actually, I don't know that there has ever been a problme with image selection - sometimes image CONTENT, or course).
              My apologies Garionhall - the photographer doing the shoot probably knows which are the best shots of a particular model (image selection)

              Image CONTENT to me means that a model has agreed to a certain degree of nudity, which may mean she may not feel comfortable with a shot with her legs wide open, or more intimate shots of her vagina, at least on her first shoot.

              Harper is a perfect example - her first stills were more reserved - and it would seem that after a time she was (in her second shoot) more comfortable being more explicit -- Go, Harper

              Comment


                #67
                Garionhall - CMS features - on another note - When I started the thread "Birthdays" - I was asking a different question than where the thread went - although I am very happy that the thread is alive and doing very well - many thanks to Casgrain for keeping it going

                If you read my first post to Birthdays, I was asking if it were possible to add the models birth date on their bio page, along with their height, age (and since you already list a models age, maybe a full birthday - mine is 9/03/1952) - can we add this to the new CMS model page - I am somewhat into astrology, hence my interest

                Comment


                  #68
                  Originally posted by andresone View Post
                  I was asking if it were possible to add the models birth date on their bio page, along with their height, age (and since you already list a models age, maybe a full birthday - mine is 9/03/1952) - can we add this to the new CMS model page - I am somewhat into astrology, hence my interest
                  Abby used to have bio data next to the model, e.g. occupation etc but that went away, sadly. P.S. Astrology is testable and debunked by countless scientific studies by the way!

                  Comment


                    #69
                    Originally posted by Xabbyy3 View Post
                    Abby used to have bio data next to the model, e.g. occupation etc but that went away, sadly. P.S. Astrology is testable and debunked by countless scientific studies by the way!
                    Bio data changes which is why I think it would be handy to have a bio section models can update themselves. I mentioned this in another thread and a couple of members thought it was a good idea too. Basic info like age, height, etc could be available as well as some other fun stuff such as marital status, favorite food, occupation, top five books, etc. This way models can share as much or as little info about themselves.

                    Andresone, astrology is fun, come chat about it with me in my thread!

                    Comment


                      #70
                      Similarity

                      Hi everybody,

                      Seeing what people like who have a similar taste as yourself is a great way of finding stuff you like. One site that amazes me with the good suggestions for music it makes is last.fm. They have some very good algorithms, I'm sure!

                      One way abbywinters could have this is by comparing lists created by users. The site could suggest a list to you because it is similar to a list you created yourself. Similar would mean the lists have many items in common. An item could be a video or a photo shoot, or maybe a tag or something else from the database. But the way in which you determine similarity has to be smart. For instance, if I have a list of 10 favorite models, and another list has 9 of those models, but another 200 which I don't have, I wouldn't say the lists are very similar. There are many mathematical ways of determining similarity that might be useful here. They have a formula for calculating a similarity index, which is a number. For instance the ones used to calculate biodiversity between sites in ecology ("beta-diversity", with diversity decreasing the more similar the sites are in the species they have).

                      And also... can we keep the nice blue soft background colour? Or maybe even pick the colour we like ourselves? :-)

                      Have fun!

                      Comment


                        #71
                        Going back to content, while I don’t entirely agree with Xabbyy3 about clothes and talking, the videographers do seem to struggle to get much naked footage of models who stop short of open leg or explicit poses. Love the idea of being able to self edit videos, but of course we can’t edit content that’s not been shot.

                        Similar to videos, I’d like the facility to self edit images: there was a time when members got numerous (i.e. more than 1 or 2) images of the same pose. Now though that doesn’t happen despite backstage videos showing shooters’ taking multiple shots of the same pose. I’m sure the photos shown of each model represent what the company see as a balanced selection and I know we can select which images to download from these. Why not though have two image sets: an ‘Abby recommended’ comprising the c100 – 150 images we get now and a ‘members selection’ set comprising multiple shots of similar poses that we can self select from?

                        Even shooting digitally the ratio of shots taken to shots used must be huge and least this way Abby gets a return on some of the otherwise unused shots.

                        Comment


                          #72
                          Originally posted by bellmont View Post
                          the videographers do seem to struggle to get much naked footage of models who stop short of open leg or explicit poses. Love the idea of being able to self edit videos, but of course we can’t edit content that’s not been shot.
                          There are two factors here:

                          (1) What the model is comfortable doing. Not all models are up for all posing levels (our minimum requirement is fully nude). We tell them the options, and they choose. Sometimes, when they come back for a shoot, they'll be comfy to go a little further.

                          (2) What we shoot of the model when she is at her highest posing level. We have been getting a lot of negative feedback about this in the past few months, and we're working on it. It was good, it got bad, now it's getting better. Those effects should start being felt on the site in the coming months (there's a dealy from when we shoot, to when we release), where around half of every shoot has the model doing stuff at her highest posing level she feels comfortable doing (that's an estimation, not a promise!).

                          Of course, when we do that, people complain about all the nudity on the site - "Let's see the sexy stuff of the model getting undressed! It's about the journey, not the destination!" - sure fella. We're never going to please everyone all the time (or even most people some of the time), but we can do better than we have lately, and we're working on that.

                          Similar to videos, I’d like the facility to self edit images: there was a time when members got numerous (i.e. more than 1 or 2) images of the same pose. Now though that doesn’t happen despite backstage videos showing shooters’ taking multiple shots of the same pose. I’m sure the photos shown of each model represent what the company see as a balanced selection and I know we can select which images to download from these. Why not though have two image sets: an ‘Abby recommended’ comprising the c100 – 150 images we get now and a ‘members selection’ set comprising multiple shots of similar poses that we can self select from?
                          We have that already! If you look at the recent shoot of Joannie for example, you'll see the "best of Joannie" link at the top of her imageset - that's a subset of the "best" images in the set, 20-odd images. Or, you can look at the full set of 153 images. Of course, you meant the other way - let's see the best 500 images, right? (there were 760 images taken in this shoot, BTW) If you remove 25% of the images for focus and framing/composition issues, and another 50% or so for redundancy or just-didn't-work issues, you get pretty close (190 images left, this set is 153 images). Those percentages are not rules, or even a guide... it's just how it turns out most of the time.

                          As an aside, looking thru this shoot, the first 33 images are the Charli setting up her camera, capturing the model's ID and stuff. Digital shots are free (unlike film) and allow us to be "lazy". Rather than set up the lights and camera perfectly, then start the shoot proper, we usually do a few dozen shots, like this: set up the lights, location, main shooting angle, in roughly the right way, take a pic, adjust a light, take a pic, adjust the bed, take two pics from different angles, adjust the WB, take a pic, refine the custom WB setting, take a pic, and so on. This kinda approach drives old-school shooters nuts - "film is money!" Use you light meter to make incicdental and spot readings all over the set from all angles, choose the right film for the lighting, then the first image you take will be perfect. But, it's 2009. We roll new-school: use the advantages of the equipment to their best potential.

                          The shooting style is often like that as well - rather than spend five mins posing a model perfectly and take one image, instead, we interact with the models at a clipping pace, and take pics as we go (taking this into account when we set up - we don't change the lighting during the shoot that much). Obviously, we're not unique in that, but it allows us to work with amateur models while interacting with them, increasing their comfot and enjoyment of the shoot. It means that 80% of images will be binned (but they cost us effectively nothing), but those 153 images will absolutely be the best possible, from the shoot - and that's what most people want (even if it's not what you want).

                          Of course, we could do as you suggest, to provide minor sation to a small percentage of our customers, provide the maxi-edit version, but then we're increasing workflow steps, storage space on the servers, options to support and explain, and download volume (all of which does cost real money - how many people would be willing to pay extra for this feature, do you think?), for little appreciable gain... or, we could spend that time and effort on things that everyone will enjoy, like a bunch of the features in the new CMS2 (look, my massive post is suddenly on topic again!).


                          Part of our job is to be an editor (or, curator) - we choose what shows the model in her best light, without being too redundant (we sometimes get critticism for our shoots being too long - about as much feedback we get from people like you saying they are too short). You know the "too much icecream" thing, right?

                          Just so you know, almost always, the person who photographed the shoot edits the shoot (in terms of, selecting the 153 "keeper" images in this case). We used to outsource this (used to be my job too, at one stage!) to people who were customers (we figured, who better to select keepers?). First thing they asked was, "How many images should be in a set?". Our response is always, "As many as necessary, no more and no less". Kinda glib, but accurate, too. I reckon if YOU editied that set of Joannie (keeping in mind your audience, not your only personal preference), you'd come up with a pretty similar number of images, maybe some slight variations.

                          It's long been a dream of mine - and I think, discussed on the boards before - where we upload all 760 as-shot images, a buncha customers download them, and do their own edit, then upload it for others to compare. There's prolly a cool app out there that could measure what files are the most- and least-included, so we could make a graph showing the hive mind "money shots". It'd be fascinating, but prolly not that useful. I'd rather spend my time on preparing for our Netball T1, or something!

                          Even shooting digitally the ratio of shots taken to shots used must be huge and least this way Abby gets a return on some of the otherwise unused shots.
                          (as you can see from above, it's about 80:20) Keep in mind those un-used digital shots effectively cost us nothing if we don't release them on the site (especially compared to video storage!), so it's not a return on investment, strictly speaking...

                          Comment


                            #73
                            Originally posted by Zwaster View Post
                            Seeing what people like who have a similar taste as yourself is a great way of finding stuff you like. One site that amazes me with the good suggestions for music it makes is last.fm. They have some very good algorithms, I'm sure!
                            Ya, and have you seen pandora? I think last.fm does it with a relational database with bands and artists. If you like Kelly Clarkson, you'll prolly like Avril Lavinge, cos learned people know they are pretty similar (pop, female lead vocal, charting, etc)

                            Pandora is fascinating - they got a bunch of musicologists to analyse the.... wait, wikipedia says: The Music Genome Project is an effort to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level". Each genre of music has 150 - 350 "genes" (for example, accordian playing, Aggressive Drumming, horn riffs, Mixed Major and Minor Tonalities, etc), songs are assigned (one muso, 20 minutes!) their value on each attribute on a 1-5 scale (.5 increments). Then, you search for indigo Girls, and it suggests Ani diFranco, and it's right. It's freaky.

                            I want to do that for erotica! And that's kinda like what you're taking about...

                            One way abbywinters could have this is by comparing lists created by users. The site could suggest a list to you because it is similar to a list you created yourself. Similar would mean the lists have many items in common. An item could be a video or a photo shoot, or maybe a tag or something else from the database. ... They have a formula for calculating a similarity index, which is a number. For instance the ones used to calculate biodiversity between sites in ecology ("beta-diversity", with diversity decreasing the more similar the sites are in the species they have).
                            Yah. Our tagging and lists systems will be able to do this - they have been gathering data since forever, so "all" we need to do is write the math, and we're set. Big job tho. It's on our list, and I am passionate about it.

                            And also... can we keep the nice blue soft background colour?
                            No, sorry.

                            Or maybe even pick the colour we like ourselves? :-)
                            Maybe one day - not a high priority!

                            Comment


                              #74
                              garion - thank you that was a very interesting and useful response

                              Originally posted by garionhall View Post
                              There are two factors here:

                              (2) What we shoot of the model when she is at her highest posing level. We have been getting a lot of negative feedback about this in the past few months, and we're working on it. It was good, it got bad, now it's getting better. Those effects should start being felt on the site in the coming months (there's a dealy from when we shoot, to when we release), where around half of every shoot has the model doing stuff at her highest posing level she feels comfortable doing (that's an estimation, not a promise!).
                              That's interesting - the model comfort didn't occur to me, but yes I can see that would be a problem particularly if you don't want people complaining how boring non explicit, or even explicit I suppose, videos are!

                              Originally posted by garionhall View Post
                              Of course, when we do that, people complain about all the nudity on the site - "Let's see the sexy stuff of the model getting undressed! It's about the journey, not the destination!"
                              People complain about NUDITY on a porn site? Dear God, now I've heard everything; you must feel like just turning the site off somedays. Wandering, briefly, off topic - why are models apparently struck dumb once the journey starts. Many shoots start off with a really chatty model who seems to lose the power of speech when the clothes start coming off. Happens to me too with some shoots but that's probably not for the same reason

                              Originally posted by garionhall View Post

                              We have that already! If you look at the recent shoot of Joannie for example, you'll see the "best of Joannie" link at the top of her imageset - that's a subset of the "best" images in the set, 20-odd images. Of course, you meant the other way - let's see the best 500 images, right?
                              Yes
                              Originally posted by garionhall View Post

                              First thing they asked was, "How many images should be in a set?". Our response is always, "As many as necessary, no more and no less". Kinda glib, but accurate, too. I reckon if YOU editied that set of Joannie (keeping in mind your audience, not your only personal preference), you'd come up with a pretty similar number of images, maybe some slight variations.
                              Probably, but I'm willing to proved wrong!

                              Originally posted by garionhall View Post
                              It's long been a dream of mine - and I think, discussed on the boards before - where we upload all 760 as-shot images, a buncha customers download them, and do their own edit, then upload it for others to compare. There's prolly a cool app out there that could measure what files are the most- and least-included, so we could make a graph showing the hive mind "money shots". It'd be fascinating, but prolly not that useful. I'd rather spend my time on preparing for our Netball T1, or something!
                              .
                              Netball T1? I wish!

                              I know of at least one company that recycles its old content on a series of themed sites, so if your CMS allows you could have breasts only, bums only etc sub sites and use something like Google analytics to workout percentage popularity which might then give you a feeling for money shots. Still as you say, lots of work and yes I'd rather have the Netball T1 and if you could shoot and publish that before I next have to decide whether to renew my rolling sub, that would be helpful

                              Comment


                                #75
                                Originally posted by bellmont View Post
                                I know of at least one company that recycles its old content on a series of themed sites, so if your CMS allows you could have breasts only, bums only etc sub sites and use something like Google analytics to workout percentage popularity which might then give you a feeling for money shots. Still as you say, lots of work and yes I'd rather have the Netball T1 and if you could shoot and publish that before I next have to decide whether to renew my rolling sub, that would be helpful
                                Yah, we'll be looking at doing something like that - it's a fundamental part of the new CMS.

                                Comment


                                  #76
                                  Originally posted by bellmont View Post
                                  Wandering, briefly, off topic - why are models apparently struck dumb once the journey starts. Many shoots start off with a really chatty model who seems to lose the power of speech when the clothes start coming off....
                                  We do get a little nervous, you know!

                                  Comment


                                    #77
                                    It is probably me, but I used to spend a lot more time on the site especially reading the forums. I was ill for a while, and things have changed in my life and ability, but I have returned.
                                    I am finding it difficult to navigate through the forums. Perhaps it's because I have not as frequent viewer as it used to be, but at times I cannot even find my most recent post to check for replies. I used to enjoy the constant exchange of dialogue between models and fans alike. I know this still goes on, but I am just not viewing it as much. I began reading the beginning of this thread (page 1) and like many of the proposed changes and even like the suggestions more.
                                    I am sure that it will improve access and hopefully participation by model and fans alike.

                                    I guess what I am saying is that I want to be here more, and participate to an even greater extent. Obviously this depends upon me, but I look forward to the changes and hopefully some of the suggestions as well. Good luck to all, and a job well done!
                                    Ciao,
                                    hope to be here more often, and contributing even more.
                                    Browneyes

                                    Comment


                                      #78
                                      Originally posted by browneyes View Post
                                      I am finding it difficult to navigate through the forums. Perhaps it's because I have not as frequent viewer as it used to be, but at times I cannot even find my most recent post to check for replies. I used to enjoy the constant exchange of dialogue between models and fans alike. I know this still goes on, but I am just not viewing it as much.
                                      You might want to set "Default Thread Subscription Mode" in your User Control Panel to anything but 'do not subscribe'. Then you can find threads you have replied to in that same User CP, in the tab (left vertical menu) "List Subscriptions".

                                      For the mail-me options you need to have specified your email-adres. Easiest way to find a poster's recent post is click on their name in the left column of a post and choose 'find more posts by...' And do feel free to ask questions about forum-usage over in the Technical Support forum!

                                      As far as I know the forum itself won't change much with the cms2 update.

                                      Comment


                                        #79
                                        CMS Type

                                        For the sake of professional interest (I am a web developer specializing in content managed sites), which CMS are you using?
                                        Are you building off of one of the established open source platforms like Joomla! or Droopal, are you using something more specialized, or are you having a custom CMS built?

                                        Thanks and I'm curious to see your answer.

                                        Comment


                                          #80
                                          Hi Connor

                                          We have been building our own from the ground up for the last 12 months or so, with a team of five people. It's using PHP, doctrine, model/view/controller architecture pattern, TAL, and and agile development methodology.

                                          Comment


                                            #81
                                            Garion -

                                            It sounds like you're going to have a great system and I'm excited to see what it can do once it goes live.

                                            I'm curious as to why you chose to build a new CMS "from the ground up" as opposed to modifying a mainstream, open source CMS. If I understand your needs correctly, you could have gotten the same capabilities out of a modified and extended version of, say, Joomla, gotten it done much faster, and then had access to a large library of (often free) extensions to add more capabilities in the future.

                                            Comment


                                              #82
                                              If you have to extend or modify a framework too much, you might as well not use that framework. With frameworks you have to fit in with their way of working, that is why it IS a framework If you want to work around that and do stuff differently, it's usually best not use that particular framework. (unless a client requires you to use that framework 'cos they heard about it somewhere )

                                              Frameworks are fun if your needs fit in the framework, never put too much effort in *forcing* it to fit.

                                              Comment


                                                #83
                                                Originally posted by Frans View Post
                                                Frameworks are fun if your needs fit in the framework, never put too much effort in *forcing* it to fit.
                                                That's true, but what I'm saying is that there are CMS's out there that do most of what AW needs it to do. The few things those systems can't do out of the box can be easily added on with extensions, many of them already coded and available for free.

                                                For example, Joomla, the most popular CMS, is already coded along the MCV pattern and allows for easy extensibility without modifying the core code, which is what TAL means. Using a Content Creation Kit extension like K2 covers pretty much all of the features it looks like CMS2 will have.

                                                I'm not suggesting that you should always start with a pre-existing CMS for its own sake. I'm suggesting, if I understand your needs correctly (and I know I don't have the whole story), that AW could have gotten the same results without the extra time, money, and trouble of building an entire CMS from the ground up. Plus they would have access to the network of thousands of developers creating new extensions, bug fixes, and security patches for those established products. As is, with a unique CMS, they may have to provide all this support in-house.

                                                All that said, I'm really excited as a member to explore the new site.

                                                Comment


                                                  #84
                                                  I viewed a post several days ago and would like to read it again, but not there any more - it was in discourse, but I don't know (remember) the posters name -- question is - Is there a way to list posts by date so that they can be located, even by different forums (Discourse, models speak, talk to models directly, et al) - like "posts made on this date" and more or less looking up what posts were made on a certain date, or like 2 days ago, 3 days ago, whatever - sounds complicated to me, but is it possible??

                                                  Comment


                                                    #85
                                                    Forum, click on Search then click 'Advanced Search' bottom of that box. Use 'Find Posts from' to get somewhat what you want.

                                                    Comment


                                                      #86
                                                      Thought I had posted this earlier, but my contribution seems to have gone astray.

                                                      In still shoots, if you click to see a single shot, the ability to get back to a page view is important. Yes, you can use your browser "back" button to get to the page view again, but as I peruse a shoot, I remember page numbers I want to get back to. The way it's set up now, you either have to use the browser back button, or you're stuck with going to page 1. Would be nice to navigate easier, don't you think?

                                                      Comment


                                                        #87
                                                        sorry, I'm not sure what you mean here?

                                                        Comment


                                                          #88
                                                          Originally posted by garionhall View Post
                                                          sorry, I'm not sure what you mean here?
                                                          I think redheadpilot wants a way to go from say picture80 in a set back to page3 of that set which is where the thumb of that pic will be (default settings).

                                                          All the links on a single-pic-page go back to either; the shootpage, or the 1st page of stills.

                                                          Comment


                                                            #89
                                                            three comments

                                                            couple of comments

                                                            the new screen/contents is a little more "busy" looking which for me is a negative -- i like things simple.

                                                            the new screen color is very bright/white compared to the old background (blue) -- i prefer the darker backround as well i imagine the darker background was less of an energy drain on monitor/battery consumption.

                                                            also a complaint (minor) about the old site -- there was no good way (in my opinion) to search user lists/collections - for example keyword search, search only video lists/collections (if there was such a feature i never found it OR i lacked the resolve to find where this option was) -- to circumvent this i would just go to google, "search site" function to find what im looking for. again, for example i was looking for fun to see which girls were 155cm or smaller -- only the google search enabled me to do this in an efficient manner.

                                                            thats all for now

                                                            Comment


                                                              #90
                                                              Well-said, neary39! Welcome!

                                                              Haven't I seen Google searches "built-in" to some web sites? Might be a decent "stop-gap" while the organizational and search features I've read are coming, are still being worked-on!

                                                              Rob

                                                              Comment

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