Hmmm..
Hey Steel!
I just wanted to talk about some random thoughts about this site. How do you like it so far? Do you find it easy to navigate? Do you have any thoughts towards it or the involvement with the community?
I agree with your one post though - nobody really comments. Nobody really chats either. I find that odd.
Why do you think that is?
Some things I like:
- I love the fact that large files can be uploaded.
- I think there are a lot of cool functions of this site - unfortunately nobody uses them.
Some things I don't like:
- Because of all the features, it is not all that user friendly and too cluttered.
- Because of all the fields that need filling, it is a project to upload images. I think people are just used to the Dundjinni site where they upload and forget about it. I think having to fill several fields to upload holds this system back a bit because it takes several minutes per picture of our time. Some people just don't want to deal with that.
- Site forgets who I am and I cannot login unless I purge my cookies. I don't have that problem anywhere else - just here. I fear that could push users away especially if they are not computer literate. I have to furge my cookies about twice a week to access this site as Dorpond.
Suggestions: Since many features are not used by anyone, I think they should be removed to make the site cleaner. It is just too busy and has too many options. Let's be honest, people just want a place to dump images and find them easily. That brings me to another issue - finding images isn't the easiest. Perhaps that is because of the fact that we didn't label everything (oops) but I think there are too many folders and sub folders to find stuff. It is a tough situation though -we want to be organized but sometimes I have no idea where to go to find something. Ideas how to improve it? Not sure atm. If it were me, I would probably try to make this as simple as possible. Have the main screen just come up to the boards and the gallery -nothing more. Make the main screen really simple and remove all the clutter. I never use Blogs, nobody writes in the books -there is just too many options over on the left hand side I think.
Again, I am just speaking to a friend about the site. We have been using it for a while so I thought I would tell you my thoughts as they stand.
What are you thoughts and opinions so far?
Take care,
Dorpond
lol, one reason there isn 't much discussion is because everyone sends me private messages when they could be public.
My personal thoughts. There are things I like a lot about the site, and others I don't. It is too cluttered, I agree. But I fear if I move the dynamic stuff off the main page it won't get noticed any more. But, since no one is talking in the forums, I guess it's not a great loss. I'll get rid of some of the blocks and see if that's any better. Might try a different theme too.
As for the uploading. I agree that it's cumbersome, and not having the custom fields right there with the others makes it more difficult. Unfortunately there isn't a better gallery software that allows ratings and comments that integrates so well. However, this is a different animal than the DJ forums, in that this is intended to be able to find things easier than searching through thousands of fourm topics. So taking the extra minute to enter an adequate description and keywords makes it worth it.ÂÂ
The blog posts were what I was using as News originally, so I can remove that block from the main page.
Don't know what to say about the login problems. No one else has mentioned it, and it doesn't happen to me unless I login with two different browsers from the same PC.
People seemed to like the folder structure on the old gallery site, so I don't want to get rid of that, and frankly I don't know how it could be made easier. Yes, not having proper titles and keywords doesn't help, but there's only so much one can do to make it "easy", I think.ÂÂ
Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin
Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin
So, curious to know what you think of the recent changes.
I personally like it a lot better. It doesn't do anything to alleviate the uploading issues, but that's a outside my area of knowledge. I've asked the question on the Gallery2 site about combining the Custom Fields into the upload form so users don't need to go back and edit their items, but so far no one has responded.ÂÂ
Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin
Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin
Hey Steel, I just got back from vacation so I haven't had a chance to look around yet. My first thought was WOW though because it looked much prettier - that is a plus!
I will get back with you Pal,
Dorpond
Steel,
I love the new look and feel of the site! Not as chaotic as before.
One request I have though is I was wondering if it would be hard to add the ablity to re-upload an image over an existing image. I used to be able to do it. Often times I will fix little things in my art that I didn't notice the first time around and since we link those pages, I would rather just re-upload the new image instead of deleting and creating a new upload. In the case of my chickens that I uploaded, I fixed the shadows around them and I want to re-upload them.
Thanks!ÂÂ
Dorpond
Play games electronically with www.rptools.net
Oh, another thing that I request that bothers me - can you change the carriage return spacing to single line instead of double? I can't stand when I hit [enter] and it puts a new line in between my writing. (look at my signature for a perfect example) ÂÂ
DorpondÂÂ
Play games electronically with www.rptools.net
I didn't change anything with respect to uploading. If you were able to do it before you should be able to do it now.
[quote=Dorpond]
Steel,
I love the new look and feel of the site! Not as chaotic as before.
One request I have though is I was wondering if it would be hard to add the ablity to re-upload an image over an existing image. I used to be able to do it. Often times I will fix little things in my art that I didn't notice the first time around and since we link those pages, I would rather just re-upload the new image instead of deleting and creating a new upload. In the case of my chickens that I uploaded, I fixed the shadows around them and I want to re-upload them.
Thanks!
Dorpond
Play games electronically with www.rptools.net
[/quote]Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin
That's the WYSIWYG editor doing that. It treats it like a word doc or an HTML editor might. You can get around it by hitting SHIFT-ENTER which does just a CR/LF instead of a new paragraph.ÂÂ
[quote=Dorpond]
Oh, another thing that I request that bothers me - can you change the carriage return spacing to single line instead of double? I can't stand when I hit [enter] and it puts a new line in between my writing. (look at my signature for a perfect example)[/quote]
Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin
Something definately changed - maybe the new theme did it. I used to have 4 or 5 tabs when I went to change the properties of my uploads. Now there are only two; the main tab and then the tab where we specify personal and commercial. Just 2 tabs. The tab I am looking for isn't there anymore since the makeover.
Ah, the problem isn't the makeover, the problem is that it's a zip and not an image. The gallery software isn't equipped to deal with a zip in that manner.ÂÂ
[quote=Dorpond]
Something definately changed - maybe the new theme did it. I used to have 4 or 5 tabs when I went to change the properties of my uploads. Now there are only two; the main tab and then the tab where we specify personal and commercial. Just 2 tabs. The tab I am looking for isn't there anymore since the makeover.
[/quote]Steel Rat
RPGMapShare.com admin