Deleting/flagging duplicates

What should be the policy on duplicates, where the better pic is uploaded and supersedes an existing post? So far it was always "tag as duplicate, don't delete unless really bad". I'd suggest keeping this up, at least for pics that have been favourited by anyone. Otherwise deletion causes a really nasty data loss, pretty much the worst you can get on danbooru, save for losing the account entirely.

I have noticed people flagging already favourited dupes recently, therefore I'd like to make the above the policy:
- don't delete pics that aren't of obviously bad quality and are just dupes
- don't delete pics that have been fav'd

葉月 said:
Otherwise deletion causes a really nasty data loss, pretty much the worst you can get on danbooru, save for losing the account entirely.

Oh, and albert, could you add a column with "Faved?" info to moderation interface? This way we won't have to visit the pic to see if there are any favs on it.

葉月 said: - don't delete pics that have been fav'd

What is the dire consequence of this? Not knowing how the code works, I'm not aware of what might happen. But I've done it once or twice before and Danbooru didn't implode.

Also, new images might get favorited quickly, even before they're approved.

And someone can favorite any pic no matter how horrid. I just don't want people thinking "If I favorite this, they have to accept it!"

jxh2154 said:
[...]
And someone can favorite any pic no matter how horrid. I just don't want people thinking "If I favorite this, they have to accept it!"

I agree
I would go for save the best version, and if they appear to be the same, save the oldest one / most fav'd one

Hazuki is concerned about people losing their favorites when a picture they like is deleted just because a better one was found. Therefore, he's suggesting that in case of duplicates, the old picture is not deleted as long as it has favorites; instead, you can post a message saying "better version here" in the comments, and tag as duplicate.

Eventually, a function could be added to move existing favorites and votes to the better version, so that the old one can be deleted without data loss.

LaC said:
Hazuki is concerned about people losing their favorites when a picture they like is deleted just because a better one was found. Therefore, he's suggesting that in case of duplicates, the old picture is not deleted as long as it has favorites; instead, you can post a message saying "better version here" in the comments, and tag as duplicate.

That is indeed what I meant.

LaC said: Hazuki is concerned about people losing their favorites when a picture they like is deleted just because a better one was found.

That much I assumed but he made it sound like something far more serious happened, and put it second only to losing an entire account, which is... much more dramatic than losing one of, in most cases, hundreds or thousands of favorites. Even accounting for hyperbole, I thought I was missing something, btu I suppose not.

Favorites, *most* of which I'd wager the majority of members never look at again after favoriting, but habits will vary. I just personally avoid relying on my danbooru favorites list for long term access because if I like something, I ought to be saving it locally. I remember much wailing and gnashing of teeth when danbooru went down initially and people lost thousands of favorites they, for some bizarre reason, never bothered to save. They treated Danbooru like free hdd space, and got burned. The same would happen to someone who gets banned.

As you said, somehow automating this would be a good idea. It'd let us cut down on dupe clutter while retaining favorites, which is a good thing. And sometimes older, possibly smaller/grainer dupes should remain, because they are heavily favorited, have good source, high score, interesting comments, etc etc. So I agree that a no-exceptions, zero tolerance dupe=delete policy is not helpful either.

But when he suggested that images that have been favorites should never be deleted (which affects old *and* new), it seemed extreme. So there need to be some provisions where deleting an image is justified even if it has favorites, which he seemed to rule out. Slapping a favorite onto an image can't make it untouchable.

If you want a general policy of not deleting dupes (except for very small or badly compressed ones), I can follow that. It at least keeps it from being uploaded again.

albert said: It at least keeps it from being uploaded again.

What about images that are brand new that two different people upload within days (or even hours) of each other? This happens a lot when an artist eeeeeeeever so slightly tweaks an image, often imperceptibly. Or sometimes not at all. I don't think we need both in that situation.

jxh2154 said:
But when he suggested that images that have been favorites should never be deleted (which affects old *and* new), it seemed extreme. So there need to be some provisions where deleting an image is justified even if it has favorites, which he seemed to rule out. Slapping a favorite onto an image can't make it untouchable.

Well, I said I was talking about existing posts that get duped by a technically better post uploaded later. Newly uploaded dupes that don't supersede what is already there of course should be deleted and I do just that. In particular, I saw post #107495 flagged for deletion because it got duped by a higher res post #145536, even though the former hardly lacks in pixels already.

And what albert says, dupes being there at least prevent them from being uploaded again with less information.

Posting a link to the better image in the comments might be a good idea, but when only 2 comments a day are allowed it is a bit thight.

Whoops. I accidentally flagged a post for deletion without checking it thoroughly enough. Hope there's no penalties for a genuine mistake, since I was re-rating a couple of other Shana pictures at the time.

Borghild~ said:
Posting a link to the better image in the comments might be a good idea, but when only 2 comments a day are allowed it is a bit thight.

Hmm, I didn't realise unprivileged users are so restricted in commenting.

saturnine said:
Whoops. I accidentally flagged a post for deletion without checking it thoroughly enough. Hope there's no penalties for a genuine mistake, since I was re-rating a couple of other Shana pictures at the time.

No, of course not, we're not here to punish people for being alive. Mods can simply unflag it and be done with it.