State of Relaunch, State of Mind

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

FWIW I still haven't seen my pics, it does seem to be dragging as we're 2 weeks in since it started.

[hjoseph7]

10 hours ago, httpwww.photo.netbarry said:

FWIW I still haven't seen my pics, it does seem to be dragging as we're 2 weeks in since it started.

My picture gallery is showing up now, but it's kind of shaky. Some pictures don't download at all, while others do ?

[samstevens]

4 minutes ago, hjoseph7 said:

My picture gallery is showing up now, but it's kind of shaky. Some pictures don't download at all, while others do ?

That’s because it’s in the process of migrating. That can be one of those back and forth computer processes rather than a more simple fluid and straightforward one. Don’t be surprised if some that you see disappear again before everything comes online and they all become stable.

Edited October 18, 2022 by samstevens

[za33photo]

Information for M Jensen.

Sometimes the secure "HTTPS" site works eratically , one cannot always sign in on the HTTPS site.

The log-in screen does not work on the "landing site" , one is directed to another screen with the message "something went wrong" , one can then sign in on this screen.

Information only , not a complaint.

 

[Robin Smith]

In addition to the above, the login link should be more prominent. Its more frequently used than registering new members

[Dustin McAmera]

On 10/16/2022 at 8:28 PM, Dustin McAmera said:

, but search seems to go back exactly two years at the moment

 

That's changed! I can now search ten years back! 🙂

[rws]

I've seen a number of useful changes in the new site over the past ~2 weeks, but the conversion also seems to me to be very slow.  There are all kinds of minor issues (display names changes, for one), but also some larger, important ones.  Access to our image galleries and albums probably ranks at the top.  I would also list recognition of existing pro members (my pro membership is good until 2025 but hasn't been recognized yet by the site).  I'm also bothered by the overall look of the site, with things too widely spaced on the page, amid too much white and requiring too much scrolling to get through lists of things (e.g., forum names).  Some experimenting with the display scale suggests to me that many pages on the site are primarily designed for mobile devices, the long, thin "mobile" web design clearly visible by reducing the display's zoom factor to 25% on my laptop.  Are there plans to make this a "responsive" website, adapting to make it easy to use on a variety of devices (pc, tablet, mobile)?   The current sparse, widely spaced layout is a pain to use on a pc or laptop, at least in my experience.  And for a photography site, the web design seems to be rather colorless (although this may be fine-tuning best left for the end of the conversion).

[PapaTango]

Having meddled with "hinky" forums--what I learned was the KISS principle.  Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Heavy customization with pricey plugins inevitably cause issues with regular, maintenance release updates of Invision.  It appears to me that functionality is being delivered, with a nod to not increasing server overhead--and not experiencing awfulness if something goes awry.

Yup, the color can be changed.  Content can be widened.  Invision definitely leans toward the mobile user.  I suspect that the Creative Live crew are set up for this as well.  Heck, I just got busted by a viewer of my genealogy website for it not working correctly on their iPad.  Lot's to iron out--and at least unlike previous times--someone is listening and making adjustments.

 

[mickeysimpson]

2 hours ago, RobertWPillow said:

Patience with progress is a challenge under the best of circumstances. One of the ways to garner patience with a new information technology implementation, which describes the current rollout of photo.net, is to manage expectations before the new system is brought online. Another way to promote patience is to respond in a reasonable amount time, which is always measured subjectively, to problems with the roll out. As far as I, a retired database analyst, am concerned, the management of photo.net has managed expectations and responded to concerns in a timely manner to date with the migration of a system that is not mission critical.

 

That said, I’m not thrilled with the arrangement of the gallery/portfolio side. It would nice if the “New Images” posted on the home page could be viewed as a slide show instead of having the user to select them individually. It would be nice if the “View All” button took users to “New Images” in bulk, so to speak, instead of “Gallery”. The current set up with these two items kind of implies that if you click the “View All” button, you’ll get to see all the new images. It would be nice if when you get to the “Gallery” page, new images topped the page instead of the current arrangement. While were on the subject of “Gallery”, why does it appear that I am logged out when I choose the thumbnail associated with “Member Albums”. As soon as I go back to “Gallery” it looks as if I am logged in. The behavior I’ve noted today (and there will be more posts from me, I’m sure) isn’t a show stopper; it just complicates access to a part of photo.net which I think is important. I’ll be patient with the quirks for now. Meanwhile, drive on migration team.

 

I've managed many large migrations including significant backend systems. I am proud to say that the preparation for every migration included tasks such as data mapping and pre-deployment data migration. That said there are always last minute tasks as you go live. I've been silent as there may be extenuating circumstances such as budget that impact the size of the migration team and the resources available to them. This migration appears to me to have gone on far too long. As to the site design and navigation, I think that the positive changes outweigh the negative; there is plenty of time to tweak and improve.

[mickeysimpson]

First let me say that I am trying to be patient with the pace of PN’s migration, and while I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, I know that I am missing something.

     As of October 25^th, I still see no way for me to manage my personal PN portfolio, that is by adding, replacing, deleting, organizing (i.e., albums), or editing photo details. All my photos appear as thumbnails under My Attachments. I believe the only way to post a photo is by selecting Explore, Gallery and Add Photo. I posted one picture, and it appears in the Gallery but does not appear in My Attachments.

     When I view the photo that I posted to the Gallery and select the down arrow next to the gear for settings (upper right corner), I see options to let me 1) Edit the Details; 2) Hide the Photo; 3) Delete the Photo, or 4) Enable the NSFW block. I also see that photo copyrights apparently can only be seen when viewing a photo and selected “View all photo EXIF information”. I see none of these capabilities under My Attachments where I could locate and manage my content.

     Well prior to the PN migration I had reduced my portfolio from about 850 photos to 10 or less for personal reasons. The new PN “recovered” approximately 325 of those photos which appeared under My Attachments; as well as, “recovering” multiple copies of some photos. I have now deleted all but 5 of the photos under My Attachments.

     I am extraordinarily disappointed at the prospect of ceding control of my photos to PN’s computer. Will I be forced to endlessly search the Gallery to find and manage my photos?

     This for me is a deal breaker and unless I see the ability to manage my content restored, I see no path for me other than to delete all my photos and leave PN.

 

[Robin Smith]

I feel the same way as Mickey. I probably won't leave PN, but I won't post any photos and will transfer mine to Flickr. No one will care about this to be honest, but PN was a good way to display photos and I really don't understand how it can be taking so long. Have the album tags for photos been lost for example? There's no way I'm reconstuting all my shots here when there are many other sites that I know will work better.

[rws]

I am in the same boat as Mickey and Robin.  I can find three ways to see my photos: under My Attachments (i'm not sure what the point of this part of the site is), on Explore>Gallery (which doesn't provide a way for me to manage my portfolio), and in the list of All Activity, which far down the list has entries for Images (which provide little functionality) and Albums (which contains nothing).  All Activity is accessible through the Find Content link on the little window that opens up when I hold my mouse of the little avatar in the upper right corner of s site page, so it is pretty well hidden away.

None of the above provide the kind of access to my portfolio that I had under the old photo.net, and clearcut connections among the three.  Each provides a way to delete a photo, but the photo needs to be deleted separately on all three.  

I would like to see much more transparency about how the conversion is going and, especially, what the final product will look like.  All we've been told, if I remember correctly, is that the site will not look the same as it once did.  Not very useful information, and I am losing confidence in how useful the new site will ultimately be.

I have moved most of my photos to Flickr and have started deleting them from photo.net, but I plan to keep involved in some way with photo.net, if only for the photo posting opportunities in the forums (No Words, etc.).  

[mickeysimpson]

5 hours ago, mickeysimpson said:

First let me say that I am trying to be patient with the pace of PN’s migration, and while I might not be the brightest bulb in the box, I know that I am missing something.

     As of October 25^th, I still see no way for me to manage my personal PN portfolio, that is by adding, replacing, deleting, organizing (i.e., albums), or editing photo details. All my photos appear as thumbnails under My Attachments. I believe the only way to post a photo is by selecting Explore, Gallery and Add Photo. I posted one picture, and it appears in the Gallery but does not appear in My Attachments.

     When I view the photo that I posted to the Gallery and select the down arrow next to the gear for settings (upper right corner), I see options to let me 1) Edit the Details; 2) Hide the Photo; 3) Delete the Photo, or 4) Enable the NSFW block. I also see that photo copyrights apparently can only be seen when viewing a photo and selected “View all photo EXIF information”. I see none of these capabilities under My Attachments where I could locate and manage my content.

     Well prior to the PN migration I had reduced my portfolio from about 850 photos to 10 or less for personal reasons. The new PN “recovered” approximately 325 of those photos which appeared under My Attachments; as well as, “recovering” multiple copies of some photos. I have now deleted all but 5 of the photos under My Attachments.

     I am extraordinarily disappointed at the prospect of ceding control of my photos to PN’s computer. Will I be forced to endlessly search the Gallery to find and manage my photos?

     This for me is a deal breaker and unless I see the ability to manage my content restored, I see no path for me other than to delete all my photos and leave PN.

 

Oh, I do not recall if the old PN had an option to block image downloads. I'm not sure if the new PN has a download blocking feature, but in my limited testing I could download any picture I wanted.

[mickeysimpson]

4 hours ago, rws1664886018 said:

I am in the same boat as Mickey and Robin.  I can find three ways to see my photos: under My Attachments (i'm not sure what the point of this part of the site is), on Explore>Gallery (which doesn't provide a way for me to manage my portfolio), and in the list of All Activity, which far down the list has entries for Images (which provide little functionality) and Albums (which contains nothing).  All Activity is accessible through the Find Content link on the little window that opens up when I hold my mouse of the little avatar in the upper right corner of s site page, so it is pretty well hidden away.

None of the above provide the kind of access to my portfolio that I had under the old photo.net, and clearcut connections among the three.  Each provides a way to delete a photo, but the photo needs to be deleted separately on all three.  

I would like to see much more transparency about how the conversion is going and, especially, what the final product will look like.  All we've been told, if I remember correctly, is that the site will not look the same as it once did.  Not very useful information, and I am losing confidence in how useful the new site will ultimately be.

I have moved most of my photos to Flickr and have started deleting them from photo.net, but I plan to keep involved in some way with photo.net, if only for the photo posting opportunities in the forums (No Words, etc.).  

Just joined Flickr

[mickeysimpson]

Earlier I wrote that the new PN did not provide the capability for us to manage our content. Well, it looks like they either fixed it, loaded my content, or I stumbled across the navigation steps to get there. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, as everyone should, and say that I stumbled across the correct navigation.

Here is how I got to my PN portfolio.

1.       There are two ways to start navigating to your PN Profile.

1.1.    First Method: Select the “round icon” with your initial at the top right of the page. This will take you directly to your “Profile”. Skip to step 2.

1.2.    Second Method: Select your “NAME” or the “drop down arrow” at the top right of the page.  A pop out menu appears. Under the under the pop out menu heading “CONTENT”, Select “Profile”. This will take you to your “Profile”.

2.       Select the button labeled “See my activity” on the right side of the page in the blue bar.

3.       A new page pops with a labeled “All Activity” on the left side of the screen.

4.       Scroll down through the “All Activity” items to see the available activity selections.

5.       Select “Images” under the heading “Gallery”. Ever so slowly your PN portfolio should pop up. You may have to select one of the display options directly to the left of the button labeled “SORT BY” in order for the page to refresh with your portfolio contents.

Once you are in your PN portfolio you can manage your content. Click on an image, it opens with a menu on the right. Select the “Settings Gear” in the top right corner to see your options to  1) Edit the Details; 2) Hide the Photo; 3) Delete the Photo, or 4) Enable the NSFW block.

Now that I have discovered this my major objection is moot. I’ll remain on PN.

[mickeysimpson]

OK, I’m pissed off so please consider that as you read this post.

Here is just another absurd PN change.

In the past you could hide a photo in your portfolio and un-hide it as desired. You could even switch it for an updated copy. I just tried hiding one of my photos and was immediately greeted with a notice that I did not have permission to view or manage my photo!

YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! I NO LONGER HAVE “PERMISSION” TO MANAGE MY CONTENT BECAUSE I CHOSE TO TEMPORARILY HIDE THE PHOTO???!!!!

WHAT BOZO IS DESIGNING THE FEATURES FOR THE CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS?!

WHERE THE HELL DID MY PHOTO GO? Could the photo have gone to photo Purgatory? Will I, or anyone for that matter, be able to my copyrighted photo again? Perhaps in the afterlife?

Seriously, as a retired IT pro (director/consultant/program manager of software development, telecommunications networking, and cloud computing) this smacks of a bunch of IT geeks designing a site with no real understanding or consideration for the people that create the content and pay the bills.

Nuf said

Edited November 2, 2022 by mickeysimpson

[Sandy Vongries]

Speak to those who can make changes.  The rest of us can't and it is just S stirring.

[mickeysimpson]

3 minutes ago, Sandy Vongries said:

Speak to those who can make changes.  The rest of us can't and it is just S stirring.

Hi Sandy. Who? Matt Jenson?

[Sandy Vongries]

Best choice I know of. There is a platform guy who is in and out, both probably.

[mickeysimpson]

Just now, Sandy Vongries said:

Best choice I know of. There is a platform guy who is in and out, both probably.

Thanks Sandy. I'll start with Matt. 

[Robin Smith]

Still no albums, no way to search for photos, scrolling through an individual's photos doesn't work. Everyone whose name starts with R has an R avatar etc etc. Login is poor, menu is poor for users and browsers. So much work and we are already almost a month in.

[samstevens]

14 hours ago, mickeysimpson said:

I’m pissed off

When you type in all caps, this is evident.

 

14 hours ago, mickeysimpson said:

I NO LONGER HAVE “PERMISSION” TO MANAGE MY CONTENT BECAUSE I CHOSE TO TEMPORARILY HIDE THE PHOTO???!!!!

Likely not an intentional change. As refinements are made, my guess would be that will be fixed. But no one knows.

 

14 hours ago, mickeysimpson said:

WHAT BOZO IS DESIGNING THE FEATURES FOR THE CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS?!

How to win friends and influence people.

 

14 hours ago, mickeysimpson said:

WHERE THE HELL DID MY PHOTO GO?

Nowhere. It's a coding issue that's merely preventing your photo from being seen ... at present.

 

14 hours ago, mickeysimpson said:

Nuf said

I'm thinking that something constructive people might do with their anger is start a Site Help or Casual Thread with a non-emotional listing of some of the problems people are encountering. If one person does it, they could prioritize what they think are the most important fixes. Of course, others will come along and complain about the priority and complain about issues that are missing from the list, but such is Internet life, right? Then, mjenson could be alerted to that thread as a place to see what's not working properly. Assuming he wants to continue fixing and tweaking things, slowly but surely things will get done. On the other hand, assuming he's a "bozo" with no real "understanding or consideration" for members, he'll just go on malevolently irritating you.

[rws]

I'll start.  One common complaint is that it is not possible to scroll through an individual's work.  A little investigation reveals that when you try to scroll through an image in your "images content," you go to images that follow yours in one of the categories in Explore>Gallery.  That seems to be where individual photos are "placed" -- in an Explore>Gallery category and not in a gallery of your specific work. So, for example, a photo of mine that appears in the Travel category sits (metaphorically, I guess) next to other Travel photos and not next to other rws... photos.  This arrangement seems somewhat strange to me and not at all how most people want to access their work.  This seems like a basic flaw in the system which should be fixed.

[Doug Obert]

It appears to me that every photo I uploaded to my portfolio/now gallery, over the many years here made the transfer to this new PN... including some that I had deleted from my portfolio YEARS ago!  Also, many that were in private folders within my portfolio.  As it sits right now, I can't figure out how to manage any of my photos.  I can, and have added a couple new ones, but they just go into the existing chronological order, that RWS alluded to above.  Yes, it's a mess right now, maybe it'll all get sorted out?  "We" don't know, we can only guess and wonder what's going on...

 

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

9 hours ago, rws1664886018 said:

I'll start.  One common complaint is that it is not possible to scroll through an individual's work.  A little investigation reveals that when you try to scroll through an image in your "images content," you go to images that follow yours in one of the categories in Explore>Gallery.  That seems to be where individual photos are "placed" -- in an Explore>Gallery category and not in a gallery of your specific work. So, for example, a photo of mine that appears in the Travel category sits (metaphorically, I guess) next to other Travel photos and not next to other rws... photos.  This arrangement seems somewhat strange to me and not at all how most people want to access their work.  This seems like a basic flaw in the system which should be fixed.

Yep I cited that problem as well.  What you can do is change the view show in a stream and they are full size.  I think the switch is in the upper right. But it doesn't let you see comments or the dark background and you have to open and close each image to do that.

Enter would be to let yo scroll through the images of one user, and if you wanted see a category go in from the category menu.