State of Relaunch, State of Mind

[mickeysimpson]

13 hours ago, samstevens said:

When you type in all caps, this is evident.

 

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

 

How to win friends and influence people.

 

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

 

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.

OK Sam, you understood that I was angry.

Let me be very clear; Matt Jenson is not the BOZO. Matt is in a difficult position wherein he only has about 20% of his time for this migration. I see Matt as the face of the PN migration doing his best to keep things moving ahead towards a good place. Matt is a champion for the cause.

Sam, I too have thought about creating a thread for issue identification and suggestions but believe it should be moderated to keep it from becoming a complaint thread. I believe that Matt is our point person for that.

However, I am going to be a bit hypocritical with this, my last post about this topic.

Let me start by saying that as a retired IT/web/telecom/cloud professional; I have developed a perspective for complex system migrations. I have led many system migrations including user interfacing and back-end systems, e.g., large databases, web sites, corporate data, WAN and LAN networks, user applications, and more. I understand large, complex system migrations and how they impact both user interfacing and back-end systems as well as the delivery of said systems. I’ve also led global software development teams charged with developing, maintaining, and updating software systems.

I’ve been silent until recently as I understand that efforts such as the PN migration are complex and have restraints such as budget, system resources, manpower, and time.

That said, I have seen enough of this migration to believe, that from a technology delivery perspective several things were either not very well planned and/or not executed very well. Why was the new PN site rolled out when it clearly was not ready?

For example, ask yourself, and other PN contributors, this critical question: What is the PN mission – the PN purpose – and what are PN’s business goals? My simple take on this is that PN is meant to be a wonderful place to contribute and share our photos, thoughts, techniques, educational opportunities, and more. PN should be an attractive place that draws in contributors. PN, as a business, must also turn a profit facilitated by continuing to meet their constituent’s needs.

Now consider that part about our contributions to PN. A contributor offers content which, in turn supports PN’s mission and has the potential to draw in other like-minded people. That content should be manageable by the contributor. In my example wherein I elected to hide a photo, my content became unmanageable and regrettably I flew off the handle.

Additionally, I and other PN users, have raised issues such as site navigation. Much to his credit, Matt has acknowledged those issues and pledged to work on them. That’s fair and Matt should be given leeway here.

What I believe is that in the design of the new PN, the mission and business goals for PN, were lost by the techno folks whom I believe drove the design; I’ve witnessed this during my 4+ decades in technology. I can envision this scenario: “OK, let’s start with a sweet menu system that the user can drill down into and do X, Y, and Z.” That’s the wrong start. The start should have been something that recognizes who comes to PN, why they come, as well as PN’s business goals. I’m a contributor. I like to interact with other contributors. I like to share techniques, and more with other contributors. I also like to recommend PN to my friends. Therefore, the PN welcome (splash) screen should be 1) informative about what PN offers; as well as 2) give its contributors a direct path to create, manage and share their content rather than take a journey through multiple menus with meaningless icons without labels.

We can all discuss and debate several aspects of PN’s design, and I’ll do my best to refrain from further caustic complaints by crafting direct issue statements and suggestions.

Thank you, Sam, for helping me to get back on track.

Nuff said.

[samstevens]

@mickeysimpson, I certainly don’t have your technological resume, but I do have the benefit of observation, which helps manage my expectations and reactions to the situation. Knowing PN and its history as I do, I’ve been surprised at how well things have gone so far, not surprised at the degree to which galleries are behind, and not at all surprised at the level of communication about it.

During the months-long lead-up to the migration, communication was sporadic at best. There would be a couple of days of direct back-and-forth communication followed by days of silence. I did not expect that to change and it hasn’t.

I think the site has an overall good look and feel. I’m much less invested in it than I used to be, so I’m pretty much satisfied that its existence was preserved.

The last big migration saw months of problems with the gallery side of the site, which never functioned as robustly as the prior iteration, so I figured galleries were a tougher maneuver and had low expectations for the transfer of photos and the timely functioning of galleries.

For me, this is not an objective judgment of the competence or efficiency of the migration. This is from a non-technical, non-professional perspective, one I’m glad I have because it’s allowing me to roll with the punches and be patient with a site that, for years, has not given me the pleasure it used to, even though photography itself continues to give me lots of it.

With all the people who left years ago, I knew PN would never be what it once was and have been getting out of it only a fraction of what I used to. Happily, I’ve replaced what’s been lost with other activities and situations.

PN is no longer run from the passion of a photographer’s perspective and hasn’t been for almost a decade. For a while now, the “mission” has been up to us as members as has been much of the initiative and content. I’ve learned to work both with and around what’s supplied, which is pretty bare bones.

Edited November 3, 2022 by samstevens

[rws]

Mickey and samstevens, you have both presented realistic evaluations of and responses to the developments within PN.  I think that my level of patience with the site is lower than yours, however, mainly because I am so dissatisfied with its look and feel.  It seems too disorganized and too poorly planned, is rather bland, and too many parts of the site seem incomplete and disconnected.  Given the devotion of existing PN users, the process of conversion has taken place too much in a black box with little attention to user issues and to the communication of future plans.  I grow increasingly concerned that those in charge will lack the resources and motivation to complete the conversion satisfactorily.  I will maintain my interest in PN for the time being, but increasingly will do so from a distance

[mickeysimpson]

1 hour ago, samstevens said:

@mickeysimpson, I certainly don’t have your technological resume, but I do have the benefit of observation, which helps manage my expectations and reactions to the situation. Knowing PN and its history as I do, I’ve been surprised at how well things have gone so far, not surprised at the degree to which galleries are behind, and not at all surprised at the level of communication about it.

During the months-long lead-up to the migration, communication was sporadic at best. There would be a couple of days of direct back-and-forth communication followed by days of silence. I did not expect that to change and it hasn’t.

I think the site has an overall good look and feel. I’m much less invested in it than I used to be, so I’m pretty much satisfied that its existence was preserved.

The last big migration saw months of problems with the gallery side of the site, which never functioned as robustly as the prior iteration, so I figured galleries were a tougher maneuver and had low expectations for the transfer of photos and the timely functioning of galleries.

For me, this is not an objective judgment of the competence or efficiency of the migration. This is from a non-technical, non-professional perspective, one I’m glad I have because it’s allowing me to roll with the punches and be patient with a site that, for years, has not given me the pleasure it used to, even though photography itself continues to give me lots of it.

With all the people who left years ago, I knew PN would never be what it once was and have been getting out of it only a fraction of what I used to. Happily, I’ve replaced what’s been lost with other activities and situations.

PN is no longer run from the passion of a photographer’s perspective and hasn’t been for almost a decade. For a while now, the “mission” has been up to us as members as has been much of the initiative and content. I’ve learned to work both with and around what’s supplied, which is pretty bare bones.

Hi Sam.

I'm looking forward to help improve PN as best I can as many others are.

I've said enough in this forum thread and hope to come back with specific suggestions.

Best regards,

Mick 

[mickeysimpson]

51 minutes ago, rws1664886018 said:

Mickey and samstevens, you have both presented realistic evaluations of and responses to the developments within PN.  I think that my level of patience with the site is lower than yours, however, mainly because I am so dissatisfied with its look and feel.  It seems too disorganized and too poorly planned, is rather bland, and too many parts of the site seem incomplete and disconnected.  Given the devotion of existing PN users, the process of conversion has taken place too much in a black box with little attention to user issues and to the communication of future plans.  I grow increasingly concerned that those in charge will lack the resources and motivation to complete the conversion satisfactorily.  I will maintain my interest in PN for the time being, but increasingly will do so from a distance

I invite you and others to DM me objective issue comments and suggestions for improvements. I will consolidate your feedback and forward as appropriate.

Let's keep it positive and look forward.

Mick

Edited November 3, 2022 by mickeysimpson
clarity

[Ricochetrider]

Hey just thought I’d pop in with an experience I just had- relevant to the waning “newness” of the new site.

I sometimes post photos out of my Zenfolio files. The link (all my devices are Apple products) that results is formulated as “http”- and I get an error message saying only “https” URLs are allowable.
 

So today I simply inserted an “s” into the URL link and voila! Image uploaded. I did this two or three times when posting photos in No Words. 
 

Who knew it could be that simple? 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by Ricochetrider

[kmac]

9 hours ago, Ricochetrider said:

Who knew it could be that simple? 

I read where the "s" stands for "secure" or "security" ... it may remain simple just to add the "s" to http, or it may change, it could depend on how security evolves and changes in the future to keep things safe.

Internet security has been changing in leaps and bounds in recent times, scammers have been extorting millions from unsuspecting users of all types. It's getting to the point where banks are unknowingly being involved in scams, that's how skilled scammers are becoming.

[PapaTango]

Here is the skinny.

HTTP/HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Secure), respectively.  It is a layer in the suite of internet protocols that we use for REQUESTS (from a remote user) and provides RESPONSES from a remote server.  The entire stack is called TCP/IP.

Anyone can intercept and read inbound or outbound packet traffic in HTTP.  To provide security against this, there is a protocol called TLS (Transport Layer Security) which uses encryption keys to code and decode traffic.  HTTP can be simply made into HTTPS by a site publisher acquiring a Security Certificate from a trusted source such as Let's Encrypt, Comodo, Cloudflare, or similar.  Some are free, others cost real money.

Sometimes one can enter the old http:// preface and the server automatically offers a certificate.  Most sites now do not require that preface to be entered into a browser or FTP client--but automatically do so.  Sites that are not properly configured may require the preface--and the 's' added to find the right thing.

Browsers and other net based applications are increasingly rejecting connections that are not secure.  This is especially so on machines that have certain antivirus software installed.  Search engines are ranking sites without certificates much lower in page rank--essentially burying search results and rewarding properly secured sites.

PN is hosted on Amazon AWS (through Invision) and all sites there are encrypted by an Amazon Root CA (certificate of Authenticity).  You can examine ours by clicking on the padlock next to the URL in the search bar.

However, one can misconfigure the HTTP/HTTPS settings in an application's setup--and then there are other issues, but manually adding the 's' can extend functionality to the improperly configured part.  

I know that there are quite a few things here not configured properly since the installation and are still at default settings.  Nothing appears to have changed in the past month... ☹️

[samstevens]

18 minutes ago, PapaTango said:

Nothing appears to have changed in the past month...

Hold on there just a moment. It so happens I went from PN Wizard to Grand Master a couple of weeks ago, quite a decisive virtual event.
❗❗❗

[Ricochetrider]

On 11/20/2022 at 11:19 AM, samstevens said:

Hold on there just a moment. It so happens I went from PN Wizard to Grand Master a couple of weeks ago, quite a decisive virtual event.
❗❗❗

Ha ha now that you mention it, I’m now a “Grand Master” too- an arguably questionable designation, in my case! Methinks the Powers That Be might not be looking too closely- not that it doesn’t feel good to have been placed on so lofty a rung on the evolutionary ladder…. 

So where does one go from here? 

 

[Sandy Vongries]

Emperor of the Universe?

[Ricochetrider]

1 hour ago, Sandy Vongries said:

Emperor of the Universe?

I was going more in the direction of Grand Poobah (for life) ? 🤪

[Sandy Vongries]

Yup! A definite candidate!

[Ricochetrider]

Hey but on a more serious note…

When posting shots out of my phone using the “add files > photo library” feature, more often than not, results in my seeing only a large black rectangle. 
 

To date I’ve not gone ahead and completed a post to see if it changes later or if everyone can see a photo except me… but the old site was a bit quirky at times in posting phone pics as well. 

[Sandy Vongries]

Can't help on phones, haven't had or used one for many years.  You might post on the Phone forum.