Introducing CG Live Search, please update your banners

[Kisai]

Hello everyone,

I have updated http://www.comicgenesis.com to support live search... instead of the apparently dead-for-a-year search that was it before.

Unfortunately, not many of you have a 468x60 banner, there are 25 slots in the front page, and of all the words I tried, I got back at most 6, so there's room for improvement.

Rules:
- No spamming.
The live search uses the words in your comic title AND comic description. Do not add additional useless words or we'll simply delete the description and that will be the end of being searchable. Your comic should be described in about 100 words or less. Like "This is a story about <b>two young girls</b>, who <b>travel through space</b>, also features <b>a ball of light</b>" without the bold parts, but use descriptive words that people understand. As opposed to lolcat or l33t.
- Your comic must update once in 30 days.
If it doesn't, it simply gets dropped lower and lower in the search. If you happen to be the only comic about jumpernickels, then you'll always get that word.
- You must have at least one 468x60 banner (other banners may be considered later depending on use.) Right now it only uses the first one you uploaded to siteadmin.

ToDo's/bugs:

- I may find a way, on the phpBB3 version to integrate this into the forums as well, I haven't decided on what would be useful yet.
- If you start the live search before the page has completely loaded, it may simply do nothing. Give the front page a chance to load if you haven't refreshed it in the last 10 minutes. You do not need to actually force a refresh for it to work, but if you enter words less than four letters, the backend will actually ignore it. So no, you can't look for XXX. There is no way around this.
- Again with spam, if a certain keyword appears in more than 50% of listings (unlikely, but the word 'comic' or 'webcomic' likely would) the backend stops indexing that word and no results will be returned.

- I may make a version of the newsbox that works the same way.

[Dr Neo Lao]

This is good.

Edit: For those not familiar with the Comic Genesis banner system, refer to this article in the CGWiki. [/edit]

However, a lot of it's functionality will depend on the descriptions that people give. You need to make the description have as many "unique to you" features in order to give the best results.

Bad Description This is a story about a boy and a girl in school. They have loads of big adventures.

The words are all 'generic' words that can be found in almost any sentence. There are no long words (other than 'adventure') and there are no names.

Good Example Captain Keff Tagon and his mercenaries aboard the Kitesfear. The invention of the Teraport by Kevyn starts a war and the fun begins

(I used Schlock as it's easier to describe something people already know)

This is a good example because there are names of characters (Tagon, Kevyn), the name of the ship (Kitesfear, from back when it started and was still on Keenspot). There is a unique name (the Teraport, which is a type of transport). There are words specific to the comic (mercenaries, invention, war).

[Linkara]

Ummm... For those of us who have been using ComicGen for over a year but haven't really delved into some areas, any chance of explaining what the banner is you're talking about here?

[EmergencyExit]

The banner for the CG guide, you can upload one in your siteadmin under "comic name" Promo/Banner/Newsbox/Pog/Chan images .

[Lunar]

Ummm... For those of us who have been suing ComicGen for over a year but haven't really delved into some areas, any chance of explaining what the banner is you're talking about here?

Linkara why would you be suing Comic Genesis? What have they ever done to you?

On a more serious note, now I have even more reason to make the long over due banner for my comic.

[McDuffies]

That's great, Kisai!

So descriptions like "This comic doesn't feature any nudity and lesbian sex, nor huge orgies with furry fetishes..." are forbiden, I assume?

[Kisai]

That's great, Kisai! :D

So descriptions like "This comic doesn't feature any nudity and lesbian sex, nor huge orgies with furry fetishes..." are forbiden, I assume? :lol:

Trust me, if I find out something is loaded with keyword spam, they will lose the description and any ability to edit it. Negative keywords would be removed.

[Dr Neo Lao]

^ That is fantastic news. ^_^

I can't stand things like videos on youtube that have descriptions like "This has nothing to do with Pokemon Nutri Grain Top Gear UFO Music Top 40 Toyota Rolex etc etc etc"

[Tystarr]

for some reason when i type in "twisted" my comic doesn't pop up. In fact whatever I type in nothing shows up at all.

[EmergencyExit]

I have the correct size banner loaded, but when I type keywords related to my comic only a hyperlink with my comic name and author shows, not the banner itself. Is there something I can do to fix it?

[[geoduck]]

The banner for the CG guide, you can upload one in your siteadmin under "comic name" Promo/Banner/Newsbox/Pog/Chan images .

And you'll need to let the system update before you'll see any changes to your Guide entry.

for some reason when i type in "twisted" my comic doesn't pop up. In fact whatever I type in nothing shows up at all.

If you try something really generic ("fantasy" and "dragons" are two that worked for me) and wait a moment or two, you should get some results. But, yes, despite all of Kisai's hard work, it doesn't appear to be working for a lot of strips, mine included. And yes, I installed a banner, updated my description and post a comic daily.

[Tystarr]

oooo.
It works!! Cool, but now I have a small question. How do you delete old banners cause I uploaded a new banner and it was approved. My old banner is kind of horrible but I don't see a way of getting rid of it.

[Dr Neo Lao]

You can't.

You need to notify someone from the "banner approval committee" (I think that's what they are called). Mercury Hat might be one, though I know pogs are not part of Merc's responsibility. I think Joel might be as well.

They'll delete the old one(s).

[Fabio Ciccone]

Wow, it's really awesome

[Phact0rri]

doesn't work on mine... but I haven't updated in six months or something... so its not a big deal.. and probably the reason.

[Yeahduff]

Awesome.

[Kisai]

The banner for the CG guide, you can upload one in your siteadmin under "comic name" Promo/Banner/Newsbox/Pog/Chan images .

This was due to you somehow uploading the same banner twice under different filenames. This should be resolved now. If it's been completely removed, just upload a new banner.

EDIT

Also helps if I turn on regenerating the cache. Whoops.

Okay, now, at least the search results will reflect the most recently updated comic on top. Given everything on the site was regenerated 3 days ago, don't expect to see anything impressive for a while. What is supposed to happen is that comics that haven't updated in 90 days should not be shown, thereby giving the most relevant search results to comics that update. if a comic happens to be the only one of it's kind for a keyword, it will of course be the only result.

[Garneta]

This is gonna be quite nice...but man, my old banner sucks!

[[geoduck]]

Woot! It works!