A book I recently posted to my bookshelf has an image in the system that is very poor (in fact, I don't understand why it was accepted - the book is laying cock-eyed on a gridded background and the gridded background wasn't cropped.)  I've submitted a much nicer image (like 3 times now), but it seems to be being ignored.  I expect it takes some effort and time to switch out a picture (though I admit I have no clue what the process entails), but I don't understand why my image wouldn't be accepted and the old image tossed out.  OR, if not, why hasn't anyone PM'd me and explained?  You'd think they get tired of seeing my image come through. 

I upload images pretty often -- thinking it makes PBS a prettier place to be ;^)  I'm not trying to be a pain -- I really just want to help improve things.

There seems to be some problems with editing book data right now.  There was a notice from one of the tour guides about it on CMT.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/forum/topic.php?t=186126

There were problems = the data side is still down but the image side was back up this afternoon.  I would try uploading it again through the member tools -upload book cover  (bottom of page). 

Sarra B. (sarradee)  is the coordinator for images - maybe send her a PM and she can help.

Is there any possibility that your image is a .gif or other instead of a .jpg? Sometimes even when the file is saved as a .jpg, my recommendation that has worked quite often is to open the file in your imaging program and resave it as a .jpg (make sure you are not clicking jpeg as that is a different type of jpg file that sometimes isn't accepted, unless it is on the same line as .jpg)

Is it possible that your image is actually too small? Usually you should get a PM if your image is rejected for any reason. Are you using the "Book image upload" page or the Data edit page? Using the Data edit page for just an image can sometimes cause the image to get lost.

Also, a statement in the last newsletter said there are two kinds of images in our system and no way to tell which is which. Some images are in the database and actually stored off site, and only uploaded every two weeks or so, so your image, if accepted could take two weeks to show. You say you have uploaded it 3 times, can you tell me how far apart these times have been, and how recently?

While I'm only the Leader of the Data team, I am pretty familiar with some of the problems that occur with the images. And would be glad to help you in anyway I can. I agree with you a cockeyed uncropped image sure looks poor when it could be better.

Sherry
Data Corrections Team Leader

Thank you, Sherry.  I'm sure my file is a .jpg as that is what I always create and download.  And I typically make my pictures the same size, so I can't imagine that is the problem.

I hate that this is going to sound like I'm being a pill, but I've simply resubmitted the picture each time I've submitted pictures over the last week or so (i.e. not many days have passed between submissions).  I would not normally do that, but all (except for one) of those other images have been posted to my bookshelf -- which is why I keep thinking my one pictures that I'd like to replace a poor picture with is being rejected for some reason.

I also have to say that the computer I do that from has got the blue screen of death tonight and is not functioning at the moment, so I don't know when it will be running again so that I can check things ilke the file or size, but I will as soon as I can.   Hopefully, if there really is a reason my picture isn't being accepted, someone will PM me and let me know why.

I don't see any covers on your shelf like you described Becky, has it now made it through?

Images do sometimes just get munched by the system. It could possibly be bad timing of the system eating an image and then the system issues and maintenance delaying the approval and showing of the edit.

I would say that you image could very well then be one of those discussed in the newsletter that will not upgrade until the offsite database has been updated. Which according to the newsletter can take up to two weeks. I'd wait for two weeks, and then try it again. Then wait another two weeks. As Melanie says, we've had lots of pics that just don't make the transition between one server to the other, much less probably making it to the offsite system and then back. It's a wonder we aren't still back several months ago when we were having 30-40% loss rates. Now that would frost you off!

Becki, go to your Bookshelf, and do a hard refresh (CTRL+F5 on IE) all your images are correct. Unless you can tell me which one both Melanie and I missed your system is keeping a chached copy of the old one on your harcdrive

The book I referred to was Julius Caesar The BBC TV Shakespeare.   I don't know what IE means in your explanation, Sherry.

Before reading this thread I decided to take the book off my shelf and just donate it to the FOL this week.  But then after reading the responses made today, I decided to re-add it and see what the picture looks like.  Now the image is completely gone, so I've resubmitted my picture.   I've submitted a couple others tonight as well so I'll just wait to see if it shows up soon.

Thanks so much for your help ladies.

Say....I've just noticed a feature I hadn't seen before.   When I clicked on the title of any of the books on my shelf that don't have an image I am taken to the information page and there is an image with the notation under the image that it is waiting for approval.  Is that new?  I'm also wondering if everyone sees that who clicks on the book.   If so, that is such a cool feature!  WOW!  PBS rocks!

Becki - when I search for that book, I see one with a blank cover and one with the bad one you describe. When I click into details and then view the larger picture, I see a different better image. Is that the one you submitted?

Looks like maybe the approval is not getting rid of the bad one, but just adding yours as a larger one. Sherry - can you fix that as an approver?

Melanie,  yes, I'm sure that is the picture I submitted.  It's the second of only two copies in the system so I can't imagine anyone else has submitted a another picture.

Yay, at least we know now what's been happening. 

Just in case none of the BDCs come wandering in here any time soon, I posted in the Image lounge just in case I can catch the approvers before they hit it and maybe this submission will work completely. I've also added the book to my reminder list. If the image doesn't change when the que is cleared again I check into it again.

Unfortunately, there have been problems with the image submissions for the past week or so.  Give it a bit of time.  The fact that the old image is no longer there, shows us that your submission went through.   I suspect yours may be one of the 'off-site' storage ones.  We DO send messages when an image is denied.

One thing that happens from time to time when an image is submitted to replace a poor or smaller one, is that the old image just doesn't go away!  We don't know why, and it is extremely frustrating! 

I think that is one of the problems the programmers are currently trying to solve, and now that we've learned some images are stored off-site and will only change when database is updated, we think (hope) that might be the reason. 

Two Weeks!! It's hard to wait that long for a submission to show up!  :^]

eta:  Hey, this is America!  We want instant gratification!   lol

Becki, you can try to re-upload your image, but I wouldn't bother to check it for two weeks in case you are one of those off-site images they talked about in the newsletter this month.

Melanie, no, there's nothing I can do to fix much of anything right now, they have data submissions and approvals on total lockdown, and I'm not sure theyare completely releasing the images, for fear of too many hitting the system while they are still working in that same area of programming. This is why I have suggested people get their images ready, and when given the go ahead, only upload 1/2 of what they usually upload. Then wait a couple days untll they see that I have posted that the queue has cleared, then try again, using only 1/4 of normal uploads again. This way we don't barely get the problem fixed, and have so many images come in that they can't see the problem because the system is working so fast they can't see for the flashes. It we go at it a little slower, we migh just go at a pace where they cna watch and see thingss as they go and catch a glitch immediately.

This is all purely speculation on my part, and from someone that barely knows what programming code is, much less ever think about doing any but the very basic of bisics of it. I know just enough to recognize I need to get the crap out of wherever I am when I see it! hahahahah

Please, if anyone has any questins about data submissions or image uploads, whether you'd like to volunteer for doing those but are scared because you don't know how and don't want to mess things up, or want to know more about the rules for the teams, please, feel free to send me a PM and we can talk aout whatever you want. Sarra B. (sarradee) is the leader for the  image teams, but do to complications in her life, she has not been able to be online much. I am very experienced in working with images and as most of you have seen over a period of time here, I have no qualms about answering questions :)  So, feel free, I'm on most every day!

Sherry
Data Corrections Team Leader

Becki, have you gotten this resolved yet? If not please PM me so I can give you a hand.

Thanks, Anna -- my issue wasn't so much a lack of patience, but because other images were coming through (that I had submitted either at the same time or after) I was curious why one wasn't coming through.   And I had never tried to replace a bad image before, so I wasn't sure if I was even doing the right thing by trying to submit a better image. 

When I looked this morning, I found that the old image was gone, but so was my newly submitted image (i.e. there was no notation that my image was waiting for approval).  And I hadn't received any communication over a period of several days about why my image wasn't being used to replace the old image so I figured I'd ask here.

I've PM'd you back, Sherry.   I think I answered your questions both above and in my pm and I've resubmitted my image (for about the 4th time now ;^) and l just wait to see what happens.  And, FWIW, all my images (so far) have been self-scanned and submitted straight from my computer.  I don't know if that is a problem or not.  I only know that's what I've done since I started posting images (I tend to post a lot of books that don't have images in the system, so I've gotten pretty good at it ;^) and most go through within a day or so without any problem.  I've actually admired the efficiency with with PBS seems to be run - so no complaints here.

Thanks for all the help!

The image is in the system Becki. It just appears to be stuck on some of the sizes in some. Anna and I have been chatting about it in the Image lounges and she sees different images in Firefox than I do in IE. It's weird, but I've seen it happen before.

Robin had approved the image earlier this week so we were just giving it time to see if that approval got them all to work. It looks on my computer like some of the blue covers and the bad image just needs to be unchecked as correct images and it would be fine, but I didn't want to mess with it again until Robin's approval had time to work its way through.

We'll get it working! Its just a matter of convincing the system to see it the same for all browsers and all image sizes.

Hey Becki - there should be no blue screen on your shelf now! Those data approvers got the system straightened out.

My image dilemma has been resolved!  Thank you so much, Book Cover Image Group!