After almost one year of Pbase.

[andrewbh]

I still don't understand how to use Pbase. I still don't know how to find the photos I've uploaded. I don't understand how the titles change, how the system works. I'm not an idiot. I have three Blogger accounts, and one at Flickr. and use the internet about 6 hours everyday. Why is Pbase so damn confusing?

[djwixx]

It seems simple enough to me. What specific issues are you having?

[dougj]

Andrew - The PBase interface & file structure are different, but it's not too bad once you get used to it.

Please post questions, issues, etc. There are a number of members that can help.

[scatts]

Andrew. pBase has to be the simplest, most intuitive, photo hosting site there is?! I've been here a while now so it is all second nature but even when I first started the ease of use was one of the reasons I chose this place over others.

As has been said, we need specifics to be able to help you do what you're having trouble doing.

[sheila]

Looks as though Andrew couldn't find View my posts as he has not responded to others who have tried to help him

I agree with others that PBase is one of the simplest sites to negotiate. All he needed to do was go to Edit Gallery to make any changes to text, descriptions etc. I note that he has all his images in one gallery which is why he cannot find them due to the amount uploaded. He last uploaded images in November 2006 so he has probably forgotten how to do it which is hardly PBase's fault!

Cheers
Sheila

[toxaphene]

I am another guy who get frustation about the interface of pbase...

The interface is pretty bad presented. I guest the pbase developer is intended to allow the user to make a "totally DIY" photo album...

I gave up to ask anyone, but just read books fo Dreamweaver and CSS related book...which is irrelevant to photography

Actually I am think to shift to another album, but I still use pbase for instance until I changed all the signature in my picture.....T_T...

[akmc_in_au]

I am another guy who get frustation about the interface of pbase...

The interface is pretty bad presented.

You would also seem to be another guy who won't say exactly and specifically WHAT their problem with the interface is.

[toxaphene]

I ain't a professional guy for CSS...

I would say...I would rather to have more stylesheet or userfriendly function, like simple function key for addition of background photos, change the album style or even add background music...

For me, a simple function key..rather than a DIYer interface with a lot of syntax for CSS is much much better

For your reference ,one of quite famous Hong Kong album for your reference...
http://www.fotop.net

You can see actually many people don't know how to make their own stylesheet or "personal style" album, but just use a very simple black and white or the stylesheet available currently

Do you understand what I want???? I guess this is no the only person who want to urge pbase make a better interface with user friendly function key

Once again, I ain't a professional CSS programmer

[jypsee]

then go use Flickr; although, I don't consider it user friendly...
it's rigid in how it can be configured; and BORING to look at. The latest photo is always on top...so changing layout or photo order is horrid.

I like Pbase and, guess what? I took the time to figure out how to do CSS...why not try that for your problems??? You took the time to figure out which camera to use and how to use it (I assume so, but haven't looked at your pictures to see if what I assume is correct) so I bet you can figure out CSS; there are help pages all over the web, and there's a help page here on Pbase.

[akmc_in_au]

Do you understand what I want????

Not to a great extent, no.

You're complaining that you're not a professional CSS programmer. That's also true of most of the people who have taken the time to learn enough to put together CSS's of their own, but let's ignore that for a moment.

On EVERY gallery edit page, there's a drop-down which allows you to select from a range of different CSS's without you having to learn a single line of HTML code or even understand what a CSS is. A combo box control next to the words "Style Sheet". You can't GET much more of a "user friendly simple function key" than that.

Now it could be argued, and not without grounds, that there aren't enough built-in style sheets available (and not enough diversity amongst those present) for those who have no wish to learn ANYTHING about CSS. Certainly there are far, far fewer than at SmugMug for example. However with SmugMug you're bound to their predefined formats which aren't entirely to my taste. PBase provides you with much more flexibility. It also provides an entire forum on css's, a (relatively) easy "how to" page even for those unfamiliar with CSS's, and a whole bunch of members who are willing to share their experiences and own CSS's if you ask them nicely.

However none of this, not one iota, has to do with the user interface which offers you the simplicity of clicking on a drop-down to select a completely different style for your gallery.

You can see actually many people don't know how to make their own stylesheet or "personal style" album, but just use a very simple black and white or the stylesheet available currently

Hmm… d'ya think that one of the reasons for this might not be fear of CSS but rather the fact that many photos are enhanced by a simple black background, and that what ain't broken doesn't need to be fixed? That's why most of mine still use the standard black_and_white one, not because CSS holds untold terrors. And I doubt that I'm the only one in that boat.

Admittedly I dabbled for a while with black_standard, but abandoned it when I found that users often couldn't see the size controls when viewing the images in IE6. That's another reason that I haven't bothered with changing the CSS since then. However if I WANT to, I can change it in any way that I want.

simple function key for addition of background photos

Well, you can change the background COLOUR by entering a simple colour name or RGB code into a text box in the gallery properties; again I'm not sure how much simpler that can be. Granted, PBase doesn't offer the option of putting a background image up, probably for the same reason that Porsche dealers don't sell flame decals to stick on the side of their cars; yes, it's possible to put them on a 911, but why on earth would anyone want to unless they were heavily into the word "uglification"?

Similarly:

or even add background music...

I think that the ability to do that was killed off when javascript support was. (There may be a few clever types who can still make it work, but they're probably keeping their secrets to themselves.) However the inability to do that is doubtless welcomed by every Internet user who has ever slammed a browser window shut while muttering "son of a {bleep}!" because the page author has decided to push unwelcome and uninvited sound through their speakers. It's a lovely experience when it happens while someone's browsing at lunchtime in an otherwise quiet office.

{Personal soapbox} If PBase DOES decide to implement this in the next incarnation of the site, I DO hope that they make it OFF by default with the end user (that is, the person sitting on the other end of the browser, not the gallery owner) needing to click to turn it on if they wish to. Failure to do so may lead to an unknown number of casual Internet users placing pBase on their personal blacklist. This is an instance of "just because something's technically possible, it doesn't mean that it should be done". {\Personal soapbox}

For your reference ,one of quite famous Hong Kong album for your reference...
http://www.fotop.net

Oh. Uh, yeah, that's one attractive site there. Love the Google ads on the front page, which looks like it was designed with the 1996 version of FrontPage. And the random images; all three of them that show up when you select a category. Or, more precisely, sometimes show up. That's when you don't briefly see an outline of three images which then shrink down to nothing, which is what I'm getting in Firefox at the moment. (Red x's in IE6.) I must also check out the "self protraits" (sic) category. Very professionally put together. In Forum posts you expect typos. On a website which asks you to pay cashy-money for services, you expect the site admin to use a spell checker. And to understand what the word "Unique" means, because it's used in a rather "unique" way when describing the site's features:

Unique Features:

* Mirroring disk array for maximum protection of your photos from disk failure.

I know that we have occasional red X issues, but has anyone actually LOST a photo on pBase?

* Experience software developer listen to your suggestions, comments, encourgement and help requests.

I wonder whether he listens when people "encourge" him to use a spell checker.

Granted, this is an issue on pBase. But that's another thread in another Forum. And anyway, in relation to fotop the above is a claim, not a fact.

* Enable/Disable "direct link" of images from other website

Does that sound in any way familiar?

* Support "Movie clips" upload

True, pBase doesn't support this, and although there are some who wish that it would my bet is that there are more who are glad that it doesn’t. As in, "we don't need another You Tube".

* Send album to friend through email
* Member profile page
* Member favourite list
* Member latest update list

Do any of those sound familiar?

* Album/photo category

Granted, categorisation is something that pBase could do with… though it does raise the question of whether the categories should be predefined (which would facilitate searching) or user definable (which would maximise flexibility). The one thing that I think that most of us agree on is that there should be category flags for nudity or other adult content which would eliminate a lot of the angst about what users see when they visit, but there's no indication of whether fotop is doing that either.

* Album/photo voting

They have VOTING??? How "unique!"

* Improve brightness, contrast and color of photos in 1 second.

Aaaaand would this be via a colour calibrated workspace, or via the "throw a bucket of pixels at it and hope that it looks OK on most monitors" method? (Bonus points for those who remember what Deke McClelland had to say about the Brightness / Contrast command in Photoshop CS2.)

* Password protected/hidden album.
* bookmark photographers / friends.
* Show off pictures in categories.
* Vote/Rating on pictures in categories.
* Background music for albums.
* Private Messages between members.

Except for categorisation and the accursed background music, how many of these "unique" features exist on pBase?

* Easy to remember URL (http://www.fotop.net/username, http://www.fotop.net/username/albumname) for your visitors.

Actually I think that pBase's method of having links which aren't dependent on gallery location has some advantages over that one, particularly when images move between galleries.

* Email notify you when someone sign your guestbook or comment on your photos.

Aaaand so it goes on. It's not that I'm setting out to bag fotop.net as such; I'm sure that many of the people who use it enjoy doing so, but I also think that there's remarkably little to learn from it.

I guess this is no the only person who want to urge pbase make a better interface with user friendly function key

Once again, I ain't a professional CSS programmer

And once again, you can't get much more of a "user friendly function key" than a combo box and a couple of text boxes.

pBase is not without faults, but with a couple of niggling exceptions and nothing all that huge, the user interface isn't one of them.

[akmc_in_au]

then go use Flickr;

My friend, THAT comes under the heading of "cruel and unusual punishment."

although, I don't consider it user friendly...
it's rigid in how it can be configured; and BORING to look at.

You forget the key point of Flickr, one which I'm sure that Yahoo's marketing 'droids would happily explain to you... Flickr's not about YOUR photos, it's about THEIR branding.

[downsouthstories]

andrewbh wrote

I still don't understand how to use Pbase

Pleeease - gimme a break!

If an ol backwoods (that's "backwoods" not backwards!) man like me can totally understan it then ah just don't see where the problem is!

Mike

PS - Ever tried runnin yore PC of a generator??

[toxaphene]

the world and the competition etween flickr or pbase is too small...

anyway thanks for your long and systematic reply. I have another example which is my yahoo blog for how the server can do better to the user...

It seem that all of you (at least in this forum, except me and the guy who speak out in this pot) feel satisfaction, I have nothing more to say to the people in this forum

I know that I have freedom to choice another server, thanks for remind my right, flickr is too rough in term of userfriendly interface, you guys view and mind seem to be so big for me...anyway, I always have choice to chose rather than flickr

I would say pls look around the pbase user what the stylesheet they usem why they use those stylesheets( Those available one is good and I always expressed my sincere thanks to those CSS writer who let me select)...

There is no conflict to provide user-friendly interface to the user at the same time let those css programmer to make their album with unique
stylesheet as many server provided.

If you can get meaning from my wording which flooded with typo, sorry, u are not my audience

[toxaphene]

one more, I understand the DIY approach is one of the usual characters for pbase.

I don't want to argue for that but I urged pbase administator can think about a easy way for user who feel headache on computer language like me...

The world is not black and white. userfriendly interface =/= no personal style, CSS write can always what they want, right?

I would like to use my time to take photos, do my volunteer work, and also earn a live from job in office hour...

Taking photos is my hobby, thanks for reading my long winded post which flood with typo

[akmc_in_au]

It seem that all of you (at least in this forum, except me and the guy who speak out in this pot) feel satisfaction, I have nothing more to say to the people in this forum

I wouldn't go quite that far; I think it's a good thing that we can all express our views of what's right and what's wrong with pBase, and we don't always have to agree!

By all means keep expressing your opinions!

I should qualify one thing in my post as well. Although I'm still not a fan of background pictures (generally speaking), when it's done subtly it can provide a nice effect such as this one in Michael Martin's CSS library:

http://www.pbase.com/pinemikey/pinesnfld

So I grant you that pBase could probably do with an option to enter the location of a background image just as you can enter the colour for those who don't want to go the full CSS route. I don't think its absence is critical, but it would be a good enhancement.