Danbooru Survey 2017 Results

The first 2017 Danbooru Survey has been completed.

I thank everyone who took the time to respond. These answers help me infer what the general sentiment is so I can prioritize future changes and policies. In the interest of openness I'd like to present the results here. In total there were 1,882 responses.

The multiple choice answers weren't that surprising. You can see the graphs in this PDF document.

Of more interest were the freeform responses. I'll try my best to summarize people's thoughts. I can provide exports if people are curious about the exact answers.

What do you most dislike about Danbooru?

• The most common complaint was about the two tag search restriction.
• A lot of resentment about how confusing and obfuscated the moderation process is.
• Some complaints about the complexity of the site and UI deficiencies.

What do you most like about Danbooru?

• The tagging system and how organized everything is.
• The large amount of high quality artwork.
• Translations.

Is there an outstanding bug you really wish was fixed?

Nothing much here. I will scan the results and convert the major ones into Github issues later.

Any additional comments?

Mostly just echoing the dislikes mentioned above.

So the results aren't too surprising, but it's useful to confirm suspicions. I will probably create additional surveys in the future but I don't want to inundate users with them. If there are any questions you're interested in posing to everyone let me know.

The 6/12 tag search limit is definitely a selling point, I'd keep those as they are. But I'd consider increasing the search limit for logged on users to at least 3. 2 is just way too restrictive.

EMUltra3 said:

The 6/12 tag search limit is definitely a selling point, I'd keep those as they are. But I'd consider increasing the search limit for logged on users to at least 3. 2 is just way too restrictive.

+1 to the idea, added benefit of finding pictures a bit easier with an extra tag, though 3 seems reasonable for users with accounts and haven't upgraded. Feels like an incentive to have an account rather than having one for the sake of having one.

I forgot to mention, it would be really nice to be able to choose half a dozen pre-selected pools in the Pools panel. Right now, they just come and go at random. very uncertain and disconcerting, plus then one wastes time starting to type etc.. The result's the same, so why not make it logical ? I imagine most have only a few favourite pools they add to.

Claverhouse said:

I forgot to mention, it would be really nice to be able to choose half a dozen pre-selected pools in the Pools panel. Right now, they just come and go at random. very uncertain and disconcerting, plus then one wastes time starting to type etc.. The result's the same, so why not make it logical ? I imagine most have only a few favourite pools they add to.

Why not just add the pool ID or pool name to your frequent tags list (Profile -> Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Frequent tags).

For example, if one of your favorite pools was Fund it! (pool #1636), you could add the tag pool:1636 or pool:Fund_It! to your favorite tags. Then, it'll always be available under frequent (under the tag input box) when you go to edit a post. Just select it, then hit submit to add it to that pool.

Answers for Q13 were pretty even, leaving weird aside. I'm pretty sure that {contributors}∩{weird} make up for most of the weird-answer group haha.
The survey was really interesting.

I'm one of those cheapskates who complained about the two tags. I think that you definitely shouldn't increase it past three if you want to sell upgrades. Maybe only allow two normal tags and an ordering or rating tag.

I wish I saw the survey earlier. I didn't answer because, well, Danbooru TLS has been broken for months now on IE11 on Windows 8.1. Oops.

Nothing really surprising in the results, though I wonder if there were any issues missed due to self-selection bias. Not much one can do about that, I suppose.

It's interesting that so many people participated though, and that most of them don't use the forum. A survey like this might be useful in order for these people to weigh in on a discussion next time we find ourselves in one of those long, heated debates that seem to go nowhere about some important aspect of the site.

Fred1515 said:

It's interesting that so many people participated though, and that most of them don't use the forum.

Well it's like the engine-room of a great liner, so long as the ship sails smoothly most people aren't going to interfere.

BrokenEagle98 said:

Why not just add the pool ID or pool name to your frequent tags list (Profile -> Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Frequent tags).

For example, if one of your favorite pools was Fund it! (pool #1636), you could add the tag pool:1636 or pool:Fund_It! to your favorite tags. Then, it'll always be available under frequent (under the tag input box) when you go to edit a post. Just select it, then hit submit to add it to that pool.

Interesting, but ultimately flawed: in that it's more complicated than the smooth intuitive version. Very ingenious though.

mgdtgd said:

I'm one of those cheapskates who complained about the two tags. I think that you definitely shouldn't increase it past three if you want to sell upgrades. Maybe only allow two normal tags and an ordering or rating tag.

I would echo this, but at the same time it's the main reason I upgraded, myself. So I could be able to search several tags and order:score, for example.

I found Q5: "Do you wish Danbooru supported more community-oriented features (user profiles, general discussion forums)" a bit confusing. I answered the question in regards to community features in general, but I could see people responding mainly to the mentioned examples as well. A more accurate answer from me would have been "I would like to see more features, but not the examples provided." Community-oriented features are a very broad topic and may be worth looking into in more detail.

In the future, responses might be more meaningful with a more focused question, otherwise the survey was great and I enjoyed filling it out.

Don't know how many others have thought about it, but if it were in any way possible, having your favorites organized in any other way than the moment they were added to such category would be nice. Folders, even. The two-tag problem has it's biggest (IMHO) problem here: to browse your own favorites, you can only use one tag.

That said, the site's more than just great. I've said it before and I'd say it a million times.

PowderTrail said:

having your favorites organized in any other way than the moment they were added to such category would be nice. Folders, even.

You can organize your favorites and any other pictures freely with Favorite Groups, though. They work perfectly.

Redo your Rating system already so Rating:Safe actually means SFW

can we please have customizable page navigation, including being able to save pics and go back to serch results with one hand in a way that you would only need to move fingers? for example< let the back key be Q and save key - Z for example. then i could use the entire website with 1 hand at all times, very conviniently

I wonder if the survey would've been better if users could have marked which user level they were. I'm more interested in the opinions of fellow Builder+ than the general users. Pretty much this statement:

Chucu said:

I'm pretty sure that {contributors}∩{weird} make up for most of the weird-answer group haha.

Just to get a better sense of things among those who actively contribute to the site.

Mikaeri said:

I wonder if the survey would've been better if users could have marked which user level they were.

That's assuming that people would honestly answer that. Plus, the subtext of a question like that reads as "Does your opinion matter or not?". At least, that's how I read it.

One question that could have been asked, and should be asked next time there is a survey is, "What (encouraged/would encourage) you to promote your account level?". That way, the incentives could be tweaked to encourage more user activity from the base.

BrokenEagle98 said:

That's assuming that people would honestly answer that. Plus, the subtext of a question like that reads as "Does your opinion matter or not?". At least, that's how I read it.

One question that could have been asked, and should be asked next time there is a survey is, "What (encouraged/would encourage) you to promote your account level?". That way, the incentives could be tweaked to encourage more user activity from the base.

Hmm, I suppose I didn't think of it that way, since we don't have a survey system in place here to begin with that can confirm user levels without question.

Encouraging users to get bumped to builder with the incentives sounds pretty good. It's a way to get the full benefits of Platinum+ and then some. I'd much prefer a higher diversity of uploaders and gardeners than there are right now. It sounds healthy for the site.

Mikaeri said:

Encouraging users to get bumped to builder with the incentives sounds pretty good.

I was also thinking of Gold/Platinum. This site gets mostly funded through those user promotions, so tweaking those user incentives could prove very beneficial.