Turning off loading clock

Daniel Chui

Quick question: how do I turn off the little clock that now turns up every time I load a page? It really bothers me and I would like to be able to get rid of it ASAP.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

- Chui

Andy

Daniel Chui wrote:

Quick question: how do I turn off the little clock that now turns up every time I load a page? It really bothers me and I would like to be able to get rid of it ASAP.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

- Chui

Hiya Daniel
What clock?

Andy

Andy wrote:

Hiya Daniel
What clock?

And, a gallery link pls...

rainforest1155

I think Daniel means the turning wheels in the new lightbox view. When browsing the pictures this way I also find it a bit anoying. I would rather still look at the previous picture instead of having the wheel while the next picture is loaded.
Maybe initially you can show the big wheels, but when browsing through the pictures either turn it completely off, make it a lot smaller and put it in a corner or let it to the user to decide the way he wants it. That way the coolness factor doesn't wear of so easily like it did for me now.

Sebastian

Andy

rainforest1155 wrote:

I think Daniel means the turning wheels in the new lightbox view. When browsing the pictures this way I also find it a bit anoying. I would rather still look at the previous picture instead of having the wheel while the next picture is loaded.
Maybe initially you can show the big wheels, but when browsing through the pictures either turn it completely off, make it a lot smaller and put it in a corner or let it to the user to decide the way he wants it. That way the coolness factor doesn't wear of so easily like it did for me now.

Sebastian

But, you don't have to use it all the time to navigate, it's a choice.

colourbox

They've got a point. The way it currently is, if you want to use the lightbox to look through the entire gallery, which is allowed by the controls at the top, you can conceivably spend more time looking at rotating gears than at pictures. This is because the previous picture disappears while the gears spin away against a black background. Ideally, the previous picture should persist until the new picture is ready, and while you're waiting, the gears should be semitransparen, or smaller, or out of the way, so they don't block out the previous picture entirely.

Daniel Chui

colourbox wrote:

They've got a point. The way it currently is, if you want to use the lightbox to look through the entire gallery, which is allowed by the controls at the top, you can conceivably spend more time looking at rotating gears than at pictures. This is because the previous picture disappears while the gears spin away against a black background. Ideally, the previous picture should persist until the new picture is ready, and while you're waiting, the gears should be semitransparen, or smaller, or out of the way, so they don't block out the previous picture entirely.

Sorry I took so long to get back to this. Colourbox has expressed my sentiments exactly. I see no reason why anybody would choose to look at spinning gears over the original photo; I feel it makes for a very jarring transition between photos.

I would appreciate it if I could get some advice on how to change this immediately to the original loading setup... I much prefer the old way and would prefer to have the option of losing the spinning wheels.

Thank you in advance,

- Chui

Andy

Daniel Chui wrote:

Sorry I took so long to get back to this. Colourbox has expressed my sentiments exactly. I see no reason why anybody would choose to look at spinning gears over the original photo; I feel it makes for a very jarring transition between photos.

I would appreciate it if I could get some advice on how to change this immediately to the original loading setup... I much prefer the old way and would prefer to have the option of losing the spinning wheels.

Thank you in advance,

- Chui

Daniel - you preferred the icky popup windows? There's more discussion in this thread:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=26786&page=4

Mike Lane

Really, the lightbox isn't intended to be the primary way one views a gallery. What it is for is to allow a person to get a closer look at the picture in question. Say you're in smugmug small or smugmug gallery style and you click on the small main image, that is when the lightbox would pop up and show you that image. That is why there are gears. The screen darkens and the gears are there to let the user know that the image is loading. Once that image is loaded, the user clicks the image or the x and it goes away. It seems to me that most of the issues that people have with the lightbox come from the mistaken idea that it is intended to be another gallery style. It isn't.

cmason

If the gears weren't there, you would likely assume that, since the picture isnt loading right awya, you miss-clicked or the server isnt responding, causing you to click extra and perhaps even missing some pictures (as it advances thru pics). In this case, there would need to be some visual indicator (like gears) telling you the system is working....

smugbug

I hope someone at Smugmug is working on improving the Lightbox feature. Next time don't release a feature until it's bug-tested...

Andy

smugbug wrote:

I hope someone at Smugmug is working on improving the Lightbox feature. Next time don't release a feature until it's bug-tested...

Hi, could you be specific with regard to your experience/concerns? What you consider a bug? You do recall that prior to LB, Originals opened in a popup window. Now the overlay your screen. LB isn't really intended as a scrolling device - it's for featuring a photo, and getting a closer look without the rest of the screen.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/viewing-online-photo-albums

Thanks for your input.

renstar

Andy wrote:

Hi, could you be specific with regard to your experience/concerns? What you consider a bug? You do recall that prior to LB, Originals opened in a popup window. Now the overlay your screen. LB isn't really intended as a scrolling device - it's for featuring a photo, and getting a closer look without the rest of the screen.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/viewing-online-photo-albums

Thanks for your input.

I wouldn't say it was a bug, so much as a sudden roll out of a new feature that obviously doesn't behave the way users expect it to (which is the larger problem). This could be avoided with a sort of public beta. Any thoughts on doing that next time? Giving those of us that care a chance to see it, play with it, and comment on it before it goes live? -russ

smugbug

For one thing it resizes your window when you use Firefox. Main thing I don't like is that Lightbox enables for the Thumbs and Traditional page styles. Before you could view Original size images (as the preferred size) using the standard navigation method (with the prev/next buttons, photo info, etc.) but now Lightbox automatically turns on. Didn't you say it wasn't intended to be the main viewing mode?

Also annoying is that you can't easily switch out of Lightbox to change preferred size to Large or smaller. You have to exit the gallery and make some redundant clicks. In general, Smugmug has frustrated me with its inconsistency in how images are viewed.

It's too bad, I think with a few tweaks, Lightbox could actually be a pretty decent alternative to the standard navigation style. And I imagine most visitors would treat it like that.

Steve Cavigliano

I hate the gears too.....
Why am I seeing these darn gears turning when I select "Original" size? Not to mention it taking 30 seconds to load up a huge 852 x1120 original. Granted, the whole pic comes up at once. But I don't need to be told that the image is "Loading" for those 30 seconds. Nor do I need to have a grayed out screen with gears turning to let me know I haven't mis-clicked.

Can I disable this "feature" and I use the term feature ever so loosely? My originals never took so long to load and I'd rather stare at a slowly scrolling image as it appears than those darn gears I don't want any lightbox view and never clicked or changed any of my settings. How can I get back to the old method of viewing my originals?

Glad someone else complained about this. I haven't loaded an original since I noticed this change. I sure hope this can be disabled. Yes, I dislike it that much.




Steve

rainforest1155

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Why am I seeing these darn gears turning when I select "Original" size? Not to mention it taking 30 seconds to load up a huge 852 x1120 original.[...]
Can I disable this "feature" and I use the term feature ever so loosely? My originals never took so long to load and I'd rather stare at a slowly scrolling image as it appears than those darn gears

That gets my vote too. Seeing the picture slowly appearing on the screen is much more bearable than the gears all the time.


Sebastian

System

rainforest1155 wrote:

That gets my vote too. Seeing the picture slowly appearing on the screen is much more bearable than the gears all the time.


Sebastian

Agreed, very much so. I posted earlier on an option to turn it off altogether, hopefully SM is still considering this. I really don't want it changed...it would be good to have the ability to turn it off. Make it optional so people can have it if they want it or not...also agree that a beta is a good idea with such a major feature change.

Barb

Shane Canfield wrote:

Agreed, very much so. I posted earlier on an option to turn it off altogether, hopefully SM is still considering this. I really don't want it changed...it would be good to have the ability to turn it off. Make it optional so people can have it if they want it or not...also agree that a beta is a good idea with such a major feature change.

Seems all I have seen are negative remarks about LightBox, so, I thought I would give some positive feedback. Always good for Smugmug to know that some people (well, one at least - me) really likes the feature! I'm not saying it couldn't be improved upon, i.e., pictures slowly evolving instead of the rotating gear; the option to turn it on or off (which I think is a great idea and would make most folks happy); but all in all, I think it's a very nice feature. Actually, truth be known, I kind of like the gear. But I'm a bells 'n whistles kinda gal

Mike Lane

I'll second that opinion Barb. I think the lightbox is far superior to the pop up window.

Steve Cavigliano

Mike Lane wrote:

I'll second that opinion Barb. I think the lightbox is far superior to the pop up window.

Mike,
I don't want to argue the merits of a pop up window versus the lightbox. You have your tastes, I have mine.

I spent the last week trying to figure out why my originals would not load to view. After numerous attempts (which I normally halted when nothing showed up on the screen after 15-30 seconds) I finally let the aforementioned 800x1100 original load and I timed it. Slowwwwwwwwwww
Maybe it's the same speed as the pop up version, but at least you could see some progress with the pop up. Despite the moving gears, I actually thought I was stuck in a loop the first dozen, or so, times I tried to view an original.

IMHO, the gears are just a hokey update of the Windows hourglass. I always hated that one too...lol I believe the lightbox focuses even more attention on the inherrent weakness all sharing sites have. The length of time it takes to load up a large image. I know enough about marketing to know that you really don't want to focus customer's attention on your product's weaknesses any more than you have to.

I find the "Loading" page to be akin to being placed on hold by an automated answering system. The gears are like having to listen to elevator music while waiting/on hold. IRL, when this happens to me, I hang up and I never call that company back again. Can't do that here though

So, I guess this means no we can't disable this "feature". No prob. I will not subject myself or viewers of my galleries to this nonsense. I will just turn off Originals. If I need to view or upload originals, I will load them to another site. IMO, the inability of viewers (including myself) to be able to pleasantly view originals greatly decreases SmugMug's value.

After this rant, I must tell you, I have really been impressed by almost every other improvement made recently. Good work by all involved




Steve

System

Steve Cavigliano wrote:

Mike,
I don't want to argue the merits of a pop up window versus the lightbox. You have your tastes, I have mine.

I spent the last week trying to figure out why my originals would not load to view. After numerous attempts (which I normally halted when nothing showed up on the screen after 15-30 seconds) I finally let the aforementioned 800x1100 original load and I timed it. Slowwwwwwwwwww
Maybe it's the same speed as the pop up version, but at least you could see some progress with the pop up. Despite the moving gears, I actually thought I was stuck in a loop the first dozen, or so, times I tried to view an original.

IMHO, the gears are just a hokey update of the Windows hourglass. I always hated that one too...lol I believe the lightbox focuses even more attention on the inherrent weakness all sharing sites have. The length of time it takes to load up a large image. I know enough about marketing to know that you really don't want to focus customer's attention on your product's weaknesses any more than you have to.

I find the "Loading" page to be akin to being placed on hold by an automated answering system. The gears are like having to listen to elevator music while waiting/on hold. IRL, when this happens to me, I hang up and I never call that company back again. Can't do that here though

So, I guess this means no we can't disable this "feature". No prob. I will not subject myself or viewers of my galleries to this nonsense. I will just turn off Originals. If I need to view or upload originals, I will load them to another site. IMO, the inability of viewers (including myself) to be able to pleasantly view originals greatly decreases SmugMug's value.

After this rant, I must tell you, I have really been impressed by almost every other improvement made recently. Good work by all involved
Steve

Steve, your post sounds just like my other on this same subject earlier in the week...too bad that this one highly visable and distracting feature cannot be turned off or made optional because it is cumbersome at best for viewers and does not have a professional feel to it. And, like you, I like most of the other improvements in the last batch.