Caption Edit History [2023]

General
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:tada::megaphone: BREAKING NEWS: Introducing “Caption Time Machine” on caption.me! :megaphone::tada:

Hey Caption Connoisseurs! :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Do you ever find yourself wondering, “How did they come up with THAT genius caption?!” Well, the wait is over! Starting TODAY, we are super pumped to roll out our latest and most anticipated feature: the Caption Time Machine! :alarm_clock:

:thinking: What is Caption Time Machine? It’s a nifty little function that allows you to see the entire evolutionary journey of a caption, from its humble beginnings to its moment of glory! Watch as a simple one-liner morphs into a caption of sheer brilliance! Witness the edits, the rewrites, and the AHA! moments that led to the winning caption you see today! :tada::magnifying_glass_tilted_left:

:eyes: Why should you be excited?

  • Learn & Improve: See how top captioners tweak their lines to clinch the top spot! :trophy:
  • The Drama: Experience the ups and downs, the tweaks and turns that a caption goes through before making it to the leaderboard. :performing_arts:
  • The Intrigue: Reveal sneaky edits that concealed foul play!

:computer_mouse: How to Use it? Simply click on a caption to view the caption page. An edited caption will look like this:

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So, go ahead, click the Show History button. A glorious timeline of edits will unfold before your eyes!

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:warning: Note: Time Machine is currently only available for captions submitted after September 23, 2023.

So what are you waiting for? Take a trip back in time and witness the making of caption history!

Ready to dive in? Head over to caption.me and let the Caption Time Machine blow your mind! :glowing_star:

We’re stoked to see how this new feature will enhance your caption competition experience. As always, we love to hear from you, so don’t hesitate to drop us a comment or feedback.

Happy Captioning! :partying_face::pencil:

Cheers, The caption.me Team :tada:

PS. The above announcement was written by ChatGPT 4 (artificial intelligence), given the simple prompt “write a fun announcement for a new feature of a caption competition website. The feature allows users to see the historic edits of a caption.” I made some minor tweaks to tailor it, but otherwise I thought the AI did well. What do you reckon? A bit overzealous? :smiley:

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:rofl:

I’m going to use this AI to write my anniversary cards! My wife would love the elaborateness instead of the old ‘Happy anniversary babe’

Great feature, although I’ll let everyone know in advance, I often change my caption concepts if I think of something that I believe is better. (I always check the list to make sure it’s not been done yet).

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Absolutely brilliant fantastic and amazing! that’s my obituary sorted too- with ChatGPT 4! I think this new feature is great, it’s like having a Tardis.
Why, with this power, with this occult knowledge, I can probably get into the top 7 at least once a month if not more, so watch yourselves.

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That was disturbing, Chris. Until you revealed it was a Chatbot speaking I thought you were trying out a new personality :wink:

As for the Chatbot, it kind of reminds me of Eddie the Computer from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is also disturbing.

Re the edit history it will be a good feature. Both for voting (to confirm original users of themes) and potentially as a learning tool. Good one.

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This sounds like it could sometimes be good… but I actually edit a lot of my captions due to spelling / grammar mistakes… which might be quite boring for people to witness! :smiley:

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That’s good though, Kate, as it lets people know there’s no thematic change that may require dupe checking, and also allows people to learn from possible grammar / punctuation improvements.

A couple of display suggestions, @Chris_Beach (apologies for all the recent suggestions. It’s been quiet at work and I have to be doing something):

As it stands, the texts displayed in the edit box are the previous caption versions, which is fine, but not immediately apparent. Perhaps you could relabel “Text” to “Previous text” or “Previous version”?

Alternatively, an even clearer display may be to show the original version and its timestamp above the edit box, then put the edited versions and their timestamps inside the box?

Also, minor point, the edit timestamp date is in chronological sort order form yy/mm/dd. No biggy, but maybe this could be reversed to dd/mm/yy to be consistent with regular caption timestamps.

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Thanks for the helpful suggestions @James_Lennox. I’ve added a card to the todo list.

To make it clearer what’s going on in the edit history, I might borrow the visual style I’m developing for the “suggested edits” feature. This shows the before and after versions side-by-side and uses colours to mark out the parts that changed.

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The caption.me time machine is a great idea. Will there be a limit to how many edits you’re allowed or is it indefinite? :thinking:

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Good point @Glyn_Evans. Now we’re storing the history, it would be possible for a malicious user to smash the database with edits.

Like many user actions on caption.me, the site should enforce rate limits, to prevent “spicy meatball” incidents happening.

I just put that feature on the todo list… it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while

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@James_Lennox both of your display suggestions from this topic are now live.

The Show History table’s first column is now headed Previous version rather than “Text”, so it’s clear that each row is the wording the caption had before the edit on that row, not the version it became. (Where a history table carries a title as well, that column now reads “Previous title” for the same reason.)

The edit timestamps have also flipped from yy-mm-dd to dd/mm/yyyy, so they match the “Edited …” timestamp shown on the caption itself and the rest of the site’s dates.

I went with the relabelling rather than the alternative layout you offered — the original version and its timestamp still sit at the bottom of the table rather than above the box.

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Caption.me now autonomously improves itself
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@Glyn_Evans this one is now live, a while after you asked. Editing is now rate limited: each account may make 20 edits an hour (captions, and also comments, quotes and tips), and the same allowance applies to the connection the edits come from, so several accounts on one machine share it. The 21st edit within the hour is refused with a please slow down message under the edit box, and the caption keeps the wording it had. Fixing a typo or two never comes near the limit; it is there to stop the kind of edit-history hammering Chris described above. Moderators tidying someone else’s caption are exempt.

Caption.me now autonomously improves itself