Just two requests
I only have two requests, to fix two problems that keep smugmug from being "perfect"--in fact, makes it problematic for my (fairly pedestrian I would think) needs:
Fix the seriously broken keyword system. Before stamps and coffee mugs and all that stuff. It is horribly broken and makes the service almost unusable for me. (RE the "feature" of adding filname elements on import, ignoring tags with numbers in them, inconsistent results when adding quotes and/or commas, etc.)
Increase the maximum non-original image size! 800 pixels is baffling! Are we in 1995? Cameras these days take pictures more than 3 or 4 times that width. (Particularly pro accounts.) I like the feature of automagically watermarking and hiding the originals, while offering full-rez prints. But for the benefit of protecting my work from theft, I have to torture my friends and family--and cripple my prospects for wowing people into buying prints--with max width of 800!? At least give us more options--such as 1280, and 2048. Let your USERS decide what they feel comfortable with as a maximum preview size. (I would choose 2048.) I realize you might feel you could lose some profit, if visitors believe they can get "good enough" prints or wallpaper just by downloading. But if you don't, you'll definitely lose some % of your users above and beyond what you should, and I would wager you'll LOSE MONEY because visitors are unimpressed by the puny pictures that do nothing for a sense of immersion in the scene.
I only have two requests, to fix two problems that keep smugmug from being "perfect"--in fact, makes it problematic for my (fairly pedestrian I would think) needs:
Fix the seriously broken keyword system. Before stamps and coffee mugs and all that stuff. It is horribly broken and makes the service almost unusable for me. (RE the "feature" of adding filname elements on import, ignoring tags with numbers in them, inconsistent results when adding quotes and/or commas, etc.)
Increase the maximum non-original image size! 800 pixels is baffling! Are we in 1995? Cameras these days take pictures more than 3 or 4 times that width. (Particularly pro accounts.) I like the feature of automagically watermarking and hiding the originals, while offering full-rez prints. But for the benefit of protecting my work from theft, I have to torture my friends and family--and cripple my prospects for wowing people into buying prints--with max width of 800!? At least give us more options--such as 1280, and 2048. Let your USERS decide what they feel comfortable with as a maximum preview size. (I would choose 2048.) I realize you might feel you could lose some profit, if visitors believe they can get "good enough" prints or wallpaper just by downloading. But if you don't, you'll definitely lose some % of your users above and beyond what you should, and I would wager you'll LOSE MONEY because visitors are unimpressed by the puny pictures that do nothing for a sense of immersion in the scene.
OpenID idea
Here's an idea for OpenID. Now that you have embraced OpenID, I'm thinking that you could become a consumer of OpenID and use it for access control to galleries. In that way, I could set up a gallery and configure it so that family members are allowed right in with no password by telling Smugmug which OpenIDs are allowed in to this gallery.
Since OpenID isn't that popular yet, you could start by making it an option on password protected galleries so Smugmug would check to see if their openID cookie identified them as someone who should get into this gallery and if not, they'd still have the option of entering a password.
You could eventually offer galleries that only had OpenID auth, no password. So, if a viewer tried to open that gallery and hadn't previously done any OpenID authentication (e.g. no OpenID cookie), they are simply prompted for their OpenID login info to identify them and decide whether they should get into this gallery or not.
This would give you access control features without having to implement user logins for non-members (which is one of the things OpenID is designed to do).
Here's an idea for OpenID. Now that you have embraced OpenID, I'm thinking that you could become a consumer of OpenID and use it for access control to galleries. In that way, I could set up a gallery and configure it so that family members are allowed right in with no password by telling Smugmug which OpenIDs are allowed in to this gallery.
Since OpenID isn't that popular yet, you could start by making it an option on password protected galleries so Smugmug would check to see if their openID cookie identified them as someone who should get into this gallery and if not, they'd still have the option of entering a password.
You could eventually offer galleries that only had OpenID auth, no password. So, if a viewer tried to open that gallery and hadn't previously done any OpenID authentication (e.g. no OpenID cookie), they are simply prompted for their OpenID login info to identify them and decide whether they should get into this gallery or not.
This would give you access control features without having to implement user logins for non-members (which is one of the things OpenID is designed to do).
Here's an idea for OpenID. Now that you have embraced OpenID, I'm thinking that you could become a consumer of OpenID and use it for access control to galleries. In that way, I could set up a gallery and configure it so that family members are allowed right in with no password by telling Smugmug which OpenIDs are allowed in to this gallery.
Since OpenID isn't that popular yet, you could start by making it an option on password protected galleries so Smugmug would check to see if their openID cookie identified them as someone who should get into this gallery and if not, they'd still have the option of entering a password.
You could eventually offer galleries that only had OpenID auth, no password. So, if a viewer tried to open that gallery and hadn't previously done any OpenID authentication (e.g. no OpenID cookie), they are simply prompted for their OpenID login info to identify them and decide whether they should get into this gallery or not.
This would give you access control features without having to implement user logins for non-members (which is one of the things OpenID is designed to do).
We've thought about this, discussed it, and are in love with the idea.
Alas, we're prevented by some stupid patent from doing it. I wish it weren't so.
Somebody has a patent on "access control for galleries"?
Yes, when in conjunction with printing, they do. It's stupid, and exemplifies everything that's wrong with our patent system. It was filed by a law firm, purely to sue people, and doesn't describe a working product or a product that was even intended to even work.
File name in email???
Is there anyway the file name can be included in the email that is sent to us?
It would be (right now...and several times in the past) VERY helpful.
I realize that is info is in the CP...it is just awkward to HAVE to go to the CP just to find out what has been ordered. For one, in communicating with the client it would be helpful to have it in the email. And also because when you click on the photo to adj the crop and/or replace the photo, you still can't see the file name.
Anyway...just hoping it could be added to the feature request list.
I've got another easy one, I think. When you are logged in to your site, you see the following Navbar:
Tools: New Gallery | Control Panel | Order Backup | Themes
I'd love to see another one - Customize
It would save clicking Control Panel, scrolling down, finding and then clicking customize
Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm doing this dozens of times a day lately, and after a while the eyes get a little crossed and "customize" becomes harder to find in the list.
I've got another easy one, I think. When you are logged in to your site, you see the following Navbar:
Tools: New Gallery | Control Panel | Order Backup | Themes
I'd love to see another one - Customize
It would save clicking Control Panel, scrolling down, finding and then clicking customize
Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm doing this dozens of times a day lately, and after a while the eyes get a little crossed and "customize" becomes harder to find in the list.
Thanks for considering it.
for now, you can bookmark your "customize" link and go right to it that way...
Like my dad used to tell me, "There's an easy way and a hard way for everything." Now why didn't I think of that.
However, one of my longstanding requests is for a well-organized admin screen (or screens). I find I spend too much time clicking around inside my site looking for ways to do some common admin-only things: Every time I want to arrange photos I have to remember to go to a photo first -- to my mind you'd do this at the gallery level. Every time I want to arrange galleries I have to search for that little link on the home page. Every time I square all my thumbnails I have to hunt around for a way to check whether I missed any, until I finally remember I can go to the bulk arrange photos screen to see them all at once -- but since what I want to do really has nothing to do with arranging photos, it usually takes me a couple of minutes to remember how to find that screen again.
Seems to me a nicely organized admin screen would make life a lot simpler.
I've got another easy one, I think. When you are logged in to your site, you see the following Navbar:
Tools: New Gallery | Control Panel | Order Backup | Themes
I'd love to see another one - Customize
It would save clicking Control Panel, scrolling down, finding and then clicking customize
Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm doing this dozens of times a day lately, and after a while the eyes get a little crossed and "customize" becomes harder to find in the list.
Cool Beans, Andy. I'll check it out. Honestly, this site is so big and there's so much stuff just in customization that I haven't found it all, nevermind read it all. Kudos to you all for putting together so much know-how for your membership.
Would it be possible to let the user decide on one single picture that will become the thumbnail for that gallery, even if the gallery is password protected?
Since most of my galleries are passwored it looks a bit dull on my front page with all those "Protected galleries"-icons. I can see the advantage of letting users know which galleries they can access without a password, but it still would be nice to let the site owner chose one static pic to be the thumbnail if they wanted to.
Would it be possible to let the user decide on one single picture that will become the thumbnail for that gallery, even if the gallery is password protected?
Since most of my galleries are passwored it looks a bit dull on my front page with all those "Protected galleries"-icons. I can see the advantage of letting users know which galleries they can access without a password, but it still would be nice to let the site owner chose one static pic to be the thumbnail if they wanted to.
Thanks.
Hi Foton, and welcome to dgrin
That's actually already possible! Go to the photo that you wish to use as gallery thumbnail, and look in the 'photo tools' menu. Click on 'feature photo' and that's it
Would it be possible to let the user decide on one single picture that will become the thumbnail for that gallery, even if the gallery is password protected?
Hi Foton, and welcome Just use "feature photo" (in the photo tools menu underneath the photo) and then you'll have that photo as the representative thumbnail.
Jorge has done it. ^ ^ ^
SmugManager to the resqu0000
SmugManager is a nice piece of work, but note that it doesn't do any of the things I mentioned (or if it does I don't see it):
Every time I want to arrange photos I have to remember to go to a photo first -- to my mind you'd do this at the gallery level.
Every time I want to arrange galleries I have to search for that little link on the home page.
Every time I square all my thumbnails I have to hunt around for a way to check whether I missed any, until I finally remember I can go to the bulk arrange photos screen to see them all at once -- but since what I want to do really has nothing to do with arranging photos, it usually takes me a couple of minutes to remember how to find that screen again.
Those are just a few of the obvious things I'd like to see on a well-organized admin screen. Also: bulk zoom thumbnails. Arrange featured galleries (drag & drop would be sweet).
(Another argument for doing this is to separate editing / management from presentation. What I mean is when I'm working on my site I paste some code into customizations, update, then want to check if I got what I wanted. I can't really do that unless I first log out or switch to a different browser. So when I'm trying to get everything looking the same in FF and IE this is really an aggravation, because I'm logging into FF to tweak stuff for IE, then logging out of FF and into IE to tweak stuff for FF, etc. But if I could login without changing the appearance of my site, that'd be a huge time saver.)
SmugManager is a nice piece of work, but note that it doesn't do any of the things I mentioned (or if it does I don't see it):
Every time I want to arrange photos I have to remember to go to a photo first -- to my mind you'd do this at the gallery level.
Every time I want to arrange galleries I have to search for that little link on the home page.
Every time I square all my thumbnails I have to hunt around for a way to check whether I missed any, until I finally remember I can go to the bulk arrange photos screen to see them all at once -- but since what I want to do really has nothing to do with arranging photos, it usually takes me a couple of minutes to remember how to find that screen again.
Those are just a few of the obvious things I'd like to see on a well-organized admin screen. Also: bulk zoom thumbnails. Arrange featured galleries (drag & drop would be sweet).
(Another argument for doing this is to separate editing / management from presentation. What I mean is when I'm working on my site I paste some code into customizations, update, then want to check if I got what I wanted. I can't really do that unless I first log out or switch to a different browser. So when I'm trying to get everything looking the same in FF and IE this is really an aggravation, because I'm logging into FF to tweak stuff for IE, then logging out of FF and into IE to tweak stuff for FF, etc. But if I could login without changing the appearance of my site, that'd be a huge time saver.)
Thanks Gary - appreciate the further explanation. It's entirely possible that I was thinking wrong!
I can't really do that unless I first log out or switch to a different browser. So when I'm trying to get everything looking the same in FF and IE this is really an aggravation, because I'm logging into FF to tweak stuff for IE, then logging out of FF and into IE to tweak stuff for FF, etc. But if I could login without changing the appearance of my site, that'd be a huge time saver.)
Simple...buy another computer. Come on now...you know were looking for a reason to buy a new one. Seriously though. I do use three or more different computers in front of me, home and at work. At work, I can literally access all three mouses with in 3' of each other, and all 5 screens (one computer has 3 monitors) are with in 4 ft of each other. At home, I will have up to 4 computers in front of me...two desktops, two laptops, two Macs, two PCs.
That's actually already possible! Go to the photo that you wish to use as gallery thumbnail, and look in the 'photo tools' menu. Click on 'feature photo' and that's it
Oh now I feel dumb for not looking for the feature before asking here. But I'm happy this is possible.
Thanks Gary - appreciate the further explanation. It's entirely possible that I was thinking wrong!
I completely agree about the one admin screen. I'm used to the interface now, but it is not so intuitive. A lot of the items in the photo dropdown are really gallery changes. bulk arrange, etc. Also, didn't there used to be a way to arrange the featured galleries all at once? Now it seems you have to go to each gallery and hope you're rearranging the right way. It would be nice to see them all at one time, just like you can the individual photos in a gallery.
One more thing - do you have a snapfish converter? I was trying to convert my cousin (verbally) and she said that all her photos are already up on snapfish. Which converters are available, and how hard are they to use?
Comments
I only have two requests, to fix two problems that keep smugmug from being "perfect"--in fact, makes it problematic for my (fairly pedestrian I would think) needs:
- Fix the seriously broken keyword system. Before stamps and coffee mugs and all that stuff. It is horribly broken and makes the service almost unusable for me. (RE the "feature" of adding filname elements on import, ignoring tags with numbers in them, inconsistent results when adding quotes and/or commas, etc.)
- Increase the maximum non-original image size! 800 pixels is baffling! Are we in 1995? Cameras these days take pictures more than 3 or 4 times that width. (Particularly pro accounts.) I like the feature of automagically watermarking and hiding the originals, while offering full-rez prints. But for the benefit of protecting my work from theft, I have to torture my friends and family--and cripple my prospects for wowing people into buying prints--with max width of 800!? At least give us more options--such as 1280, and 2048. Let your USERS decide what they feel comfortable with as a maximum preview size. (I would choose 2048.) I realize you might feel you could lose some profit, if visitors believe they can get "good enough" prints or wallpaper just by downloading. But if you don't, you'll definitely lose some % of your users above and beyond what you should, and I would wager you'll LOSE MONEY because visitors are unimpressed by the puny pictures that do nothing for a sense of immersion in the scene.
Thank you!Jim Collier
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Here's an idea for OpenID. Now that you have embraced OpenID, I'm thinking that you could become a consumer of OpenID and use it for access control to galleries. In that way, I could set up a gallery and configure it so that family members are allowed right in with no password by telling Smugmug which OpenIDs are allowed in to this gallery.
Since OpenID isn't that popular yet, you could start by making it an option on password protected galleries so Smugmug would check to see if their openID cookie identified them as someone who should get into this gallery and if not, they'd still have the option of entering a password.
You could eventually offer galleries that only had OpenID auth, no password. So, if a viewer tried to open that gallery and hadn't previously done any OpenID authentication (e.g. no OpenID cookie), they are simply prompted for their OpenID login info to identify them and decide whether they should get into this gallery or not.
This would give you access control features without having to implement user logins for non-members (which is one of the things OpenID is designed to do).
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We've thought about this, discussed it, and are in love with the idea.
Alas, we're prevented by some stupid patent from doing it. I wish it weren't so.
Don
Keep up the good work!
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Yes, when in conjunction with printing, they do. It's stupid, and exemplifies everything that's wrong with our patent system. It was filed by a law firm, purely to sue people, and doesn't describe a working product or a product that was even intended to even work.
Don
Is there anyway the file name can be included in the email that is sent to us?
It would be (right now...and several times in the past) VERY helpful.
I realize that is info is in the CP...it is just awkward to HAVE to go to the CP just to find out what has been ordered. For one, in communicating with the client it would be helpful to have it in the email. And also because when you click on the photo to adj the crop and/or replace the photo, you still can't see the file name.
Anyway...just hoping it could be added to the feature request list.
Thanks!
Drew
www.drewloker.com
loker.smugmug.com/
staff.beaumont.k12.tx.us/gloker/
http://www.photoworkshop.com/public/bio_intro.html
I really LOVE
I think it looks VERY pro
...pics..
Tools: New Gallery | Control Panel | Order Backup | Themes
I'd love to see another one - Customize
It would save clicking Control Panel, scrolling down, finding and then clicking customize
Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm doing this dozens of times a day lately, and after a while the eyes get a little crossed and "customize" becomes harder to find in the list.
Thanks for considering it.
Stephen Skoutas
http://stephenskoutas.com
sskoutas@gmail.com Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse
Please feel free to retouch and repost my images. Critique, Suggestions, and Technique tips always welcomed.
http://yournickname.smugmug.com/homepage/cobrand.mg
Hi Simon,
If you run an external server...this type of integration is available via the API.
Here's one example of integration with Slideshow Pro.
Cheers,
David
SmugMug API Developer
My Photos
Sorry David, don't know what an API is and certainly am unlikely to have an external server
What I am saying is what I would love is for SM to incorporate such a feature
...pics..
Like my dad used to tell me, "There's an easy way and a hard way for everything." Now why didn't I think of that.
Stephen Skoutas
http://stephenskoutas.com
sskoutas@gmail.com Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse
Please feel free to retouch and repost my images. Critique, Suggestions, and Technique tips always welcomed.
However, one of my longstanding requests is for a well-organized admin screen (or screens). I find I spend too much time clicking around inside my site looking for ways to do some common admin-only things: Every time I want to arrange photos I have to remember to go to a photo first -- to my mind you'd do this at the gallery level. Every time I want to arrange galleries I have to search for that little link on the home page. Every time I square all my thumbnails I have to hunt around for a way to check whether I missed any, until I finally remember I can go to the bulk arrange photos screen to see them all at once -- but since what I want to do really has nothing to do with arranging photos, it usually takes me a couple of minutes to remember how to find that screen again.
Seems to me a nicely organized admin screen would make life a lot simpler.
ShutterGlass.com
OnlyBegotten.com
http://smugmug.jot.com/WikiHome/SmugMugHacksAndApps
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
SmugManager to the resqu0000
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Cool Beans, Andy. I'll check it out. Honestly, this site is so big and there's so much stuff just in customization that I haven't found it all, nevermind read it all. Kudos to you all for putting together so much know-how for your membership.
Stephen Skoutas
http://stephenskoutas.com
sskoutas@gmail.com Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse
Please feel free to retouch and repost my images. Critique, Suggestions, and Technique tips always welcomed.
That's the ticket, right there! Excellent tool!
Stephen Skoutas
http://stephenskoutas.com
sskoutas@gmail.com Certe, toto, sentio nos in kansate non iam adesse
Please feel free to retouch and repost my images. Critique, Suggestions, and Technique tips always welcomed.
Would it be possible to let the user decide on one single picture that will become the thumbnail for that gallery, even if the gallery is password protected?
Since most of my galleries are passwored it looks a bit dull on my front page with all those "Protected galleries"-icons. I can see the advantage of letting users know which galleries they can access without a password, but it still would be nice to let the site owner chose one static pic to be the thumbnail if they wanted to.
Thanks.
That's actually already possible! Go to the photo that you wish to use as gallery thumbnail, and look in the 'photo tools' menu. Click on 'feature photo' and that's it
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
I hope this helps!
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
SmugManager is a nice piece of work, but note that it doesn't do any of the things I mentioned (or if it does I don't see it):
Those are just a few of the obvious things I'd like to see on a well-organized admin screen. Also: bulk zoom thumbnails. Arrange featured galleries (drag & drop would be sweet).
(Another argument for doing this is to separate editing / management from presentation. What I mean is when I'm working on my site I paste some code into customizations, update, then want to check if I got what I wanted. I can't really do that unless I first log out or switch to a different browser. So when I'm trying to get everything looking the same in FF and IE this is really an aggravation, because I'm logging into FF to tweak stuff for IE, then logging out of FF and into IE to tweak stuff for FF, etc. But if I could login without changing the appearance of my site, that'd be a huge time saver.)
ShutterGlass.com
OnlyBegotten.com
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Simple...buy another computer. Come on now...you know were looking for a reason to buy a new one. Seriously though. I do use three or more different computers in front of me, home and at work. At work, I can literally access all three mouses with in 3' of each other, and all 5 screens (one computer has 3 monitors) are with in 4 ft of each other. At home, I will have up to 4 computers in front of me...two desktops, two laptops, two Macs, two PCs.
And they are all doing different things.
Just a thought.
Drew
www.drewloker.com
loker.smugmug.com/
staff.beaumont.k12.tx.us/gloker/
Oh now I feel dumb for not looking for the feature before asking here. But I'm happy this is possible.
Thanks for the quick response from both of you!
I completely agree about the one admin screen. I'm used to the interface now, but it is not so intuitive. A lot of the items in the photo dropdown are really gallery changes. bulk arrange, etc. Also, didn't there used to be a way to arrange the featured galleries all at once? Now it seems you have to go to each gallery and hope you're rearranging the right way. It would be nice to see them all at one time, just like you can the individual photos in a gallery.
One more thing - do you have a snapfish converter? I was trying to convert my cousin (verbally) and she said that all her photos are already up on snapfish. Which converters are available, and how hard are they to use?
Jenna