Topic: Parent Post = Random???

Posted under Site Bug Reports & Feature Requests

This site has made a lot of steps forward recently in making the site easier to understand for new users and much clearer in what does what. I think the next step is to address the confusion over the "Parent Post ID" section.

I have encountered multiple newer users who don't understand what that box is for and just decide to fill it in with random numbers. Literally, that's the response they've given me when I talk to them about it. "Oh, I thought it was mandatory, so I just filled in random numbers". There's been three in the last month alone that I've found.

The problem is two-fold, I think. First, is that there's zero text on the upload page explaining what "Parent Post ID" means. Lots of the other fields on that page have a bit of explanation, PPID has nothing. And second is that it says "Ex. 12345" in the box already. This gives the false impression to inexperienced users that something NEEDS to go into that box. (In fact, a few posts by these misled users have set the parent to post #12345 )

I suggest (a) adding an explanation on the upload page as to what PPID means, (b) removing the "Ex. 12345" because it's superfluous and misleading to new users, and (c) adding an "Optional" note next to the box.

Yeah this is really good idea. I see this happening way too much.

There are some similar repeated mistakes I have seen happening because of the lack of clarity, and I have suggestions for those as well:

  • I have seen artists adding random trash in the description because they think that description mandatory the way it's required on furaffinity, and I have seen third party uploaders typing their own personal commentary in there. I think it would be beneficial to make it clear that 1. The description is optional 2. The description is only for "official use", such as artist/commissioned descriptions, or some other actually serious and necessary information about the art piece.
  • I think the source field could benefit from having an example url, or some kind of visual indication that it's for links only, or a bolded "for links only". Or even better, a red warning if what they typed in is not a link. People sometimes do not read the rather lengthy text, and I have seen handful of instances of people just typing the artist name in there. Once I even saw someone thinking that it's for telling what is the title of the source media of the fanart they were uploading.

In 10 years I don't think I've ever encountered this... but I guess the proposed changes make sense either way.

I think vanilla e621 would show a thumbnail preview of the parent post, like re621 does. Seeing an image preview would likely reduce confusion for what the input is actually for, and also assists preventing other typos.

faucet said:
In 10 years I don't think I've ever encountered this... but I guess the proposed changes make sense either way.

I think vanilla e621 would show a thumbnail preview of the parent post, like re621 does. Seeing an image preview would likely reduce confusion for what the input is actually for, and also assists preventing other typos.

I've never seen it before either but I didn't see the harm in this inclusion. Feels pretty uninvasive

I've seen it a few times
it was mostly for s#!+posts and ai_generated images trying to get in here which kind of shows people onto know what to do the in the parent field of the form

it's just annoying that the page gets that much longer when they add an unnecessary relation link

fliphook said:
I've seen it a few times
it was mostly for s#!+posts and ai_generated images trying to get in here which kind of shows people onto know what to do the in the parent field of the form

it's just annoying that the page gets that much longer when they add an unnecessary relation link

Which page gets longer?

nin10dope said:
Which page gets longer?

When you view the post after clicking the thumbnail
I don't hide/collapse the relation posts

fliphook said:
When you view the post after clicking the thumbnail
I don't hide/collapse the relation posts

Ah, yeah true