[Clipart] Sea of Subjectivity

[B Kreps]

Greetings, I just joined the mailing list, and I'm new to openclipart.org.
I do apologize if my comments below have been discussed before. I've
been over the roadmap and I "think" I've waded through most of the
mailing list archives, albeit I apologize for any redundancy I may
cause.

I really enjoy the idea of open clip art, but I see a problem I will
call the "sea of subjectivity." Like the sea, the subjectivity of
artists is enormous. EXAMPLE: "Author: codifiedivining, Title: gramastar,"
this submitter has a submitted a TON of clip art with the same name
under the same sub-catagory of "stars." These particular submissions,
all of which are VERY similar, consume 69 pages of the star category. A
veritable SEA of clipart. Arguably, yes, they are all very star-like,
but if I were a person looking for a UNIQUE star I might just drown
going through 69 pages of the same idea over and over again,
consequently losing interest in the whole "open" idea.

Quickly I can think of two solutions to this problem:

1. Moderators: Basically a human censor, the task is objective VARIETY.
This solution has a small implementation overhead, but it will be
difficult to monitor objectivity and maintain organization if the number
of moderators can not handle the number of submissions.

2. (My preference) Public index limiting with private indexes for user
libraries: Basically all registered submitters are allowed to submit X
number of pieces per sub-category, but may have an unlimited PRIVATE
library (within storage constraints). This would encourge much more breadth
in the variety of clipart that each public sub-category contains. Users can
swap out or update their X number of public submissions at any time, the
username listed on the public submissions could then link to the user's
private library. Private libraries can have their own index and categories, but
unlimited submissions. This solution takes QUITE a bit more development,
but if properly implemented has potential to ensure a rich and enduring
public library. Many extensions to this kind of system are plausible.

Feel free to contact me about this, I'm willing to spend some time
discussing solutions and possibly coding some backend PHP if needed.

bkreps