What's with all the "Slideshows" lately

kdog

Folks, I'm not a Smugmug user, yet. But I often navigate to Smugmugger's galleries when I see pictures that I like on dgrin. Lately it seems I'm more and more ending up in "Slideshow" galleries, with no way to see an thumbnail index. There are only controls to adjust slideshow settings. I know that Smugmug gives its users a gazillion ways to customize their galleries. Have these users completely disabled normal gallery browsing in favor of slideshow only? One user has 300 pictures in his slideshow. I might for example just want to search for his bird shots. I can't sit there and wait all day, so I just move on to something else.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks,
-joel

denisegoldberg

Joel -
Have you tried clicking on the image in the slideshow? (Of course not all of the sites allow this, but some do.)

My site opens with a slideshow (unless you follow a gallery link that I often post in my blog, which usually takes you to a gallery where you can select the viewing style) - but you can click on the photo in the slideshow. If you click, you are taken to a view of the photos that make up the slideshow. In my case it's a keyword view, but it could easily be a gallery.

You're right that some users choose a certain display style and lock the user into that. I prefer to let my viewers choose for most of my galleries, but there are some that I have locked into a specific style. It's really an individual author/owner decision.

--- Denise

kdog

It's a Firefox Issue
Ok, I see what's happening here. I used your site as an example, and sure enough I got the same thing. Slideshows only, without any way of seeing a gallery index.

And THEN I had a brainstorm. I switched from Firefox to Internet Explorer, and sure enough, things work right. So something has recently changed that's broken Firefox by forcing you directly into a Slideshow view with no way of escaping.

Surely I can't be the only Firefox user out there who's noticed this?

Thanks for the help, Denise.
-joel

denisegoldberg

kdog wrote:

And THEN I had a brainstorm. I switched from Firefox to Internet Explorer, and sure enough, things work right. So something has recently changed that's broken Firefox by forcing you directly into a Slideshow view with no way of escaping.

Surely I can't be the only Firefox user out there who's noticed this?

Thanks for the help, Denise.
-joel

I just tried this with my site in Firefox, and I can still click through from the slideshow to the photos. I'm running Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Windows XP. I'm running Vista at home - I'll check when I get home tonight to see if it operates properly.

--- Denise

Andy

kdog wrote:

Surely I can't be the only Firefox user out there who's noticed this?

Thanks for the help, Denise.
-joel

Could be - b/c it's not that way for me on FF. Try clearing your SmugMug cookies in Firefox

kdog

denisegoldberg wrote:

I just tried this with my site in Firefox, and I can still click through from the slideshow to the photos. I'm running Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Windows XP. I'm running Vista at home - I'll check when I get home tonight to see if it operates properly.

--- Denise

Ok, I've got it now. There's a "Style" drop down box at the very top of the page I never noticed before on most galleries. There I can select something other than slide show. So I'm happy.

There's still a difference between IE and Firefox though, as Firefox seems to always default to Slideshow view, while IE doesn't.

Just saw Andy's post. So you folks aren't getting slideshow by default in FF?

Thanks,
-joel

kdog

Andy wrote:

Could be - b/c it's not that way for me on FF. Try clearing your SmugMug cookies in Firefox

Well, whaddya know. That actually fixed the problem. I'm guessing the contents of that dropdown got reorganized so that old values pointed to something you don't necessarily want.

Thanks, Andy.
-joel

saurora

My default changes somehow every once in awhile (just the other night, in fact) and I just about go crazy momentarily wondering why people have switched to their galleries to slideshow mode. I don't ever vary the mode myself, so I have no clue how it gets changed. Just another challenge in my dull routine!

kdog

Thank you, Susan! So it's not just me.

-joel

Allen

I notice that quite often after visiting other sites, when returning to my site
the galleries are in slideshow style (FF). Very annoying. I hate slideshow and
filmstrip styles, all they are are pretty and it's frustrating to sit through. I'd
rather browse thru thumbs looking for interesting photos and don't have the
time to wait for them to scroll by or change.