C'mon guys....

JamesGPhoto · January 30, 2013

With all due respect to Baldy and his team, I understand the legal matters, but I joined smugmug hoping to see an upgrade soon. I'm starting to wonder if I made a wise decision. It's extremely tough managing galleries and such. There MUST be SOMETHING coming soon???

Thats why i've steered clear of SM in the past, in all honesty...Don't make me regret SM. I want to LOVE you guys.

A timeline would be very nice, so we know whats coming when. Is that too much to ask for?

Here's an example of what I'd like to see:

mbonocore · January 31, 2013

JamesGPhoto wrote: »

With all due respect to Baldy and his team, I understand the legal matters, but I joined smugmug hoping to see an upgrade soon. I'm starting to wonder if I made a wise decision. It's extremely tough managing galleries and such. There MUST be SOMETHING coming soon???

Thats why i've steered clear of SM in the past, in all honesty...Don't make me regret SM. I want to LOVE you guys.

A timeline would be very nice, so we know whats coming when. Is that too much to ask for?

Here's an example of what I'd like to see:

James, we do continue to add features and functionality that do benefit all of our customers. We understand you are looking for an easier way to manage galleries. Gallery management is something we have researched extensively we feel that we have a solid understanding of what our customers, like you, are looking for.

Michael

JamesGPhoto · February 1, 2013

Why aren't the staff allowed to discuss timeframes with their paying members?? We deserve better communication than what we've been getting. Does any hero agree with me??

Please don't say that it's policy. Policy to what? Keep stuff hidden so that we lose customers?? Not a good business move in my opinion.

Wouldn't you all be just as upset if you were regular PAYING customers?? I'm sure everyone would say yes. If thats the case, change the policy, so that we (customers) don't feel like you guys are feeding us fluff. Be open about upcoming changes and when. Get us EXCITED to be a part of smugmug!!!

Like I said, I want to LOVE smugmug, but am HATING the secrecy...:-(

mbonocore · February 1, 2013

JamesGPhoto wrote: »

Why aren't the staff allowed to discuss timeframes with their paying members?? We deserve better communication than what we've been getting. Does any hero agree with me??

Please don't say that it's policy. Policy to what? Keep stuff hidden so that we lose customers?? Not a good business move in my opinion.

Wouldn't you all be just as upset if you were regular PAYING customers?? I'm sure everyone would say yes. If thats the case, change the policy, so that we (customers) don't feel like you guys are feeding us fluff. Be open about upcoming changes and when. Get us EXCITED to be a part of smugmug!!!

Like I said, I want to LOVE smugmug, but am HATING the secrecy...:-(

James,

I feel that SmugMug, as is, today, is well worth the annual fee. I felt this before I had even met Baldy, Don, or anyone at SmugMug. You can see my post on Google+ about why I felt SmugMug was worth the annual fee, even after it was raised. https://plus.google.com/106719979779567208605/posts/Pkgf8LGVnk3

I do understand you and other customers want to see fun, new and shiny stuff. I really do understand. But I do feel that even as the product is now, it is well worth the money. That is just my opinion, and from my post above, you can see, has always been my opinion, since long before I was employed by SmugMug.

I have 100% full customization coupled with unlimited storage. After finishing my site redesign, I cannot tell you how happy I am that I have a one stop shop, that also takes care of any print orders that may come in. I have a fully functional and beautiful website with unlimited storage for $250 a year with a built in shopping cart that I can have linked to the best print labs in the World.

Michael

JamesGPhoto · February 1, 2013

I apologize Michael.

It's just I'm seeing so many customers unhappy, that are leaving SM, and I hate seeing that.

Plus, the redesign announcement is over 2 years old.

I agree, the price is good!!

I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

mbonocore · February 1, 2013

JamesGPhoto wrote: »

I apologize Michael.

It's just I'm seeing so many customers unhappy, that are leaving SM, and I hate seeing that.

Plus, the redesign announcement is over 2 years old.

I agree, the price is good!!

I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

James,

We have a very large customer base. I talk to many customers, day in and day out, and I can assure you, many of those customers are not leaving, and are very happy with SmugMug.

Michael

CoolP7000 · February 5, 2013

Mr Bonocore -- you may recognize me .. or not .. same pain in the neck as the one on the "multiple gallery level" forum issue.. (different username, same old me) ...but if an upgrade was started just a few months ago .. I can understand the rationale for being a little closemouthed about it .. but this is one that even you folks recognized customers wanted and why you started to work on it. But that was over 2 years ago...and some indication .. however small ... of where you are in the process would go a LONG way to satisfying the complaints being posted there and now here. Are you into or passed: Early design? Final Design? Development? Testing? Integration? Staging/Transition? I won't even ask about Deployment cuz you're clearly not there yet.. But even something like this won't reveal implementation details that I understand you want close held.

This utterly unreasonable unwillingness to share even this amount of information with your loyal customers is what's driving them to distraction. Can't you or this fellow you call "Baldy" understand this? What is so hard about that? As I stated in the SmugMug feedback forum -- providing us with that much info -- no target dates -- would tame the storm raging in that forum and now boiling/bleeding over here.

mbonocore · February 5, 2013

CoolP7000 wrote: »

Mr Bonocore -- you may recognize me .. or not .. same pain in the neck as the one on the "multiple gallery level" forum issue.. (different username, same old me) ...but if an upgrade was started just a few months ago .. I can understand the rationale for being a little closemouthed about it .. but this is one that even you folks recognized customers wanted and why you started to work on it. But that was over 2 years ago...and some indication .. however small ... of where you are in the process would go a LONG way to satisfying the complaints being posted there and now here. Are you into or passed: Early design? Final Design? Development? Testing? Integration? Staging/Transition? I won't even ask about Deployment cuz you're clearly not there yet.. But even something like this won't reveal implementation details that I understand you want close held.

This utterly unreasonable unwillingness to share even this amount of information with your loyal customers is what's driving them to distraction. Can't you or this fellow you call "Baldy" understand this? What is so hard about that? As I stated in the SmugMug feedback forum -- providing us with that much info -- no target dates -- would tame the storm raging in that forum and now boiling/bleeding over here.

The feature is in development..I cannot tell you the exact stage, as their are many other changes connected to this feature. All of the changes are in different stages of development. I can tell you it is coming along VERY well, as I stated in the feedback forum. I know this is not what you are looking for, and I do sincerely apologize.

Michael

CoolP7000 · February 6, 2013

mbonocore wrote: »

The feature is in development..I cannot tell you the exact stage, as their are many other changes connected to this feature. All of the changes are in different stages of development. I can tell you it is coming along VERY well, as I stated in the feedback forum. I know this is not what you are looking for, and I do sincerely apologize.

Michael

No-one's asking for the nitty gritty details on the stage of development of each of the many moving parts (many individual changes) that need to happen as part of this update. You're getting too hung up in the weeds. Looking at the effort in the aggregate .. not in its discrete piece parts .. is all folks are asking for. When I used to develop software .when we still used pen and paper .. not automated modeling tools to help .. I kept track of the individual modules under development to which I gave percentage scores based on where they were (design, coding, unit testing, integration testing) but when I reported out to my mgmt on the overall status -- I didn't report on each of the modules but on their aggregation. Which is all we're asking for from you.

So stop hiding behind the "but there's many moving parts!" excuse -- we know there are -- just give us a big picture aggregated report. E.g, this percent of the stuff we're doing is still in development, so much has reached testing, and this much is actually done and ready for integration before moving onto to complete integration. Nowhere in there are you revealing exactly what those changes are .. but it DOES provide something better than the nothing you keep giving us.

uncool · February 6, 2013

The non-communicaiton / "features are coming" issues have reached a fever pitch (some would say it was reached a long time ago) and it is frustrating.

What makes this situation even worse for both sides is that once Smug 2.0 is released the built up vitriol will blind some to the new features while others will let out a collective "Meh, we waited for that?"

While SM won't provide a launch date they could do what the record industry does for new releases, they always release new albums on Tuesday.

So SM could say, we can't tell you when the new features will be released but we can say it will happen on a Tuesday. This way we are not waiting day in and day out for an announcement. The anticipation/disappointment will be more metered.

And if a Tuesday launch date is too specific, how a bout announcing that the launch will take place on a blue moon. There are a few coming up:
Blue Moon – July 31, 2015
Blue Moon – January 31, 2018
Blue Moon – March 31, 2018
Blue Moon – October 31, 2020

This will buy SM some development time, they won't have to respond to threads that are years old, it will allow us to finally decide if we are going to revamp our sites now with existing tools or to leave the service.

So how about it SM - Halloween 2020 would be a pretty cool launch date.

CoolP7000 · February 6, 2013

uncool wrote: »

The non-communicaiton / "features are coming" issues have reached a fever pitch (some would say it was reached a long time ago) and it is frustrating.

What makes this situation even worse for both sides is that once Smug 2.0 is released the built up vitriol will blind some to the new features while others will let out a collective "Meh, we waited for that?"

While SM won't provide a launch date they could do what the record industry does for new releases, they always release new albums on Tuesday.

So SM could say, we can't tell you when the new features will be released but we can say it will happen on a Tuesday. This way we are not waiting day in and day out for an announcement. The anticipation/disappointment will be more metered.

And if a Tuesday launch date is too specific, how a bout announcing that the launch will take place on a blue moon. There are a few coming up:
Blue Moon – July 31, 2015
Blue Moon – January 31, 2018
Blue Moon – March 31, 2018
Blue Moon – October 31, 2020

This will buy SM some development time, they won't have to respond to threads that are years old, it will allow us to finally decide if we are going to revamp our sites now with existing tools or to leave the service.

So how about it SM - Halloween 2020 would be a pretty cool launch date.

Appreciate your sense of humor!

uncool · February 6, 2013

The waiting game is fairly new to me. I have always kept my SM space private - family stuff, kids teams etc. Only in the last couple of months have I started planning a public portfolio. It was then that I realized that:
1. The customer service is great
2. The tools are cumbersome
3. The community is helpful
4. The organizational features are challenging

So I have resigned myself to the fact that these are the tools I have to work with, better get building. If a new set of tools becomes available, I'll just roll with the punches. This is much easier for me to deal with than those that make money from their images.

But in the end, SM is company that wants to succeed and they feel this is the best path. Working in the corporate world I have learned that what makes sense and is obvious is only a matter of location and perspective - from the bottom looking up, the outside looking in, the same situation looks different. Wow, what a load of crap...just release the new stuff.

CoolP7000 · February 6, 2013

uncool wrote: »

The waiting game is fairly new to me. I have always kept my SM space private - family stuff, kids teams etc. Only in the last couple of months have I started planning a public portfolio. It was then that I realized that:
1. The customer service is great
2. The tools are cumbersome
3. The community is helpful
4. The organizational features are challenging

So I have resigned myself to the fact that these are the tools I have to work with, better get building. If a new set of tools becomes available, I'll just roll with the punches. This is much easier for me to deal with than those that make money from their images.

But in the end, SM is company that wants to succeed and they feel this is the best path. Working in the corporate world I have learned that what makes sense and is obvious is only a matter of location and perspective - from the bottom looking up, the outside looking in, the same situation looks different. Wow, what a load of crap...just release the new stuff.

I'm not a commercial photographer either .. and the reason why I decided to use SmugMug in the first place was because it DOES provide a bunch of really really good things even to a schmuck like me: unlimited storage, full size pix, sharpening, hierarchical gallery structure (even if I'm moaning about how I want a more flexible folder like structure -- similar to how my Tbird mail is organized with no limits on how much except the size of my disk), etc. Many good things about SmugMug.

Nevertheless .. I think it's OK for me and others to get annoyed when something we all thought would come very soon has taken over 2 yrs to do and still they won't give us a status/progress report beyond the 'trust us -- we're on it -- soon!!!". Sigh.... I've never threatened to bail .. but every time I see an email from SmugMug announcing some new thing -- my disappointment grows when it's NOT about the Multliple Gallery level update. :cry

mbonocore · February 7, 2013

CoolP7000 wrote: »

I'm not a commercial photographer either .. and the reason why I decided to use SmugMug in the first place was because it DOES provide a bunch of really really good things even to a schmuck like me: unlimited storage, full size pix, sharpening, hierarchical gallery structure (even if I'm moaning about how I want a more flexible folder like structure -- similar to how my Tbird mail is organized with no limits on how much except the size of my disk), etc. Many good things about SmugMug.

Nevertheless .. I think it's OK for me and others to get annoyed when something we all thought would come very soon has taken over 2 yrs to do and still they won't give us a status/progress report beyond the 'trust us -- we're on it -- soon!!!". Sigh.... I've never threatened to bail .. but every time I see an email from SmugMug announcing some new thing -- my disappointment grows when it's NOT about the Multliple Gallery level update. :cry

Believe me, I understand your frustrations. Being on the outside looking in for so long, as Uncool quoted above, I was wondering the same things myself when I was a customer. But, now, as an employee, I have a better understanding of the behind the scenes work that we are doing. I am trying not to give you the same "Soon, we are working on it, trust me" lines, but that is indeed the truth. We have a TON of stuff going on behind the scenes, and I do think that you will have a better understanding in time. I hope that in the meantime, you do look at all of the value that SmugMug does bring to you, whether you are a working pro, or just a hobbyist.

Michael

JamesGPhoto · February 7, 2013

So will it be a few weeks? months? years? Thats all I want to know.....

mbonocore · February 7, 2013

JamesGPhoto wrote: »

So will it be a few weeks? months? years? Thats all I want to know.....

James,

I cannot give you a time frame on any future updates or feature implementations. As I have said, we are working non stop on alot of great stuff, and will release features when they have fully passed strenuous QA.

Michael

Pure Energy · February 7, 2013

mbonocore wrote: »

James,

I cannot give you a time frame on any future updates or feature implementations. As I have said, we are working non stop on alot of great stuff, and will release features when they have fully passed strenuous QA.

Michael

WOW!!!

I have read many comments that are pretty much saying everything is "coming along as planned" so can you tell us which date most resembles the plan?:

uncool wrote: »

And if a Tuesday launch date is too specific, how about announcing that the launch will take place on a blue moon. There are a few coming up:
Blue Moon – July 31, 2015
Blue Moon – January 31, 2018
Blue Moon – March 31, 2018
Blue Moon – October 31, 2020

Too specific for ya?

How about when the stars line up just right and a total lunar eclipse occurs on a Blue Moon December 31, 2028?

mbonocore · February 7, 2013

Pure Energy wrote: »

How about when the stars line up just right and a total lunar eclipse occurs on a Blue Moon December 31, 2028?

That's New Year's Eve, so unlikely to be on that date. I can almost guarantee that.

Michael

C'mon guys....

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