TL;DR

Stock & Resource accounts will be a new search option in the final version of deviantSEARCH. If you have any ideas or comments about what additional search options should be included in the final design, please leave a comment.

To clarify, I (=parallellogic) am only working on one application: *deviantSEARCH. Everything described on this account will be included in that application when it is complete. I will post the application as a submission under my home account when it has its core features implemented.

[EDIT 12/13/09: The deviantSEARCH program has proven to be a bit too much, I'm going to break off just the stock/resource portion into its own app during the winter break. If all goes well, there will be a way to search for stock/resource accounts by the end of January 2010]

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When you select "Stock/Resources Only" from the "Deviant Type" drop down, a link that says "Advanced..." will appear under that drop down box. When that link is clicked it will bring up the highlighted window in the left panel. From there you will have two sections:

The Category Selection drop down section is where you can select a single category to search through. For example, you can search for Fractal Stock Providers by selecting the corresponding item from the drop down:

All
..Fractal Resources
....
..Textures
....
..Application Resources
....
..Tutorials
....
..Fonts
....
..Stock Images
....Model
......Female
........
..Fractals <--
....

This list is built from the category selection items here: [link]
the periods are there for spacers since dA doesn't allow multiple spaces.

The second section is for stock provider rules of usage. If a stock provider says they have 'no rules' when they sign up for the search, then they will always come up in the results, regardless of what rules are selected (or even if no boxes are checked). If a stock provider says they "want to be notified" and "need a link back", that user will only appear in the results if both rules (or more) are checked. As a side effect, stock providers who state less rules when they sign up for the search are more likely to appear in search results.

The rules that are checked are the ones the user agrees to, so the more rules that are select, the more users appear in the results.

When a stock provider signs up for the search (the rules for signing up as a stock/resource provider have not been written yet), they will have to actively state they have 'no rules' if that is what they desire. If a stock/resource provider does not state what rules they operate by, they will automatically be assigned the 'link back' rule.

Another example: If you select "Credit Required' and 'Notify Provider' then you get the equivalent set of rules that are outlined in 'Unrestricted Use' [link]

All check boxes will be checked by default when the devSEARCH app is opened. By default, the most users should be displayed.

The yellow boxes are roll over tip texts. When you roll over the check box options on the left the yellow box in the left panel appears with a description of each rule. The same is true for the warning symbol on the right with a summary for each stock/resource account.

Questions, comments and new ideas for additional features strongly encouraged