POLL: The new Smug customisation

macromeister

What do you think of the new Smug so far especially in relation to customisation?

Please feel free to make any comments, but please restrict them to general impressions, rather than commenting on matters that are too specific. This is a general 'what do you think of it so far?' question. Any specific problems are dealt with in the support threads.

macromeister

I'm not sure that everyone rushing to code things in CSS is the way to go. More should be provided via the standard customisation interface. Apart from that I think it's excellent and gives me most of what I need. It's better than legacy by a long way.

AceCo55

I think when things settle down and Smugmug catches up with the teething problems, then we will see new blocks/options/features added as needed and requested. THis will allow non coders like me a quick way to change the look of my site.
Already I have a site, straight out of the box, with features I could not have imagined under the previous version. I have three slideshows on my home page and a three level deep menu system. Neither of which I was prepared to implement under Smugmug 1.0
My biggest issue has been the lack of documentation and step-by-step screenshot tutorials on how to achieve the most common tasks (I still think it is needed).
I'm sure the implementation has overwhelmed Smugmug but I am very confident that, as things settle down, this move is going to be fantastic for me.

RKnecht

As with anything new, it will take some time to iron out the issues and start the fine tuning. My hope is that Smugmug can implement changes just as easy as we can. I admit I was a bit frustrated in the beginning, but I was also frustrated at times with my Legacy site. The only difference is that with my new site, I can make changes quick and easy.

I love the look as well. In comparison, it makes the Legacy site look like a dinosaur. My site looks cleaner, fresh, and I think it's faster overall. I've gotten quite a few emails from my customers and they think its much smoother as well.

We've been asking for a new design for years and now that's its here, we need some time to let the dust settle. I'm sure there will be lots of customizations starting to pop up as time goes by. Already, I've seen lots of new sites that look great. All I know is that I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't jump ship.

phaserbeam

It's pretty good with some issues... if those get fixed it would fit my needs.

I was just going through my subscriptions for some of the issues...
- No random screensaver
- No fullscreen/stretchy screensaver
- Square thumbs for folders don't match cropped thumbs
- Crop multiple thumbs, not all one-by-one
- Bulkeditor is missing support for titles
- Grid only supports square thumbs
- Preview for new design exits to current design
- No center textblock on all browsers
- No way to transform captions to the new title feature
- Map this! for individual galleries
- Custom gallery style for keyword/search page
- Date modified used in EXIF date
- Allow folders/galleries as target for photos with links
- Navigation menu in customize mode
- Allow to delete quicksettings and make them better readable

Darter02

I'd just repeat a lot of what's been said, and add integrate managing collected photos at the bulk level, and not individually. Also add the ability to adjust the height of a block manually. I'm also wishing the HTML block wasn't so buggy.

Overall though, I like the new tool set. I'm looking forward to building a number of specialized pages once some of the things mentioned so far are ironed out.

LPC

It's true that by the time I had finished the layout of my new site, my legacy site looked really amateurish by comparison and I couldn't wait to unveil. However there were a few major problems which needed to be addressed first but as soon as they were I was happy to consign my old look to history. The remaining issues will be dealt with in time I'm sure but at the moment they are numerous and annoying.

Ferguson

I think they had great vision.

I think they were wise and quite courageous to limit javascript and other aspects that would make continued maintenance on the infrastructure so difficult and unstable.

And I think they should fire their development manager / CIO for a poorly orchestrated rollout and poor communication before, during and after. While there are always unexpected crises in any major rollout, a lot of the issues encountered were easily predictable and could have been mitigated by simple steps (for example, getting in front of all the removed features, having an API ready to go as well and engaging with partners like JF so their stuff works, having good documentation that now is starting to dribble in (but often from end users)).

70% of all the angst I see in postings here was a lack of communication and preparation, not bad coding.

FTGphoto

Ironically with all the bugs, I've decided it'll just be easier to tweak my current site via the advance customizer

Djm3006

RKnecht wrote: »

As with anything new, it will take some time to iron out the issues and start the fine tuning. My hope is that Smugmug can implement changes just as easy as we can. I admit I was a bit frustrated in the beginning, but I was also frustrated at times with my Legacy site. The only difference is that with my new site, I can make changes quick and easy.

I love the look as well. In comparison, it makes the Legacy site look like a dinosaur. My site looks cleaner, fresh, and I think it's faster overall. I've gotten quite a few emails from my customers and they think its much smoother as well.

We've been asking for a new design for years and now that's its here, we need some time to let the dust settle. I'm sure there will be lots of customizations starting to pop up as time goes by. Already, I've seen lots of new sites that look great. All I know is that I'm glad I stuck it out and didn't jump ship.

Sums up my thoughts also

jfriend

I have things that are important to the presentation of my site that cannot simply be done in the new SM. I had been able to accomplish them with custom javascript in the old SM, but with no javascript in the new SM, I'm stuck and can't migrate to the new stuff. It does not yet meet my needs.

paulbrock

A lick of paint. welcome, and arguably necessary, but they didn't fill in the cracks first.

cactus

paulbrock wrote: »

A lick of paint. welcome, and arguably necessary, but they didn't fill in the cracks first.

Amazing but for me it's become very problematic and I agree, you forgot the spakfilla for the cracks. I think the entire make over is very slick and very impressive I'm also thrilled with the way my new site looks for me BUT it doesn't work, literally. I un veiled it on the 13th told all my photog network, friends etc.. to find I have no icons or add to cart button or checkout, and still don't. As of this morning I've just cracked 10,000 hits which is a drop in the ocean for most pro's I would image but for me it's huge. I'm so disappointed as this was my HUGE re-launch too. Now I know your support staff are busy but I'm off to the welfare office now. My Pro renew date is 29th July. I pretty much spent my last pennies paying for that in hope of seriously relaunching my photography career.

ctvader

I agree the rollout could have been smoother and better orchestrated, perhaps some type of rolling upgrade and build the roll-out from there. However, that is in the past and SM can only learn from it, not change it. That being said, while we did receive some new tools/features, we also lost some tools/features that users depended on. This is the frustrating part - the users feel ignored/forgotten due to the lack of 'news/updates' from SM. The heroes are doing the best they can do with the overwhelming response, good or bad, to the new version. I would like to see a few things fixed, a proper set of documentation, a proper user guide and perhaps a one-to-one comparison legacy features to new features - this would help some users understand what is 'new' and what isn't possible. This would go miles with the SM user base...

jfriend

ctvader wrote: »

I agree the rollout could have been smoother and better orchestrated, perhaps some type of rolling upgrade and build the roll-out from there. However, that is in the past and SM can only learn from it, not change it. That being said, while we did receive some new tools/features, we also lost some tools/features that users depended on. This is the frustrating part - the users feel ignored/forgotten due to the lack of 'news/updates' from SM. The heroes are doing the best they can do with the overwhelming response, good or bad, to the new version. I would like to see a few things fixed, a proper set of documentation, a proper user guide and perhaps a one-to-one comparison legacy features to new features - this would help some users understand what is 'new' and what isn't possible. This would go miles with the SM user base...

I wouldn't be so sure this is all in the past. SM suspended all new migrations. How do they know they can handle the firehose again when they enable it again? I'm four days on new uploads that still haven't indexed so virtual galleries are still broken.