Invite Pool Sweepr for Flickr Public Beta

Click here to download the current public beta version of  Invite Pool Sweepr

Firefox users: You must first install a plugin to allow Firefox to properly handle this clickonce program. Click here to install the plugin.

Initial Setup:

The first thing you will do after installing Invite Pool Sweepr is authorize it with Flickr. When the program runs it detects that it is not authorized and will walk you through the authorization process.

On the main window you will need to fill in your group's URL. this will be the full url of your group just as you would type it in your browser. Examples:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/bigfave

-or-

www.flickr.com/groups/freeart

-or-

http://flickr.com/groups/beauty_is_in_the_eye_of_the_beholder

Next you will want to fill in your group's invite code in the Invite Code box.

Then you will have the option of filling in an alternate invite code if you wish. This is useful if your group's invite code has changed, or there are 2 different invite codes, one with an image and one without for example.

Next, you can fill in a comment disqualifier if you choose. This is a piece of code or text that, if found in the same comment with one of the previous invite code snippets disqualifies the comment as an invite. This is useful if you are using an image url in your main or alternate invite code, but that image also appears in your group's "I saw this in..." tag line.

Finally if you wish you can check and fill in the group tag. This is a tag that will be added to any properly invited image found in the sweep if it does not already exist

Once you have these options set you can precede to using the program. You can alter the settings at any time, so play around with them to find out what settings catch the most uninvited images without mistaking invited images as uninvited. When you close the program you will be prompted to save your settings.


Basic operation:

Invite Pool Sweepr supports 2 modes: Sweep by page and sweep by time.

In sweep by page mode, you can control exactly what images are swept. You set a beginning page and an end page and the sweepr sweeps everything between. Each page is a page of 30 photos just like what you see when you look at the group pool. This mode is useful if you have several Administrators who all share the work of sweeping the pool.

You can post a link to the newest image in the pool, and the other Administrators just need to go to that image in the pool, find what page it's on and sweep from page one to that page.

In sweep by time mode, the sweepr sweeps everything since the last time it swept. You have the option of saving the time stamp by checking the save check box at the top. This will make the sweepr remember where it left off when you close it so it can pick up where it left off when you run it again. You can also specify a date and or time to sweep back to. The format for the date needs to be: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss AM but you can leave off as much as you like. For example, these are all valid:

10/24/2006 12:00:00 AM
10/24/06 12:00 AM
10/24/06 12 AM
10/24/06 Sweeps back to midnight of 10/24/06

To alleviate confusion between Administrators in different time zones all times used by Invite Pool Sweepr are in universal time.

Once you have selected what to sweep hit the go button in the lower left corner and go have a coffee break. On a modest 1gHz AMD Athlon system running Windows XP and with a cable modem the sweepr sweeps 1 page every 10 seconds or so most of the time.

Once you have detected uninvited images you can click the left or right arrow buttons to browse through the images. You can click the go button next to the image title to view that image on flickr in the context of your pool. You can click the go button next to the photographer's name to view all photos in your pool by that photographer.

The ignore button is useful if you have reviewed the image and found that the invite code is there, but copied wrong, or altered etc. This prevents the sweepr from removing that image with either the remove or remove all buttons.

The remove button removes the image from your pool. It does not prompt you, or notify the poster, or retain any log of what it has removed. It just makes the post vanish into the ether.

The remove all button removes all found uninvited images unless they have already been removed or ignored. Again it just makes them silently disappear from the pool with no fanfare of any kind.

You can use the Most recent button on the right side mid way down to copy to your clipboard the code and time stamp for the newest properly invited image in your pool at the time the sweepr started. This is usefull if you are keeping a record of where you and your fellow or moderators left off in a thread on flickr. For example, in A Big Fave we have a private group for admins and moderators with a thread where we keep track of where the last person to sweep left off. The button begins functioning as soon as the first invited image is found, so you do not have to wait for the sweep to complete.

The authentication button can be used to log in as another user, or to log out of Invite Pool Sweeper on this machine (or desktop).

If you have authorized Invite Pool Sweeper on your Flickr Account and no longer wish to use it on any computer at all you can go to http://www.flickr.com/services/auth/list.gne and revoke your authorization at any time.

Licensing:

You are free to use this software on as many computers as you wish to assist in administrating as many Flickr groups as you wish free of charge provided that you not not decompile, reverse engineer, or modify the software in any way.

If you find this software useful and you would like to do so you can send whatever you feel is an adequate monetary thank you via PayPal to macguy (at) visuallink (dot) com although it is not required or expected.