Dashboard and Comment Management

[cornelis_heijkant]

Hello there,

Sorry, but I think the new comments page is very inefficient - because it uses so much more vertical space with those big blue bars and thumb-borders.
This way you get less thumbs on every page, so there is less direct survey and more clicking to do (RSI-unfriendly!) when you want to find older comments.
I don't like the looks either, not very esthetic, and I think I don't really need the new functionalities.

As far as I am concerned I would be very pleased to get the old comments page back again. Main reason: the direct survey and more thumbs + comments on every page. I have now 148 pages, in the old situation only 100 or less I guess.

Kind regerads, Cornelis Heijkant

http://www.pbase.com/ilja_oblomov/profile
http://www.pbase.com/ilja_oblomov

[janicecd]

I'm missing seeing my RECENT photo sign - it was so handy to use when looking for the latest photos and albums that I had used.

Where is it please?

[incal]

Imho i think this is a good start to give a more professional look. Start don't mean final so improvements can be done (and will be done i'm sure). And they ask us about feedback so as for me i say "thank you".

I really really don't understand why all people speak about "twitter-ish" because this kind of display exists far before twitter. Twitter is just twitter, don't give it more importance than it have.

Changes always surprise us, it's quite normal, let it give a couple of week of usage and after we can say if we dislike or not.

For me, immediate improvements are:
- put comments / favorites / pad into expandable DIV so everyone choose to fold or unfold the block he wants (and then e.g. have more comments viewable at glance),
- add recent photo block,
- reduce size of all thumbnails in theses blocks,
- add a Statistics menu to view/manage all statistics,
- add a choice of Old display / New display for people who want keep the original way.

As a long time user of PBase, I'm pleased to see it lives !
Thanks for the work. Even if this is not one of the long awaited improvements, it is an improvement, so enjoy it.

(sorry for my english).

[akmc_in_au]

I'm missing seeing my RECENT photo sign - it was so handy to use when looking for the latest photos and albums that I had used.

Where is it please?

You can still get to that by clicking in the My Galleries link on the left hand navigation bar; the link to the recent galleries will still be at the top when you reach the Galleries page. That's not very efficient I'll admit, and does make me think that another thing that could be customised is the navigation bar itself; that is, which links you'd like to have on it such as My Galleries, My Recent Galleries, etc.

[leelafont]

Hi people: you might be interested in another photosite; it's called Redbubble. Very professional site; high caliber of photos and photographers. It has a number of advantages over Pbase; they accept many kinds of art; prints, drawings, photos,etc. Also writing, and t-shirts, and magnets, etc. And they package and sell your work if somone wishes to by. Check it out; Lee

[chestersgallery]

Looks good so far.

[incal]

@leefont, This is not place for that, .. If you dislike PBase it's your right, but don't be agressive by using words like 'sucks' ... oh btw Redbubble is awful, too much images thrown in the face, and too much commercial way ... it sucks ...

[mikelong]

I like it only if I can hide it from visitors and potential clients. I'll personally never use it.

http://mikelongphotos.com

[mikelong]

And insofar as "comment management" goes, I read them, respond to them on occasion, and then delete them.

[akmc_in_au]

Changes always surprise us, it's quite normal, let it give a couple of week of usage and after we can say if we dislike or not.

Don't interpret this as dumping on PBase, for I don't mean it that way but rather as JMHO about what a problem is:
(a) It would be less of a surprise if some degree of consultation with the members was done before changes were made; and
(b) That includes beta testing, for which I'm sure that there would be no shortage of volunteers. But point (b) doesn't seem to be done to any extent at all; look at each of the changes that's been made recently and you'll notice a common thread.
Member 1: "Hey, x doesn't work."
PBase: "OK we've fixed that."
Member 2: "Hey, Y doesn't work."
PBase: "OK we've fixed that."
Etc.

It's great that they're being responsive at the moment... less great that they need to be, especially when they have a willing and enthusiastic base of testers (who would be using it on a wider range of platforms than PBase staff alone could emulate) to iron out the bugs (and give feedback on what's good and bad) before go live, if only they'd choose to call upon it.

And on point (a) there's already a source of consultation... it's the Features Request forum. The problem is that I'm not seeing a lot of similarity between the biggest things that are requested there, and what's actually being done. Again, merely IMHO... the key thing that needs to be worked on is a fully featured API. Do that and there probably wouldn't be any need for developing iPad apps, Lightroom plugins, etc... because enthusiasts in the community would be out there knocking them up like nobody's business. It would give much more bang per buck than a dashboard would, and effectively kill about a dozen feature requests with one stone.

But as I said... that's JMHO.

[kstuebin]

I have to wonder who this dashboard is for? Who sees it? I like to look of it (sorta), but WTF am I supposed to do with it? All the stuff related to me just goes around in circles.

Karen: if you click the picture you go to the photos page and can click on the person who commented; if your comment is for a gallery then you can click the title of the gallery and go to the comments for that gallery.

I tend to leave comments at one time. So I go to the comments page. I right click a name of a person who left a comment for me and open it in a new tab leaving the original comment page open. I comment on their PAD or whatever. With the old comment page, when I clicked through to another page a:visited changed their link to another color. I think gray? At any rate, if they've commented more than once as I go down the list of comments, I know to not click on their name again because I have already commented on their photo. This is a very quick way to access other's galleries and recent. I figured everybody did this.

With the new page there is no a:visited. So I find myself clicking on the same people twice. Maybe I should remember everyone's names I've commented on and not do that but I don't. Plus it just made it so much easier to scroll down and find someone you missed and didn't comment on, maybe for couple days, because it would stand out.

And I don't just comment on people who comment on my photos but I do like to reciprocate if they've taken the time to comment on mine. Now, I am probably missing half of them.

As for the dashboard, I will say again it should be customizable since it's there and it's not going anywhere so we can put what we want to have on it. I am not crazy about the design either. It is not a graphic artist's dream for sure. In fact, the old profile page is probably more along the lines of modern graphic design than the dashboard.

[maria263]

Congratulations.
A nice clean, slick and clear appearance.
No doubt it will take a bit of getting used to but, hey,change is probably good for us.

[pkocinski]

Not too happy with the color scheme of the comments page - readability of light gray on white is not the best choice for me. How do I change it to something more readable?

[alex_vargas]

It isn't as easy and simple as it used to be, but one can easily get around...
A few extra clicks... that's all... I'm ok with it...

[pinemikey]

Looks good to me. Change is good.

It's like a new puzzle, finding out what does what and where each link takes you. You would think people would welcome it. Oh well.