Controlnet Photopea ads: is it okay?

[light-and-ray]

I found in one of the previous updates of control-net extension, they added photopea editor. It is enabled by default.

It looks like an awful advertisement of a viral online Photoshop clone. 👿 And I know, according to their terms of use, they collect all your data.

At least they either have to disable it by default, or it's needed to add 'ads' and 'online' tags into the extensions index

@Mikubill @huchenlei

[huchenlei]

The iframe only loads photopea.com when you click edit. If you do not click edit, the extension won't make your browser load anything.

If you do not like the feature you can also completely disable it.

[huchenlei]

[huchenlei]

There is an A1111 photopea extension long ago: https://github.com/yankooliveira/sd-webui-photopea-embed. I did not see people complaining about it. If you don't like it, you have the option to just not use it.

[huchenlei]

Also according README:

• online tag is Required for any extension that connections to external server during regular use aside from one time downloading of assets.
• ads tag is Required for any extension that contains advertisements or self-advertisement in the extension itself.

• ControlNet extension's regular use does not depend on the photopea edit feature.
• ADs is not in the extension itself. It is from an external service provider.

[light-and-ray]

The iframe only loads photopea.com when you click edit. If you do not click edit, the extension won't make your browser load anything.

It doesn't matter. People can not know about what is this logo mean, and is it online

Disable photopea checkbox

It need to be disabled by default

There is an A1111 photopea extension long ago

And I don't use this extension 😒
Enabling by default looks like ads. And I think it is 😒

You could do either:

1. Add add-on for controlnet extension with photopea editor, like it someone did with openpose-editor extension. If people want to use photopea inside controlnet, they install special extension
2. Or you could just disable it by default, and who want to see photopea support, will enable it! It's so simple

Also according README:

ads tag is Required for any extension that contains advertisements or self-advertisement in the extension itself

Yes, It means you can contain ads on your github readme page, or on your website, but you can not inside extension itself.
And even if Photopea didn't pay you, free ads is still ads. It is an "advertisement for all users to use photoshope-like web service" by the common definition of the "advertisement" word

[w-e-w]

in my opinion this one is in gray area

from my point of view the rule is to prevent people from blatantly using web UI as an advertising ground
the rule isn't there then people will start adding lots of different donate or start the repo buttons sprinkled in the UI
and it will be an entire mess

in my opinion adding a button that adds function that also links to a service can be recorded as a functionality as opposed to an advertisement

for instance those Civitai model downloader / integration extension, the existence of the extension itself is an advertisement of Civitai
I don't regard thise as needing ads tag

basically my line for advertisement tag is that "if the link or button does not serve other purpose other than to advertise then it's an advertisement"

linking to Repository with the title "leave a star" is an advertisement but if it is a complicated extension that requires documentation they can add a link for documentation purposes

in the case of photopea I think it falls under the purpose of adding functionality

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online tag
in this case as

The iframe only loads photopea.com when you click edit. If you do not click edit, the extension won't make your browser load anything.

and

If you do not like the feature you can also completely disable it.

and the main purpose of the extention is not about photopea

I would think that this is in the clear as not requiring the tag

as for people accidentally using it, VS disabling it by default (and would result in large majority of the user don't know about this feature)
accidental clicking is a concerned for certain users but personally I don't think it's that severe in this case

maybe a middle ground to be reached, something like the a pop-up shows that this will connect to photopea
and you can confirm if you wish to continue, there's can be a option to don't show the pop up in the future

[light-and-ray]

Then why they didn't disable that kind of niche functionality, but vice versa they highlighted it with icon? And also, editing preprocessor's output is not really necessary thing, I can download, edit and upload it manually/

It looks like literally commercial ad, like when I'm browsing free mobile app, and it advice me to use a questionable service with donations. It is more then just "star me on github"

@huchenlei Can you just disable it by default? If no, why? Do you have a contract with Photopea? Why you even enabled it by default?

[light-and-ray]

@w-e-w

If you do not like the feature you can also completely disable it.
I would think that this is in the clear as not requiring the tag

I agree, It's better to separate this functionality inside dedicated extension, like it do https://github.com/huchenlei/sd-webui-openpose-editor. Oh, huchenlei is the author of it!

[w-e-w]

@huchenlei

well did actual testing and apparently you do call to photopea for there icon

I posted this issue in Discord I want to have a different opinion on this matter (especially about if this is an ad)

but if least that icon request is in contorlnet the it will have to be tag online, this is black and white

also https://github.com/Mikubill/sd-webui-controlnet/blame/main/javascript/openpose_editor.js#L4
I think they should be an option to disable the test
I think the test should be only be performed if people tryies to use is openpose-editor as opposed to on page load

note GitHub is less sensitive so if can be still class as not online
see prior discussion #135

[light-and-ray]

I've noticed about icon too. But he inlined it 4 hr ago:
Mikubill/sd-webui-controlnet@1679847

[light-and-ray]

also https://github.com/Mikubill/sd-webui-controlnet/blame/main/javascript/openpose_editor.js#L4
Omg. Openpose editor is very lightweight application. Why it has to have remote version?

[w-e-w]

I've noticed about icon too. But he inlined it 4 hr ago: Mikubill/sd-webui-controlnet@1679847

ahhh ok

[akx]

👍 that the icon was inlined. It would be nice if clicking Edit confirm()ed that it's okay to load Photopea from Photopea.com on the first use (if it doesn't do that already).

[w-e-w]

there's a open source web based painting application called mini-paint
someone even made an extension https://github.com/0Tick/a1111-mini-paint
so an alternative is to drop photopea and use mini-paint, as it's installed locally so no one should have issues in terms of privacy

of course the people that like photopea then they won't be happy

I don't know how often people edit annotated image manually
yes photopea future rich do users actually need it for editing the annotated image?

---

my personal impression on photopea

I don't like photopea, I found it to be buggy and unstable, my impression hasn't changed in the past 3~ years
and around 2 months ago because of some reasons I was forced to use photopea for a period of time
during that period I've encountered multiple times it unexplainingly bugs out
to name a few

• unable to save project (causing work to be lost)
• unable to export project (to flat image) until I reload
• unable to use the transform function, it just refused to perform the action because it thinks that it can't perform the action I'm guessing that it thinks it's in a different state than it actually in

[huchenlei]

• Confirm prompt box added: 🔧 Add promptbox for first time external site visit Mikubill/sd-webui-controlnet#2411
• Openpose editor availability test delayed: 🔧 Delay openpose editor availability test Mikubill/sd-webui-controlnet#2412

[huchenlei]

I am open to use another backend service for edit, but I am not implementing it as personally I am fine using photopea.

Please make a PR to support other backend services in ControlNet extension repo, and I am happy to reivew and merge the change. Thanks!

[light-and-ray]

I still can't understand, why you enabled by default this kind of niche functionality for people like you, who use this website? Please answer, do you have a contract with photopea? Or maybe you advice to use it only because you like it, it's still an advertisement of photopea

Message box is okay, many people saved this default option, saving another options inside the webui settings. But I still think it has to be disabled by default

[w-e-w]

from the perspective of the maintainer of the index

I don't generally don't want to get involved in the direction of an extension unless it is doing something that requires intervention

my take on this issue

I don't consider the photopea integration to be an advertisement

and after adding a popup, and no re, I think it is a good enough warning to not warrant the use of online tag

one thing though, I think the message popup should not just show once, but every time unless a checkbox of some kind is checked
currently after if I click CANCLE (not ok), the next time I clicked on the photopea icon it launches photopea automatic without the popup

while yes the integration does encourage the use of that service, but this is not the main concern of ads tag
otherwise extensions encourage just a use of it service provided by a company
such as AWS and Civitai integrations, among others will also be classified as advertisement

I consider this issue closed unless some who wants to object further

---

by the way I just did a quick search and apparently there is an extension that integrates photopea into webui
based on readme there is controlnet integration of some kind

for now I will pretend I haven't seen it because I don't want to test it, but if someone makes a request it can be added to the index (if it works)

---

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form a personal perspective

I don't like photope, past experience is horrible, I don't want to use it if I can, I have disabled in controlnet, I know it's gonn break some time in the future if photpea decides to change stuff etc
..... ranting just ignore me

it should be disabled by default (opt-in not opt-out)

and best switch to a open source alternative

[light-and-ray]

@huchenlei please, answer

I still can't understand, why you enabled by default this kind of niche functionality for people like you, who use this website? Please answer, do you have a contract with photopea? Or maybe you advice to use it only because you like it, it's still an advertisement of photopea

[light-and-ray]

He hasn't answered did photopea paid him 😒 But okay, new warning window is enough to close this issue

[w-e-w]

he answering that or not is his personal choice not concerned of this index

[light-and-ray]

I agree, of course I don't make him answer. It was just my thoughts thinking aloud 😌