The site doesn't pull me in.

I can't quite figure it out. The pictures that are appearing are really quite good. Most of the functions that I need seem to work. It simply doesn't pull me in, and, once I get here, it doesn't keep me here.

 

I say that not as a complaint, but as an expression of puzzlement. Does anyone else have the same impression? Does anyone have any idea how to improve the appeal of the site? I am at a loss to explain it.

 

This is all admittedly subjective, but I am proceeding on the assumption that the lack of appeal is about something flawed in the portal design (or something else that is objective and real) that could be changed. If so, I wonder what on earth it might be.

 

--Lannie

Edited March 26, 2017 by Landrum Kelly

Lannie: It's like going from your favorite neighborhood restaurant to a new, glitzy place. The food may, or may not, be better, but the atmosphere is sterile, all the faces are different. Maybe someday you will feel at home in the new place, but at the moment it sure doesn't feel right. Hang in there... Mike

I've been here for 17 years and have witnessed the site evolve from policy to management changes and many attempts at site improvements.

 

Maybe it's not the site at all, rather limitations of the medium is no longer able to sustain our interest and where the social element is not considered important, or maybe us old-timers have simply moved on but still hanging on the past for its nostalgia.

 

Let's hope a new generation of photographers will find the site inviting and inspiring and call PN their new home as we did when we still had fire in the belly, but I can't see myself taking the necessary time to relearn site navigation and start all over again.

"Did ja ever have to stay when ya wanted to go, did ja ever have to go when ya wanted to stay... " Jimmy Durante, I think.

 

 

Sandy, I am not about to abandon the site just because it is not exactly how I might have designed it (had I had the knowledge to do so in the first place). I do feel the frustrations, like everybody else, and I am still hoping to see Glenn and company work through them. I certainly don't expect anybody to accept all of my suggestions, but I do hope that over time a lot of issues besides basic functionality will be addressed.

 

--Lannie

I feel the same way, there is something that is missing, it might have been the simplicity of the layout and the layout familiarity for most of us that have been here long enough that made this site unique from the others. They say change is good, but this big drastic overhaul may take long time for me to appreciate or accept, it is too bad we don't have the choice of using the old site or this new one with its format that to me is like fast food restaurant..

It may be that no major changes are required--perhaps just a few tweaks here and there would do. I feel a loss of momentum, for example, when I have to scroll down to the bottoms of forums or threads. That may seem like a small thing, but, if it stops or slows one down (and it definitely does), then the site is going to feel slow--or even forced, as in our own sense of having to force our way through it. The experience is too much like work. There may be other built-in procedural settings that give one the same sense of running through molasses.

 

Why on earth wouldn't one want the most current posting to appear first? It is definitely faster that way than having to scroll to the end.

 

--Lannie

Why on earth wouldn't one want the most current posting to appear first

do you think answers should come before questions ?

I feel a loss of momentum, for example, when I have to scroll down to the bottoms of forums or threads.

 

Lannie, you can configure the order in which threads appear in a forum and can go to the last post in a thread by clicking on the last posting time.

Thank you, Norman.

I too find the new site cumbersome and unappealing. When I complained bitterly the first few days after it was dropped on us cold, I was banned for a over month. Now that I'm back, the presence has not improved, and having to constantly login is a pain. I've designed web sites so I have experience with interface design and efficiency. I don't judge PN 2 design to PN original, I compare it to other sites built on the same engine and PN doesn't measure up. (If Glenn reads this, I might get banned again.)

I've been wending my way thru the new site design and functionality, trying to shed my dinosaur beliefs that the old version was more functional. I think describing the new site as "sterile" is pretty accurate, but I hope as the bugs are worked out it will become a little more user friendly and get us old-timers back enjoying the fraternity.

Once the immediate technical problems are resolved, perhaps the administrators will look at other recommendations about site design. It will be interesting to see how the site changes--and it almost certainly will continue to change.

 

--Lannie

It sees to me that the text is smaller than on the old site , and smaller than that of competitor sites , there is a lot of blank space.

IDK if that was by accident or design.