Dashboard and Comment Management

[wabarletta]

I am with Marisa in her negative opinion. To me, the new dashboard is a step backward in functionality. It now take multiple steps to do what could be done immediately from the profile page. Making the Dashboard one's home page rather that the profile page increases the timing to do common tasks such as viewing one's recent galleries, send replies about comments when one has had more than three recently.

I am afraid looking flashy took precedence over utility. Please give use the option to keep the Profile page as "home."

[mikelong]

What I do find refreshing is that the owners are finally showing some interest in pbase and posting updates in Forums.
Now THAT is most certainly progress, even if the dashboard is a essentially useless.

[leelafont]

Pbase: You made a big mistake with this Dashboard thing. Members recognize it and told you so. Will you have guts enough to just admit that it was a bad idea and fix it??? Just go back to the way it was without the Dashboard???

[abrazo]

It's amazing how people hate change, in any form. I'm assuming that this is a "work in progress' and that sensible and helpful suggestions will be taken on board. If that is the case and as I know nothing about coding or the creation of such a, to me, complex creature as this site, I am happy to see where it goes. ( I would love some new style sheets though)

Ann

[emmelafoto]

emmelafoto wrote:
I haven't made my mind up about this "dashboard" yet. It certainly will take some time to get used to it.
And I do hope we get the change to customized to our own likings (colourscheme and so).
But what I don't like is that my profilepage has changed too. I had it customized in the same style as my rootpage. It doesn't come near now.
What has happened?

Maaike

Your profile page should not have changed. Can you give us some details about what is different?
-Emily

The colours I use in the background and the fontsizes were different. But today everything seems okay.

[robertwhite]

How refreshing it is to see somebody at Pbase trying to make some improvements, Ok perhaps the dashboard isn't the best thing around, but I agree with Ann lets see where this goes and hopefully while they are in a inventive mood we might get something more useful like more style sheets, the option to sell photographs etc, so lets offer a little encouragement
Regards Bob

[robst]

I don't like it.

[oochappan]

Pbase is one of the best or even the best place to build out your portfolio of photos,
no need for a personal website as you can do it within a community
that indeed only shows itself to be present when there are some changes
because the tools of interactions within this community to each other portfolios is not easy at all,
going often through too many clicks with links that don’t use the right terminology.

At the moment the dashboard is nothing else the a kind of ragbag of existing links and modules without concept or vision,
not yet an adaptable instrumental panel to encourage interaction that could enlarge the new "editing page" as only one instrumental part of a dashboard.

Please, start to adjust logic terminologies of links that would improve the transparacy of the site, even for new members.

A better concept or vision on the dashboard could enlarge community facilities, interactions …
the layout can be always tuned to become more practical and transparent, now still in a cluttering phase.

Dashboard = instrumental panel ≠ home
Home = more likely the intro of your presentation or profile
Recent = rather recent photos ≠ Recent galleries

[mikelong]

What a load of crap!!!

So. now I have to get forced to this turkey and then click on profile to see the things that matter to me. Again, what a stupid, ugly load of crap. Don't you guys have any concept of good programming/user interface?????

Let me go to the profile. So other users go to the Dashboard - great. Means nothing to me. At least, be intelligent enough to give me the option to get to something useful, instead of forcing me to this crap.

Woah dude, get a life. At least go out and shoot some photos and shut the F**k up.

[emily]

Emily,
The thumbnails do still partially obscure the text of comments in the Dashboard.
I am running Windows XP Home with AOL Desktop 9.6 as my Browser.
I accidentally (in Dashboard) clicked to make one of the comments non-public. I cannot get it to toggle back to public.
Thank you,
edkowalski

Thanks, Ed. We'll check out that browser and see what's up.

Emily,
one thing that would be nice would be to add some information to indicate that we have PM'd a commenter (in addition to graying out when a user clicks on a commenter's link) - that used to show up on the original comment page, I think as grayed out "PM". Perhaps you could change the colour of the "reply" button if that has been done?

thanks!
Nancy

Nancy, we'll see if we can get this working for you.

In case some people missed this in my previous post:
The dashboard is just for you, not your visitors. The profile page will be for visitors. The profile will be more customizable as far as layout and style so that you can make it match your galleries and pick the content that you want to show.

Also, various people have mentioned needing to go from the dashboard to the profile page to do what they want to do. Please let us know what you are doing that you can't do form the dashboard. If you don't tell us exactly what you don't like, we can't try to make it better.

Thanks,
Emily

[christopheru]

One thing that would help would be to change the word "home" on the link bar at the top of the page to "dashboard".
I too would appreciate being able to have six pictures from my favourites appear instead of just three.
I can clearly see which people's galleries (who have commented on my pictures) I have visited, but what I cannot see is who I have sent a pm to regarding a comment on my photos - generally, my system is to pm a comment to someone, and then visit their work and comment in return should something strike my fancy. Now, I cannot see at a quick glance who got the pm and who didn't.
Big thank you for resisting the urge to change link's colours by using shades of the same colour - us colourblind people really appreciate that (also, avoiding shifts of red to green, dark green to brown, and blue to purple are what matter the most for me, and for many other colourblind people.)
"Home" and "help" seem reversed on the dashboard compared to the gallery pages.
I too must echo requests for more style sheets for galleries - that would be a huge plus for me.
Otherwise, I don't mind it at all. Everything I used to do is accessible from it and now all the commonly used links are gathered in one place - which I like.

[oochappan]

In stats clicking home link on top, you go to your profile like before, noticing: you are ...., go to your home page > profile
indeed there is confusion between home and dashboard used as links.

home is not dashboard
dashboard is not home

[sbbish]

So I decided to play with this new Dashboard for a few days before I sounded off about it. It threw me for a loop initially because it was so different from what I was used to seeing. But I wanted to make sure I knew what all it was before I formed an opinion.
Here's my take on it:

As Emily has stated, it is only something I see, not something my guests see. They still see my profile page. Okay, that means that the Dashboard is only intended to be of use to me, so I looked at what it does and doesn't do as compared to my Profile page which I was used to seeing as my "home". To that end, I looked at what I would normally do on a regular basis from my Profile page.

As many people have complained, the Dashboard is mostly a duplicate of stuff already on the Profile page. And that's true. With just one click (from either Profile or Dashboard) I can edit my account settings, go see my Favorites, or go read Comments and PMs that have been left. No difference.
At a glance, I can see (from either Dashboard or Profile) my subscription status, my usage status, how many images/galleries I have, and the total number of times my pages have been viewed. No difference.

Okay, so what does my Profile page SHOW that the Dashboard doesn't?
Well, I don't see my country flag on the Dashboard. That's okay, I don't need to see it. I know what my flag looks like and that's just info for visitors (who still see the Profile page like always).
I don't see my Name, Username, Email, or Location on the Dashboard. That's okay. I know who I am, how to contact me, and where I am. That's just info for visitors (who still see the Profile page like always).
I don't see my welcome message where I've also listed all the gear I use. That's okay, I don't need to welcome myself to my galleries and I already know what all gear I use. That's just info for visitors (who still see the Profile page like always).
I don't see four randomly selected photos from my galleries. That's okay. That's just info for visitors (who still see the Profile page like always).

Okay, so what does my Dashboard show that my Profile page doesn't?
I see the most recent three comments (max) that people have left me. If I have more than three recent comments, I have to click a link to go view all comments. But I used to have to click the link anyway on the Profile page, even to see the most recent three. And if I have three or less, I can see them right on my Dashboard without having to click anywhere. So the Dashboard has actually saved me a step now by presenting information useful just to me.
I see the most recent uploads of four of my Favorites. If there have been more than four recent uploads, I have to click a link to go view all my Favorites. But I used to have to click the link anyway on the Profile page, even to see the most recent four. And if there have been four or less, I can see them right on my Dashboard without having to click anywhere. So the Dashboard has actually saved me a step now by presenting information useful just to me.

So that means the Dashboard (which is for me only, not visitors who still see the Profile page) is showing only information that actually pertains to me and I might find useful on a daily basis. And it's stripped out information that I really never need to see (who I am, where I am, welcome message) and don't change very often.

Okay, so what does my Profile page DO that the Dashboard doesn't?
Well, on the Dashboard, I can't view my Recently uploaded photos page. *shrug* I already know what I recently uploaded. I don't need to go look.
On the Dashboard, I can't remove my Profile picture. Meh. If I'm going to change it, I just go pick a different picture and that method hasn't changed. I don't think I've ever just flat removed it and even if I did, it's not something I would do so frequently that I need to see that option every day. Besides, the Profile picture is really just for visitors (who still see the Profile page like always).
On the Dashboard I can't view my Guestbook. Okay, that does seem like something I should be able to do from my Dashboard. Of course, I assume any recent comments to the Guestbook will still show up under Recent Comments on the Dashboard, so it's not like I'll miss the message someone leaves.
On the Dashboard I can't Upload Photos directly to my In Box. Again, Meh. I don't put pictures in my In Box anyway, I go upload photos to specific galleries. I CAN access the new Upload Photos link with one click from the Dashboard, which is something I couldn't do from my Profile page.
On the Dashboard I can't Create a New Gallery. Might be an annoyance for some people, but I never used that feature anyway. I always went into the parent gallery first and THEN created the new sub gallery. Again, that's now accessible from the new Upload Photos link, so the Dashboard is actually saving me a step again.

So what's that sum up to? All the things I used to do daily on my Profile page are still available on the new Dashboard as well as some additional information that saves me a step from before. And all the stuff that I only accessed rarely and is information for my guests (not for me) has now been cleared away from the Dashboard so I don't have to see it. That seems pretty usable to me.

Would I like to see some more customization options for the Dashboard. Definitely. I'd love to be able to see more than just the three most recent comments and more than just four of my Favorites.
Do the tiny little profile pictures overlap the thumbnail photos of my Favorites? Yes, but if I hover my mouse over the thumbnail, it brings it to the front so there's no problem there. Besides, if I really want to look at the photo, I'll click to see the big version and not just the tiny little thumbnail.

But there is no "old style" and "new style". The Profile page hasn't changed or gone away or anything. I just have a new Dashboard that shows up (for me only) first so I can see minimal information initially and then click on to other pages if I really need to dig deeper for some reason.

And if I really decide I just can't stand the new Dashboard, a simple Bookmark is all it takes to mean I always go to my Profile page rather than the new Home/Dashboard. Easy fix.

Scott

[mccartney]

I too see the new Dashboard as a positive enhancement.

Good work Emily and Staff!

[fayewhite]

Great post, Scott! And after using/seeing the dashboard for a couple of days,I still like it!