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Route Picture - Algorithm changed?

Original Post
Ron Birk · · Boston, MA · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 4,263

Did something change recently how the picture of a route is selected? It used to be the highest star rated beta picture (as I understood it) before. But now I have a route that has a 4 star pic selected though I have a five star picture in the list.

It would be nice if the route owner could select a specific picture instead of relying on a "random" order?

Morgan Patterson · · NH · Joined Oct 2009 · Points: 8,945
Ron Birk wrote:Did something change recently how the picture of a route is selected? It used to be the highest star rated beta picture (as I understood it) before. But now I have a route that has a 4 star pic selected though I have a five star picture in the list. It would be nice if the route owner could select a specific picture instead of relying on a "random" order?
If it's an algo selecting them then how is it random?
Ron Birk · · Boston, MA · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 4,263
Morgan Patterson wrote: If it's an algo selecting them then how is it random?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randomized_algorithm
Nick Wilder · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2005 · Points: 4,098

No changes - it's probably a caching thing (changing a star rating does not cause a page to get rebuilt). If you submitted the route, you can test this by editing the page in question, then save it (without making changes), which triggers it to get rebuilt. Or you can wait a couple days until the cache expires.

Ron Birk · · Boston, MA · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 4,263

I tried clicking edit and save and the picture did not get updated. I created the page yesterday and originally it had the right picture but today it got the wrong one (i.e. the one with 4 stars). How long should I wait?

Nick Wilder · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2005 · Points: 4,098

Post the url and I'll have a look.

Ron Birk · · Boston, MA · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 4,263
mountainproject.com/v/the-a…

I noticed this issue in a few other places too.
Nick Wilder · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2005 · Points: 4,098

Okay, so this isn't a great answer, but picking the first photo is pretty complicated:

Photos are loaded in the order they were added, then re-sorted by metric based on star rating, number of votes, and whether it has topo data.

Then, it allows an admin to pick any photo with over 4 stars to be first, which appears to have happened in this case, and was overriding the newer 5 star photo.

I removed that override, so now the photo you want to first...

I've been monkeying with that sort code for years and I'm doubting it will ever be right!

Ron Birk · · Boston, MA · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 4,263

Thanks for the explanation!!

In a perfect world I think route owner/admin should be able to pick which picture will be the first (and best characterizing the route/area).

Then the rest of the pictures sorting order is another story we can discuss some other time :) That part I think mostly works fine.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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