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E-commerce Industry News Recap đŸ”„ Week of May 13th, 2024

2024.05.13 22:51 adventurepaul E-commerce Industry News Recap đŸ”„ Week of May 13th, 2024

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.
submitted by adventurepaul to ecommerce [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 22:46 adventurepaul What's new in e-commerce? đŸ”„ Week of May 13th, 2024

Hi - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
___
STAT OF THE WEEK: Kohl's sales have shrunk by $2.3B since 2019. During that same period of time, the company lost 1.3M customers who no longer shop with the retailer.
___
BigCommerce is exploring a sale after attracting takeover interest, according to sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidentiality of the information. The sources said that BigCommerce asked investment bank Qatalyst Partners to solicit interest from potential buyers that include private equity firms, but that the discussions are at an early stage and no deal is certain.
___
Squarespace announced that it will be going private in a $6.9B all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, who agreed to pay $44 per share (a roughly 30% premium). Although Squarespace never lost 90% of its share price like BigCommerce, it has experienced a tumultuous time on the market since its IPO in May 2021 — opening around $49.50 and at times trading in the low $20s. Shares rose nearly 13% to $43 in pre-market trading upon release of the news.
___
ByteDance filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the new law that would force the sale or ban of the app within the country. The lawsuit challenges the law on constitutional grounds, also citing commercial, technical, and legal hurdles, as well as opposition from Beijing. Legal experts say the legal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court.
___
OpenAI unveiled its newest model, GPT-4o, designed to turn ChatGPT into a digital personal assistant that can engage in real-time, spoken conversations and interact with users using text, screenshots, photos, documents, and charts. The new version of ChatGPT also has memory capabilities, which means it can learn from previous conversations. It will be available to both unpaid and premium customers alike. OpenAI also announced that it would be launching a desktop app with the GPT-4o capabilities, giving users another platform to interact with the technology outside of a web browser.
___
Amazon launched in South Africa last week, marking its first marketplace in sub-Saharan Africa, and bringing its total number of marketplaces worldwide to 22. To launch the new marketplace, Amazon is offering free delivery on first orders and on subsequent orders above R500 (about $27), access to 3,000 pick-up points, status updates via WhatsApp to track orders, 30 day refunds, and 24/7 customer support. The marketplace was supposed to launch in the country in 2023, but got delayed due to changes in priorities within Amazon.
___
In an unlikely partnership, Instacart is partnering with Uber Eats to expand into the restaurant delivery business. Instacart will add a new tab for restaurant delivery to its app in the coming weeks, the listings will be provided by Uber, and the food will be picked up and delivered by Uber Eats drivers. Customers will receive the same prices on both apps and Instacart will receive an affiliate commission on orders. It's a strange partnership though given that Instacart and Uber Eats actively compete on grocery delivery. Are they planning to merge? Uber says no.
___
Apple's advertisement for its latest iPad Pro sparked criticism for showing an animation of musical instruments, paint cans, cameras, record players, and other symbols of creativity being crushed by a giant machine, with the output being the new iPad Pro, which the company says is the thinnest Apple product ever. In this context, “crushing” was supposed to symbolize “consolidating” and “compacting” — with the visuals meant to showcase how the new iPad Pro puts the power of all these tools into the hands of creators in one thin device. However online commenters criticized the ad as insensitive and as symbolizing a “destruction of the human experience.” The ad hit the web on Tuesday, and by Thursday, Apple issued a mea culpa and apologized for the campaign.
___
Google is encouraging merchants to enable conversion annotations on their Google Shopping ads, which offer social proof that highlight a product's popularity. Conversion annotations like “best selling” or “3K shopped here recently” would provide visual cues about a product’s popularity or sales performance directly in the ad unit. Annotations like these are par for the course with e-commerce retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Temu, which all employ similar tactics. They can provide valuable info for shoppers and also help with conversions. However they also open data privacy concerns, given that Google is not the actual retailer or marketplace selling the items, so a merchant would have to share this purchase history data from their e-commerce platform with Google — which technically most already do by giving access to GA4.
___
Shein is attempting to join the National Retail Federation as it pursues regulatory approval to go public in the US. The company believes that NRF membership would boost its chances of receiving SEC approval. However so far, Shein has been rejected numerous times. An anonymous source familiar with the matter said someone with heavy influence at the NRF is strongly against the Shein's admittance. However board members who spoke to CNBC said that Shein's membership application hadn't come up in meetings, and that they aren't involved in deciding which companies are granted access.
___
Amazon is leading the way with selling home goods, capturing 18.8% of consumer home furnishings spending, compared to Walmart's 7.3% market share. Notably, Amazon’s gains in the furniture category come in spite of the company’s decision to phase out two of its three furniture brands last year.
___
Stanley, which is projected to do $750M in sales this year, up from $73M in 2019, after seeing its water bottles become a status symbol thanks to TikTok, is now expanding into trendier accessories. The company is launching a line of bags called the All-Day Collection which include a mini cooler, backpack cooler, and Quencher Carry-All, designed for someone to sling their Stanley over their hip.
___
Jack Dorsey left the Bluesky board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart, claiming that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey says he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, but rather, an open source protocol that Twitter was supposed to be the first client of. He also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder.
___
Amazon is deploying 50 electric trucks in California, which it claims is the largest EV fleet in the country, as part of its mission to eliminate pollution from its global operations. The trucks will be integrated into first-mile operations, moving goods from container ships at the ports to fulfillment centers, as well as middle-mile operations, transporting packages from fulfillment centers to delivery centers.
___
Wix launched a new tool called AI Portfolio Creator, which allows a user to upload and organize large-scale image collections, select the type of portfolio they want, and then have the AI tool sort and generate a portfolio with clustered images, recommended titles and descriptions, and personalized layout options.
___
Amazon is now requiring all dietary supplements to be verified by a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization — which is something that not even the FDA requires. Amazon is the largest supplement retailer in the US ahead of Walmart and Target, and its new requirements are expected to put more pressure on the industry, which is being scrutinized more than ever.
___
Alibaba is revamping its flagship retail website Taobao for the first time in seven years with a focus on providing a smoother search and buying process. The website overhaul comes ahead of the 618 sales event, China's second-largest annual shopping event. A few weeks ago I reported that Eddie Wu, the CEO of Alibaba Group, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group, and it sounds like he's hitting the ground running with his new responsibilities.
___
Amazon is hosting its first-ever Amazon Book Sale, a new shopping event starting on May 15th that offers up to 50% off print best sellers and up to 80% off Kindle Books. The six day shopping event will exclusively run in the US, and Prime-membership is not required to take advantage of the deals.
___
FTX reported that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded. The company owes about $11.2B to its customers and estimates that it has between $14.5B and $16.3B to distribute to them. The caveat is that customers will receive the USD value of their holdings at the time of the exchange collapse, and not the actual crypto holdings themselves, which means that they'll miss out on all gains during the past two years during which BTC went from around $16k to now over $60k. Better than nothing though, that's for sure.
___
800,000 consumers in Europe and the US were duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a network of fake online designer shops operated from China, which comprised one of the largest scams of its kind with 76,000 fake websites created. The scammers used expired domains to host its fake shops in order to help avoid detection by websites or brand owners, and more than 1M orders were processed in the past three years alone.
___
Beyond Inc, which owns Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Zulily, reported that its Q1 net loss swelled to $72M from $10M a year ago, while its operating loss widened to $58M from $8M. The company's active customers grew to 6M, up 26% from nearly 5M a year ago, however, its average order value dropped to $173 from $220 a year earlier.
___
TikTok will begin automatically labeling AI generated content when it is uploaded from certain platforms like DALL.E 3, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, and Microsoft Copilot. TikTok will also start attaching Content Credentials to content, which will remain on the media when downloaded, allowing other platforms to read the metadata.
___
eBay is testing an Add To Cart button in search results that opens a Quick View window, allowing buyers to skip the listing page. Technically the button should probably not be labeled “Add To Cart” since it doesn't perform that action, but rather, displays a quick view window with three buttons: Buy It Now, Add To Cart, View All Details. Sellers are worried that buyers will miss crucial details in the product description that may lead to increased returns and negative feedback.
___
Amazon is planning to launch its fleet of drones in Tolleson, Arizona, but the city's extreme temperature is hampering its efforts. Drones can't operate in temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that Tolleson crosses for a full three months of the year.
___
A US district judge dismissed X's lawsuit against Bright Data, a data-scraping company accused of improperly accessing X system and violating X terms and state laws when scraping and selling data. The judge basically said that if X owned the data, it could perhaps argue that it has exclusive rights to control it, but then X wouldn't be able to enjoy the safe harbor of Section 230, which allows the platform to avoid liability for third-party content. Can't have it both ways!
___
Nintendo is discontinuing its X integration for the switch on June 10th, which means users will no longer be able to post screenshots or videos to the platform from their device. The drop in support also affects games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which had game-specific options to send out tweets. Microsoft Xbox dropped support for X in April 2023 and Sony Playstation dropped the service in October 2023 due to the increase in X's API access fees.
___
Amazon claimed that its recordable incident rate — a metric that comprises all injuries requiring “more than basic first-aid treatment” — at its US warehouses has improved by 24% since 2019. However the National Employment Law Project challenged Amazon's injury data in a report last week, claiming that Amazon's overall injury rate in 2023 was 71% higher than that of other employers in the sector at 6.5 cases per 100 workers.
___
Amazon Ads announced three new advertising formats for streaming TV including shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive trivia ads. Amazon did not say when the new ad types would officially launch, but noted that it will formally present them at a presentation on May 14th.
___
Meta is rolling out an expanded set of generative AI ad tools that can create full image variations with text overlays, expand images to fit across different aspect ratios, and generate alternate versions of headlines and other ad text. The features will become available globally to advertisers by the end of the year.
___
Square introduced a tool called Square Kiosk to allow self-service ordering at fast food restaurants. The device is a combined software, hardware, and payment solution that allows customers to select exactly what they want with customization options, upgrades, and add-ons.
___
The European Parliament announced new measures to make packaging more sustainable and reduce packaging waste in the EU, including reduction targets of 15% by 2040 — which sounds far away but is only 16 years away?! As part of the new rules, the EU will set maximum empty space ratios for e-commerce transportation, ban certain single-use plastic packaging types, and beverage distributors and take-away food will have to offer consumers the option of bringing their own container.
___
Indians who pre-ordered Teslas in 2016 are giving up and seeking refunds of their deposits after Elon Musk canceled another visit to the country last month. Disillusioned Tesla enthusiasts in India say they will now buy a car from the company only if they see it in a showroom, or they'll buy a different electrical vehicle from a company that actually exists in the country.
___
Target is limiting its Pride Month collection to select stores this year instead of rolling out the merchandise nationwide like it typically has for the past decade, due to backlash the retailer experienced last year. Last May customers in certain stores knocked down LGBTQ+ merchandise displays, angrily approached store employees, and posted threatening videos on social media from inside the stores.
___
E-commerce spending from Jan 1 to April 30, 2024 rose 7% YoY to $331.6B, according to Adobe Analytics. One trend Adobe identified during the period is a shift of online spending to purchasing the cheapest goods across personal care, electronics, apparel, home & garden, furniture, and grocery.
___
Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest, including Shopify's acquisition of Peel, a tool that integrates with a merchant's tech stack including Klaviyo and Recharge and helps them analyze their sales data to improve customer retention.
___
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/bigcommerce-for-sale-openai-gpt-4o-instacarts-unlikely-partnership/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com
submitted by adventurepaul to ShopifyeCommerce [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 21:45 Fknrayofsunshine App not found in settings?

Okay, so, I’ll probably get called schizophrenic on this subreddit too, but I’m not.
I’ll make this as short as possible. My ex boyfriend is a 10 year veteran with a cyber security related MOS. He is the most intelligent brilliant minded man I have met in ages, sadly he is also a sociopath.
Bear with me, I promise this is a question about apps.
My families phones started acting weird. Specifically my mom’s, at the time, about 6-7 months ago. She has an android. Messages to her contacts she wasn’t sending were being sent, access to her bank, socials, what have you. I got some weird texts
and responded to one.,. Then for months shit died down.
Roll forward to 3 months ago. One day my phone just stopped working completely. Nothing would work not WiFi cellular calling nada.
so I text att and someone, apparently the account holder, (my mom) reported my phone stolen. She did not. A little more digging shown someone tried to activate my phone with the imei on their account..and I’m not aware of anyone ever having access to my imei with my permission. Also someone tried buying an s24ultra on one of the lines.
So att unblacklisted my phone but things still weren’t right. No webpages will open calls work half ass apps weren’t I pening correctly, att resets my network and what have you, then attempts to remove my eSIM. On their end it showed removed in mine it was still active. I also could not reset my phone in setting at this time. We eventually got it going but iCloud wasn’t working. If I tried using it as a verification or login in any website even ones I’d previously used to login it said my email was invalid, but tried creating a new one with that email and it was taken. same with my sons iCloud..but only for a few days..then it went back to allowing me to use it..but I still can’t receive emails to iCloud.
I’m going to skip some details, since I’ve already filled you in on 6 months worth of shit I probably could have skipped. .
At this point all my devices have been compromised
 I can’t use cash app on my phone as it takes me to a fake login loop asking me to insert my info then click a link in my texts over and over. I was able to access it on my mom’s phone but they had already changed my number luckily the email was there.
Now chime will not let me log in. They wanted my ID due to weird activity. Did the thing
and the app encounters an error..every time I enter the correct sign in combo on every device.
Even my pc got compromised when I attached my iPad to
not thinking. Before I knew it my screen was a blank white page with no clickable folders files or start menu, so I took to the command line, but was slow
bc I really don’t know anything programming and was googling all the commands. Eventually I just shut it down and I’m scared to turn it back on.
I have money in Coinbase that I can’t currently move, but I am attempting to download the wallet in preparation so I can beat these people to it before they take it as well.
.my phone downloaded it but it gets stuck at the seed phrase
my sons iPad downloaded it but I went to settings and it isn’t showing. I was going to try to turn off lockdown mode for it only
which by the way, was helping to begin with, but now it’s useless. The wallet app won’t load at all on his device. I have deleted and redownloaded.
I know this is a lot of info that could be covered on a lot of sub reddits, but I really need to figure out how to stop this person from hijacking and blocking access to my apps. I can tell which ones it is bc the battery usage goes out the roof. Like quadruple the usage for the same screen time
I just don’t know how to stop it, bc even if I delete and redownload it’s the same scenario

Apple techs are useless. Att is useless. Tried making a new apple account on the devices after reset and I get blocked..claiming my “birthday is wrong” tf?
So, yeah. Here we are
and I’m like so stressed because of this.
There have been webpages to crash and ask for server hostnames and passwords. I believe one to be 1configurations.app.
My email says there is email rules but I can not view them and the option to encrypt any of my data is greyed out.
I’m about ready to just go off grid.
submitted by Fknrayofsunshine to iosapps [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 19:51 CanExports Moving files from 'download' NMVe to disk, whilst satisfying 14 day torrent seeding

Hey folks,
I am rebuilding my 14 year old server to more current specs and want to make use of the tech that Unraid/Plex have to offer. Right now I download on windows using Deluge and manually transfer to Unraid (no cache) after 14 days of seeding.
Two schools of thought here.
  1. New server will be headless. Will have an NMVe cache drive. Download directly, using windows PC, onto Unraid cache. Move files after 15 days automatically but concerned that my windows deluge will break or not allow the cache move since the files in the cache would be 'in use' by Windows PC (Deluge).
  2. New server will be headless. Will NOT have an NMVe cache drive as it's not needed? Download torrents using unraid and sonnarr (need to look into this and how to specify which folders the files know to go into (TV, Movies, Documentaries etc), then have deluge automatically stop seeding after 15 days.
I have never used Unraid to download torrents before and would wonder how to navigate the torrent sites via the server.
I am open to more suggestions because I don't know what I don't know
submitted by CanExports to unRAID [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 13:41 kurlymeister How to seed after I've moved and renamed a file?

I'm sorry for the dumb question but I have already wasted one evening Googling this without luck, so I'm asking for help. After I download files, I move and rename them to other locations. When I do this, qBit then errors because obviously I've messed up the filepath it was using to seed the completed file. But I would really like to continue seeding to improve my ratio. So how do I seed my collection of movies, given they won't be in the location I originally downloaded to?
submitted by kurlymeister to qBittorrent [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 08:48 raly02 Blutopia inactive timeline

Hello everyone, I just created account on blutopia just had a query how long can I avoid inactivity ban as currently I’m out of country due to work and can’t download torrents here, I can ask someone back home to login and logout but they won’t be able to download torrents and seed them,so how long can I continue to avoid ban regarding inactivity?much appreciate for your help
submitted by raly02 to trackers [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 05:09 wilddouglascounty Seen your first lightning bug yet? Also here's what to look for in area prairies and woodlands

submitted by wilddouglascounty to Lawrence [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 05:07 wilddouglascounty Kaw Valley Almanac May 13 -19: hedge apple flowers, prairie wildflowers, lightning bugs and more

Kaw Valley Almanac May 13 -19: hedge apple flowers, prairie wildflowers, lightning bugs and more submitted by wilddouglascounty to kansas [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 02:59 RedPeril Just bought vinyl for my plants. No regrets.

Just bought vinyl for my plants. No regrets. submitted by RedPeril to houseplants [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 02:56 NatalieMaybeIDK Stuck on Mars

Woops your two way Mars trip ended up getting you stranded in a habitation pod. They paid you $250,000 USD to stay here a month, but it turns out due to some atmospheric conditions and the company going under that you are stuck here for good. Without pay. Turns out getting a human out of here will kill them for some reason. They give you some science mumbo jumbo.
Fear not. Even though rescue is impossible a group from Earth has funded to send you some equipment and supplies. You'll be sent monthly rations and toiletries via a shuttle that auto-docks with your habitation pod. This also transfers you water.
Your habitat contains a 15x15ft bedroom, a 10x10 "kitchen" microwave/cupboards/dishwashesink, and a 5x5 bathroom with shower. Small extra area for 2x sets of extra clothes and washedryer.
The first ship they send has a lot higher of a budget. They've sent a list of what they could send you. First to prevent madness they'll send you 3 more pods. You can choose each option as many times as you want for double space/ any duplicate equipment in the pod, or just a separate identical dome.
Choose Three
  1. Biodome: This 50x50ft dome has a clear yet perfectly safe dome letting you see out. There is a genetically engineered apple tree that blooms and produces apples year round at an accelerated rate. Each branch oddly produces at staggered rates. You'll end up with a single branch's apples reaching maturity each week 4-8 seedless apples. About 1 in 10000 apples have a single seed. If you look closely maybe you can plant another. There are also few bushes and some grass. There is artificial UV lighting in here. You could plant other seeds.
  2. Entertainment dome: 15x15ft. This comes with a comfy sofa, TV with 5terabyte of current Earth media. They'll let you pick and send similar things or as you request. You are provided a desk with a gaming PC. This connects to the TV and two monitors on the desk. This comes with any standard gaming peripherals and a comfy chair. You can download things from the internet, but even browsing is incredibly slow. We are talking 1minute latency on good days. Works for downloading, but not multiplayer games or real time conversations. We'll open a portal for you yo legally download anything. Well anything not disgusting you perv.
  3. Bedroom: This pod is identical to yours. Small kitchen and bathroom included. One other participant has agreed to accompany you. You'll fill out a series of psychological tests, and we'll send you someone that isn't likely to drive you more insane. As we are focused on survival, you'll get no choice in the matter.
  4. Kitchen pod: A much larger kitchen space. 20x20 space with all standard appliances. We'll send you the standard food rations and allow you to pick $200 in ingredients every months. This $200 must be kitchen/food related.
  5. Library: A 20x20ft room. This holds two eReaders connected to a database of all known written works. It also includes three high quality bean bag chairs, a cozy reading chair, and a couch. If you'd like they'll send you 1-4 large shelves with any books you'd like that can fit on it. With the eReaders this would mostly be aesthetics. Maybe you like books?
  6. Pool Room: 25x25 ft room with a 15x15 ft pool and a 5x5 ft hot tub. Plenty of extra towels and some pool toys.
  7. Rec room: 20x20 ft room. Contains a pool table, darts, a poker table, two sets of playing cards, and mini-fridge stocked with 48 cans of soft drink a month.
  8. Hobby room: 20x20 ft empty room. Onetime you'll get $1200 to furnish this room as desired or buy tools. You'll then be given $100 a month to spend on hobby equipment.
  9. Expansion: all rooms gain 25% more space.
  10. $250 a month
Don't worry. They'll replace anything damaged. To an extent. Don't start destroying stuff. Your shelter was designed to survive hundreds of years without repair.
Each month you'll be given a $250 budget to spend on anything you want adjusted for inflation. Any companion gets their own budget.
You'll get occasional bonuses if you survive.
5 years: +1 dome 10 years: +1 dome +$50 15 years: you'll be sent a serum to de-age you at the rate of 1 year per year until you hit 20. At which point you'll age normally again. It also heals you of all disorders. Any companions get this. These only seem to work for everyone 5 times ever. Probably should save it until you're old. 20 years: +$50 a month. 25 years: +1 dome 30 Years: +$100 a month 40 years: +1 dome 50 years: a new space colony will begin construction right next door. You'll be hooked up to another pod of 6 various workers. They have their own bedrooms, biodome, 2x rec room. You are able to close off contact with them if you'd like or interact freely. They have their only monthly budgets and work 5 hours 5 days a week. Mostly repairing drones and monitoring progress of construction.
60 years: The first permant Martian city. This city will quickly hold 250 colonists and they have the capability to expand overtime. You and companions will be considered celebrities. While the city has a large open public space, you and your companions will have the largest private area. Most living in small apartments.
submitted by NatalieMaybeIDK to 6Perks [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 02:29 Academic_Law4109 how to randomize co-op

so downloaded all the files and both have same seed and can play fine but when going to call them into my world seemless co op bell/ all items aren't in inv, any one have a tip?
submitted by Academic_Law4109 to eldenringdiscussion [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 02:04 _ButWaitTheresMore_ hypothetically, if i download a torrented file and stop seeding afterwards will having the file get me caught?

i know seeding is the right thing to do, i’ve read that all over my search and i probs will for that 1:1 ratio thing i’ve seen. my question more pertains to having the actual file on my computer after all is said and done. sometimes i have to turn off my vpn (i use mullvad btw if that influences your answers) for school stuff and i’m just concerned that turning off the vpn on my computer with the file on it will get me caught. thanks in advance :)
submitted by _ButWaitTheresMore_ to VPNTorrents [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 00:30 Pierowtechneeks Qbit-nox d/l appears to hang after some time

Running Qbit-Nox 4.5.2 on RPi 4 8Gb and this Pi is dedicated seedbox only. I’ve noticed a recurring theme whereby regardless of how many torrents I am seeding sometimes, without any obvious reason, new or even existing torrents just stop downloading (even with seeders). It’s like it’s trying to download from the connected seeders but doesn’t.
So far, what I’ve noticed is that It tends to happen after having run Qbit for some time, having not rebooted the Pi or the Qbit service. When I say some time, I really only mean a couple weeks.
Upload still appears to work fine also which is weird. And normally the workaround is just restart the Qbit service and it’s away again.
I’ve increased the swp size on the Pi, have plenty of space on my 4tb SATA SSD connected to the Pi but still the issue persists.
Anyone encountered this?
submitted by Pierowtechneeks to qBittorrent [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 23:01 Special_Necessary_78 monerod "Host/subnet blocked" issue

I'm trying to set up my Monero node by following this guide
When I'm starting monerod I get a lot of "Host/subnet blocked" messages: 2024-05-12 20:29:12.284 I Host 78.46.191.8 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.284 I Host 78.46.192.174 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.285 I Host 78.46.192.204 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.285 I Host 78.47.43.59 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.285 I Host 78.47.45.21 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.285 I Subnet 91.198.115.0/24 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.286 I Host 95.216.136.170 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.286 I Host 95.216.138.15 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.286 I Host 95.216.139.114 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.286 I Host 95.216.139.44 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.287 I Host 95.216.140.48 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.287 I Host 95.216.187.176 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.287 I Host 95.216.189.202 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.288 I Host 95.216.189.35 blocked. 2024-05-12 20:29:12.288 I Host 95.216.189.86 blocked.
This is just a small part of blocked hosts
This is what I get if I type Status or sync_info
status Height: 3147613/3147613 (100.0%) on mainnet, not mining, net hash 2.28 GH/s, v16, 32(out)+0(in) connections, uptime 0d 0h 7m 37s
sync_info Height: 3147616, target: 3147616 (100%) Downloading at 45 kB/s Next needed pruning seed: 2 32 peers Remote Host Peer_ID State Prune_Seed Height DL kB/s, Queued Blocks / MB 141.94.96.71:180807bb9f3b263f37010 normal 0 3147616 1 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued 37.26.136.250:18080908add7d58a5b2c2 normal 0 3147616 1 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued 144.91.121.7:18080933eb548e2d919c3 normal 0 3147616 1 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued 45.83.220.102:1808090cb943410dd18e5 normal 0 3147616 8 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued 94.225.223.76:1808068ae70f37f633f3c normal 181 3147616 1 kB/s, 0 blocks / 0 MB queued . . .
Please someone tell me if this is normal or not? Also how can I check if my node is accessible to other Monero users?
submitted by Special_Necessary_78 to monerosupport [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 22:14 Excellent_Disk8673 What happend ?

What happend ?
I was letting it download while doing chores and I came back to this😐
submitted by Excellent_Disk8673 to PiratedGames [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 22:11 nickchecking utorrent periodically sticks at 0% while downloading new torrents

utorrent periodically sticks at 0% while downloading new torrents
I'm using 2.2.1 utorrent on Win7/32GB RAM (I know, I know, I'm just resistant to change and it's worked for a decade) and over the last few months I've hit this issue where every once in a while (sometimes within a few days, sometimes it's okay for a couple of weeks), it'll just refuse to actually start downloading new torrents. It'll say Downloading but won't connect to the peers I know are there and just say it's at 0%.
https://preview.redd.it/w3jik44pw10d1.png?width=490&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d79dd806c3c23951476ca0d26c9d67c66d0f4c7
I'll add the torrents to utorrent, they'll queue up (I have it set to download one at a time), but then it'll just act as if there are truly no seeds and start the next torrent and then the next, until there are a bunch of torrents at Downloading - 0% that I know all have seeds, from private trackers I've used fine for years. Crucially, when I restart utorrent, they work fine. Which to me rules out issues of no seeds, blocked ports, etc, unless it's a setting that's changing after utorrent starts. It's just getting to be a chore to keep restarting because I have 2,800 torrents seeding and it has to go through all of them again and move from Queued Seeding to Seeding.
In terms of what's changed over this time, I'd say I've started torrenting more instead of getting from IRC over the last couple of years, so the number of torrents loaded has climbed quickly. I go through and delete a bunch every once in a while but at the moment it tends to stick around 2800~.
I did download and am still seeding a few torrents of around 400GB a few months back, in case that's somehow overloading something?
I use VyprVPN but only for some sites, so it's usually running but disconnected. I also installed NordVPN a while back but don't use it, so it's usually not even running, though I guess the service is. I stopped the service just now but no change on the current stuck downloads.
Also, sometimes, though rarely, after being stuck on the downloading, a few minutes or hours later it'll just start working by itself and finish quickly.
ETA: Oh, also, while I was downloading those large 400GB torrents, I kept on hitting the Disk Overloaded error and so made some changes I saw online, mostly here:
https://preview.redd.it/wu7w6fb1020d1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=112949badb2b026cb7d655c23e47872e1ef0a9db
Also set
bt.transp_disposition to 21
diskio.coalesce_write_size to 3097152
diskio.sparse_files to true
diskio.use_partfile to false
Now I'm wondering if I should just revert all of those...
submitted by nickchecking to torrents [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 21:09 Walmitty Seeding and Leeching ...

When downloading a torrent does leeching and seeding happen simultaneously?
I am using QBitTorrent and I'm new to torrenting.
I don't mind seeding for others but I just don't want it to happen until after I'm finished downloading my file.
submitted by Walmitty to torrents [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 20:34 OkNefariousness7651 advice for restoring/recreating distros that have been deleted from a (non-anglophone) private tracker for lack of seeds since i was last able to seed them?

I've downloaded a bunch of stuff from the tracker that rhymes with Adorno's Flab over the few years I've been a member and maintained an... OK ratio (which I want to improve). A decent amount of the stuff i acquired was kinda niche, so didn't have many seeders.
This year, there was a period of nearly 6 months in which due to hardware and ISP woes I wasn't able to seed anything. When I was finally able to seed again, I found almost half of the distributions I'd obtained weren't on the tracker anymore, I assume for lack of seeds.
Ergo, I'm wondering if this tracker in particular, or trackers in general, have a process for easily restoring recently-deemed-abandoned distributions if a potential seeder reappears, or if I really would have to fully recreate the relevant listings as if they were brand new? Altruistically I obv want to make these distros available for others again, but selfishly I also want them to be able to count toward my ratio, since I want to get it significantly higher!
(I checked the tracker's FAQ for any relevant info, but since it's a consistently non-anglophone site, I couldn't tell if what I was looking for was absent or if google translate was just doing me dirty.)
submitted by OkNefariousness7651 to trackers [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 19:00 Ok-Vacation5730 Creative upscaling all the way to 16K (and beyond) with WebUI Forge, a comprehensive how-to guide

Creative upscaling all the way to 16K (and beyond) with WebUI Forge, a comprehensive how-to guide
WebUI Forge is a popular alternative (‘fork’) to the classical Automatic1111 platform. In this guide, I describe a complete routine for super high-resolution upscaling of AI-generated images with incremental adding of detail into their content, using any of the two features of Forge, SD Upscale and MultiDiffusion integrated.
Due to reddit limitations, the included 16:9 demo image of a fantasy landscape is a scaled down to 8K version of the full-size upscaled image produced with this routine from an original 2K picture generated with Leonardo.ai. Here’s the link to the full-size 15360x8640 image (a 58 MB file).
A lighter image of 16 MB size (87% jpeg compression) is available here.
The source 2k image is included second in this posting.
The folder with the complete selection of demo images from the project prepared for this post is available here.
Routine prerequisites: Forge webUI running locally on a PC equipped with a capable GPU (RTX 4070 Ti Super with 16 GB, in my setup), or on a leased one in the cloud (RunDiffusiion, salad, runpod.io, vast.ai, sailflow.ai and the like). The author used the WebUI Forge version available within the StabilityMatrix package.
The approach
In the image upscaling business, the temptation is to upscale the image to the target resolution in one go, if possible: if the tool supports a 4x upscale, sure, let’s use that! 8x, even better! It is however a very flawed approach, all you will get is a ruined image (or at best something far from what you wanted the result to be), and running times much longer than they should be. With this routine, I promote an incremental approach, where you increase the resolution 2 times at most with each upscale step, keeping the runtimes short to allow for more creative experimenting. The underlying idea is that you want to be in charge of the process and not rely on the magic of the AI too much, or on some dense, rigid workflow. For that reason, I am much against upscaling in batches or in whichever automatic fashion. Each image is unique and requires an individual approach; and especially so, for anything to be called a work of art.
The steps in detail
Each step in this routine is done in 2-3 substeps.
Substep 1: pre-upscaling of the image. During AI-assisted upscaling with SD Upscale (SDU) or MultiDiffusion integrated (MD), the actual resizing of the image is always done by an upscaler model, not by an internal routine of the extension or the script (I will call them ‘methods’ from here on). Typically, the user simply chooses the Scale By factor, selects one of the available in the UI models, like UltraSharp, foolhardy_Remacri etc, sets all the other relevant upscaling parameters and clicks on Generate. In contrast, in this routine the ‘raw’ upscale operation is necessarily a separate substep; it’s done explicitly in Forge’s Extras, or using a standalone upscaler such as the highly recommended freeware upscayl, before proceeding to generate. This allows you to exercise a fuller control over the overall look of the eventual upscaled output, the grain or the texture, and also to prevent an unsolicited color shift. If you don’t separate this part, it will be impossible for you to determine in what degree the upscaler model influenced the eventual output. Forge comes with plenty of top-class models already built in, and you can always look for a specialized one fine tuned for the type of images you need to have upscaled (here’s the site that hosts practically every sort). For more details on the subject, see this recent discussion.
This approach of separation not only gives you more control of the output, but also significantly saves on the total computing time: once you have a raw-upscaled image with qualities closest to the way you want the upscaled image to look ultimately, the pre-upscaling operation won’t have to be performed at the beginning of every subsequent run of the method (and chances are that you are going to do a lot of trial runs at each upscaling step). Conversely, if the pre-upscaled image has a texture with a particular strong (synthetic) grain, or any artifacts of its own (which does happen occasionally), it might be difficult to alter that look within the adding detail run (substep 2), so choose wisely! (FWIW, the models used for upscaling the demo image for this routine were 4xLSDIRplusC, HAT-L_SRx4_ImageNet-pretrain and 4xHFA2k, they seemed to be suited better for the type of synthetic landscape photos used in this project than the others I tried; but that’s only my personal preference. In contrast, 4x_NMKD-Siax_200K proved unsuitable for this project, as this model tends to add too much noise in the upscaled output, making it appear unnaturally sharp.)
Note: the pre-upscaling factor of 2x at each step is only a default, for an even finer control, you might want to reduce it to 1.5 or even lower.
Timing. Pre-upscaling is usually done very quickly, it takes about 20-30 seconds for an average model to 2x upscale a 4K image on my RTX 4070 Ti Super. 2x upscaling of an 8K image might take from 1.5 or 2 minutes (4xHFA2k) to anything between 4 and 12 minutes using a slower model like SwinIR or HAT-L_SRx4.
Substep 2: adding detail to the pre-upscaled image with the chosen SD method and checkpoint. At this step, you use the pre-upscaled image as the source in the chosen Forge img2img method and run the process with the scale factor of 1. Depending on the Denoising strength parameter, the checkpoint used, the prompt etc, this generation substep will add a variable amount of detail into the rendered image (see more on the ways to control the amount and contents in ‘Forge webUI parameters’ below). For the demo image used in this guide, the details added have been of this variety: birds flying in the sky, features of the spire-shaped towers on the left and on the right, waterfall shapes, houses, flower petals, figures of people at a distance, sometimes a bicycle or a horse, and even a tiny village on the cliff that was formed during subsequent upscale steps. By experimenting on each step, you arrive at a rendering that contains newly added detail in the quantity and appearance which is most appealing to you. Once gotten that, you use the rendered image as the source for the next upscale step. Amazingly, as I witnessed more than once in my project, and as opposed to a more traditional img2img process, such an iterative process wherein an image is generated and then used as the upscale source again and again, will not cause any degradation of the subsequent output (when generated with the right set of parameters of course). The detail added on a detail-enriching step will usually be kept and further developed at the next one, given a carefully tuned set of parameters, and the sharpness will be retained without any visible softening of the texture.
Keep in mind though that processing time increases with each upscale step and the increased resolution, so it makes sense to do the most of the creative experimenting in the middle of the routine, at the level of 4K and 8K. Generating at the last 16K level should be done just to keep the detail already introduced, not to add any substantially new one (unless you have a super-fast GPU, of course).
Timing. Forge runs very, very fast when img2img-processing, with either of 1.5 or SDXL versions of checkpoints, processing a 4k image in about 1 minute, for either method. It takes between 2 and 3 minutes to process a 8K image, and between 8 and 18 minutes for a 16K image, with all the right parameters set. (Automatic, in comparison, takes anything from 1 to 3 hours to do the same with a SD 1.5 checkpoint, and the quality of the output is much harder to maintain.)
Substep 3 (optional): refining and fixing artifacts. You should be mindful of possible artifacts (small defects and off-color patterns), and particularly of visible tiles and seams that tend to appear in the generated image when you fail to moderate the process by means of lowering the denoise parameter and/or using the ControlNet Tile mode (more on this in the next part). Probability of the tiles becoming visible is also dependent on the image contents: images with a light blue sky or a smooth gradient of any kind are particularly vulnerable, as demonstrated by the example images in the demo folder. I learned the hard way that, except in a few cases, it’s practically impossible to get rid of the seams by any post-processing. Generally, you will have to discard an image with tiles and seams too prominent. Speaking of visible tiles and seams, I noticed that the MD method is more prone to that issue than the SDU one, while not being any faster in processing, so I recommend using the latter for most use cases.
That said, the artifacts such as visible tiles and seams, as well as minor blemishes, can be made less pronounced (if not completely removed) by running the substep 2 again with the just-rendered image as the input one, with a different checkpoint, the Denoising strength or CFG parameter adjusted. This substep is only needed if the upscale step is the last one in the sequence; otherwise, the substep 2 on the next level will most likely do this job. Also to consider: activating the Refiner option at the above substep, to be used with a secondary checkpoint (see below).
Check out the demo folder for the most striking examples of tiles, seams and other artifacts.
Forge webUI parameters
Stable Diffusion checkpoint
The choice of checkpoint is a major factor influencing the detail that will be added to the image during the generation process. Different checkpoints react differently to the input material, some hallucinate more readily with the same source than the others. The checkpoints used to produce the demo image in this guide were: albedobaseXL_v21, juggernautXL_v9Rundiffusionphoto2, sleipnirSDXLTurbo_v125, leosamsHelloworldXL50GPT4V, for the SDXL version, and juggernaut_reborn, photon_v1 and absolutereality_v181, for the v1.5 one. Since upscaling, as described in this guide, is a multi-pass process in which the checkpoint is freely changed at each step, all of them contributed to the final result to varying degrees.
Check out the demo folder for the most striking examples of hallucinations I encountered during this project.
LoRa
Specialized LoRas can also be used to influence the type and the amount of the detail added to the image, or the style it is rendered in (this is most likely how Magnific, Leonardo U-Upscaler and others of the kind support various styles available in their UI.) No LoRas have been used in this project, however.

Prompt
Compared to other SD-based solutions, the prompt plays a much lesser role in this routine. In fact, you can use the same prompt for each upscaling project, something like “masterpiece, best quality, highres”, and that will do it. As a rule, no specific terms or object names should be used in the prompt. The reason for that is that the large-size upscaling is always a tile-based process, wherein each tile is generated independently of others, so, if your prompt includes some specific object you want to have generated in the output, there is a high chance that that object will appear everywhere in the picture, or at least at every spot where the checkpoint ‘thinks’ it is appropriate. This holds especially for the MD-based upscaling with 1.5 checkpoints. For SDU under Forge using SDXL ones, it is less extreme, but I would still recommend avoiding specifics in the prompt. In this project, I went no further with the prompt than using “majestic fantasy vista, cinematic, high contrast, highly detailed”. Just inserting “mountainous” adjective before “vista” would cause mountains rendered in the dark parts of the sky and other strange features appearing in the picture, without much added realism.
In any event, due to the nature of the Stable Diffusion process, it is not possible to control what exactly the checkpoint will inject, and where, even with the best crafted prompt. You can, however, try restricting it from injecting something you don’t want it to, by including various synonymous terms in the negative prompt.
Sampling method (‘sampler’)
In this project, I consistently used two classical samplers, DPM++ 2M Karras, and, a bit less often, DPM++ 3M SDE Exponential, they seemed to be the fastest of the bunch and delivered desired quality with a relatively low step count of 20-22. Some other samplers, like Euler and HEUN, proved to be too eager to hallucinate bizarre detail into the image (with the same step count), so I avoided them; some others produced completely damaged output or were unacceptably slow.
Sampling steps
With a sampler chosen as above, the step count of 20-22 was sufficient most of the times for a good output quality. Occasionally, I would raise the count to 25 or 30, or even 50, but could never notice much difference in the output. Increasing the step count does make the generation take longer though, in almost linear fashion.

CFG Scale
The CFG parameter has a major influence on the output, augmenting the hallucination as you raise it. With that, however, also rises the chance of tiles and seams and other artifacts appearing, so it’s a good idea to be conservative with this value. As a rule, I would use a CFG no higher than 8 for a regular detail-adding generation, and restrict the value to 5 at the last (16K) step, to avoid undesired detail injection, while keeping the overall sharpness level. With the MD method and 1.5 checkpoints specifically, raising this value to extreme levels such as 13-15 and setting tile dimensions just above 100 pixels will cause a profuse injection of the sharpest detail possible into the output, which can often produce a stunning effect, but is generally hard to control (not to mention additional artifacts).
Denoising strength
The denoise parameter which is at the heart of this ‘creative’, img2img-based upscaling routine is the single most influential factor; you should use it within a pretty narrow range. The CFG, the sampler, the step count, the checkpoint and of course the prompt all play their role in the process, but the denoise value leads the way. Experimenting with it, you nudge the img2img generation to add a desired (relatively small) amount of detail, and no more. If you don’t restrict the value of this parameter, your image will contain a wild (‘insane’) amount of detail, particularly when upscaling with the MD method, which tends to insert in the image, depending on the checkpoint, all kinds of stuff (NSFW one including) at any spot imaginable. That is often accompanied by tiles appearing in the output image and other artifacts - which means, again, wasted time and effort. But visually, it can be great fun of course.
Recommended values (based on this project): between 0.28 (basic detail level, low hallucination) and 0.38 (new detail is prominent, checkpoint-dependent hallucinations across the image). The lowest level of 0.28-0.30, or lower, is recommended to use at the last, 16K step. See also ControlNet integrated below on how to dampen the effect of the denoise parameter and keep the output faithful to the original image.
Resize to, Width and Height / Resize by, Scale
This must be the most mystifying part of the entire Automatic/Forge interface. After all this time, I am still figuring out, shall we say, the subtleties of its logic.
The sliders labeled ‘Width’ and ‘Height’ play a different role under img2img-based upscaling than in a regular image generation. When upscaling with Forge’s SDU, with these sliders you don’t set the resolution you want the image to be upscaled to (it won’t allow values higher than 2048 anyway), but rather the tile dimensions used for upscaling/refining, see Tile configuration below. When running SDU script under Forge, make sure that the Resize to (NOT Resize by) dialog box is in foreground before clicking on Generate, or else it will take very long to process the image at 8K, and forever, at 16K. The image’s target dimensions are defined in SDU via its internal Scale Factor parameter.
In contrast, when upscaling with Forge’s MD, before clicking on Generate you need to ensure that the Resize by dialog box is in foreground, with the Scale factor set properly, or else it will just generate an image of whatever dimensions set by the sliders in Resize To, but luckily, in just a few seconds. For the purposes of this routine, the Scale can be set to 1.
And that is the simplest part of the puzzle, all kinds of things can go wrong if you set something in the UI that Forge developers didn’t really anticipate. To avoid excessively long runtimes and other pitfalls, follow the guidelines below when upscaling.
Tile configuration
Image tiles are the core part of the design of HR upscaling in Stable Diffusion, I believe it’s the only effective means to process large size images without running out of GPU memory (VRAM) very quickly.
In SDU, you set tile dimensions, as suggested above, in the Resize To dialog box. For SDXL checkpoints, I used the 1024x1024 dimensions, as well as 768x768 (the tiles don’t have to be aspect ratio-shaped), and for 1.5 checkpoints, the standard 512x512 dimensions, or 768x768, which worked equally well.
An important parameter in both methods used in the routine is Tile overlap, it defines the pixel width and height of the overlapping area of adjacent tiles. Making it as large as reasonably possible helps to tame the visibility of tile seams, by the price of slower computation. In my experience, an overlap of size 64 pixels for SDXL would suffice; smaller sizes could make sense for 1.5 checkpoints and in cases when visibility of tiles is not an issue. In any case, it’s a good idea to use the default value first.

The MD method, which includes its own set of sliders to define the tile configuration, has an additional parameter, Tile Batch Size. It defines how many tiles are held in memory simultaneously and processed in one basic operation; 8 is the maximum using which will supposedly achieve the highest speed of upscaling, lowering it will decrease the amount of VRAM used by this process. In MD under Automatic, setting this parameter lower than the default (to 4, 5 or 6) is an essential means to avoid running out of CUDA memory; in Forge, it’s of a lesser importance, since that system has its own, by all indications much more efficient memory management.
ControlNet integrated
To keep the upscaled/refined output as faithful to the source image as possible, ControlNet Tile resample mode is used. When this mode is activated, the effect of the Denoising strength parameter is dampened, which gives you a higher degree of freedom to play with the parameter without the associated risk of tiles and seams appearing, but at the price of longer (about 10-30%) processing times. In my experience, with the Controlnet Tile resample switched on under SDU, the Denoising strength could be set as high as 0.4, with no or little visible artifacts appearing in the output image.
To engage this option, enable ControlNet Unit 0 in the Forge img2img UI, check Pixel Perfect, select Tile in the Control Type combo, select Tile resample in the preprocessor dropdown box and the corresponding model in the next box, which is usually control_v11f1e_sd15_tile when using a 1.5 checkpoint and ttplanetSDXLControlnet_v10Fp16 when using a SDXL one (the only one that worked for me, might require explicit downloading and installing to Forge). Next, set Control weight to a value between 0.5 and 0.7 inclusive (this relaxes the ControlNet Tile fidelity, which we need for the purposes of detail-adding), and leave the rest of the ControlNet settings at the default.
Note that the MD + ControlNet mode combination, as I found, doesn’t really work under Forge: when both are selected, the process upscale starts quickly but then stagnates without any visible progress, for hours. (In contrast, the same combination works just fine under SDU, for both 1.5 and SDXL flavors.)
Other parameters in Forge’s img2img interface
Clip skip. Leave at the default. Changing this might make no impact whatsoever, I have never checked.
Resize mode. Leave at Just resize.
Refiner. This is an interesting option worth experimenting with. It allows the user to select a secondary checkpoint whose output will be mixed with that of the primary one, at a selected point of processing specified by the Switch at parameter (reasonable values between 0.6 and 0.85). Unfortunately, while potentially useful from the creative perspective, this option is too computationally costly, slowing down runtimes to anything from 2 (for SD 1.5) to 8 times (for SDXL checkpoints, which are larger). This happens due to constant checkpoint loading and unloading (a rather time-consuming operation) performed for every tile being processed.
Batch count / Batch size. Leaving these at 1 would be a practical choice, to avoid wasting your computing time - unless you want, say, to experiment with the Denoising strength at its higher values when upscaling at a low to medium image resolution.
Seed. Usually left at -1 to allow random variation of the output.
MultiDiffusion integrated. Enable this control when you want to upscale with this particular extension, as opposed to the SD upscale script. The choice of the specific Method between MultiDiffusion and Mixture of Diffusers does not affect the output that much (in my experience anyway), I understand it was retained in Forge for backward compatibility with MD under Automatic. An important related option: see Never OOM integrated below.
Never OOM integrated: when selecting MD extension for upscaling, it is necessary to synchronously enable this extension as well, and check the box labeled Enabled for VAE (always tiled), and not the other one above it. If this is not done, upscaling of a large sized image will last indefinitely long. In contrast, upscaling with SDU necessitates unchecking of that option and leaving Never OOM inactive, for exactly the same reason.
Script. Select SD upscale form the dropdown box when upscaling with SDU. In this case, MultiDiffusion integrated must be deactivated, or else neither of the two options will work properly. Also, when selecting SDU, make sure to deactivate Never OOM, as mentioned above. The Upscaler choice is up to your experimentation (see Substep 1 at the top), but for the purposes of this routine it is normally set to None.
All the other integrated extensions present in Forge’s interface are best to leave inactive.
Forge vs Automatic1111, SD 1.5 vs SDXL and the fate of Tiled Diffusion
Based on my experience in this upscaling project, a few general conclusions can be made. For the purposes of the project, Forge WebUI proved a much better choice, with either of the two methods: it runs significantly faster and its output is much less prone to visible tiling, seams and other artifacts than when using equivalent tools under Automatic. The MD implementation in Forge, however, is much incomplete, with important features, such as Noise Inversion, slow modes of Tiled VAE encoding / decoding and others left out, as compared to the Automatic version of MD (where it is called Tiled Diffusion btw). In my view, this drawback of Forge is largely compensated not only by faster runtimes but also by much more robust, stable performance, and most importantly much better tile management that practically solves the problem of visible tiles and seams (you won’t even find an option like Seams fix in Forge, it’s done behind the scenes and done exceptionally well), not to mention it allows to run highres upscaling on GPUs with 8 GB VRAM.
What’s more, support for v1.5 checkpoints in Froge feels somewhat incomplete, at least speaking of the MD/TD implementation. All in all, however, I feel that the MD/TD method is no longer relevant for HR image upscaling, seeing the drastic improvement of the SD upscale script. From my upscaling perspective, unless Automatic will be merged with Forge to take advantage of the improvements in the latter, the former remains relevant only for MD/TD-based upscaling with 1.5 checkpoints. It doesn’t help either that development of TD/MD has remained dormant for the last two months. (Which is sad, since SDXL support in MD, native or under Forge, has not been developed beyond only a nominal one - it doesn’t really work well with checkpoints of that version, as I found in the course of my project.)
Although, to be fair, an even more worrying picture holds for Forge development, which hasn’t seen any update since February.
The quality of SDXL-based generation as compared to that of v1.5 is a matter of a separate discussion; due to space constraints, I won’t go into that here. I will just add that personally I find SDXL-based upscaling superior to v1.5 one, for most use cases.
The folder with the complete selection of demo images from the project prepared for this post is available here.
https://preview.redd.it/3y1nwkod110d1.jpg?width=7680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c12e51fa2d44bb8336a7ca8c02094b349a61799
submitted by Ok-Vacation5730 to StableDiffusion [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 14:26 janka12fsdf Is this bad download/upload speed normal?

Is this bad download/upload speed normal?
People always say you should seed to atleast a 1:1 ratio, but my seeding and downloading is so painfully slow that I don't know if I'm doing something wrong?
This is a screenshot from a torrent with only 1 seeder, for refence
As you can see the download speed is really slow. I know there is only one seeder, but shouldn't theorhetically my download speed in this case be the same as the upload speed of this one seeder?
I didn't port forward yet, so I'm wondering if that would fix it? Like I said, my upload speed is also horrible, even tho it says I should have 20 mb/s on ookla speed test. The biggest ratio I have is 0.3, and that's from the most popular torrent I have, so yeah there seems to be something wrong here, sorry for the rambling and thanks for the help!
submitted by janka12fsdf to animepiracy [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 14:23 janka12fsdf Is this bad download and upload speed normal?

Is this bad download and upload speed normal?
People always say you should seed to atleast a 1:1 ratio, but my seeding and downloading is so painfully slow that I don't know if I'm doing something wrong?
This is a screenshot from a torrent with only 1 seeder, for refence
As you can see the download speed is really slow. I know there is only one seeder, but shouldn't theorhetically my download speed in this case be the same as the upload speed of this one seeder?
I didn't port forward yet, so I'm wondering if that would fix it? Like I said, my upload speed is also horrible, even tho it says I should have 20 mb/s on ookla speed test. The biggest ratio I have is 0.3, and that's from the most popular torrent I have, so yeah there seems to be something wrong here, sorry for the rambling and thanks for the help!
submitted by janka12fsdf to torrents [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 14:13 YT_Flex4249 LOST ALBUM Crossing Rain - Dreams

Hi! There's this boy band from Hawaii I like, Crossing Rain (XR) and a while ago they took down a lot of their older music mostly being comprised all in this one album. Dreams. There's still hints of it lingering YouTube in forms of old live shows/acoustic remixes from the band themselves but no scent of the original. I thought I had downloaded them but apparently not. I am also the only one who seeded their Patreon, they have a dead mobile app, and don't get much press anywhere. Even inside Hawaii, there's only occasional news segments. I do know it does exist, it's still on my Spotify playlist but it's blanked out as it is unplayable. I did reach out and the management did say that they had to be removed due to change of management and that they have no ETA for when Dreams (Limited) will be coming back. Album is linked though all songs are left unplayable. Thanks!
Website: crossingrain.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CROSSINGRAIN
Patreon: https://kemono.su/patreon/use91006004 https://kemono.su/patreon/use91006004
Dreams Album: https://open.spotify.com/album/4lGpWGkIunheXN96IW3NnR?si=l_6PyKywQe2SiiN6ErKpHg
submitted by YT_Flex4249 to HelpMeFind [link] [comments]


http://rodzice.org/