UPDATE: The links to the old Explore World Map and Keywords in a flash have now removed from the Explore menu. Links to them on this article still works. This article now works as an explanation why the changes were done.

World Map ▶️

The biggest problem with the old World Map presentation is that number of significant locations were not covered. Even when new images seem to get added on the map, there are towns and places found with not a single image on them. Even when there should be plenty of geo mapped images found on the database. See for example the case Finland further down on this article.

Based on the popularity of photos?

Not true because there are collections of photos seen on the map with only very few visits, comments and likes. Then there are popular images with geo location, which have never found their way on the map.

Based on the overall popularity of the member?

Not true because at least collections by one member, who does not get many views, comments and faves, can be found on the World Map.

Accounts chosen by chance?

The more one navigates on the World Map view, the more clear it becomes that the same members appear again and again. It could be useful trying to list them all, to figure out if that could explain something, but it would take some time and effort. Some of those lucky ones have been using ipernity from the early years of it. Some have opened their account more recently. So, the date when started to use ipernity does not seem to explain this either.

But there are cases when someone's few not so popular collection in backwoods location appears on the map, but the same member's more popular photos does not appear on much larger town.

So, even when the same names seem to appear on the World Map, even they does not get all of their geo located images there.

How does grouping affects?

On the large whole world view the "nearby" collections become grouped on the same spot. For example a spot in Estonia shows also the collections located to Finland, Germany, France and Holland. When zoomed in, those locations and collections changes and finally become separated with new spots. Also new ones appear onto the spot where one starts. There appear for example collections located to Sweden. And when zoomed all the way in, only the collections located to that map location become presented. All other locations can be then seen on their actual locations.

Case Finland

Finland in particular is a good example case. A small town of Hämeenlinna, and a small collection of not so popular photos located there, is seen as the first spot on the larger map view. When zoomed in, some other spots appear. Helsinki, the capitol of Finland, gets then two spots and collections altogether. One of them for the series taken at Korkeasaari Zoo.

Tampere, the second largest city in Finland, does not get any hits on the World Map. No matter how close one zooms in. Not even the images taken at Tampere, that are taken and located by the same ipernity member who's photos are seen for Hämeenlinna.

Moreover, currently active Finnish members, who uses geo location a lot, does not get any of their images on the map.

Keywords ▶️

Keywords seem to be weighted only based on the number of occurrences. A single member with over 20,000 photos and using repeatedly the same keywords can overrule the in a flash keywords presentations.

Keywords in a flash is especially skewed to few rather subjective topics. The separate last week, last month and since the beginning presentations are somewhat better, showing also keywords that are actually popular by more than few people only.

Probably better way would be to show and weight the keywords based on how many members use them. For example the keywords like tree and trees used by number of people could then appear also on the keywords in a flash page.

Capitonym?

"A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning when it is capitalized." -Wikipedia

One may wonder why there may appear different keywords for cases like bridge and Bridge, thus also producing different browsing results, and referring to different keyword ID numbers. What one should understand is that the keyword list and index numbers are not a tool to search, but a tool to browse the collection.

Keyword search available on the additional photo search options is a different matter, and it is not a case sensitive. But the keywords themselves are case sensitive. One should be careful on how to use them to avoid errors caused by capitonym.

Sometimes there can be even a good reason to make the difference. So, if someone actually does want to use upper case first letter keyword Bridge for the images of Bridge in Kent, then unfortunately capitonym errors may cause "noise".

The recommendation is that people should follow the language specific grammar. For example German nouns should be capitalised.

If you wish to correct some of your own capitonym errors, then go to your 'Photos' and open the 'Search by keywords' option from the 'Photos' drop down menu. What you get is the index list for all of the keywords you have ever used. Then check through especially names of the places, hover (point with cursor) on the keyword you wish to correct, and choose 'Edit'.


But if you have had a "bad habit" to use upper case first letter for all of the keywords you have been using for years, then this would turn out as an overwhelming task.

A suggestion for a new Explore Keywords

Instead of very subjective in a flash overview and also not so good since the beginning list, one could only give in the last month overview. It would then hopefully change on monthly bases, and give an overview what is currently topical at ipernity. And then add the keyword search field on top of that page.

The links opening from the monthly keywords list opens showing the most popular documents on that keyword. It may give a little untrue results, showing pictures from the past years. But for visitors that is better than for example showing some inappropriate or uninteresting latest uploads. Therefore the page title could just be: "Popular keywords".

UPDATE: The suggestion became accepted on 10.2.2021. The links from the monthly presentations were decided to open the latest images, which then also gives for guests and visitors an option to see what ipernity members are most recetly interested in. A single member can still dictate the list by uploading 20-30 images at once, and use the same keywords on them all. But at least there are now also other topics presented.