[saponico]

To all,

I have already corresponded with Andy and was given permission to make this post.

I was bitten by the fashion bug when I started graduate school in 2003 because I wanted to start looking good. I was tired of feeling unattractive and self-conscious. It wasn't long before I found the AAAC forum (2004) and purchased the encyclopedia. All the information on the forum as well as the encyclopedia has been enormously helpful to me over the years. My sense of style has greatly improved as well as my confidence. I cannot thank you enough for giving that to me!

One of my hobbies is web development, and I wanted to merge that with my passion for fashion. So, I recently came up with and developed a website devoted only to pictures. There isn't any other place on the Internet that I have found where you can post and view pictures of what people are wearing everyday. One of the unique features I integrated into the website is the ability to add notes directly onto your uploaded images!

I created the website because of the disadvantage of the AAAC forum as well as any forum in general in regards to viewing pictures. For example, if I want to go through and look at pictures or find a specific picture in the 'What are you wearing today?' thread, I am going to have to sort through 231 pages! I just want a better way to search and find pictures!

The website I created is https://www.ClosetRater.com.

Thank you for your time in reading all I have written! I do appreciate it. Any feedback (good and bad) is also appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Mark

P.S. I know this isn't the best way to make a first impression with a first post, but I have posted a few times over the years. One day, I noticed it said my post count was zero ... oh well.

 

[eagle2250]

Mark: You offer a rather interesting concept for our consideration...sort of a 'graphic novel' version of AAAC. However, from the beginnings of your website, it is difficult to envision how the concept is going to evolve. For instance, will the pictures be grouped by individual account, by style, chronologically, etc? How do you envision your site accommodating a viewers search efforts, other than simply through viewing all your pics, in the order in which they were posted? I do wish you success in your efforts but wonder if the idea might be just a bit premature for a roll out! In any event, good luck!

 

[saponico]

Mark: You offer a rather interesting concept for our consideration...sort of a 'graphic novel' version of AAAC. However, from the beginnings of your website, it is difficult to envision how the concept is going to evolve. For instance, will the pictures be grouped by individual account, by style, chronologically, etc? How do you envision your site accommodating a viewers search efforts, other than simply through viewing all your pics, in the order in which they were posted? I do wish you success in your efforts but wonder if the idea might be just a bit premature for a roll out! In any event, good luck!

With only a few pictures of me so far, there isn't too much to go by to envision the concept. I do understand that. On one hand I want to illustrate a bunch of features to show what can be done; however, too many features will make the website look overwhelming. I just want to know if a website of this nature would appeal to users and if so, then how would you like the website to function?

All the pictures a user uploads are put in their profile [https://www.closetrater.com/users/mark]. This profile is public and you don't need an account to view. Additionally all these images are in chronological order, with the latest images last. When viewing an image, click on the user's name, "Posted by USER" to see their profile.

This is also the case with the images in the galleries. All the images here are added in chronological order with the newest being first. Within the gallery, I do want to have the option to view by style, but that is something I am still trying to figure out and need suggestions. When uploading an image, I don't want to have dozens of selections for the user to select i.e. suit, formal, semi-formal, denim, trad, business casual, etc. as tags. Any ideas on this matter are welcome.

Additionally, the notes you can add onto your images are searched by the website search engine. So if a user notates they are wearing a 'Grey Canali suit', the image will show up in the search results. Right now the search engine does not display the thumbnails, but provides the link to the image.

Thank you again.

Mark

 

[outrigger]

I wish you success with your site, just wondering if visitors could discus a members outfit with them, maybe through private messaging or something. As I understand the concept, the site will only show pictures without there being pages of discussion relating to those pictures, but what if I want to ask a question about an item of clothing in one of those pictures?

 

[saponico]

I wish you success with your site, just wondering if visitors could discus a members outfit with them, maybe through private messaging or something. As I understand the concept, the site will only show pictures without there being pages of discussion relating to those pictures, but what if I want to ask a question about an item of clothing in one of those pictures?

You can post comments. When you are viewing an image, there is a link on the bottom right area underneath the image labeled ADD NEW COMMENT. You do not need an account to post comments. If you create an account, you can also add notes to any user's image!

An example is here on a picture I uploaded this morning https://www.closetrater.com/content/image/men/daily-attire

Right now, no private messaging is setup can easily be setup.

Mark

 

[ozonemania]

This is very cool. I hope it takes off and it would be something I would visit regularly. One suggestion is to ask some of the more avid regular posters on the WAYWT type threads if they'd be interested in beta-testing your site. If you can get a good number on board for a trail run, we might all have a chance to see its potential.

Best of luck to you.

 

[saponico]

Thank you for the positive feedback. I thought about contacting the few regular posters in the WAYWT thread, but I am sure they may have already seen this thread. If someone really liked the website and supported its endeavors, I would think they would upload photos on their own. I might be wrong on that thought.

Additionally, I need to address the issue of sorting by styles. This is currently a big road block for me that I have been trying to figure out for a month now. Maybe once that is resolved I may contact them.

Mark

 

[Victor123]

Seems like it could work.

 

[magogian]

Oh God, if I ever joined a site like that I'd never hear the end of it from my g/f.

 

[saponico]

I have spent the last two weeks brainstorming for the 2nd launch of https://www.ClosetRater.com. The biggest challenge is categorizing the images! I tested 5 different methods and the most functional choice is the way it is set up now. In keeping this short, this is the low down:

(1) There are 4 categories (Gender, Upper Body, Lower Body, Footwear) with drop-down selections. These are for the basic classification of your attire. You can then add keywords to those categories as well as to a style and accessory tagging region. Once you upload the image you can annotate specific regions of your image. I realize there is a lot to fill-in; however, nothing is required except for gender. You will need to create an account to see how it works.

(2) There are 2 ways to search through the images: faceted keyword search and basic attire refining on the IMAGES tab.

(3) You can discuss an image by adding comments. However, this is different than your average commenting abilities. You can comment on comments. See the example here: https://www.closetrater.com/node/9.

(4) Under your account, you can view all your recent posts and see if you have any new comments. This way you don't have to view all your images to see if someone commented.

(5) Hyperlinks can be added to the annotations. See the example in the Oakley sunglasses on the above link.

Also, if you were one of the few that created an account before, you will need to recreate an account.

Thank you for all the feedback!