sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 1,962moderator
edited December 7, 2016
A few observations and comments, at least one new (I think) and several that support what others have said:
Visibiity of the text.
1. I am finding the listing of threads very challenging to read. It might help to have more contrast and a slightly larger font. And I would really like to see who initiates the thread visible again (as well as the most recent poster).
2. The posts within a thread are easier to read than the thread listing but harder than before (for my eyes). The embedded quotes seemed hard to read when I first looked but now seem a bit better. So either I am getting used to the new format or something was tweaked a bit.
3. I agree with Denise Goldberg that the threads are looking great on mobile devices. Very easy to read without relying on apps like Tapatalk.
Links as in Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread
This thread is not essential, but its current status raises a few questions.
4. I created the Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread to help people review themes (and photos entered for those themes) in previous mini-challenges. I had to rebuild many of the links created by people who worked on these lists before. Now it looks like many or all of the links in this thread are broken.
5. Not sure whether all of these older mini-challenge galleries are still there or have now been deleted. And whether I would need to recreate the links to any galleries that still exist - if it seems worthwhile to do so?
6. There appear to be hyperlinks where none were intended. E.g.Mini-challenges numbers (such as #237: "The Passage of TIme") that now show up as bright green links.
Editing
7. It looks like we have one hour to edit posts and then lose that ability? Can that window be expanded or is this the new normal for editing posts? I think the ability to add or switch out photos entered in the Dgrin mini-challenges has been an advantage - for both the participants and the hosts.
I just went to the SmugMug Customization forum. A thread had "new" on it so clicked it. It opened on post
one on page one. Thread has 71 pages, what a waste of time.
I just went to the SmugMug Customization forum. A thread had "new" on it so clicked it. It opened on post
one on page one. Thread has 71 pages, what a waste of time.
I saw that too. I then used the "Marked All Read".
@sapphire73 said:
A few observations and comments, at least one new (I think) and several that support what others have said:
Visibiity of the text.
1. I am finding the listing of threads very challenging to read. It might help to have more contrast and a slightly larger font. And I would really like to see who initiates the thread visible again (as well as the most recent poster).
2. The posts within a thread are easier to read than the thread listing but harder than before (for my eyes). The embedded quotes seemed hard to read when I first looked but now seem a bit better. So either I am getting used to the new format or something was tweaked a bit.
3. I agree with Denise Goldberg that the threads are looking great on mobile devices. Very easy to read without relying on apps like Tapatalk.
Links as in Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread
This thread is not essential, but its current status raises a few questions.
4. I created the Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread to help people review themes (and photos entered for those themes) in previous mini-challenges. I had to rebuild many of the links created by people who worked on these lists before. Now it looks like many or all of the links in this thread are broken.
5. Not sure whether all of these older mini-challenge galleries are still there or have now been deleted. And whether I would need to recreate the links to any galleries that still exist - if it seems worthwhile to do so?
6. There appear to be hyperlinks where none were intended. E.g.Mini-challenges numbers (such as #237: "The Passage of TIme") that now show up as bright green links.
Editing
7. It looks like we have one hour to edit posts and then lose that ability? Can that window be expanded or is this the new normal for editing posts? I think the ability to add or switch out photos entered in the Dgrin mini-challenges has been an advantage - for both the participants and the hosts.
Thanks!
First 3 points are all noted. We did already improve the quote text contrast, and we're still working on design!
The threads should still exist, we deleted a few ancient forums... mostly just ones that were never used (some with zero posts, hidden for years). The format of the links has changed some, but post ID should be the same.
Using the # with a number generates some links, I haven't looked into what that does yet. Seems like it would link to a specific post, but as Allen noticed there aren't obvious post numbers? I dunno, we'll figure it out.
For 7: Yeah, we've locked it to 1 hour. I'm not sold on that. We can set it to almost anything. I suppose I don't feel strongly one way or the other.
@Allen said:
I just went to the SmugMug Customization forum. A thread had "new" on it so clicked it. It opened on post
one on page one. Thread has 71 pages, what a waste of time.
I know you keep banging this drum, but when I click on post titles it automatically takes me to last unread. Are you sure you aren't just visiting the posts for the first time (on the new platform)? Sure seems to act by default exactly the way you were hoping.
Smug since 2003
0
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 1,962moderator
edited December 7, 2016
@Ben said: [about editing]
For 7: Yeah, we've locked it to 1 hour. I'm not sold on that. We can set it to almost anything. I suppose I don't feel strongly one way or the other.
Thanks for your response, Ben. In respect to editing, I am remembering that I worked on creating (or recreating) the Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread over several days in August, a bit at a time. And as a cumulative list - it requires repeated editing/updating to add the latest themes. I just realized that I won't be able to add Sarasphotos most recent mini-challenge #238: Holiday Spirit to the current list unless there is a work around for the one hour editing on that thread. Or some other way to maintain a list like this (without being a moderator). Not urgent though. Will check back in the new year on this.
@Ben said: [about editing]
For 7: Yeah, we've locked it to 1 hour. I'm not sold on that. We can set it to almost anything. I suppose I don't feel strongly one way or the other.
Thanks for your response, Ben. In respect to editing, I am remembering that I worked on creating (or recreating) the Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread over several days in August, a bit at a time. And as a cumulative list - it requires repeated editing/updating to add the latest themes. I just realized that I won't be able to add Sarasphotos most recent mini-challenge #238: Holiday Spirit to the current list unless there is a work around for the one hour editing on that thread. Or some other way to maintain a list like this (without being a moderator). Not urgent though. Will check back in the new year on this.
I'll check with the mods and see if they have a strong opinion on this. I'm the one who chose 1 hour, and I certainly don't.
Smug since 2003
0
sapphire73Registered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 1,962moderator
@Ben said:
I'll check with the mods and see if they have a strong opinion on this. I'm the one who chose 1 hour, and I certainly don't.
just seeing if i can post a pic and it seems that works but why is there no watermark on it? I have it set to on for the gallery and it works there but not if i share it here. If i click the photo it goes to my site and the watermark appears there.
Wow! I was out for about a week and when I came back I had a shock... I couldn't reach any of the links sent to my e-mails for the last posts - I'm getting the "Page not found" message. I thought the Dgrin site was down or even worse, something was wrong with my account.... I took me a strong will to keep trying to find anything familiar. It's all very hard to figure out, and also very difficult to read: very small light gray text on a charcoal background!?! Also, as I'm trying to type into this comment window, I hardly can see what I'm doing... light gray on a white backgrounds with very small fonts.
I see your watermark in your gallery. I just tested the SM photo embed from one of my photos and the watermark was carried along. I tested X3 and Large sizes. I don't know why it isn't working in your example. Maybe a SM employee can look into it? I agree it is a security issue and if there's a bug, then we certainly want to get this sorted out.
My Smugmug
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
PS: Have you done some changes to smugmug too? It looks like the sharing function doesn't work... or it's only me???
*** Oh where did all those funny icons disappeared?!?
No changes to Smugmug at all. I embedded a photo using Smugmug. Choose the photo, then use Share > Photo > HTML and copy and paste. Should work. Jester, is that how you posted the above?
The old way that worked in vBulletin was to use Photo Only instead of HTML. Embed method changes due to the new forum software. The photos from the previous forum software migrated over unchanged, with conversion. They should all still be here.
example from my own photos...
My Smugmug
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I realize the trend in web design is in larger text sizes but I would really like to see the standard font size be a little smaller. 16px is very large! And while we're at it the 30px PageTitle is pretty big too.
Both waste precious vertical space.
...and one more thing... on editing a post I don't seem to have access to emojis or formatting tools. Is this a feature or a bug?
...and what's with "Activity" and "...Best of"? They both seem pretty inane and for now at least space-wasting.
Last (for now :-) ) but not least. I see here that everything is called a "comment" not a "post" and I just have to say that I don't think this word choice fits with our use. It just seems funny to me to see a post in the "Never ending alphabet game challenge" called a "comment" when no (or very little) text is involved. I suppose I can get used to it, but it rubs me the wrong way.
Did the migration enable email notifications by default? Because 1) it got enabled on my profile, and 2) Gmail now appears to be flagging Dgrin notifications as spam.
The simplified design of the new forum creates so much wasted space on the page. Not friendly at all, as I have to scroll, scroll, scroll to get through a page. Welcome to 90's BBS.
Sister site ADV was a much better upgrade.
I know I don't post hardly at all, but I read a lot on this site. That's about to end.
just seeing if i can post a pic and it seems that works but why is there no watermark on it? I have it set to on for the gallery and it works there but not if i share it here. If i click the photo it goes to my site and the watermark appears there.
Much here is odd. The image you posted here is an original -- 6016 x 4016 -- and I found that simply by right clicking you entry in this thread I could save it, all 16MB of it, to my computer. (It's erased now.) On your site, I note that while watermarks appear on the X3's and below, no watermark appears on the original, which is accessible in the Lightbox. So it would see two separate oddities need to be chased down: no watermark on the original and the original landing here.
...although it's probably not "modern", I really miss having a menu at the top. Navigation is a scrolling nightmare. I realize it's a different approach, but it's one I don't like in other forums either.
More readability thoughts, these dealing with comments inside a thread. I'll note I'm on a computer screen, not a mobile. The entries below attempt to use an unordered list.
While the current fonts, colors, and spacings work for shorter comments, longer single-spaced comments come off a little too contrasted, bold, and condensed. I think default fonts and spacings need somehow to be opened up and relaxed to let the more meaty and lengthy posts work. Two examples. This single-spaced 11 line comment, taken from this thread, looks awfully dense on the page. It would seem to want gentler contrast, a smaller font, a reduced font weight, and/or a wider line spacing to feel less congested. The opening post in this thread likewise comes off looking impenetrably dense, in part because it has some lengthy single-spaced blocks. This carryover entry uses a smaller font size, but a smaller line spacing too. It has the same medium bold (300) font weight and white-on-almost-black colors.
Quotes, like the one here come off a little better. Less contrasting colors, one step smaller font, and no corresponding decrease in line spacing make the overall feel seem more comfortable even though there is a moderately long single-spaced block.
An unordered list, like I'm trying out here, seems buggy. The first two entries are use a undercontrasting gray font color that's a little hard to read. Nice relaxed line spacing though. This last entry, just another unordered list entry as I type it in, is back to strong white on almost black. How did that happen? The preview didn't show the little bullets.
just seeing if i can post a pic and it seems that works but why is there no watermark on it? I have it set to on for the gallery and it works there but not if i share it here. If i click the photo it goes to my site and the watermark appears there.
You have Originals enabled, so it's sharing the original here (which remains unwatermarked). If you had selected to share embed code from a smaller size, then it'd show up watermarked.
Backing up what leftquark mentioned above, I tried saving my shot, posted higher up, and it didn't serve me up the original. I have all my images set to X3 or smaller and watermarked. It is true that right click saving does function in this forum, and that is a shame since posted photos can be heisted. The copied photo of mine, thankfully, does display my watermark.
My Smugmug
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Comments
I'm sorry, but the Dgrin grin emojis was the holy grail. : D
My Website index | My Blog
A few observations and comments, at least one new (I think) and several that support what others have said:
Visibiity of the text.
1. I am finding the listing of threads very challenging to read. It might help to have more contrast and a slightly larger font. And I would really like to see who initiates the thread visible again (as well as the most recent poster).
2. The posts within a thread are easier to read than the thread listing but harder than before (for my eyes). The embedded quotes seemed hard to read when I first looked but now seem a bit better. So either I am getting used to the new format or something was tweaked a bit.
3. I agree with Denise Goldberg that the threads are looking great on mobile devices. Very easy to read without relying on apps like Tapatalk.
Links as in Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread
This thread is not essential, but its current status raises a few questions.
4. I created the Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread to help people review themes (and photos entered for those themes) in previous mini-challenges. I had to rebuild many of the links created by people who worked on these lists before. Now it looks like many or all of the links in this thread are broken.
5. Not sure whether all of these older mini-challenge galleries are still there or have now been deleted. And whether I would need to recreate the links to any galleries that still exist - if it seems worthwhile to do so?
6. There appear to be hyperlinks where none were intended. E.g.Mini-challenges numbers (such as #237: "The Passage of TIme") that now show up as bright green links.
Editing
7. It looks like we have one hour to edit posts and then lose that ability? Can that window be expanded or is this the new normal for editing posts? I think the ability to add or switch out photos entered in the Dgrin mini-challenges has been an advantage - for both the participants and the hosts.
Thanks!
My SmugMug Galleries
Oh yes, we know!
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I just went to the SmugMug Customization forum. A thread had "new" on it so clicked it. It opened on post
one on page one. Thread has 71 pages, what a waste of time.
My Website index | My Blog
Please add the full breadcrumb path at the top so I can go up a level.
Now it's to this forum or homepage, skipping the category.
Home / Dgrin Forum Support
to this
Home / Support / Dgrin Forum Support
My Website index | My Blog
@Allen said:
I saw that too. I then used the "Marked All Read".
Images in the Backcountry
My SmugMug Customizations | Adding CSS to Your Site | SEO for the Photographer | Locate Your Page/Widget Number | SmugMug Help Desk
First 3 points are all noted. We did already improve the quote text contrast, and we're still working on design!
The threads should still exist, we deleted a few ancient forums... mostly just ones that were never used (some with zero posts, hidden for years). The format of the links has changed some, but post ID should be the same.
Using the # with a number generates some links, I haven't looked into what that does yet. Seems like it would link to a specific post, but as Allen noticed there aren't obvious post numbers? I dunno, we'll figure it out.
For 7: Yeah, we've locked it to 1 hour. I'm not sold on that. We can set it to almost anything. I suppose I don't feel strongly one way or the other.
I know you keep banging this drum, but when I click on post titles it automatically takes me to last unread. Are you sure you aren't just visiting the posts for the first time (on the new platform)? Sure seems to act by default exactly the way you were hoping.
Thanks for your response, Ben. In respect to editing, I am remembering that I worked on creating (or recreating) the Dgrin Mini-Challenges: Looking Back thread over several days in August, a bit at a time. And as a cumulative list - it requires repeated editing/updating to add the latest themes. I just realized that I won't be able to add Sarasphotos most recent mini-challenge #238: Holiday Spirit to the current list unless there is a work around for the one hour editing on that thread. Or some other way to maintain a list like this (without being a moderator). Not urgent though. Will check back in the new year on this.
My SmugMug Galleries
I'll check with the mods and see if they have a strong opinion on this. I'm the one who chose 1 hour, and I certainly don't.
Thank you, Ben!
My SmugMug Galleries
Just noticed I see no indication what threads I have posts in or who even started a thread.
My Website index | My Blog
just seeing if i can post a pic and it seems that works but why is there no watermark on it? I have it set to on for the gallery and it works there but not if i share it here. If i click the photo it goes to my site and the watermark appears there.
www.cathausphotography.com
Wow! I was out for about a week and when I came back I had a shock... I couldn't reach any of the links sent to my e-mails for the last posts - I'm getting the "Page not found" message. I thought the Dgrin site was down or even worse, something was wrong with my account.... I took me a strong will to keep trying to find anything familiar. It's all very hard to figure out, and also very difficult to read: very small light gray text on a charcoal background!?! Also, as I'm trying to type into this comment window, I hardly can see what I'm doing... light gray on a white backgrounds with very small fonts.
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
@Jester243...
I see your watermark in your gallery. I just tested the SM photo embed from one of my photos and the watermark was carried along. I tested X3 and Large sizes. I don't know why it isn't working in your example. Maybe a SM employee can look into it? I agree it is a security issue and if there's a bug, then we certainly want to get this sorted out.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
PS: Have you done some changes to smugmug too? It looks like the sharing function doesn't work... or it's only me???
*** Oh where did all those funny icons disappeared?!?
TravelwaysPhotos.com ...... Facebook
VegasGreatAttractions.com
Travelways.com
Sharing is just spinning for me on Smug also. Did get it to work in another gallery though.
My Website index | My Blog
@travelways and @Jester243...
No changes to Smugmug at all. I embedded a photo using Smugmug. Choose the photo, then use Share > Photo > HTML and copy and paste. Should work. Jester, is that how you posted the above?
The old way that worked in vBulletin was to use Photo Only instead of HTML. Embed method changes due to the new forum software. The photos from the previous forum software migrated over unchanged, with conversion. They should all still be here.
example from my own photos...
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I realize the trend in web design is in larger text sizes but I would really like to see the standard font size be a little smaller. 16px is very large! And while we're at it the 30px PageTitle is pretty big too.
Both waste precious vertical space.
...and one more thing... on editing a post I don't seem to have access to emojis or formatting tools. Is this a feature or a bug?
...and what's with "Activity" and "...Best of"? They both seem pretty inane and for now at least space-wasting.
Last (for now :-) ) but not least. I see here that everything is called a "comment" not a "post" and I just have to say that I don't think this word choice fits with our use. It just seems funny to me to see a post in the "Never ending alphabet game challenge" called a "comment" when no (or very little) text is involved. I suppose I can get used to it, but it rubs me the wrong way.
The simplified design of the new forum creates so much wasted space on the page. Not friendly at all, as I have to scroll, scroll, scroll to get through a page. Welcome to 90's BBS.
Sister site ADV was a much better upgrade.
I know I don't post hardly at all, but I read a lot on this site. That's about to end.
Much here is odd. The image you posted here is an original -- 6016 x 4016 -- and I found that simply by right clicking you entry in this thread I could save it, all 16MB of it, to my computer. (It's erased now.) On your site, I note that while watermarks appear on the X3's and below, no watermark appears on the original, which is accessible in the Lightbox. So it would see two separate oddities need to be chased down: no watermark on the original and the original landing here.
Originals are never touched by Smugmug. Whatever you upload is the original. Never a WM unless it is uploaded with it.
My Website index | My Blog
I keep treing to click on the "new" button to get to the last post in a thread...
But on the positive side, I love that I could just post a screen shot and not have to upload it to SM first!
...although it's probably not "modern", I really miss having a menu at the top. Navigation is a scrolling nightmare. I realize it's a different approach, but it's one I don't like in other forums either.
Sara, could you tell me, and all of us, how you posted that screenshot without sending it somewhere else (like SM)?
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
More readability thoughts, these dealing with comments inside a thread. I'll note I'm on a computer screen, not a mobile. The entries below attempt to use an unordered list.
It looks like the forum categories don't have their own URL, so the breadcrumb that is displayed is the full one.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
You have Originals enabled, so it's sharing the original here (which remains unwatermarked). If you had selected to share embed code from a smaller size, then it'd show up watermarked.
Former SmugMug Product Team
aaron AT aaronmphotography DOT com
Website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com
My SmugMug CSS Customizations website: http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations
Backing up what leftquark mentioned above, I tried saving my shot, posted higher up, and it didn't serve me up the original. I have all my images set to X3 or smaller and watermarked. It is true that right click saving does function in this forum, and that is a shame since posted photos can be heisted. The copied photo of mine, thankfully, does display my watermark.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky