Daily Photos Community

sapphire73

I realize that new Smug Mug is not supporting communities - at least at the present time. I had a legacy account for a little over 4 years and decided to link a gallery to the daily photo community before unveiling in new smug mug. My gallery shows up in the array of galleries whenever I upload a new photo to it, so I thought it was working as well as it could at this point. But someone commented today that my gallery isn't linked (or fully linked) to the dailies. So I am wondering if there is something I need to do differently or if it is just a symptom of the new smug mug design not being set up to support communities?

There must be a fair number of people participating in the dailies who have unveiled in new smug mug.... What differences have they noticed other than not being able to create a new gallery in the new smug mug and associate it with a community?

As an aside, I have been involved in the dgrin challenges and am looking forward to what JAG will be unveiling there. That is another kind of community, and it has really helped me stretch as a photographer. I wanted to try the dailies in an attempt to process more of my backlog of RAW photos. I thought this might be good motivation and I admire those who are doing 365's and taking fresh photos each day!

So basically, I want to say that I see why people like participating in the various communities. It is inspiring to see the work of others. And I look forward to whatever dgrin can offer as a way for people to connect and continue to support each other as photographers.

The gallery is here.

The Mechanic

Hello Sapphire73,

I am sorry, but communities are not supported in the New SmugMug at this time.

Thanks -Scott

sapphire73

The Mechanic wrote: »

Hello Sapphire73,

I am sorry, but communities are not supported in the New SmugMug at this time.

Thanks -Scott

Thank you, Scott, for your quick response. I know you have plenty else going on that smug mug is supporting. Just whether other dgrinners have found a ways to maximize the community functionality that remains?

rainforest1155

I think that your gallery is still showing up in the recent galleries of the community whenever you update it, but photos voted or commented on, will no longer show up in the community's "today's popular photos".

beardedgit

rainforest1155 wrote: »

... photos voted or commented on, will no longer show up in the community's "today's popular photos".

The Mechanic wrote: »

I am sorry, but communities are not supported in the New SmugMug at this time.

I'm a tad confused, I must be missing something...

I'm a member of the Astrophotography Community (http://www.smugmug.com/community/Astrophotography), I "liked" a pic by another member a few minutes ago and it's already showing in that community's "Today's Popular Photos" panel. That community, in Legacy format, seems to be working the same as it ever did before New SM.

I'm sure that I'm not properly understanding what "not supported" means, but clearly it doesn't mean "not working". Are you saying that the community page itself can't be migrated to and displayed in the New SM format? Would anybody care to clarify the situation in some detail, or point me in the direction of an existing clarification, please?

rainforest1155

beardedgit wrote: »

I'm a tad confused, I must be missing something...

I'm a member of the Astrophotography Community (http://www.smugmug.com/community/Astrophotography), I "liked" a pic by another member a few minutes ago and it's already showing in that community's "Today's Popular Photos" panel. That community, in Legacy format, seems to be working the same as it ever did before New SM.

That other user likely still has a Legacy SmugMug site. From what I can tell, if you have a New SmugMug site and have an existing gallery in a community, it would still show in the recent galleries section but photos from that gallery will not appear in the today's popular section.
This shouldn't affect your ability to vote and comment on photos from Legacy SmugMug sites.

The New SmugMug doesn't have community functionality built-in at this point as you cannot access communities from it, or add / remove any galleries to / from a community.

beardedgit

rainforest1155 wrote: »

The New SmugMug doesn't have community functionality built-in at this point as you cannot access communities from it, or add / remove any galleries to / from a community.

Thanks for your detailed reply, Sebastian.
From that, I assume that anyone who has set up a Community can no longer maintain it if they've moved over to New SM.

rainforest1155

beardedgit wrote: »

Thanks for your detailed reply, Sebastian.
From that, I assume that anyone who has set up a Community can no longer maintain it if they've moved over to New SM.

I doubt that's the case. As long as you have a link to the community, you should be able to access the community features on that page. While I don't have an unveiled New SmugMug account that owns a community, I'm still able to join and a community via the community page.

That said, I can't say for sure if all the managing features would still work, but from what I can can tell it should still work.

sapphire73

rainforest1155 wrote: »

I think that your gallery is still showing up in the recent galleries of the community whenever you update it, but photos voted or commented on, will no longer show up in the community's "today's popular photos".

rainforest1155 wrote: »

The New SmugMug doesn't have community functionality built-in at this point as you cannot access communities from it, or add / remove any galleries to / from a community.

Sebastian, thank you for your replies. Very helpful!

sapphire73

Not sure what will happen when the time comes for everyone to move to the new smug mug, but for now, I have put a link to the "daily photos" community on my gallery, making it easy to navigate there. And I am enjoying the give and take with some of the other photographers participating in the community.

For anyone stumbling across this issue for the first time, if you are about to unveil in new smug mug but think you might want to "participate" in one of the communities - even temporarily - associate a gallery with that community before you fully switch over from your legacy site to new smug mug. As Sebastian noted, you won't be able to do this from new smug mug. You still have the option to post photos in the different forums for shots, though, and get some feedback there.

sapphire73

beardedgit wrote: »

Thanks for your detailed reply, Sebastian.
From that, I assume that anyone who has set up a Community can no longer maintain it if they've moved over to New SM.

It looks like some members of the Daily Photos community have migrated to new smug mug and still have their photos showing up in the pool of daily photos. I navigated to someone's website to post a comment and the smugmugger says she migrated back in July. So you may find that you can maintain your role in the community, but no guarantees.

beardedgit

sapphire73 wrote: »

It looks like some members of the Daily Photos community have migrated to new smug mug and still have their photos showing up in the pool of daily photos. I navigated to someone's website to post a comment and the smugmugger says she migrated back in July. So you may find that you can maintain your role in the community, but no guarantees.

Yes, I understand that bit, and indeed I can still maintain my role as a Community member in New SM. I was concerned about if/how Community "owners", rather than members, could manage any communities that they had set up themselves. I hope that they can. If they can't, well, that would be a sad and bad thing. Communities without control? That's quite Utopian! Four lenses good, two lenses bad???

Good advice from you regarding joining communities BEFORE casting away the controls that are currently only available in Legacy. That's the sort of advice that SM, who knew that Community features would be gelded, should have given to all SM subscribers before the New SM was released.

sapphire73

beardedgit wrote: »

Yes, I understand that bit, and indeed I can still maintain my role as a Community member in New SM. I was concerned about if/how Community "owners", rather than members, could manage any communities that they had set up themselves. I hope that they can. If they can't, well, that would be a sad and bad thing. Communities without control? That's quite Utopian! Four lenses good, two lenses bad???

Good advice from you regarding joining communities BEFORE casting away the controls that are currently only available in Legacy. That's the sort of advice that SM, who knew that Community features would be gelded, should have given to all SM subscribers before the New SM was released.

Ahhh...now I understand what you were asking re "owners." Not sure how much control they would have to tweak things.

I am wondering whether there is some compromise that SmugMug could offer those who have enjoyed participating in communities? Something with at least some similarities.

The Dgrin community is a comfortable place for beginners, pros and those somewhere else on the spectrum to support each other. The daily photos community is another comfortable place to bump into people with varying strengths and interests as photographers. Hope SmugMug does find a way to support communities in the future.

Cheers,
Gretchen

sapphire73

Out of curiosity, I just followed this link http://www.smugmug.com/community to see how many communities there are at the present time. Wow!

Looking at this, I see that the page lists whatever communities one has joined. Dgrin is listed as one I joined. But support for dgrin will continue, right?

beardedgit

sapphire73 wrote: »

I am wondering whether there is some compromise that SmugMug could offer those who have enjoyed participating in communities? Something with at least some similarities.

I think that issue is a matter of perspective. You wonder what they could give back to us, I wonder why they're holding back that which we had before.

Aside: I've just been browsing your site's recent Daily Photos and was pleasantly surprised to find some great shots of Coventry (just a few miles from me, yet I've never taken my camera there) and the Lake District (a slice of Heaven on Earth that's a regular destination for me). Nice work!

sapphire73

beardedgit wrote: »

I think that issue is a matter of perspective. You wonder what they could give back to us, I wonder why they're holding back that which we had before.

Aside: I've just been browsing your site's recent Daily Photos and was pleasantly surprised to find some great shots of Coventry (just a few miles from me) and the Lake District (a slice of Heaven on Earth that's a regular destination for me). Nice work!

Thank you very much for your kind feedback on shots from Coventry and the Lake District. Much appreciated! We were on our way to a conference when we stopped at Coventry, so we only had an hour or so. But we had 4 lovely days in the Lake District. Glad you are able to soak in the beauty there on a regular basis!

Gretchen