• Tarquinn2049
    link
    243 days ago

    So, I have seen people do this, and I gotta ask… what is the plan?

    Like you are saving the file, implying that you plan on using it again… why make it so hard to figure out which one it was? Especially in this case, where he has done it to enough files all in the same place that he eventually hit the same combo again… like, are there hundreds or thousands of randomly named files in that same folder? Why save them if they will be impossible to find again anyway?

    • @davidgro
      link
      14
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      My guess is since they are images the thumbnail is more important as an identifier than the name would be.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        42 days ago

        Then why change it? Most apps give a default name, so you literally just need to click “save” or press “Enter.”

        • @davidgro
          link
          3
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          No idea, best I got is that maybe the default name is always the same from whatever source they are using, so they would get ‘replace it?’ dialog anyway.

            • @davidgro
              link
              22 days ago

              Yeah, I agree, usually it does

    • @9point6
      link
      62 days ago

      I don’t do specifically what OP did, but often I remember things by when better than by name.

      Sorting a folder by last modified/created in descending order generally gets me what I’m looking for pretty quickly

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        12 days ago

        I tend to save things with the name embedded, so “<year>-<month>-<day>_<short-description>” and use the date that’s relevant for the file, not necessarily when it was created (e.g. due date for homework, tax return due date, etc). If I don’t care (e.g. a downloaded image), I just accept whatever the default is.

    • @affiliate
      link
      12 days ago

      some websites will save the file name when you upload a file. it could be done for privacy reasons if you don’t want a website to know how you got a file. this is the best reason i can think of for randomizing file names, but i don’t actually do this in practice. sometimes i’ll just rename the file before uploading if im worried about it. file names are just too useful.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        52 days ago

        “doc1”, “doc2”, “doc3frogstudy”, “doc4”

        hmm, the doc is redundant. the number is also redundant, it has date to sort by. 1, 2, and 4 can be whatever.

        • Tarquinn2049
          link
          12 days ago

          I can see an argument for how it can still be possible to work with that… filing system, but I still don’t get what the upside is, just that it doesn’t have as many downsides as it seems like it should.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            12 days ago

            I personally have too many random trash notes and files to name them. Maybe it takes 30 seconds, whatever, I’m closing the thing right now. It’s not important anyways, but I’m not gonna purge it all to make anyone else happy with how clean and dead my harddrive is.

        • psychOdelic
          link
          fedilink
          12 days ago

          I guess so, I used to type gibberish because I wasn’t sure what to name it, but didn’t like it saying “untitled” or “image3.jpg”. “ehixvakg.jpg” has more personality.