We finally need "social" features in SmugMug!

cryptochrome

Hi,

SmugMug is so good. The site has way better select content than most other sites. It's navigation is superb, the interface is beautiful and intuitive.

But the whole thing SERIOUSLY lacks some of the "social" features that other sites like Flickr offer. Why did I put the social into ""? Because I couldn't find a better word. So here is what I think is missing BADLY:

Interaction between users, other than through DGrin forums. Each user's gallery page looks like a separated entity. There is no obvious path to related or similar galleries.

There is no possibility to make a photo or even a whole gallery a "favorite" or bookmark. I rate a picture because I like it, but I will never get back to it again unless I put a bookmark into my browser. Which is separated from SmugMug in a way. Why not have a SmugMug bookmark feature, so that I have my favorites right where they belong, right at the SmugMug page?

We need a "friends" or "contacts" feature, so we can keep track about what happens in our favorite photographer's galleries. I want to be able to subscribe to a gallery or a person so I can follow what's happening there. Are there new interesting pictures?

Things like that. You get the point.

What do you think?

FrankC

Hi,

is this not what communities are for :

http://www.smugmug.com/community/

cryptochrome

FrankC wrote:

Hi,

is this not what communities are for :

http://www.smugmug.com/community/

Maybe, but I still can't find any direct user interaction. It's just a different way to browse the site and have pictures categorized. I am not able to mark a picture as a favorite to find it again (browse all my favorites). I still can't mark a photographer I like as a contact to stay tuned to his work.

pilotdave

I'm the exact opposite. I would prefer less interaction with the rest of smugmug. This is why I don't use flickr. I hate that my guests are offered search results on the rest of smugmug outside of my site. I'd prefer if my guests never knew they were on a smugmug site unless I wanted them to know it.

I'm definitely not opposed to what you're suggesting... as long as it's optional!

Dave

chuckinsocal

If you want to keep up with a photographer's new works etc, see if this will do the job for you.

OffTopic

PilotDave, you don't have a link to your website but I'm pretty sure you're at skydivingstills.com and have a pro level account? If so you can hide the SmugSearch box and create your own custom search box that will only search on your keywords and never take people away from your site. I figured out how to do it by searching the customization threads, but I created a separate page for Search on my site. I am barely beyond the cut-and-paste level of CSS so I could only tell you how I set up a separate page. If you want it on every gallery page I'm clueless on how to change it to search just your site. If you can't find the right info by searching, I'm sure if you post in Customize someone will be able to help you out.

I agree with you, I'll stick to forums (like dgrin ) for socializing. When people are interested in my work my preference is that they subscribe to my blog so I can track it. Or they can subscribe to one of my feeds.

It probably comes down to the level of the account - I'd bet the pro users don't want any more social stuff (because we've done our best to eliminate what was already there) and the basic users would prefer more social stuff. Not sure where I think the Power Users would fall, though.


And very cool subject to photograph!

cryptochrome

chuckinsocal wrote:

If you want to keep up with a photographer's new works etc, see if this will do the job for you.

This is great and I am probably goign to use it.

However, it's still out of the site. You need to use something external, it is not integrated.

I also understand pilotdave's position. So yes, make it optional. And a bookmark/favorite feature would still be very welcome!

pilotdave

OffTopic wrote:

you can hide the SmugSearch box and create your own custom search box that will only search on your keywords and never take people away from your site.

Yup, I use a keyword search box on my keyword pages, but I don't like it as a complete search replacement because it is so literal. I also like to have something that will search captions and gallery names.

I think the search tool needs a lot of work... and one of the changes should be the option to disable the "all smugmug photos" link from appearing in search results. This helps prevent my site from looking like it's part of a big photography social network... exactly the opposite of the feature request in this thread.

And very cool subject to photograph!

It sure is!

Dave

Haigh

I´m not a pro and have no interenst in belonging to a social photography network of any kind. If i did I´d have gone to flickr, facebook or any other.

My viewers are not smugmug users.

Robert

dgentile

I'm with Haigh and Pilotdave here...

if it's optional - I don't bother... IF IT IS...

but I for one am not keen on all those social-networking tools like facebook, flickr, and whatever else....
never have been, and quite possibly never will be.


I'm only replying because of what recently seems to becoming a bit "trendy" at smug mug, to add featuers which I can't selectivly activate or deactivate (such as the dedicated iPhone website (yourname.smugmug.com/iphone) or the RSS feeds...
I'd hate having even more "social" features forced upon me.

Don't get me wrong, for 60% of my work I don't mind comments or ratings... but for at least 40% I don't need "interaction"...

jhelms

I would also love to have just a simple way to be able to click and choose pics, users, and galleries as my favorites within smugmug - but that's about the extent that interests me (but it is something I would REALLY use).