Eager to Unveil - 5 Problems That Stop Me

Darter02

I am eager to unviel my new site but there are five key issues that are stopping me at this time. I am mainly writing this post so I can tie all my issues together in one spot, and let SM know what is holding me back.

In no particular order of importance:

1. Neither the HTML Block, or the Text Block seem to format HTML correctly.

Here's the thread about that.

2. Statcounter would be essentially useless, and Google Analytics doesn't seem to work anymore. These are tools I use to determine where my advertising dollars go, what images/galleries seem to be popular, and general marketing strategy. I am not a large company, and after being closed for over a year while we moved from PA to WI, I use these tools a lot as I am starting back up. While I can understand SM's stance on disabling java due to the headaches of customer support, I think allowing users who want it should be given the option of using "at their own risk, and voiding support."

Statcounter thread

Goggle Analytics thread

3. The whole copy, deleting, collecting of images went from being an easy thing to do, to a slow, one at a time process. I don't expect this to be fixed for me to launch, but I do feel this needs to be addressed.

Delete Copy Kills Original.

Thread about Collecting.

And another thread about this.

4. The Favicon is broken. Not a deal breaker, but I never really liked that smiley face. No offense.
Favicon thread.

5. While I don't use a guestbook, I do use commenting as a tool. My customers, which are mainly brides, comment under photos they want changes to. If they have to sign in using FB or signing up for SM this is unacceptable. I read that SM is disallowing annon comments to "protect the children." If a user cannot police their own photopages I do not see why their lack of moderating, and controlling their own site should impact my use. I need commenting to be as it's been, where my customers can easily leave comments under their images. I will say this could be a deal breaker for me. I need that functionality in order to do my job. If I am not understanding something here, please enlighten me.

"Protect the Children" from bad comments mentioned in this thread.

Allen

Darter02 wrote: »

...

5. While I don't use a guestbook, I do use commenting as a tool. My customers, which are mainly brides, comment under photos they want changes to. If they have to sign in using FB or signing up for SM this is unacceptable. I read that SM is disallowing annon comments to "protect the children." If a user cannot police their own photopages I do not see why their lack of moderating, and controlling their own site should impact my use. I need commenting to be as it's been, where my customers can easily leave comments under their images. I will say this could be a deal breaker for me. I need that functionality in order to do my job. If I am not understanding something here, please enlighten me.

"Protect the Children" from bad comments mentioned in this thread.

Important, do these client galleries require a password to see? If so I personalty see no reason to log
in with something to add a comment. Duh, the password already makes it secure.

denisegoldberg

Darter02 wrote: »

2. Statcounter would be essentially useless, and Google Analytics doesn't seem to work anymore.

The problem with Google Analytics has been resolved. I have been seeing activity since late last week.

--- Denise

Darter02

Allen wrote: »

Important, do these client galleries require a password to see? If so I personalty see no reason to log
in with something to add a comment. Duh, the password already makes it secure.

Wedding galleries are simply unlisted until the bride is happy with it, and then it's public. Business customers are PW protected. I don't want people to have to sign into Smugmug, or have to use facebook to leave comments. Again, I think it's wrong to implement such a system simply because some other users can't police their own sites. Their lack of vigilance should not impact me, or my clients.

Darter02

denisegoldberg wrote: »

The problem with Google Analytics has been resolved. I have been seeing activity since late last week.

--- Denise

Cool beans! Thanks!

southeasternphotography

As far as comments are concerned, some people have had BAD comments added and the owner did not know for awhile. Hmmm, when people commented on my legacy site, I was sent an email (with the comment, I think) as soon as the comment was made. Perhaps thy did not have "email me comments" turned on (if that was an option). So, I agree, if people do not monitor their own stuff, why should I be penalized? Feature requests have asked to have comment options such as log in to comment either to SMugMug, Facebook, and other systems, no login at all, and a method to screen comments before they go live so the owner can accept or reject the comment and a clickable method to indemnify SmugMug from any liability for how we set our comment setting. This seems pretty fair to allow the owner to decide and protects SmugMug.

Darter02

Sheaf wrote: »

The discussion about allowing anonymous comments or comments from other services is a separate issue that we'll continue to look at. It's a bit more complicated than people make it out to be though, as spam was a very difficult thing for both customers and us to deal with in the old commenting system.

Especially with comment notifications by email, it was hurting our email deliver-ability to be sending out those kind of emails and having them understandably be marked as spam by their recipients. It's on our minds, but there are good reasons that most major websites are now requiring some form of login or authentication to leave comments. CAPTCHA just doesn't cut it.

This is from the thread I linked to. For me it's all about the ease of use for my clients. Hopefully something can be sorted out that is simple enough for a bride with no tech skills to use. I've had a few that I had to literally walk through using the old system. I also have a few anti-fb customers.

Darter02

So, can anyone give me an idea what is happening here? Maybe I am doing something wrong?

Here's another sample of the formatting problem I am having.

On Wedding Service page I have a Text Block with the exact same HTML formatted text, with embedded images, and formatted lists. I used what I believe to be standard HTML coding to get it to work on Blogger.

On Blogger it looks like this:



On SM, using the Text Block:



On SM, using the HTML Block:



The actual HTML code I am using on all three:
(I used the periods as spacer just for this post as the spaces on my notepad didn't transfer.)

<font size="+2" color="#898752" face="Lancelot">Actual Products You Receive from Me </font>

<br>

<ul type="disc">

...............<li>Your own website with all your photos, minus any you want removed for privacy.</li>
.....................<ul type="circle"><li>Your gallery is shared via an Event Link, which has many nice features.</li>
............................................<li>Your images are easily shared online using built in tools that are simple to use.</li>
.....................</ul>
</ul>

Darter02

I am eager to unveil!!

I just need to find out what is up with the HTML problem I am having. As a Batman fan I can't believe I'm hoping that the Joker character will throw me a line...

leftquark

Darter02 wrote: »

I am eager to unveil!!

Let's sit tight and give the SM folks some time to collect the right answers and get back to us. They've been awesome at responding to the forums so I'm sure they'll catch up soon. I know they basically didn't sleep for 2 weeks leading up to the announcement and now they're still not sleeping with all the questions people like you and I are asking them. Between the forums and Smuggy E-Mail support they're inundated. I'm eager to get my new site online (and like you I have 3-4 things holding me up) too but we have to remember to be patient and give them time to fix the bugs. In the mean time we still have working legacy sites (that up until a week ago we were very happy with!).

Sheaf

Darter02 wrote: »

Wedding galleries are simply unlisted until the bride is happy with it, and then it's public. Business customers are PW protected. I don't want people to have to sign into Smugmug, or have to use facebook to leave comments. Again, I think it's wrong to implement such a system simply because some other users can't police their own sites. Their lack of vigilance should not impact me, or my clients.

As I said in the other thread, that's only part of the problem. The spam was out of control for many people with the old system, and combined with email notifications was making our email deliverability drop like a rock as people understandably began to mark our emails as spam when the included comment was a spammy one. CAPTCHA just isn't a completely effective deterrent.

That's why so many sites now require some form of authentication to leave comments. We're looking at the problem closely, but it's not simply a matter of people not policing their comments.

Darter02

The method I've been using to embed iframes onto my site via feeds has been killed by smugmug.

I am going to start looking for new service.

Truly frustrated here.

Baldy

Darter02 wrote: »

The method I've been using to embed iframes onto my site via feeds has been killed by smugmug.

I am going to start looking for new service.

Truly frustrated here.

Sorry to frustrate you. We've had to harden our security so unfortunately we can't support iFrames anymore. It's hard for me to imagine that photo hosts that do offer them can offer them for long.

I believe the right way to approach this is to understand what you're hoping to embed and provide them in a better way. We've been hearing about things like Vimeo, Google Maps, and Wufoo forms and we want everyone to have those options too, just not via iFrames.

Darter02

Baldy wrote: »

Sorry to frustrate you. We've had to harden our security so unfortunately we can't support iFrames anymore. It's hard for me to imagine that photo hosts that do offer them can offer them for long.

I believe the right way to approach this is to understand what you're hoping to embed and provide them in a better way. We've been hearing about things like Vimeo, Google Maps, and Wufoo forms and we want everyone to have those options too, just not via iFrames.

Please explain to me, as I truly am unaware, how placing an iframe on Blogger and then having a Feed box, on SM holding that iframe is a breach. I really do not know as I am NOT an IT person.

I want my calendar and map available to my clients. It's a simple as that. The only way to do this is via iframe.

Darter02

Also, Here's a thread with screencaps of what I've been building. I was so excited this morning I ALMOST UNVEILED. Now I am feeling nothing but ready to pack it all in.


I think I'll stay off the forum, and my site for a while.

Baldy

Darter02 wrote: »

Please explain to me, as I truly am unaware, how placing an iframe on Blogger and then having a Feed box, on SM holding that iframe is a breach. I really do not know as I am NOT an IT person.

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of reputable companies that will go into detail about security issues, because the first rule of security is to not talk publicly about security. But I will say we designed new SmugMug with security in mind for everyone's protection, even when we had to make some sacrifices with convenience. It's not fun for anyone. iFrames would be a cinch for us to add as a feature, we just can't.

eddief

Separate home page

Darter02 wrote: »

The method I've been using to embed iframes onto my site via feeds has been killed by smugmug.

I am going to start looking for new service.

Truly frustrated here.

Same here. I wonder if it's possible somehow to have our own completely separate home page (with HTML, JAVASCRIPT, FRAMES, whatever, etc.), while still pointing our custom domain to smugmug.

southeasternphotography

Baldy wrote: »

Sorry to frustrate you. We've had to harden our security so unfortunately we can't support iFrames anymore. It's hard for me to imagine that photo hosts that do offer them can offer them for long.

I believe the right way to approach this is to understand what you're hoping to embed and provide them in a better way. We've been hearing about things like Vimeo, Google Maps, and Wufoo forms and we want everyone to have those options too, just not via iFrames.

So, can you tell us if you ARE implementing them and on what schedule? And what is the "better way"?

Darter02

Two of the three things he mentioned are already available. I figured out how to make a connection to the map I wanted.

Darter02

And I would like to state that a lot of what I mentioned in this thread has also been either taken care of or is seemingly in the works. I'm really liking my new site. It's not completed. Just today I added a few features my old site didn't have.

As to my original issues.

1. Neither the HTML Block, or the Text Block seem to format HTML correctly.

They fixed the problem I was specifically having through not only showing me a better way to format my code, but also debugging the system. Do I still run into snags using the blocks? Yes, but nothing I haven't been able to sort out.

2. Statcounter would be essentially useless, and Google Analytics doesn't seem to work anymore.

Both issues fixed, and I was able to link my web developer's tools back up within hours of them implementing a change today.

3. The whole copy, deleting, collecting of images went from being an easy thing to do, to a slow, one at a time process.

I still find the collecting images process to be a pain in the ass the way it is now. I believe it will change as I've see a lot of other folks not liking it either. I'm being patient.

4. The Favicon is broken.

I just asked the help desk to fix mine, and they did it. I have no idea if there is still an issue for users or not.

5. While I don't use a guestbook, I do use commenting as a tool. My customers, which are mainly brides, comment under photos they want changes to. If they have to sign in using FB or signing up for SM this is unacceptable. I read that SM is disallowing annon comments to "protect the children." If a user cannot police their own photopages I do not see why their lack of moderating, and controlling their own site should impact my use. I need commenting to be as it's been, where my customers can easily leave comments under their images. I will say this could be a deal breaker for me. I need that functionality in order to do my job. If I am not understanding something here, please enlighten me.

I have to admit, I am waiting to see what happens here. I still get a vague ill feeling when I think about the consequences if this isn't addressed. My last bride was none too happy to not be able to leave comments. She doesn't like facebook, and will not sign up for SM.

I was pretty pissed about loosing my map & calendar, as I know people use them. Instead of pulling my hair and jumping around I just took a break from this. I then solved that issue by modifying my blogger acount to match the look of my site here. It wasn't easy either. But I will say this, it spurred me to create a better synergy between my Blogger, G+, Google Local, and Google Business Pages. Hell, I even use a feed from Blogger right on my front page, and today even added a Sign Up thinga-mah-jiggy to my front page, under it. It's gotta all help SEO right? Everything linking up?

So, while there are still a number of things I hope will change, in addition to what is listed here, I am willing to try to use the new site. Hell, I am even enjoying it. It may not look like much, but I try to comb out new details every chance I get.

Eh... I'm tired, I have been processing images ALL DAY since 5AM my time... I'm out...