'smugmug gradient' = new default SmugMug look & feel

onethumb

We're planning on making the 'smugmug gradient' theme our new default look & feel after:

A) we get feedback. Is it good? Do you like it? Have suggestions?

and

does it work with your customization? Jimmy probably has some suggestions for small changes (background = none on some places) to get rid of the gradients in your customization.

So if you've got complaints, suggestions, kudos, etc... here's the place.

You can see an example at http://themes.smugmug.com

Don

dmc

I like the all black background I have now.... My galleries are using "default" theme... when you make gradient the default, does this mean I have to go to each of my 170 galleries, one at a time, to set the theme to something else to keep the same look?

BTW - gradient doesn't look good on my laptop, the gray to black is choppy, not what I would call "gradient" (I know the problem is my laptop )

onethumb

dmc wrote:

I like the all black background I have now.... My galleries are using "default" theme... when you make gradient the default, does this mean I have to go to each of my 170 galleries, one at a time, to set the theme to something else to keep the same look?

BTW - gradient doesn't look good on my laptop, the gray to black is choppy, not what I would call "gradient" (I know the problem is my laptop )

Sounds like your laptop is set to 16-bit color (or worse). Set it to "true color" (32-bit or "16 million colors") and you should be all set.

Don

Andy

dmc wrote:

I like the all black background I have now.... My galleries are using "default" theme... when you make gradient the default, does this mean I have to go to each of my 170 galleries, one at a time, to set the theme to something else to keep the same look?

BTW - gradient doesn't look good on my laptop, the gray to black is choppy, not what I would call "gradient" (I know the problem is my laptop )

Hi dmc, you can make "default" your own theme, called DMC-Default, and then apply it as a sitewide theme on your own site. Or, if you already have your own theme going you can add default to your existing theme.

We'll help if you need it

DavidTO

I like it!

rich56k

onethumb wrote:

We're planning on making the 'smugmug gradient' theme our new default look & feel after:

A) we get feedback. Is it good? Do you like it? Have suggestions?

and

does it work with your customization? Jimmy probably has some suggestions for small changes (background = none on some places) to get rid of the gradients in your customization.

So if you've got complaints, suggestions, kudos, etc... here's the place.

Don

Don,
I agree with dmc...

Its already an option, why not leave well enough alone, those that want can choose it (what is the reason to force a new default on us?)

What result will it have on journal style pages if I've removed the lines - will it be forced to add them back in?

Please don't suprise the pro acct holders, causing us to make changes just to maintain the look / feel we've already spent time to create...I recall this happening last year (once- mid August)...the result seemed to be quite a lot of energy spent by "help@SM" and repeated over and over on the forum.
I have the highest regard for the current state-of-affairs here, the features, the Dgrin crew of Pros, the obvious passion shown by the majority
of all involved here at Smugmug.
Just the fact you're soliciting comment is great, please continue to make / keep Smugmug headed in the direction it has been !!
Thanks again,
rich
http://rich56k.smugmug.com
PS: Don't interpret this as against innovation and upward progress...Its just
the method of implementing them sometimes is not condusive to a professional enviornment - when we're forced to make changes/corrections on short notice...

ADDED@ 11:30pm-Maybe an email to ALL pro-acct holders asking these same questions may be an idea?
just a thought....
rich

joffun

onethumb wrote:

We're planning on making the 'smugmug gradient' theme our new default look & feel after:

A) we get feedback. Is it good? Do you like it? Have suggestions?

and

does it work with your customization? Jimmy probably has some suggestions for small changes (background = none on some places) to get rid of the gradients in your customization.

So if you've got complaints, suggestions, kudos, etc... here's the place.

Don

I have applied the gradient theme to one of my galleries here: http://shimmerimages.smugmug.com/gallery/391054

Is this the way it should look? It may be that it doesn't work very well with my customisation, but either way it changes the look of my site significantly so I would be opposed to a change to make this the default setting. If you do make the change, can I still keep my 'look'? You can see how it should look in the other galleries on my site such as http://shimmerimages.smugmug.com/gallery/867064

Thanks

Cindy

onethumb wrote:

We're planning on making the 'smugmug gradient' theme our new default look & feel after:

A) we get feedback. Is it good? Do you like it? Have suggestions?

and

does it work with your customization? Jimmy probably has some suggestions for small changes (background = none on some places) to get rid of the gradients in your customization.

So if you've got complaints, suggestions, kudos, etc... here's the place.

Don

Please don't change the default. I like default the way it is now... exspecailly since I've customised my site to work with the default black. When I preview gradiant most of what I've done gets borked -icky. What customizing I have done I don't recall how I did most of it. I don't do this stuff everyday but rather do it once and forget it so trying to run change everything would be a nightmare.

That said... yes the gradiant is cool, looks good, etc... just not on my site.
Sorry I can't be happier about the change for ya.

dem

I like it.

Mike Lane

Cindy, Joffun, rick56k, and others who are worried that it will mess with your customizations...

The thing about the themes is that they are last in the order of CSS that your browser uses. That's a very important distinction. Right now your customizations are overruling the smugmugBlack css file. If you set a theme, any theme, it will override your customizations. But if Smugmug sets that theme to be a replacement for smugmugBlack, your customizations will easily override it just as they do for smugmugBlack currently.

What I'm saying is, don't let the fact that the new theme breaks your site when it's set as a theme make you not want it implemented at all. There may be small things that we have to fix (like said earlier, we'll probably have to set background:none or transparent in places for example) but it won't break your overall customizations.

And rich, take this thread as the result of the education that Smugmug got from the changes you were talking about. They listened to their customers and they're reaching for feedback before they implement something that will affect your site. C'est bon no?

My feeling is that I like it. It is fresh and the gradients are so web2.0

Cameron

I like the theme, however, I noticed a difference in how my header appears with each. With the current default, my header has a small space between the header image and the top of the browser window. When I change to the new theme my header image is flush against the top of the window. Likely a coding error on my part, but I'm still confused. Anyone? This occurs in both IE and Firefox.
http://swinton.smugmug.com
Otherwise, I think it is a nice look!

Mike Lane

CSwinton wrote:

I like the theme, however, I noticed a difference in how my header appears with each. With the current default, my header has a small space between the header image and the top of the browser window. When I change to the new theme my header image is flush against the top of the window. Likely a coding error on my part, but I'm still confused. Anyone? This occurs in both IE and Firefox.
http://swinton.smugmug.com
Otherwise, I think it is a nice look!

That'll be an easy fix, no worries.

Andy

Check out Marc Adamus' Site

Mmmmmmm tasty.

rich56k

Mike Lane wrote:

Cindy, Joffun, rick56k, and others who are worried that it will mess with your customizations...

The thing about the themes is that they are last in the order of CSS that your browser uses. That's a very important distinction. Right now your customizations are overruling the smugmugBlack css file. If you set a theme, any theme, it will override your customizations. But if Smugmug sets that theme to be a replacement for smugmugBlack, your customizations will easily override it just as they do for smugmugBlack currently.

What I'm saying is, don't let the fact that the new theme breaks your site when it's set as a theme make you not want it implemented at all. There may be small things that we have to fix (like said earlier, we'll probably have to set background:none or transparent in places for example) but it won't break your overall customizations.

And rich, take this thread as the result of the education that Smugmug got from the changes you were talking about. They listened to their customers and they're reaching for feedback before they implement something that will affect your site. C'est bon no?

My feeling is that I like it. It is fresh and the gradients are so web2.0

Mike,
Thanks for the informative / level-headed / honest reply .....
I've actually now got it on my journal style page and don't have a big problem with it at all. It will probobly stay on this page perm http://rich56k.smugmug.com/gallery/1271860
That being said i don't know the # of accts here on Smugmug but I'd be willing to bet its a small percentage of them that stay up with the forum...
This translates to a whole lot of work for you and the Dgrin crew Pros once any change goes into effect that will inevitably catch folks by suprise....
I stand by my suggestion of emailing (at least the pro accts) well in advance both for feedback and with advance notice of change time/date - hopefully with the 'fix' included up front!?!)
Again if I didn't truly have passion for what i do and LOVE SMUGMUG for what it is and more importantly what i believe it has the potential to help me become - i wouldn't spend the time to post --
Thanks Again for the opportunity to be heard,
rich
Racing starts in 14 days... any timetable for this yet?
PS: marcs site per ANDY -- WOW!!!

geanmichaels

gradient
Lemme see, all my black defaults change to gradient, if default is changed to gradient? Right? Or am I missing something?

Leave it alone. I don't have time or energy to go back and reset them all. + I don't like it that much.
Thanks.

Andy

geanmichaels wrote:

Lemme see, all my black defaults change to gradient, if default is changed to gradient? Right? Or am I missing something?

Leave it alone. I don't have time or energy to go back and reset them all. + I don't like it that much.
Thanks.

You've got "SmugMug Classic" set as your default theme for all galleries - you wouldn't be affected

geanmichaels

gradient

Andy wrote:

You've got "SmugMug Classic" set as your default theme for all galleries - you wouldn't be affected

Cool... thanks. (My learning curve is about as steep as a space shuttle launch vector... and I don't catch on quickly anymore.)

brandofamily

onethumb wrote:

We're planning on making the 'smugmug gradient' theme our new default look & feel after:

A) we get feedback. Is it good? Do you like it? Have suggestions?

and

does it work with your customization? Jimmy probably has some suggestions for small changes (background = none on some places) to get rid of the gradients in your customization.

So if you've got complaints, suggestions, kudos, etc... here's the place.

Don

I understand the need/want for a "new" look. But is there a reason that the gradient can not just be added as a new theme? Maybe I missed that in the thread.
I know the change should not effect me. As I'm using the Earth theme, or my friends account which I manage, since she has a customized background. But It seems many other will wake up one morning to find their site is not what they had in mind. Although Andy stated it would be an easy fix it's still a fix that some may not want to have to deal with.
That's just my 2 cents.

kwalsh

Meh... At least it's neutral. Not a huge fan, but if you make it easy for me to keep the old black across my site I can't think of a big reason to object. I've got minimal customization at the moment.

Ken

spider-t

please don't change the default

onethumb wrote:

We're planning on making the 'smugmug gradient' theme our new default look & feel after:

A) we get feedback. Is it good? Do you like it? Have suggestions?

and

does it work with your customization? Jimmy probably has some suggestions for small changes (background = none on some places) to get rid of the gradients in your customization.

So if you've got complaints, suggestions, kudos, etc... here's the place.

Don

I love you guys, I really really do.

But I get tired of having to search around dgrin for how to un-do the latest unexpected change. I have to go back into my site to make it look the way I had set it up before the last set of changes.

But it's not just my site. I've set up a bunch of friends with customized sites too. Whenever I go fix my site, I have to go in and fix their sites too. I would have NEVER taken on their customizations too if I knew what a moving target smugmug was going to be.

I get no notice that I have to do this work. I just show up at my site and it looks wrong in a new way. It's always a surprise. And a surprise of unexpected extra work is my least favorite surprise.

But it might just be me.

I am not really using my site as a photo sharing community site. As a pro user, I like to pretend I have just a regular old site. You know what I mean? Something a little more professional. Without all the colors and thumbs and stuff.

So that's my $.02

thanks,
Trish

steveL

new gradient theme...
When using my Opera browser (8.54), left clicking on an image in my galleries doesn't open up a new window with the image; instead just the very top of the image appears at the bottom of my screen like it is in a separate frame.

I have tried other people's galleries and they seem to work like you would expect-- a new window with the image in it (not full screen just a small window). I can't figure it out. Any ideas?

When using IE6, I can't see how to change the view from filmstrip to smugmug. I was changing over to the gradient theme the other night and now I have Opera showing galleries in smugmug view while IE shows them in filmstrip view. I think I would like to have smugmug view on all galleries in both browsers or at least be able to change them but I can't see where to do that.

Also, when using Opera the thumbs up or thumbs down doesn't display correctly. I just see a box with the help link in it. I thought that worked OK a few days ago though. Thumbs up or down works fine in IE6.

update: Just thought to delete cookies in IE and that got rid of the filmstrip view and it's now smugmug view. I just am now confused about where to set that, I thought it was viewer controlled.

My gallery:
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/

-Steve

Andy

steveL wrote:

When using my Opera browser (8.54), left clicking on an image in my galleries doesn't open up a new window with the image; instead just the very top of the image appears at the bottom of my screen like it is in a separate frame.

I have tried other people's galleries and they seem to work like you would expect-- a new window with the image in it (not full screen just a small window). I can't figure it out. Any ideas?

Are you talking about LightBox? If so, I can validate that it's working on Opera 8.54, just fine on your site, here:
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1056508/1/52959001
If your talking about something else, please be more specific and give a gallery/photo link so I can help you

steveL wrote:

When using IE6, I can't see how to change the view from filmstrip to smugmug. I was changing over to the gradient theme the other night and now I have Opera showing galleries in smugmug view while IE shows them in filmstrip view. I think I would like to have smugmug view on all galleries in both browsers or at least be able to change them but I can't see where to do that.

So you have some galleries forced to styles
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=287001&posted=1#post287001
You can set this in Customize Gallery. If you want viewers choice, select that in the dropdown on the customization menu. We remember your last style, via a cookie.

steveL wrote:

Also, when using Opera the thumbs up or thumbs down doesn't display correctly. I just see a box with the help link in it. I thought that worked OK a few days ago though. Thumbs up or down works fine in IE6.

Try deleting all temp files and starting again - I'm getting thumbs just fine.

Hope this helps!

Mike Lane

Just goes to show you that Opera is teh sux0r0z. Version 9 is better but not by a lot. Try firefox

bwg

Andy wrote:

Are you talking about LightBox? If so, I can validate that it's working on Opera 8.54, just fine on your site, here:
http://steveandbecky.smugmug.com/gallery/1056508/1/52959001
If your talking about something else, please be more specific and give a gallery/photo link so I can help you

lightbox in opera 8.54 does not work for me

winXP sp2

Sheaf

spider-t wrote:

So that's my $.02

thanks,
Trish

Trish, we completely understand and apologize for presenting a 'moving target.' For that reason, we left popular photos off customized pages as a default while leaving it on for other pages since the feature would have been overlooked by so many people otherwise.

We try very, very hard not to break customized pages when we release a new feature. If the smugmug gradient ever became default, it would basically just make the plain grey boxes into gradient boxes for people that use the default style. It would hopefully not be a page-breaking change.

Regardless, we're still throwing the idea around.

Andy

bigwebguy wrote:

lightbox in opera 8.54 does not work for me

winXP sp2

AHhhh I was using Mac.

Regardless - Our officially supported browsers are FF(Win and Mac), Safari, and IE.

spider-t

Sheaf wrote:

Trish, we completely understand and apologize for presenting a 'moving target.' For that reason, we left popular photos off customized pages as a default while leaving it on for other pages since the feature would have been overlooked by so many people otherwise.

We try very, very hard not to break customized pages when we release a new feature. If the smugmug gradient ever became default, it would basically just make the plain grey boxes into gradient boxes for people that use the default style. It would hopefully not be a page-breaking change.

Regardless, we're still throwing the idea around.

None of the changes have been "page-breakers" for me. They have all been stylistic changes that I would not have chosen. And while some folks may not care so much about stylistic changes, I'm fussy. So I have to un-do them all. And again, it's not just on my site, but the 9 others I've customized for other people.

Is there a single style I can change all my galleries to that is more stable than 'default'? And if so, is there a way to make that change globally?

It's interesting that you say you left popular photos off customized pages as a default. Because the those red & green thumbs showed up on my images. What constitutes a customized page? I have lots of customizations.

thanks!
Trish

Andy

spider-t wrote:

It's interesting that you say you left popular photos off customized pages as a default. Because the those red & green thumbs showed up on my images. What constitutes a customized page? I have lots of customizations.

thanks!
Trish

We left off the /popular gallery from showing on your homepage. That started life for you, in your control panel, because you've customized. And, we gave you several ways to turn off photorank. Though I'm not sure why - as two of your photos were on the most popular list first two pages a few days back. Great way to draw more people to our fine work

Sheaf

spider-t wrote:

Is there a single style I can change all my galleries to that is more stable than 'default'? And if so, is there a way to make that change globally?

I am actually quite terrible at customization myself, so maybe this question would be better handled by someone else. But it seems to me that you should either create a specific theme in your control panel and apply that to your whole site or set one like smugmug classic (which is unlikely to change as much as the "default") and customize it how you want it. *shrug*

I'm sure Andy or myself would be more than willing to help you out.

Andy

spider-t wrote:

Is there a single style I can change all my galleries to that is more stable than 'default'? And if so, is there a way to make that change globally?

Hi Trish

I just put all of your customization on my demo site, it's such a non-issue - you can just choose "smugmug classic" as your base theme, and your customizations will go on top of that.

You should just try it now, and see If you want some help, just holler. You know where to find me...

steveL

Andy wrote:

AHhhh I was using Mac.

Regardless - Our officially supported browsers are FF(Win and Mac), Safari, and IE.

OK, I didn't know that. No problem. I was talking about lightbox btw (couldn't think what it was called).

I think I like this theme just fine. Do my galleries look OK? Everything seems to work OK and I think it looks nice. I don't know enough to make my own customization so I am happy with the gradient theme for now.

I don't have any temp files (I think).

Thanks