 Jessica Jenney |
Opinions on the new Basic Gallery 2 I see BP has deleted my discussion thread! Why? Well, I just reverted back to my old gallery. Still some glitches to be worked out. Another thing is that if people create albums then there's no way to tell which is today's entry! I also would like the medallions to be under the thumbnails. I definaitely feel that the older version is much more user friendly and easier to navigate!
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A P |
I'm staying on the Classic until people start talking about LIKING the new veiw and how you navigate through it. There are to many problems which need to be addressed. And I think BP is being very UNPROFESSIONAL how all this is coming down. What an email about all the new plans would have been to much to ask for loyalty to their site? Sorry but that's how I feel. And I was a really big fan and brought lots of new people in. (who also took classes)
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Jessica Jenney |
Ann, it looks like they removed my other thread! WHY?? I feel that the older version is better for commenting on photo entries etc. The newer version is more like a personal website. I agree with you! It would have been nice if they sent out those emails in advance of the changes.
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Kara L. Hendricks |
I can see some good things in the new version... Organizing your images in albums is a cool feature... I am sure not seeing the badges is a glitch that will work out... I don't see many members using the new one if the badges aren't visible.. I myself am a CLASSIC version girl.. For now at least... I'm not much for change...lol I'm glad they gave us the option to choose... I hope it will remain a choice and eventually they won't force us to use the other one..:)
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- Elida Gutierrez Contact Elida Gutierrez Elida Gutierrez's Gallery |
I was adding some pictures to the new gallery and I don't how why I added this picture, it's not mine It's from DiAnna Paulk. not mine
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Beau Hudspeth Photography |
Hay all. I posted this info in another area on BF where the same questions were asked, but will place it here as well as it pertains to the question in this post as well. Here is a copy of a letter I just sent off to the BF team. It sites some of the same issues that were stated here, as will as a few others. You may also find some answers in the letter too. To the BF staff: Keep up the good work - but remember - test, test, test, test before implementation. ;) Good day. I have discovered a few errors in the addition of the new look and layout that you folks have created. I will number them for readability's sake. The first one was easy to find - let em explain why. 1) I have found (in the past) that the only way I could see if an image I had posted was selected as a members favorite was to go to My Member Center - Favorites and then click on View Gallery. This would take my to my gallery but (it looked to be) in the form of the free gallery - small thumbs, and such. There I could click on an image and see the Member Favorite heart at the top - if there was one. Now when I follow the same steps, clicking on the View Gallery link just referrers me back to the current page: http://www.betterphoto.com/mgAdmin/a_Favorites.php. This is the same whether I am in the Favorite Photos, Favorite Photographers or the Am I a Favorite? page. All just refer back to themselves. Needless to say, my ability to see if anyone has markrd an image as a favorite is no longer available. 2) The second thing I found is: when I am in the Favorites area, the link to my BetterPholio™ options still says Premium BetterPholio™ rather then Basic BetterPholio™ as it does in all the other sections. 2a) On a side note. I'm not a big fan of the new design. Though it does ad a better more professional look and feel to the area, a lot of the useful info is gone from some images. No more award images are displayed (First Place, Second, Finalist, etc) on all images that have them - only some. This is really apparent when you go to a new page and the first image has an award, but that award will not appear until you click on the thumb of the image - then it shows up. But, in reality, why would I click on the thumb of an image that I am already viewing the full version iof? Also, the verbiage on whether an image has been discussed is the same for one that has and one that has not. Previously when an image was not yet commented on, you would see the Discuss This Photo link. Once a comment was made it would say Read Photo Discussion - but no more. It only says Discuss This Photo for both options. Actually, I just looked again, and the Discuss this photo option is now completely missing in the new version. I see "Sign in to make photo a favorite" but am already signed in. 3) In that same vain: the transition between the two versions of the area when a comment is posted or looked at is pretty odd. You go from the slick new look to the old all-white style. That potion does not look professional or complete to me. As a web designer, if I had that type of a transition on a site I created, I would never hear the end of it :) 4) When you create an album, you give it a title and description - but you can not see the description any where when you are actually looking at the album on the site. I would like the viewer to get some back-story on why the album is called what it is and that info I typed in to the description area. 5) When you click the thumb to see the image, I get a flash of the image in it's original form (white bordered with drop shadow) and then it switches over to the new borderless version. That is really odd and kind of distracting. Instead of looking at the image you think "What was that weird flash?" With all this said, I really do love the BF site and enjoy posting, commenting and receiving comments on work - there are just some aspects that grind on me. The latest one is that at the resolution that I use (1920-1200) the new layout is REALLY limited. Mainly, I only have 8 thumbs on the page where 16 or more (for me) would easily fit. I feel that the proper layout should be that of a dynamic one. The amount of stuff you see on your screen will be dictated by the resolution that you are running. The static one you have now only looks good at a res of 1024x768 or less. Thanks for listening and I will forward on any other issues that I find. Take care all! - Beau
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Barbara Waldoch |
I don't know where the thread went, but it can be seen here: http://www.betterphoto.com/forms/qnaDetail.php?threadID=32578
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Jessica Jenney |
Barbara, I think that BP removed it for some reason! Hmmmm. Beau, I think BP knows about all the issues you mention and are working on them. IMO, the new galleries are good for professional purposes, like a personal website, but the old version is more conducive to commenting back and forth on our contest entries.
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Drena Clementino |
I really like the new version. The old gallery just looked too much like a 2nd generation web page! Jessica try the mono color scheme, it's the most professional looking and the only one I can recommend as a designer. Whats really cool is if you use Lightroom its a perfect blend to the new Sure there are some kinks to work out like those distorted thumbnails and the My Albums header should actually be a button that pulls up the alum index cover page, but still I think a big improvement.
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Jessica Jenney |
At this point there's no way to comment on your photos! There is no read discussion area! The mono color scheme looks nice but I wish it were more of a charcoal grey. As I wrote above, I think the old version is more conducive to commenting back and forth on contest entries.
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Drena Clementino |
Yeah, I was hoping for a charcoal background too Jessica, it would make the images really pop. I can't think why they didn't offer charcoal and black as background choices. Seems like the other color choices are backward, the colors that should be accents are used for background! I'm sure they will correct the discussion area problem, just hope it doesn't take too long. I agree with you about the old version being more conducive to comments.
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Colleen Farrell |
"At this point there's no way to comment on your photos! There is no read discussion area!" I just discovered this--frustrating! There's not even any way to contact the member. I just went to Judy Lawhon's gallery (New Version) which looks very nice, but there is no way I can comment on her photos, and if I do a search and find an old photo, when I click on "Contact Judy" in that discussion thread, it just takes me to the New Version gallery with no way to even email her.
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Deb Koskovich |
I think they are making changes almost hourly! Yesterday, I KNOW I saw new galleries with 'Discuss this Photo' buttons -- I know I'm not that crazy, I saw them! Now, that feature is gone. And I did look at Judy's gallery, where there is no member contact info. But also, look at the gallery of Nobi 1. Along the top of the screen, there are links for About Me (the bio) and Contact Information -- at least at this moment there are, one hour from now -- who knows? Why the differences in two different member's galleries?
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Sarah G |
They were there. It will probably come back when they actually get the new system working like it should have been when they first put it out. My husband does this stuff all the time and on bigger systems. Customers would fire him for this kind of nonsense. A new change over shouldn't be rolled out into the production end (for public use) until it is running a whole lot better than this one is. Commenting is the back bone of this site. Why you can only purchase their broken, albeit temporarily broken, services is beyond me.
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- Dennis Flanagan Contact Dennis Flanagan Dennis Flanagan's Gallery |
If you cannot contact someone in the new gallery, it's because that member has not activated that particular feature.
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Deb Koskovich |
Aha, you're right. I now remember that we have the option of turning that on or off.
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Jessica Jenney |
Dennis, there is no place now for read discussion or commenting on a photo through the new version. It was there yesterday for awile. I think they may have removed it until the kinks are worked out.
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Sharon Day |
Just so ya'll will know there is life after BP. Back when I was addicted I didn't believe that, but there are other fun things to do with photography besides contests. Microstock is fun and you can actually make some money doing that. Check out my gallery for more information ;). OR do BOTH! Even more fun!
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- Carolyn M. Fletcher  Contact Carolyn M. Fletcher Carolyn M. Fletcher's Gallery |
Off topic, but our names are back under the photos on the contest new entry page. Glad to see that.
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- Nikki McDonald Contact Nikki McDonald Nikki McDonald's Gallery |
I find it interesting that there is no subcategory for BetterPhoto in General in the About BetterPhoto part of the discussion forum--as if they do not want to encourage discussion about the site as a whole. Instead the subcategories are Classes, Deluxe Sites, Contest and More. In the first three, it's easy to find separate discussion threads but in the "More" subcategory, all the discussion threads run together; and, besides their being virtually invisible, hidden under "More" as they are, they are impossible to navigate. I have discovered that this is usually where "unwanted" threads go and it's no wonder--within half a day they are lost! Jim launched the "Changes have been made to the free contest" thread in the Free Contest subcategory and it was much appreciated. He was apparently unable to find an appropriate place to launch a "Changes have been made to costs of galleries and to Basic Galleries themselves" thread, so you did it, Jessica. You put it under Free Contest because there is no other place to put it but since it doesn't "belong" there, it got moved. It's disappointing, but that's how it works.
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Sandy Hawkins |
Just tagging this thread so I can follow the chaos. ;-)
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Christie R. Bielss |
Just taggin' in for the entertainment - LOL! I'm gone for a few hours partying with the neighbors, eating chocolate, jumping in a bounce house (thank goodness my camera was at home!), and I come back and you're in 2 different places. Glad to have found you again so I know if the site is fixed yet. Happy 4th!
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Sharon Day |
I don't even need to tag it. If it gets good it will be on top of the list ;).
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- Les Rhoades Contact Les Rhoades Les Rhoades's Gallery |
Work out a few bugs and allow viewers to comment on my pictues and I'm all for the new gallery. check out my new gallery look.
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Karen Celella |
tag
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Nobu Nagase |
Congrats, Les, on switching to the New Version! Page layout #1 looks great on the wide screen monitor.
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Nobu Nagase |
Oh, one more thing, Your gallery looks great, Les! The collection of photos like yours fits absolutely superb in the new version. Your gallery really comes alive in it. In this sense, "Bravo?" to BP also.
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Christie R. Bielss |
Good morning! I was just looking at Les' and Jessica's new galleries, but I can't figure out where the "comment" area is. How do you go about commenting on one of the photos in the new galleries? Also, how do you see which one is the current day's entry? Is there any way to do this? Thanks!
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Jessica Jenney |
Les, your new gallery looks beautiful! I went with #3 layout because I like how the albums are listed above and the same color scheme (monochrome) as you. I had fun creating some albums, but I'm waiting for bugs to be worked out.
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Jessica Jenney |
Les, I love your idea of having an album for the current month! Much better than the browse all photos option!
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- Les Rhoades Contact Les Rhoades Les Rhoades's Gallery |
Thanks for the gallery comments...Is there time for one more comment? LOL! I would really like the word "Basic" taken off the gallery title: Basic BetterPholio It just reads like I have a cheap entry level gallery. I feel my images are far from BASIC! Even Starbucks was cleaver enough to come up with the word “TALL” to replace the commonly used term; SMALL
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Jessica Jenney |
I agree with you about BASIC, Les! Doesn't have a very nice ring to it!
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Nobu Nagase |
"Bravo!" to BP, with the exclamation mark, (not the "?" mark) on my comment for Les's Gallery.
Current photos are viewable by "All photos" button. The sort tool is not there yet, so, the photos are in the chronological order of upload time.
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Stephanie Frey |
Tagging to keep up too. Didn't realize we couldn't comment on the photos in the new version. I spent a ton of time this morning sorting my photos. Guess I'll go back and turn the old version back on. Grrrrr!
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Sandy Hawkins |
Jessica.... I looked at your gallery earlier and it was the new version, now it's back to the original. I don't like that you can't see the date the image was taken. I like to see if they got an EP or are still waiting on one, etc. Also no mention of the camera type. I think the only thing I do like is that the full screen image is nice. I have to wonder how many people will even click on all the thumbnails to see the image full sized though. At least with the old version the smaller sized images are still interesting, and give a good feel to the photographer's style type. That's my 2 cents anyway. Sandy
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Sharon Sawyer |
Tagging thread.
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Jessica Jenney |
Sandy, I've been creating albums for the new version, that's why you saw it up. Then I switched back to the old version because we're not able to receive comments yet. You can only see the camera and date if you want to leave a comment, which I don't mind. If you "browse all photos" then they come up in order of the date it was uploaded.
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Sandy Hawkins |
Thank you for this info, Jessica. It's all very helpful when trying to navigate the new galleries. I'll wait until all the bugs are out and then I may attempt the new version as well. :-) From what you say though I can set it up and all, and then go back to the old version while I work on the new. I like that option!
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Sarah G |
This is interesting... "Wow - now this was a very fast response from BP about the gallery name change. I just emailed them about it today @ 11am CST. "Thanks for you inquiry regarding changes you are seeing on the site. Don't worry, nothing is changing regarding your gallery or galleries of others. We are simply changing some of the terminology of our products in anticipation of a new product that will be available in the future. Galleries that used to be called "Premium" are now called "Basic." Features and prices remain the same for those products. And keep your eyes open for the new products."" Put in the below Q&A on 7/26/08 at almost 2 pm by Christie Bielss. http://www.betterphoto.com/forms/QnAdetail.php?threadID=32536 Note the "nothing IS changing regarding...", AND the "features and prices remain the same..." What has NOT changed AND what has remained the same? Hope they talk straight next time. AND by the way. I REALLY DO LIKE THE NEW LOOK. I think they are doing a nice job in updating the site. Hope they fix the bugs soon.
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Christie R. Bielss |
Oh yeah! I forgot about the part that said that the prices were remaining the same - but then, maybe they were talking about that for the month of June only. LOL!
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Maybe what you lost will be added(and hence only available) to whatever is going to be the new stuff.
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Sarah G |
"...nothing is changing for four days regarding..." would have been a correct statement Christie. LOL! You said you got that on the day you posted it and I actually put the wrong number in the date I listed. It was 6/26/08 and ONLY 4 days before the changes occurred. It has been a CRAZY time.
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Sam Britt |
I think BP needs to conduct a survey to find out what changes we like & don't like. I can think of only two things I like about the new version. I have no problem with the price increase had the new version actually had been an improvement. Adding new features and enhancements is wonderful, but taking away the features we frequently used & enjoyed in the old version isn't.
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Sam Britt |
I also realize some of the problems are just glitches.
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- Evy Johansen Contact Evy Johansen Evy Johansen's Gallery |
Tagging
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Tamera S. Phillips |
"Wow - now this was a very fast response from BP about the gallery name change. I just emailed them about it today @ 11am CST. "Thanks for you inquiry regarding changes you are seeing on the site. Don't worry, nothing is changing regarding your gallery or galleries of others. We are simply changing some of the terminology of our products in anticipation of a new product that will be available in the future. Galleries that used to be called "Premium" are now called "Basic." Features and prices remain the same for those products. And keep your eyes open for the new products."" I'd kind of like to know what the new products are.
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Sarah G |
Me thinks you might be experiencing one of them..."Basic." It just might be the start. MAYBE those who don't like the name "Basic" will be able to purchase a new/different named gallery down the road (for a higher price of course because it wouldn't "just be basic"). Who knows...but that is a possibility.
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Tammy L. Newcomb |
The new gallery is awesome in many ways but that comes with a price. I love the new look and choices you have and the more professional look. Cons: The new gallery does not allow anyone to comment on your photos or even show the comments that have been made. The new gallery does not transfer all the HTML work that some of us have done to the front page of our old galleries like music and messages that appear. The bio page where I had a lot of stuff like a video and links did transfer with my bio information. The EFP's did finally show up.... Sometimes when I want to look at my gallery the albums I have listed do not always show up so I have to refresh the page several times....bummer.... For the ones of us who have a lot of pictures, the process you have to go through to create the albums are just time consuming and complicated. When creating an album using the ID of the photos, you can only enter one photo ID number to add at a time. They should make it where you can enter at least ten at a time..... As for the EFPs, well unless you know exactly what you entered the entire month, you have to sift through all your albums to see if you have gotten an EFP. So I just switch between the two galleries to check on EFPs since this seems to be quicker. If you create albums in the new gallery, the photo sort is a joke and pointless. When you are viewing your new gallery and want to go to your editing page there is nothing telling you where to click to go back. You have to click on the words better photo in the far right hand corner and it takes you back to better photo's main login and then you have to click my member center. This is too many steps for such a more professional site and more money.
I do have some thoughts that I will keep to myself. I actually thank BP for making the changes since I was consumed with this site and now I am losing some interest here and have been searching for some other things I can do with my photos. Since all the changes I have only entered one photo for the month of July because I don't want all those wonderful pictures to get overlooked anymore and GOD forbid if I were to ever make a finalist with my beginner skills. When I joined here I was under the assumption that this site was for beginners and professionals alike so maybe they should have a beginners contest and a professional contest...
OK, my thoughts are out now.
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Tammy L. Newcomb |
Ok, forgot.... The new gallery albums need a slide show button. When you click on any given album, in order to move to the next picture you have to go all the way to the top or side and click each and every photo you want to see. When a thumbnail is selected for view, there should be easy access arrows on each side of the enlarged picture saying "previous" on the left of the picture and "Next" on the right side. That is my opinion.
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Sam Britt |
Tammy, your gallery looks great and I agree with almost all of your comments. Last night when I couldn't sleep, I worked on the new version for a while. Here's a couple of new things I noticed that I don't like. I was only able to search images for the albums that were uploaded within the past 120 days, and all of those images were not available in the search. There were many of my favorite images, finalists & EFPs I was unable add. There's no way to change the display order of images within the albums or the display order of the albums themselves. Your have to do a a great deal of planning before you start working on your new gallery. I try to keep all my square format images together, so they don't make my rectangular images appear small. If I swith to the new version, I guess I'll only be submitting square format images from now on because the thumbnails for other images look very cramped & distorted. While I like the fact that we can have up to 1000 images in the new version there are so few images displayed on each page (if you don't set up albums)not many viewers are likely to browse beyond a certain point. With 30 images on each page in the old version, I sometimes browsed entire galleries. This would take forever in the new version. Again, I'm hoping a lot of these problems are just glitches. I really like BetterPhoto and want to continue to be a member, but the recent changes have been very abrupt.
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Kara L. Hendricks |
Ok, I have mentioned this a few times in various discussions and thread but to my knowledge I don't see anyone complaining of the issue I am having... When you click on an image to view it full size in the new gallery, about 70% of the time I can see it full size for about 2 seconds then it disappears with nothing but the title info and any badge it has... No picture... Is this happening to anyone but me?? It's a glitch I could NOT deal with... I have looked at many new galleries.. Les was the first, they all are doing the same thing... When I click on the thumbnail to see it big, it flickers and disappears...:((
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- Lola M. Contact Lola M. Lola M.'s Gallery |
Hi Kara ~ I have had the same problem with viewing pictures in the new galleries.
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Kara L. Hendricks |
THANK YOU Lola... I was starting to think it was me and my computer...:)
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Martha N. Church |
Sam, when I first set up my new gallery, I used the search method and found it agonizingly tedious. So I decided to enter the photos using the photo ID number. Go to your Member Center, click on the Better Photo tab, then the Edit Photos tab, then click show displayed photos first, and write down the ID numbers. This is a much quicker method to enter your photos in your gallery. Just a side note, when you choose the photo you want to be on the cover of your gallery, you need to enter it again in your gallery; otherwise, it won't show up once you open that gallery. Also, the galleries are displayed in alphabetical order, so you can control the layout according to what you decided to name a particular gallery. Good luck:)
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Jessica Jenney |
All these problems are because the bugs are still being worked out. What I did when I created my albums was to open one window in my edit photos and another window for the new abums. That way I could go through all my photos and copy and paste the numbers into the albums. Kara, these are glitches that should be worked out soon.
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Teresa Norris |
Hi..tag.
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Sam Britt |
Thanks for the information Martha & Jessica. Kara, I noticed the same problem, but I think that's just a glitch.
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Colleen Farrell |
With all these issues about how to organize albums, etc. I SURE hope BP makes a FAQ and helpful hints page about how to set up our new "basic" galleries. I'm not even bothering to try until the kinks get worked out.
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Christina C. Moore |
I hate how BP deletes threads or fails to address "contact us" questions, particularly when all these threads and features do is provide them with information as to how to better provide good customer service... It reeks of censorship. This sort of thing is one of the only reasons why I will downgrade from my basic membership to no membership whatsoever. Art and censorship certainly do not mix. Anyway, enough grumbling! Has anyone figured out how to leave comments on individual images within albums? I wanted to comment on some of Torun's work, but was unable. When I did a general search for his name, it generated some of his older work. Anyone know how I would comment based on his album presentation? Thank you-C2
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- Elida Gutierrez Contact Elida Gutierrez Elida Gutierrez's Gallery |
I whould like the hability to add pictures into galleries from "Edit your Photos" I was adding some pictures to the new gallery and I don't how why I added this picture, it's not mine It's from DiAnna Paulk. not mine I deleted the picture from my gallery and got back to my old kind of gallery, but you can still get to see the picture by cliking the link. I whould really like the discount for falimy (have three daughters with free gallery), or one week entry for freebees, they are a bit desapointed that no longer can enter in the contest.
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Jessica Jenney |
Christina, People who have activated the new version cannot have comments left on their images yet. You can look for the image in the contest entries and comment there but not throught the new galleries as of yet.
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Jessica Jenney |
Christina, I see you also have your new gallery activated so you can't receive comments either!
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Christina C. Moore |
Oh well... Despite the fact that I enjoy the input, I've put too much work into my new gallery to go back now... When I have time I like to click into random galleries and leave comments. It is frustrating to see so many cool images and to have no way to communicate to the artist how much I enjoy that particular photograph. Hopefully, BP will put this feature back. Thank you Jessica for answering my question. As always, I appreciate your help and consideration.-C2
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Christina C. Moore |
Also, I wish that search terms would bring up recent images. That way, I could more easily find the artist from amongst all the contest enteries.-C2
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Tammy L. Newcomb |
The only personal solution to commenting on photos until they get the so called kinks worked out is: When you see a photo that really moves you and you feel the need to let that person know, just send them an e-mail stating what picture you liked with your comment. or find you a message board through the internet and paste a link in the bio page for commenting.... of course you would do that through the old gallery and then switch to the new gallery. Just some ideas, not sure if they would be easy or doable..... Tammy
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- Sherran Andersen Contact Sherran Andersen Sherran Andersen's Gallery |
Maybe I have missed it, so could someone please tell me how to add a photographer to my favourites using the new gallery? Thanks. Sherran
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Jessica Jenney |
Sherran, we are not able to add a photographer as a favorite so far, only a photo! I'm back to my old gallery until these things get straightened out!
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- Sherran Andersen Contact Sherran Andersen Sherran Andersen's Gallery |
Thank you for your response Jessica. I think I will stay on the old version for a while longer too. Sherran
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Jessica Jenney |
Has anyone noticed that in the new galleries if you click on the title rather than the image the first photo will come up every time!
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Donna J. Taff |
Hi everyone, I am glad to see that I am not crazy and most people really don't like this new way. What is wrong with the old way. I could go to someones Gallery and scroll down and see if they were winners orEditors choice. I have no problem with paying more money. These are the things I hate about the new Gallery and won't have one unless they make me. 1.I truly don't know how to navigate around it. 2.I don't like being called Basic; sounds cheap to me. 3.It sounds like there won't be any second place and what about finalist? Does anyone really know? This has been a wonderful hobby for me for 5 years now and now in my opinion they have really messed up a good thing. 4. Its now seems like a money thing to me; although I don't care about the money.5. I believe the only way they thought they could keep us at this piece increase was to change; to fool the people into thinking they were getting more for their money I don't know what new stuff is coming; I think its only a way to keep us. Like I said if I get to keep my old Gallery I will be satisfied. Thanks for listening to an old ladys rambling. Donna Taff.
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
Donna, the old gallery did not go away. It's just called "classic" now. :-) Also, BP has indicated they will no longer give out prizes for 2nd place. There's no mention they will do away with the buttons. There have never been prizes associated with Finalists and EPs, yet those buttons are on the galleries. Unless BP flat out says "no gold medals anymore", you should count on them being there.
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Colleen Farrell |
Well, after two weeks or so of the new "basic" gallery, I have no plans to use it. There are plenty of glitches still to be worked out, and lots of features missing that I'd like to see. And every time I go to one of these new galleries, I discover another disappointment, like when you go to a friend's gallery, you can't find their recent entries unless they've created a special album for them. If I didn't have a website, maybe I'd use the "basic" gallery (still dislike that term) but since I do have a deluxe site, I'll just keep the classic version of the "basic" gallery.
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- Dennis Flanagan Contact Dennis Flanagan Dennis Flanagan's Gallery |
I must be a fool then Donna. I like the new gallery and prefer no buttons. :-)
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Jessica Jenney |
In the new Basic gallery the contact page and Bio page are optional. What's the point? I think some people aren't aware of this and don't turn it on. There's no way to contact, send a message or email them. Not good!
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Christina C. Moore |
Hello-- I like the fact that the editor's pick medallions are not prominantly displayed in the galleries. That way one has to click on an image and decide for him/herself whether or not the image strikes them in some way. I would rather simply judge or present an image based on its own merits rather than on the merits of this somewhat problematic (albiet nice) designation, and I think that the new gallery style achieves this aim nicely. In my opinion-- the more customization in this regard the better. Maybe BP simply needs to be clearer about how to upload and organize images and as to what options are available. To me, everything is buried beneath the tab menus and the site is not at all user friendly or even searchable in any practical way. Also, it is difficult to figure out how to add images to albums, and people may get frustrated by the time they come to actually setting gallery options. Warm regards,C2
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
Is there a way to have albums and individual photos appear at the same time, on the main basic gallery page? For example, when I first looked at my basic gallery, there were pages and pages of thumbnails for all the photos. I then created an album, for practice, and now the single album replaced all the thumbnails. Ideally, I'd like to have the album thumbnails show up, plus the individual photo thumbnails. But I'm not sure if this is possible. Thanks!
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- Dennis Flanagan Contact Dennis Flanagan Dennis Flanagan's Gallery |
Jessica, the contact option has always been optional.
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- Nikki McDonald Contact Nikki McDonald Nikki McDonald's Gallery |
Since I browse quite a few galleries and the recent entries frequently, I have usually made up my mind about and commented on the images that strike me far in advance of any EP's or other buttons' being awarded. I do like to extend my congratulations to friends when I notice their images have also been recognized by BP. It is very convenient to do so in most people's "classic" gallery but not as easy in the new ones. And when I visit a gallery that is new to me, I don't feel that the medals and badges influence me. Indeed, if I have the time, I will open an image and step through many of them full size where I don't even notice the presence or absence of awards as I have to scroll to even see them. Like many others, I will be keeping the "classic" style, but it is nice that there is another option for those who prefer to use it.
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Jessica Jenney |
There is still the problem in the new galleries when you click on any title rather than the image, the first image ALWAYS comes up! I see that BP has removed the red warning but I still see the same problems and bugs!
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Jessica Jenney |
Ken! I know what you mean! After I created several albums, I noticed that you can't view a page of thumbnails! I don't like this either so I deleted all my albums! I agree that it would be nice to have that option.
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
Jessica, thanks. I did the same thing..thankfully the classic gallery is still available but I do like parts of the new gallery.
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Tammy L. Newcomb |
I assume that everyone already knows that comments can be left with the new gallery now, right? Well for me, the comment option is present and the buttons are showing up so now the only problem is the process you have to go through to set up for which I have already been through. Seems pretty good..... of course that was not what I was saying when making the horrible transition, actually you all would not want to know what all I was saying when setting up my new gallery up....LOL...LOL...
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Jessica Jenney |
Well, another Snapshot newsletter and nothing about the bugs and glitches that are still in the new basic gallery, only this message: New Galleries: Your Photography Has Never Looked So Good!
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Aimee C. Eisaman |
Anyone else with the new gallery having issues with having to click on a shot 2 or 3 times to get it to come up? Always seems like a waiting game....never knowing what is going on.....! I guess all I can do is send an email about the issues I'm having and hope someone reads them! As for which I like better....I'm torn between the two. I like the old one for the user friendly aspect! I do like the look of the new one although it still has some bugs that I think need worked out. It might just be my screen, but I have yet to look at a shot in the portrait layout and be able to view it in one look without having to scroll! You can't look at the whole photo...have to piece it together in your mind. At least with the classic version you had those thumnails that were not too small and they gave you an idea of the shot! Just some thoughts from lil old me!
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Jessica Jenney |
I don't see any improvement with the new galleries. The bugs are still there! I don't like only 8 thumbnails per page and I sure don't think it's worth 49 bucks!
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Sharon Sawyer |
I just noticed we are half way through the month and there are only 4018 entries in the contest. No wonder they can go through two days worth of images in one day now. I know it's the summer and people are busy and on holidays but that wouldn't drop the entries that much. It has to be due to the BP changes & that free galleries can't enter the contest any longer. Wow, that is a HUGE drop !!!
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
Sharon, there are 12,698 entries right now. I checked last night and it was over 12,000.
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Sharon Sawyer |
Thank you, Ken, for pointing that out. I don't know what I was looking at, I must have doubled up on my meds. LOL
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Eivor Kuchta |
I'm trying out the new layout, to see if I like it or not. I've been switching back and forth the last days. It's kind of fun, and looks pretty nice, but there are things I don't like. I can't find a way to sort pictures within the album. They come in the order you put them in, the newest last. I don't see any information about the camera being used. I suppose we can add that information in the description, but it was easier with the old version, to just check the box. I just found another negative thing about the new layout. I can't find a way to bookmark someone as my favorite photographer, if they have the new layout.
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A P |
Yes Eivor all those things you say are true and more so why do you like the new layout and want to use it? I don't like them because I'm finding it difficult to find the most resent entry to comment on. People are loosing comments this way because I don't stick around to long trying to figure it out. And that makes me :-(
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Eivor Kuchta |
Finding the most recent entry shouldn't be a problem, since that will show up first under "All Photos". I also added an album with my 5 newest entries. I want to give this new layout a try for a while.
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Aimee C. Eisaman |
I do like the new layout look too, but don't have it turned on right now because of my earlier comments! And I added an album for New Arrivals so that my best BP buddies can just check out the new and latest stuff!
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- Nikki McDonald Contact Nikki McDonald Nikki McDonald's Gallery |
Don't know that I've seen this addressed -- and don't want to go back and read all the responses to see. When the new galleries first came on the scene, someone said that if you chose to stay with the Classic version, you would still be limited to 300 entries. Just had an e-mail from a friend who has not updated (neither have I). She just entered her 301st photo and her message from BP was 301 out of 1000 photos. Don't know if this is only if you have NEVER tried the new formats or not, but I thought I would share it.
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Jessica Jenney |
Nikki, the Basic galleries are now allowing 1000 photos to be displayed.
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Sam Britt |
Does that go for the Classic version as well as the new version? I tried displaying more than 300 images in the Classic version earlier this month and got a message that I had exceeded the number of images I could display.
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- Ken Smith Contact Ken Smith Ken Smith's Gallery |
Samantha, I believe I read today that the classic gallery's can now display 1000 photos. I have no idea if that's true...but I did see one classic gallery with 11 pages, and before you were limited to 10. So, I'm assuming "yes!"
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Sam Britt |
Thanks for letting me know, Ken!
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Colleen Farrell |
"Samantha, I believe I read today that the classic gallery's can now display 1000 photos. I have no idea if that's true..." It's easy enough to verify--just switch your gallery to classic version, go to "edit my photos," and you'll see the line that says "... galleries limited to 1000 photos" where before it said "limited to 300 photos."
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Sam Britt |
Thank you so much, Colleen! I just checked that. It did say "Basic Betterpholios are limited to 1000 displayed images." I guess I'll be staying with the Classic version, until they get some of the glitches with the new version worked out.
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Nadya Johnson |
Just putting in my own 2-cents... I experimented with the new format today. There is no way I would display it yet. Best description is The Good, The Bad, the Ugly! I do like the sorting feature, especially for outside visitors. And even for us, it can be pretty interesting... I have seen a lot of photos from various members I might not have seen before, with the other format. I DON'T like, that the shot for your Album Cover doesn't show! Click on that and you expect to see it. No -- it takes you to the next, instead. Then, if you include it twice, it does appear -- but not in sequence. At the end! Maybe there's way to sort them differently but I haven't found it yet, if so. There is also no way to pick our Favorites out and that's another glitch, as far as I'm concerned. Bottom Line -- I will wait until they get bugs out, when and if they ever do. They need some Beta testers! That is -- US. We're the ones who use it; could have told them what we needed, easily! Guess we'll see what happens over time. In the meantime I am going to keep my Pholio the way it is.
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Steve M. Harrington |
I am facing a challenge with the original Basic gallery and hope one of you can assist me. I want to add new gallery text to page one. I know how to do that. What I can't figure out is how to delete what is already there.
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Donna La Mattino Pagakis |
Hi Steve, Sign in, go to member info, gallery text. Select all, delete, submit. Refresh the screen, then add what you want it to say. That would be Page 1 of your gallery with your images. I hope this helps! Donna
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Steve M. Harrington |
Thanks very much, Donna. I figured out what was happening. The text in the box was so washed out that it didn't show. Even highlighted it was barely visible. Perhaps that is because of the black background I added. Anyway, I will squint my way through it now. :) Steve
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Donna La Mattino Pagakis |
I have the same problem, so I type up what I want to show in my gallery text on a notepad first, then just copy and paste it in. You're welcome Steve!!! I'm glad I could help!!! Donna
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Steve M. Harrington |
What a fine idea! I wish I had read it 15 minutes ago. :) I groped my way through. It is weird, isn't it! Thanks again, Donna. Steve
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Deborah K. Kelroy |
It appears that everyone here is missing the biggest advantage of the new basic betterpholio! The new version is a "Flash" gallery, thus the photos cannot be downloaded. This is a tremendous plus to the photographer and copyright owner! On the downside, the new version does not allow spiders and crawlers to pick up any text or keywords, so no photos in the new gallery show up on any search engine results. Check it out for yourself. If you do a Google search for your own name, you will find that only the number of a photo is now picked up for your BetterPhoto gallery, or a page number — no title, description, or any keywords for the individual photo as was done before. This is a huge disadvantage! So, bottom line technically speaking is that while it is great that photos can no longer be downloaded from the site, what difference does that make when they no longer are picked up in any search engines to bring people in to see them? It's a double-edged sword. On another note, what advantage is it to have a Flash gallery that cannot be downloaded, when the classic version of each gallery still shows up in a Google search — thus making all of our photos still easily accessible for free downloads to every Tom, Dick, and Harry? Go figure! While the new look is fantastic, the ability to organize and set up albums is great, and the problems are getting worked out with more and more passing time, it takes a tremendous effort and a huge investment of time on the part of the gallery holder to switch to the new version, with not so much as any guidelines from BetterPhoto. Just my humble opinion!
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Jessica Jenney |
I did a Google search for my name and my gallery shows up the same way it always did! "it takes a tremendous effort and a huge investment of time on the part of the gallery holder to switch to the new version, with not so much as any guidelines from BetterPhoto." That's only if you decide to create albums. I don't, so it's no problem!
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Deborah K. Kelroy |
Yes, Jessica, there will be a time lapse between when the spiders and crawlers were on your pages and when you changed over to the new version of the gallery. With a bit more time, those older references to your photos will disappear, and then you will be left with nothing except a photo noted by the upload number, or a link to a particular page number that was crawled. Wait and see. I'm glad that albums are no problem for you. Deborah
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Sam Britt |
Deborah, your gallery showed up when I googled your name. Are you using Internet Explorer or another browser?
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Deborah K. Kelroy |
Hi Samantha! Please understand that I did not say my gallery was not showing up in a Google search. What I said in essence was that the new version, a Flash gallery, like any other site created with Flash, is not user-friendly for search engine optimization, and the spiders and crawlers can no longer pick up the titles, descriptions, and keywords. This is not applicable to just the BetterPhoto galleries, but is a characteristic of all Flash galleries. This is common knowledge for anyone familiar with the workings of web pages and search engine optimization. If BetterPhoto were to incorporate what is called a "Dynamic Flash Site," where the photos are in Flash, but the descriptions are entered into a program other than Flash, say Dreamweaver for example, the search engines would pick up the descriptions. I use a Macintosh computer as I work in the graphic design industry, so the browsers I use are Firefox and Safari. That said, browsers have nothing at all to do with the results of a Google search, or any other search engine for that matter. I hope this clarifies my post, the purpose of which was to simply state that we gained protection against Internet thievery and copyright violation through the new version (although the classic version of our galleries is still available in a Google search for the time being, and anyone can access them to download photos), but lost any ability for prospective buyers to find specific photos that they may need by doing a search for them by description or using any other identifying information. However, that is to BetterPhoto’s advantage, as serious gallery holders will most likely have to upgrade if they desire any kind of search engine marketing exposure. Thanks for your concern, but I am not having any problems—only commenting on what we gained verses what we lost. Deborah
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Sam Britt |
Thanks for the clarification, Deborah.
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Colleen Farrell |
Deborah, do you know if this Flash version prevents people from copying photos in other ways (other than the right-click method)? My brother gleefully showed me a way that he copies photos--it took a few steps but wasn't difficult. I didn't pay much attention as I totally disapprove of him doing it! I have read in the forums here that there's almost no way to prevent people from stealing/copying photos if they want to. I guess having the Flash version will slow/stop some people, though. I also have some questions about the effectiveness of the Deluxe sites being "seen" by Google, etc. I just did a Google search and my site didn't come up, although I thought it did (I think it was the first entry) when I last checked, a couple weeks ago. I should probably start another thread on that, though, since that's a bit off-topic.
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Colleen Farrell |
I don't know if anybody else has encountered this problem, but in a LOT of the new galleries, the fonts for the title, caption, and links (photo discussion, etc.) are extremely small and smashed together to the point where they are virtually illegible. It's really frustrating. Maybe it's the browser I'm using (Safari) but I really hope BP fixes it!
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