Phase 2 - New style preview

[onethumb]

Howdy!

We've got a bunch of new things up our sleeves and all hands are on deck over here at smugmug HQ as we test them. We're hoping to get all the cool stuff out tonight, but we need your help!

Here's a preview of the new Elegant style (renamed to 'smugmug'), with massive CSS customizability:

http://www.shaystephens.com/graphics/32283774-L.jpg

I'm not gonna go into all the new features on this new Style (gotta leave you some surprises and easter eggs!), but the important and immediate ones are:

- easier to buy photos since the buy and cart buttons are front and center, obvious!

- *far* easier to customize the entire page, since all elements on the page have their own CSS tags so you can fine-tune every little option, not just font colors and sizes for the entire page (which, of course, you can still do).

- easier-to-read details below the photos

- cleaner interface

So, the big question is, is there anything we're missing? Is something not right? Let us know, quick!

Don

[pumpkin]

it looks awesome! can't wait :)

[DJ-S1]

Looks great! Is the "more photo details" link still there somewhere? I use that a lot.

[Mike Lane]

Looks great! Is the "more photo details" link still there somewhere? I use that a lot.
Gah! I wish it weren't filtered at work.

[cjohn]

Don,

The page looks FANTASTIC!

I agree with the previous post about more photo details, will it still be there? It would also be nice to be able to select WHAT detail you want to show in every gallery, and not to have to do it via the EXIF data.

One thing that always bothered me is that the "Gallery Pages" buttons to switch to a different page are not very conspicuous. I'm always worried that people will not notice it and will assume that what they see on the page is all there is. I could live with more obvious clues that clicking on a button would bring you to a second page in this gallery....

Cédric

[Mac Write]

Can you put a demo on-line (static html pages) so we can go over it and make suggestions? Then we can catch all the stuff before it goes live (suggestion you need a testing server so we can see stuff before it goes live on the live sites to find all the bugs).

[pumpkin]

what's that google earth feed at the bottom? :P

[JamesJWeg]

Honestly I am quite pissed right now, I was walking out the door to be gone for the evening and have just over the last few days taken steps to get some traffic to my site, as in tonight/tom, and boom, a few hours warning:huh. damn, can't we have a day at least? So am sitting here late for supper trying to figure out what my site will look like tom, and I can't really tell from what you are saying what will actually change. FWIW, these neon type colors you have started using look like 100% junk to me, I do not like them in the least, put bluntly I have used many curse words over them. The classy look and feel of SM had a lot to do with me opening my account and the resent trend is completly away from that. The fact that you put the feeds on the page in a hidious color with no warning was almost enough for me to close my account, had I known ahead of time that it would occur AND how to turn it off I would not have really cared. I understand the need/benifits of the technical changes, what I do not understand is forcing color etc changes on us. I and I do not understand at all why you continue to give us little warning of these large changes in apperance. To me that screen shot you posted looks like total crap, and I do not want a site that looks at all like that.

James.

[sberley]

Does this mean people can purchased framed pictures from the cart? If not, I'd be very hesitant to set an expectation I wouldn't be able to follow through on...

Steve

[Ben]

Looks great! Is the "more photo details" link still there somewhere? I use that a lot.
yes, it will be. That photo was just a -L.jpg I had taken from submissions on Dgrin and so it didn't have any embedded exif data. It will appear in there, looking very much like the other information under the photo.

[Ben]

Does this mean people can purchased framed pictures from the cart? If not, I'd be very hesitant to set an expectation I wouldn't be able to follow through on...

Steve
actually, I suppose I can see how that screenshot is slightly deceptive in that regard. In that case, it is a photo that was submitted here on dgrin for one of our new features (see the News and Events gallery). He added that border/watermark himself. You can see not all the photos in the gallery have that... nothing has changed in that regard. Sorry for the confusion!

[photodoug]

Honestly I am quite pissed right now, I was walking out the door to be gone for the evening and have just over the last few days taken steps to get some traffic to my site, as in tonight/tom, and boom, a few hours warning:huh. damn, can't we have a day at least? So am sitting here late for supper trying to figure out what my site will look like tom, and I can't really tell from what you are saying what will actually change. FWIW, these neon type colors you have started using look like 100% junk to me, I do not like them in the least, put bluntly I have used many curse words over them. The classy look and feel of SM had a lot to do with me opening my account and the resent trend is completly away from that. The fact that you put the feeds on the page in a hidious color with no warning was almost enough for me to close my account, had I known ahead of time that it would occur AND how to turn it off I would not have really cared. I understand the need/benifits of the technical changes, what I do not understand is forcing color etc changes on us. I and I do not understand at all why you continue to give us little warning of these large changes in apperance. To me that screen shot you posted looks like total crap, and I do not want a site that looks at all like that.

James.
Ya man...too much....too awful gawdy....keep it sleek and professional

[cjohn]

Ya man...too much....too awful gawdy....keep it sleek and professional

Doesn't "massive CSS customizability" imply that you can choose to turn these features off by changing line color to your background color etc... ? I am myself in favor of simple and elegant design, but I think that before complaining about the new design we should give it a chance and see how it works. After all, this post is just here as a courtesy to us, to warn us ahead of time that things will change. It does not imply that your site will look neon green tomorrow, right?
:wink

[onethumb]

Doesn't "massive CSS customizability" imply that you can choose to turn these features off by changing line color to your background color etc... ? I am myself in favor of simple and elegant design, but I think that before complaining about the new design we should give it a chance and see how it works. After all, this post is just here as a courtesy to us, to warn us ahead of time that things will change. It does not imply that your site will look neon green tomorrow, right?
:wink

All of the colors and elements are CSS-changeable using the customization tools. Phase 4 will make customizing a total WYSIWYG breeze, but no promises on when we'll get there.

The default look-and-feel will have neon green, just like the default look & feel now has bright blue.

But it's totally easy (see this thread (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16624) for more details as the day goes on) to change each and every green item to something non-green, either in one swoop, or individually.

Additionally, you can hide just about everything on the page yourself.

Hope that clears the air a bit. :)

Don

[Baldy]

Honestly...Hi James,

The only people who will be affected and have to make changes are (a) people who have used Stylesheet HTML, or (b) people who don't like the colors/fonts, etc., and want to customize.

In your case, you don't have any stylesheet HTML except to hide the RSS feeds, so what you see is what you'll get. The most powerful aspect of the new design, however, is you have control over the look. If you don't like the green, you can change it.

Unfortunately, we're in a position where we can't please everyone and have to go with the majority. The RSS feeds that didn't work for you, for example, are enormously popular. The all-silver color scheme was tough on consumers who didn't notice important aspects of the page.

You still have options to turn off features, just as before, but now you can go all gray if you want that.

All the best,
Baldy

[Baldy]

what's that google earth feed at the bottom? :PEh? :scratch

[colourbox]

Additionally, you can hide just about everything on the page yourself.

I assume this means we can easily hide any individual element ourselves? I've been waiting for a way to hide just the path, for my event-specific private galleries where going up the path just shows you the "no galleries here, they might be private" warning.

Does the design expand to fill the monitor now? I have wanted the page to expand horizontally on wide screen monitors so that, for example, a 3-page gallery on a 1024x768 monitor might actually be able to become a 2-page or even 1-page gallery on a larger monitor, since you can buy some pretty ginormous monitors these days (1600x1200 and up).

Otherwise, it looks awesome, though my main source of excitement will be the more detailed access to customization through style sheets.

[DJ-S1]

what's that google earth feed at the bottom? :P
I'm guessing that the example gallery in the screenshot was written so that when you click on the image it will map the location in GoogleEarth. That wouldn't be a standard thing on a Smugmug page.

[T4Tots]

I, for one, am excited! My new website was released today, so I too expect a lot of traffic to my site. But I love the idea of getting to "play" with my pages even more and the better placement and wording of the buy it now type cart buttons!

I am uploading a session now and can't wait to see what it looks like when it changes!!

Thanks for always trying to improve! (and many people use my RSS feed for Bloglines...thanks)

[PrevalentTech]

This is going to be great to have even more control with CSS. This should allow a pretty smooth flow between your individual site going into the smugmug galleries. I can't wait to see the changes and thanks for moving down this flexible and standard path for implementing this level of customization. :clap

[colourbox]

I'm guessing that the example gallery in the screenshot was written so that when you click on the image it will map the location in GoogleEarth. That wouldn't be a standard thing on a Smugmug page.

And I would guess it would only work with a photo that has GPS data in the EXIF, or maybe IPTC standard Location metadata?

[gdavis]

I love the look of the new site! One small suggestion I have is to change the wording from "buy many photos" to "buy multiple photos." The tool that that link brings up is the easiest way to buy any number over one photo, even if you only want two. Yet labeling the link as "buy many" implies that you would be better off using the "buy this photo" link multiple times if you wanted prints from a few (rather than many) photos.

Keep up the good work!

[kadesoto]

Sorry, James, that you feel that way, but I'm eager to see anything that increases Smugmug's customization.

Although I understand why you preferred the old color schemes, these new changes are being made to try to make you - and other customers like you - happier! As the Smugmug gurus tweak and fix and upgrade, the end result will be something we all can take advantage of, I believe.

Personally, I enjoy the splashes of green. It jazzes things up a bit. And I want to see Smugmug competing with those other, inferior yet flashy hosting sites. (Flickr, pish.)

Thanks, Smugmug, for caring about your users. If this isn't a great time to go pro account, I don't know what is!

[JamesJWeg]

Hi James,--snipe--

All the best,
Baldy
First, thanks for the reply. My level of upset has to do with the fact that nether onethumb's post nor the e-mail (for those with stylesheet changes) stated what would or would not change, and the screen shot that one-thumb posted has several main parts of the page in that hidious green color that to me is totally unacceptable, which lead me to belive that default colors of staple text would be changing, and that once again I would have to spend hours figuring out how these new changes work. I was 100% sure knowing how SM works that I would be able to do away with said colors, but how many dollars of my time would it cost to learn how to reverse those changes. The time it takes to understand and learn the changes costs me way more than cost of SM to start with, the two hours of my time I have spent today trying to figure out how these changes will affect my site, and what I can do with the new features cost me more in loss of billable hours than a full year of SM costs me. I have constantly seen SM making technical changes that are wonderful, I totally support the advancements in the ability to customize etc. However some things that have happened latly have left me with the feeling that I can not trust that my site will look the same in the morning as it did the night before. Baldy, I am afraid that some of your staff is getting the attitude that SM is now big enough to just do what you feel like and tell those who don't like it "oh well". The way I look at it I opened my SM account because I liked what I saw, a clean professonal look, and I think I have a reasonable expectation for it to stay that way without me having to learn a new coding system just to reverse changes. The feeds were a perfect example of that, no wraning, just one day I opened SM and there they were, ugly as heck in my book. It made me rather angry at the time to spend an hour of my time figuring out how to remove them. I felt sure from what I have seen of SM that there was a way, but there was no simple answer, no info in help that I could find about it other than what it was, no post on the forum stating how to manipulate it, no e-mail to state that it was going to be added to all accounts by default and what stylesheet change would remove it, no warning that on date xyz the look of my entire site would change without my conesnt, nothing. The whole problem with adding the feeds was that they do not fit the classy style of SM as I joined it, as I expect it to be. I fear that some of the SM staff does not value the time of the SM customers, early on in my professional carrier I did some programing, a few years ago I did web site design (much in raw html), now I am a network administrator, and yet I find SM's help on CSS customization confusing and frustrating, I have to wonder how many of your other users are totally lost with it. Myself, if I had the time to learn CSS, would have no trouble doing what I want, but I don't have hours to learn it, can't we get some quick cheats on how to make cool changes in a much more straight forward manor. And PLEASE can we have better wranings/explanations of changes a reasonable time (one week?) before they occur, and a solid date and time when those changes will occur. Yes there has been much talk about how wonderful these changes will be, but there has been little to no real world info as to what will happen, where did anyone before you (baldy) state that the basic site would mantain it's look and feel?.

James.

[JamesJWeg]

Sorry, James, that you feel that way, but I'm eager to see anything that increases Smugmug's customization.

Although I understand why you preferred the old color schemes, these new changes are being made to try to make you - and other customers like you - happier! As the Smugmug gurus tweak and fix and upgrade, the end result will be something we all can take advantage of, I believe.

Personally, I enjoy the splashes of green. It jazzes things up a bit. And I want to see Smugmug competing with those other, inferior yet flashy hosting sites. (Flickr, pish.)

Thanks, Smugmug, for caring about your users. If this isn't a great time to go pro account, I don't know what is!

You don't seem to understand, my complaint is not with the ability to cutomize, it is purly with forced changes in the look/feel of my site as I have it, I feel that the current move in SM look is loosing it's classy feel that brought many on board to start with.

James.

[colourbox]

I think it looks appropriately restrained. It's mostly neutral with a few splashes of accent color. The green isn't even neon. It's a lot more conservative than the main home page. And we can completely gray it down to neutral through slight customization.

Although, it would be nice for smugmug to provide a "neutral" template for basic users who do not have access to customization, the same way you can quickly choose a color-free UI in OS X or Windows XP.

I'm just glad the oversized, frilly prev/next arrows are gone. I hope we can customize the arrows now.

[Baldy]

James has a point that we didn't give as much notice to this change as we usually do — or wanted to. Last time we gave about a week for customization phase 1 and for some things like the price increase it turned out to be months...

The plan was to call this new style Elegant Beta and let people get used to it for awhile, but a technical showstopper after months of development came up which made it very hard to do.

Our choice came down to getting this out of the way quickly or holding up a lot of other critical things we're doing. I can feel James' pain because this has happened to me at the hands of no less than Google, but now that I'm the doer instead of the receiver I can understand better why Google violated me. :wxwax I got over it and in the long term it was for the best.

[Baldy]

Although, it would be nice for smugmug to provide a "neutral" template for basic users who do not have access to customization, the same way you can quickly choose a color-free UI in OS X or Windows XP.
We've held up on providing more styles until this change was made, but now all kinds of things should be possible.

[JamesJWeg]

--chop-- Google violated me. :wxwax --chop--
Enough said, now I can better understand your actions, google is my secound most hated computer related biz, secound only to Microsoft.

James.

[rich56k]

Yes i have to agree with JamesJWeg 100%...you sent me an email at 2:13pm today! (which i didnt get to read until 7pm when i got home from work...my prob not yours ...but still my reality)..telling me that sometime(?!?) later tonite my beloved smugmug be be changing again.
To be quite honest , when i saw the line about the passion at smug mug being akin to the passion mac owners have i knew i was home!
However this few short hours notice that you gave me is kind of troubling ! Mind you if somewhere in the fine print i didnt bother to read you warned me this will happen , shame on me.
You dont really expect us to believe that with this great of a site/service you offer that a weeks notice (minimum) wasnt in order.
Also i want to stress: its not the changes im worried about, its the seemingly corporate attitude the short (no the lack of reasonable) notice you provided exhibits.
Please continue to upgrade and improve , just remember that you've set standards that we, as your source of revenue, have come to expect and count on.
Heck you've always responded to my cries for help regardless of what time or how trivial they may have been, don't burst that bubble now!
Thanks for providing the service you do and PLEASE give us a little more notice next time,
sincerely,
rich56k
ps just the fact i spent 55 mins. typing this with 2 fingers tells you i respect your service and your bus. ethics enough to respond to this thread.

[pumpkin]

Eh? :scratch

take a look at the sample image provided... along with the usual two feeds listed, is a green google earth

[Baldy]

take a look at the sample image provided... along with the usual two feeds listed, is a green google earthVery fishy.

Those engineers must be up to something (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16013)?

Also, there are some easter eggs on the page (http://onethumb.smugmug.com/gallery/734193/1/32283774/Original) that we believe our customers will say are huge conveniences. Any guesses?

(pssst: the new hotness in web programming is Ajax)

[asd]

Very fishy.

Those engineers must be up to something (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16013)?

Also, there are some easter eggs on the page (http://onethumb.smugmug.com/gallery/734193/1/32283774/Original) that we believe our customers will say are huge conveniences. Any guesses?

(pssst: the new hotness in web programming is Ajax)
OMG - AJAX? Sweet!! Popup sections for editing descriptions/keywords? Adding comments?

I like the look in the screenie of the new style and am reallllly looking forward to the improvements y'all are about to make. If it's all nicely CSSified I might have to get in and finally customize my site some.

Can't wait!

[Mac Write]

Sweet Slideshow from any gallery. Saw the cleaned up tools before. Also the subtle darker color for the page # your on. Easier edit of photo information. current page displayed at bottom right of image without other page numbers. Photo rating and # of comments. Action to delete comments?

This is all from a quick glance at the preview picture.

[Baldy]

There B some good guessers on this board. :huh

So I've seen speculation about Google Earth but there's another button I haven't heard much about.

[pumpkin]

There B some good guessers on this board. :huh

So I've seen speculation about Google Earth but there's another button I haven't heard much about.

"map this"? :scratch :thumb

[A J]

One thing that always bothered me is that the "Gallery Pages" buttons to switch to a different page are not very conspicuous. I'm always worried that people will not notice it and will assume that what they see on the page is all there is. I could live with more obvious clues that clicking on a button would bring you to a second page in this gallery....

Cédric[/QUOTE]
I agree that the links to additional pages in a gallery are easy to miss. Perhaps having something small just below the last row of thumbnails would help.

[willjoe86]

AJAX!!! yessss

Any use of AJAX will be better, even if its just that it looks/acts cooler! :D

[RustedSister]

I didnt get an email...:cry

[Andy]

I didnt get an email...:cry

check your spam filter? check your email addy when you signed up for smugmug? are you a pro account holder? :ear

[Techman1]

Has anyone heard anything as to when we will be back online? I know they are working as hard & fast as possible, I'm just curious to see what needs to be changed.

I'm looking forward to the new features about to be implemented.

Thanks,

Fred

[Andy]

Honestly I am quite pissed right now, I was walking out the door to be gone for the evening and have just over the last few days taken steps to get some traffic to my site, as in tonight/tom, and boom, a few hours warning:huh. damn, can't we have a day at least? So am sitting here late for supper trying to figure out what my site will look like tom, and I can't really tell from what you are saying what will actually change. FWIW, these neon type colors you have started using look like 100% junk to me, I do not like them in the least, put bluntly I have used many curse words over them. The classy look and feel of SM had a lot to do with me opening my account and the resent trend is completly away from that. The fact that you put the feeds on the page in a hidious color with no warning was almost enough for me to close my account, had I known ahead of time that it would occur AND how to turn it off I would not have really cared. I understand the need/benifits of the technical changes, what I do not understand is forcing color etc changes on us. I and I do not understand at all why you continue to give us little warning of these large changes in apperance. To me that screen shot you posted looks like total crap, and I do not want a site that looks at all like that.

James.

i'm really excited about these changes - and i'm stoked that the smugmug crew isn't a bunch of lay-abouts doing nothing but keeping fifty million photos online - innovation is great! maps and ajax? :lust

seriously, for *still* $100 a year, we pro account holders get an amazing amount of features, functionality, customizability that could easily cost ten, twenty, thirty times that in real dollars, time, and energy.

i've been personally involved in one of the new mods - alluded to by pumpkin and baldy above - and let me tell you, this is a way cool feature that our team at smugmug has come up with!

finally - i too, just spent about 15 hours this past weekend doing mods to my site - and the smug guys were there to help me do it. i know, that if i need help after this system upgrade, they're gonna be there to give it to me. in 23 years of being in the software business, i've never seen a more dedicated bunch of people willing to help customers. so, i'm excited! :clap

[clousephoto]

just one question! Does this apply for everyone or just PRO users?

[Francois]

in 23 years of being in the software business, i've never seen a more dedicated bunch of people willing to help customers. so, i'm excited! :clap
I agree with you there Andy.... only one tiny remark to make... I'm in Europe and got caught off guard a bit.. finding the email in my inbox this morning... and Smugmug still 'gone' (it is 14:30 here and more than half of the day passed). The problems of globalization eh ? :wink

I'll be patient...... :lust

[Fleas]

Improvements my arse!! You F* up my day. I am leaving for work and a bunch of complaints an a website complaining about smugmug being down. One email is a linked photo to Nasa..

[samwise]

I like the way that the splash page on going into SM points everyone to this thread to see the changes that are happening, and the pictures for the changes are all held on SM so they can't be seen because SM is down :D

May have been an idea to mirror them to a different web address until the upgrade was complete? :dunno

[clousephoto]

I like the way that the splash page on going into SM points everyone to this thread to see the changes that are happening, and the pictures for the changes are all held on SM so they can't be seen because SM is down :D

May have been an idea to mirror them to a different web address until the upgrade was complete? :dunno
yes yes! I agree! I actually uploaded photos last night and I had three people trying to access them and poof, nothing! :uhoh

[Kick]

Thank God for change! I have uploaded more than 1,000 photos yet I STILL get emails from people asking me HOW they can buy photos! I was about to change services because folks haven't figured out how to buy photos!

The controls at the top that allow viewers to select whether they see a slide show, or to control the SIZE of the photos should be clearer....

The captions run into or butt WAY too close to the top of the photo. Some space - or greater space between the bottom of the caption and the top of the caption would be great!

A feature that allows ANYONE, not just the administrator, to be notified when a comment is posted would be awesome!

I get really, really, really, really, really tired of having to reset the preferences every time I update a gallery. Also, I'd like to be able to click on a link inside the gallery that takes folks back to my gallery home page rather than a smug mug ad or have viewers have to back up on their browser when they want to go to other galleries.

I haven't seen the preview page - but like others - it would have been NICE to have had some warning this was coming. WE could have waited a couple days even if you couldn't have. :clap

[ihiphotos]

One thing that always bothered me is that the "Gallery Pages" buttons to switch to a different page are not very conspicuous. I'm always worried that people will not notice it and will assume that what they see on the page is all there is. I could live with more obvious clues that clicking on a button would bring you to a second page in this gallery....

CédricI agree that the links to additional pages in a gallery are easy to miss. Perhaps having something small just below the last row of thumbnails would help.[/QUOTE]
I've had several customers not catch that there were 7 pages in their gallery, leaving them to think I'd only posted 9 of their photos. When I mentioned certain photo (sometimes the better ones show up later!) they'd go, "ohhh." I'd like to see the hint for more pages in the gallery more visible... :lust

[RustedSister]

check your spam filter? check your email addy when you signed up for smugmug? are you a pro account holder? :ear

No spam filter here.... and I do have a pro account.. I have gotten emails from you guys before.. I just didnt get this one...
Im not complaining... I was just taken by surprise this morning when trying to access my galleries.

[wholenewlight]

Good grief . . . a lot of complainers!


I understand that people do business on their smugmug sites and that maybe the changes should have had more advance notice BUT I for one am very appreciative of smugmug's amazing service for such a low price. I'll galdly forgive them for providing these unexpected bonuses!

I host two other websites with "true" web isp's and I pay much more $$ in monthly fees. I hold them to a higher standard because of the service level committment that they have promised to me and yet smugmug equals these other companies in most areas.

I'm a huge smugmug fan - baldy, onethumb, and others: keep surprising me with such awesome service and features.

[REDpixel]

Howdy!

We've got a bunch of new things up our sleeves and all hands are on deck over here at smugmug HQ as we test them. We're hoping to get all the cool stuff out tonight, but we need your help!

Here's a preview (http://onethumb.smugmug.com/gallery/734193/1/32283774) of the new Elegant style (renamed to 'smugmug'), with massive CSS customizability:


http://onethumb.smugmug.com/photos/32283774-M.jpg (http://onethumb.smugmug.com/gallery/734193/1/32283774)

I'm not gonna go into all the new features on this new Style (gotta leave you some surprises and easter eggs!), but the important and immediate ones are:

- easier to buy photos since the buy and cart buttons are front and center, obvious!

- *far* easier to customize the entire page, since all elements on the page have their own CSS tags so you can fine-tune every little option, not just font colors and sizes for the entire page (which, of course, you can still do).

- easier-to-read details below the photos

- cleaner interface

So, the big question is, is there anything we're missing? Is something not right? Let us know, quick!

Don
I had suggested earlier, to please allow us to associate one gallery with more than one group...can you do this?

[Cindy]

So where's the preview &/or sneak peak? Everything points back to here :dunno
And when can we expect our sites (and smugmug) to be available again?

Thanks, Cindy

[ihiphotos]

It seems you're catching too much heat and I just thought I'd let you know I'm excited and can hardly wait for the upgrades! I spent a year with another company that charged me SEVEN TIMES the amount SM charges to host my site; they were very helpful - I could even talk to someone on the phone. The site was clean and helped me keep up with my sales easily. I just simply couldn't afford the price. I searched and searched and finally found SM! I too, was attracted to the clean, professional look and feel. I switched and have been a pro user since... well into my 2nd full year. I am satisfied. I didn't even get a warning about the price change ... didn't find it until I eventually discovered the DG forum. (Yep, i was born blonde!) I was feeling kinda like, "hey, what's this about? only certain ones in the clique gonna find out the scoop on things?!" I don't think that was the case at all ... it was probably more like I just missed it! :rolleyes Anyway, my point is : SM, you've got my vote. I may not completely agree with a few things, but after using another service, I have way more reasons to be :rofl than to be :wxwax !
I'm all for ya! Keep up the good work!

[NaturalEye]

I was surprised to find my Smugmug account down this morning (and still down 5 hours later)with no apparent warning - maybe this is because I am still in my 7 days trial. It would have been nice if the message was a bit more comprehensible to those who were trying to vist to view images (rather than the account owners)


Also I didn't see any advance warning of these changes?

Gary

[Andy]

I like the way that the splash page on going into SM points everyone to this thread to see the changes that are happening, and the pictures for the changes are all held on SM so they can't be seen because SM is down :D

May have been an idea to mirror them to a different web address until the upgrade was complete? :dunno


fixing that right now - i fetched the pic from my temp files, and we're loading it on to another server -- :thumb (thanks shay stephens!)

[dave_bass5]

As the compression you use is not great would it be possible to force my pages to be viewed at large (for instance) by default and not giving any other sizes as options.
that way i could resize my pics rather than letting you do it and if the viewer only gets that choice(!) then they will look good all the time.

and for us Brits how about an updated time based on GMT, could be linked to our location profile.

just wishing

Thanks

Dave.

[melissa6631]

in 23 years of being in the software business,
Hey Andy, not to make you feel old or anything, but----I've only been alive for 28 years. Wow... :rofl

[Andy]

As the compression you use is not great would it be possible to force my pages to be viewed at large (for instance) by default and not giving any other sizes as options.
that way i could resize my pics reather than letting you do it and if the viewer only gets that choice(!) then they will look good all the time.

just a wish

Thanks

Dave.

i think the -L compression is excellent - you cannot have your cake and eat it too, there's always tradeoffs - in this case, speed is what most folks want.

if you want to resize your own pics, why not resize them to 800px longest side, and then just allow originals? then, nothing would be done to your pic that is viewed by your viewers.

[Andy]

Hey Andy, not to make you feel old or anything, but----I've only been alive for 28 years. Wow... :rofl

:wave hiya missy! heh heh i'm old enough that my eldest son is starting university this friday :uhoh my youngest is still in daycamp - 6yrs old, so he keeps me young!

[cherylogle]

Here's a preview (http://onethumb.smugmug.com/gallery/734193/1/32283774) of the new Elegant style (renamed to 'smugmug'), with massive CSS customizability:

I can't see it... :scratch I will trust that it's awsome though - you haven't gone wrong yet! :):

[Andy]

I can't see it... :scratch I will trust that it's awsome though - you haven't gone wrong yet! :):


that link was just a link to the same pic ... the picture is right there on post number one of this thread :D

[dave_bass5]

i think the -L compression is excellent - you cannot have your cake and eat it too, there's always tradeoffs - in this case, speed is what most folks want.

if you want to resize your own pics, why not resize them to 800px longest side, and then just allow originals? then, nothing would be done to your pic that is viewed by your viewers. Andy, i dont think the compression is brilliant at -L but i do understand why it has to be reduced.
your right about me resizing them and i have a gallery where i have done just that and the originals look fine but ony other sizes look bad. what i want is take away the option for other sizes so forces the original only to show (as you stated). is this something i can do? (i cant try it out for obvious reasons at the mo)
also is there a guide to how small the file should be or is that just up to me?
Thanks for the help

Dave.

[bigwebguy]

Howdy!

<snip>...</snip>

So, the big question is, is there anything we're missing? Is something not right? Let us know, quick!

Don One thing that would be nice is to be able to define different stylesheets and specify which galleries to apply them to. That way it would be easier to have a group of galleries have a different style to them than your main page or other galleries. For example, i have a category for my daughter, which i would like to have a different look from my category for my NASCAR photos.

I can hack around it by putting an inline style fragment in the gallery comments to override the co-branding or smugmug default settings, but i have to copy it to every gallery in my category so making changes is time consuming at best.

For an example of what i'm talking about, check out http://bigwebguy.smugmug.com/gallery/626191 and http://bigwebguy.smugmug.com/gallery/563853 (assuming my hacks still work after the upgrade :uhoh)
(http://bigwebguy.smugmug.com)

[efindley]

check your spam filter? check your email addy when you signed up for smugmug? are you a pro account holder? :ear Hey, I have no complaints about smugmug and the technical changes don't bother me at all. It's exciting to see new things.

However, one thing does bother me a little bit: From your quote, Andy, does this mean that if you are a basic account holder, you don't get emails with warnings about server down time? The basic account is sufficient for my needs. I'm just an amateur photographer and I use my account to show pictures to family and friends. But I would have appreciated a little notice of this change. I just uploaded a whole batch of vacation pics to the site yesterday and broadcasted to my friends that they could go look...then I get here this morning and found this. :uhoh

Anyway, it's a minor "complaint" and all in all, I've been extremely pleased with my smugmug account. Thanks for the good work...and if you could include basic account holders in warnings about any down-time it would be greatly appreciated. :):

[cherylogle]

that link was just a link to the same pic ... the picture is right there on post number one of this thread :D
No, my picture shows what my website shows "upgrades in process" - and if you click on it, it comes back here... :)

[Andy]

No, my picture shows what my website shows "upgrades in process" - and if you click on it, it comes back here... :)

reload the page - we've put a new link in with the pic hosted on a different server.

here it is again


http://www.shaystephens.com/graphics/32283774-L.jpg

[Andy]

From your quote, Andy, does this mean that if you are a basic account holder, you don't get emails with warnings about server down time?

the email was only sent to folks who have customized versions of their smugmug pages - to let them know that they may need to do some updating to their pages...

normally, smugmug does major system updates in the wee hours, and they cause little downtime.

cheers

here's the actual email:


We're so very sorry to bother you with an email but we noticed that you
customized your smugmug pages (excellent!). As you know, we're working
on improvements to smugmug's customization and, try as we might, we
can't complete the improvements without affecting some customized pages.

We've tested many of our customer's pages and most of them work the
same as they did before our new design. A few of them, however, will need
some tweaks. The most common problem is adjusting the smugmug colors to
match your own, which is simple and easy to do (see link below).

We thought it best to let you know as soon as possible. The current
plan is to roll out the changes late tonight, Monday, August 15th, unless
we uncover something unexpected in our testing. We'll make sure we're
standing by to help quickly with any (hopefully small!) issues.

This is the second step towards much easier & more powerful
customization. There are four steps planned - the first occured a few weeks ago,
this one focuses on new gallery layouts, and the next one will feature
updated homepages, hopefully in the next few weeks.

There's a preview on our support forum of what the new galleries will
look like: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16619

We only sent this email to people who actually entered style sheet
code, because a few elements have changed. To see if you will need to make
adjustments, see this thread on our support forum:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=16624

As always, you can keep up with the latest news on our blogs:
http://blogs.smugmug.com/

All the best,
The smugmug team

[arthill]

EVen a rough idea. Another hour? Longer?

[JamesJWeg]

being in the computer biz myself, the screen I get when I hit SM sounds a lot like someone is having a LONG night.:D Been there done that too. You would do well to implement a company policy that is publicly available about how much warning there will be for changes and where/how they are advertized.

James.

[bigwebguy]

and as long as i'm here waiting to get a look at my albums....

having not been able to look at the code for the new pages this may be moot, but it would be nice to move away from a table based layout to one that is all css positioned, that way we could really get into some serious customization.

cssZenGarden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) is an example of what i'm talking about.

yes, i'm a web developer. sorry.

probably one of the reasons I LOVE smugmug though. I know there are some code monkey's back there somewhere. Keep up the great work.

[NaturalEye]

the email was only sent to folks who have customized versions of their smugmug pages - to let them know that they may need to do some updating to their pages...

normally, smugmug does major system updates in the wee hours, and they cause little downtime.

cheers


They ought to bear in mind that this is a global community - Smugmug's wee small hours may be daytime in the UK (where I am). I realise that any system may be down at some point, but some notice (if possible) would be appreciated


Gary

[Andy]

and as long as i'm here waiting to get a look at my albums....

having not been able to look at the code for the new pages this may be moot, but it would be nice to move away from a table based layout to one that is all css positioned, that way we could really get into some serious customization.

cssZenGarden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) is an example of what i'm talking about.

yes, i'm a web developer. sorry.

probably one of the reasons I LOVE smugmug though. I know there are some code monkey's back there somewhere. Keep up the great work.


:scratch something about maps and ajax :scratch :lol3

[Andy]

They ought to bear in mind that this is a global community - Smugmug's wee small hours may be daytime in the UK (where I am). I realise that any system may be down at some point, but some notice (if possible) would be appreciated


Gary

yep, you are right - and thankfully, most of the many many enhancements that have gone on over the past few years have been quickies - this one's a biggie, and worth it.

but you are right, no matter what time is picked, someone around the globe will be affected ...

thanks for your patience!

[bigwebguy]

:scratch something about maps and ajax :scratch :lol3
yeah, very excited to see where they implemented ajax.

[cherylogle]

reload the page - we've put a new link in with the pic hosted on a different server.

here it is again
Is it me, or does that look a lot like my site now? I don't see much in the way of layout change - I see the buy cart above the photo but can't see anything really new (but I just joined and put my galleries up the same day so I haven't played a lot) - what exactly changed in this layout now? I liked my old one too by the way - I am a HUGE fan of this site. My only request is that we get more paper options - I'd love to have the metalic photo paper... :) It's very cool.

[Mike Lane]

A philosopher once said...

Waiting is the hardest part.

Too bad it won't be done before I go to work since everything is blocked at work. :dunno oh well.


EDIT: I forgot, how do we know they implemented AJAX again?

[JamesJWeg]

A philosopher once said...

Waiting is the hardest part.

Too bad it won't be done before I go to work since everything is blocked at work. :dunno oh well.


EDIT: I forgot, how do we know they implemented AJAX again?
Yeah, an update on the situation would be nice.

James.

[Mike Lane]

Yeah, an update on the situation would be nice.

James.
from http://pics.jamesjweg.com at 0809 pacific time:

"UPDATE: It's 6:20am, Pacific Time, and we're still not done. Murphy's Law in action, we planned for nearly everything, but it's taking longer than expected. We're almost done, though! Please hang tight, we'll throw open the doors again soon."

[DawnLand]

Although I am not a fussy individual, I do agree that we need more notice when we are to be locked out.


I am losing clients as we speak.

I pay for the best here because I display my business here.


Clients have been contacting me wanting to see their photos and cannot get in.

They don't understand this lock out. It makes me look very unprofessional.

Dawn

[JamesJWeg]

from http://pics.jamesjweg.com at 0809 pacific time:

"UPDATE: It's 6:20am, Pacific Time, and we're still not done. Murphy's Law in action, we planned for nearly everything, but it's taking longer than expected. We're almost done, though! Please hang tight, we'll throw open the doors again soon."
It's 11:15 am here, and still no word, one site that promised to shoot a lot of market specific traffic to my site put my links online yesterday afternoon, a couple hundred hits from them in the first few hours and now I am down, and it's almost lunch time. :wxwax

James.

[JamesJWeg]

Why is access to my site containing a link here? Why are MY customers being linked to a discution about SM problems? Couldn't you word that a little more professionally? and simply state that SM cutomers should go to the support forum?

James.

[LOVEphotos]

Yeah, I've been up all night working on photos... as a matter fact while I was uploading ... I was abrutly interrupted ... had no idea smugmug would be updating their site.

I know patience is a virtue ... BUT How much longer?

Another update of the situation would be nice!

[cherylogle]

Although I am not a fussy individual, I do agree that we need more notice when we are to be locked out.


Dawn, unfortunately there will be times when things don't go 100% according to plan. Fortunately it's something I'm sure your clients will understand. Explain that the server is down temporarily and that you will update them as soon as it's back up again. I have been on many sites and worked for an ISP - servers crash all the time - I bet they've experienced it too - just play it off as that. People are very forgiving... I have a client that was trying to see his shots and I told him that the server was down - his reply was "oh yeah, that happens!" so hopefully you can just send an email out explaining that. Hope that helps.

[cherylogle]

Why is access to my site containing a link here? Why are MY customers being linked to a discution about SM problems? Couldn't you word that a little more professionally? and simply state that SM cutomers should go to the support forum?

James.
Have to agree with him here! The customers should not see this thread...only Smugmug website owners should be directed here...

[jbee]

It's not a good ship lollipop world, at least here in NY.


I did a weekend shoot, best sales are Mondays and Tuesdays and now they've been cut off. And this is costing me money. Plain and simple

Also, I agree, that my pro site should have a different 'down' message, not a smugmug discussion.

[ShutterBugger]

:clap Thanks for all your hard work! Paw Prints Nature & Wildlife Photography is extremely grateful for such a well-put-together service. We have been thrilled with Smugmug in every way and we tell everyone we know (and some people we don't!). You folks are quick to help whenever we've asked and that alone is remarkable. We've never waited more than 20 minutes for a response to a problem. We also greatly appreciate the "customizability" of the site. It's really nice to have such easy ways to convey our own personal taste. Some of us need to spend less time complaining and more time learning how to tweak!

[Techman1]

ShutterBugger,

I agree. I'm so ready to Tweak, I'm TWEAKED!!!! :D

Hopefully, we'll all be online very soon.

[cherylogle]

check your spam filter? check your email addy when you signed up for smugmug? are you a pro account holder? :ear
FTR - I didn't get an email either and yes, I checked everything on my end... not a word here... yes - pro gallery user too.

[DTMPhotos]

check your spam filter? check your email addy when you signed up for smugmug? are you a pro account holder? :ear
For what it's worth, I'm a pro account user, my email address on smugmug is correct, and I received no warning or email. I found out by having a customer contact me asking about why "my" site was down...

Derek

[pumpkin]

For what it's worth, I'm a pro account user, my email address on smugmug is correct, and I received no warning or email. I found out by having a customer contact me asking about why "my" site was down...

Derek

there seem to be over 900 "guests" on these forums right now... a few of them might be smugmug customers who don't hang out on dgrin, but I'd guess that a lot of them are customers of smugmug customers trying to work out why their favorite photographer's website was replaced with a link to a forum :)

[Techman1]

According to Andy, the email notices only went out if you have a customized SM page. See this reply from page 7 of this thread:

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=148170&postcount=68

The email message is enclosed in Andy's post.

[Cindy]

Howdy!

So, the big question is, is there anything we're missing? Is something not right? Let us know, quick!

Don
Will my site still work before I update/customise??? Will their be significant changes made I need to be aware of asap? Gallery pricing the way I allready have it set up, etc., etc.???
I want to do so but have no time for another learning curve at the moment and currently have customers waiting for me to upload so the can see/buy.

:lust Okay you asked what's missing still... Here's a BIGGIE I'm still asking for:
I'd still LOVE the ability to put custom 'proof marks' on our photos. Smaller, more discreet... place them where I want them not automatically right smack dab in the middle of the photos which often times blocks something important inthe photo... which is why I can't use them but would really appriciate the ability to do so.

Thanks, Cindy

[DTMPhotos]

I take back my comment...Now that I've seen the sample email, I realize I DID receive it and just spaced it...My apology...

D.


the email was only sent to folks who have customized versions of their smugmug pages - to let them know that they may need to do some updating to their pages...

normally, smugmug does major system updates in the wee hours, and they cause little downtime.

cheers

here's the actual email:

[john@hultgren.org]

I think Smugmug is a great service and I am excited about the changes. However, notification is not the best. Recently I did receive some notice about changes, but this time I didn't.

This comes as bad timing. The only place I show my photos is at our state fair, and last year, right at the end of the fair, Smugmug made some changes that took away the no cropping option (I want the full photograph to be printed regardless of the size print the person orders). I didn't know about it, finding out through a call from a customer. (And smugmug's only reply was that the option was no longer available but they may consider returning it sometime in the future.)So during the only time of year when I really expected high traffic, I had to take all my photos down and then remake them with a cropable border. (Then, when the no crop option was returned without warning, I had to reverse the process.)

Now, our state fair just opened this week and here I am again worried about what is going to happen. Already people I am directing to the site cannot get in.

Of course I don't expect you to do upgrades around my schedule, but notification would go a long way to easing my transition. If there is one point I would really stress it would be: you need to improve notification.

Other than that, I think the new features will be nice and I can't wait to play with them. I don't think the site was very intuitive for low-computer-literate shoppers; hopefully this will help.

[quisr]

there seem to be over 900 "guests" on these forums right now... a few of them might be smugmug customers who don't hang out on dgrin, but I'd guess that a lot of them are customers of smugmug customers trying to work out why their favorite photographer's website was replaced with a link to a forum :) Yep. I'm one of them. Just went through the pain of registering so I could participate here. My 2 cents. I've been a very happy SmugMug customer for a year or so. Absolutely no complaints--until this morning. What the hell? Someone screwed up. "Server down and it happens occasionally" which a poster above thinks is a reasonable excuse isn't. For commercial systems like this, ones people pay money for and which some people depend on for their living, there should be all sorts of backups and ways of doing seamless upgrades, maintenance, etc. And aside from that they way the message and the referral to this forum. I won't even bother to comment on that except to say bizarre.

[pumpkin]

Yep. I'm one of them. Just went through the pain of registering so I could participate here. My 2 cents. I've been a very happy SmugMug customer for a year or so. Absolutely no complaints--until this morning. What the hell? Someone screwed up. "Server down and it happens occasionally" which a poster above thinks is a reasonable excuse isn't. For commercial systems like this, ones people pay money for and which some people depend on for their living, there should be all sorts of backups and ways of doing seamless upgrades, maintenance, etc.

I agree, and while I don't rely on smugmug for income, I do appreciate people who do. I have been very satisfied with smugmug service in the past, but this sudden switch seems a little inconsiderate. Wee hours for some is middle of the day for others, and in general it would be a little better to run a parallel upgrade site. So while the upgrades were going on, we would at least have service, even if it was a little slower. I remember seeing someone who posted his revenue reports from smugmug sales a couple of months back and they were in the tens of thousands. A single day down for a professional like that can mean a lot less money in the pocket.

And I agree with those who say that smugmug is great service. But using that as a reason to justify this seems a little bit of a stretch. People pay smugmug for the service - it's not a present from smugmug to its customers. As paying customers, people have the right to complain if they don't get the service they're paying for, and especially so if they don't get a warning about it. I understand also that the staff didn't realize it was going to take this long, but having a parallel front-end shouldn't be that much more work. I'd imagine most of the servers are in the databases that host the images and process them, and that only a few serve as a front end for the page-generating scripts. So having a couple more servers for redundancy and testing shouldn't be the end of the world, should it?

Anyway, I'm excited to see what's coming of all this :)

[ppuga]

Yep. I'm one of them. Just went through the pain of registering so I could participate here. My 2 cents. I've been a very happy SmugMug customer for a year or so. Absolutely no complaints--until this morning. What the hell? Someone screwed up. "Server down and it happens occasionally" which a poster above thinks is a reasonable excuse isn't. For commercial systems like this, ones people pay money for and which some people depend on for their living, there should be all sorts of backups and ways of doing seamless upgrades, maintenance, etc.

I agree,

thank you very much for this upgrades, I do like them! But I didn't get any advice of this, yesterday at night (CST) I was uploading photos for a client in a private gallery, so he can take a look at them today... and OH SURPRISE!!! Smugmug it's down...

And so far I have recived a complain about it, telling me why I told him to see a gallery he can't see, if my server it's down.
:wxwax

I have explain that this was out my hands and it's for a better site, but someone can tell us when the service will be back?? Today? tomorrow?
So I can't talk with my client and look for another way of showing the pictures to him because he was kind of in a hurry for a presentation.

Finally, I want to comment that I'm a very very happy user of smugmug, I just hope I don't loose a client because of this changes.

Please, hurry up!
:clap

[ShutterBugger]

First, thanks for the reply. My level of upset has to do with the fact that nether onethumb's post nor the e-mail (for those with stylesheet changes) stated what would or would not change, and the screen shot that one-thumb posted has several main parts of the page in that hidious green color that to me is totally unacceptable, which lead me to belive that default colors of staple text would be changing, and that once again I would have to spend hours figuring out how these new changes work. I was 100% sure knowing how SM works that I would be able to do away with said colors, but how many dollars of my time would it cost to learn how to reverse those changes. The time it takes to understand and learn the changes costs me way more than cost of SM to start with, the two hours of my time I have spent today trying to figure out how these changes will affect my site, and what I can do with the new features cost me more in loss of billable hours than a full year of SM costs me. I have constantly seen SM making technical changes that are wonderful, I totally support the advancements in the ability to customize etc. However some things that have happened latly have left me with the feeling that I can not trust that my site will look the same in the morning as it did the night before. Baldy, I am afraid that some of your staff is getting the attitude that SM is now big enough to just do what you feel like and tell those who don't like it "oh well". The way I look at it I opened my SM account because I liked what I saw, a clean professonal look, and I think I have a reasonable expectation for it to stay that way without me having to learn a new coding system just to reverse changes. The feeds were a perfect example of that, no wraning, just one day I opened SM and there they were, ugly as heck in my book. It made me rather angry at the time to spend an hour of my time figuring out how to remove them. I felt sure from what I have seen of SM that there was a way, but there was no simple answer, no info in help that I could find about it other than what it was, no post on the forum stating how to manipulate it, no e-mail to state that it was going to be added to all accounts by default and what stylesheet change would remove it, no warning that on date xyz the look of my entire site would change without my conesnt, nothing. The whole problem with adding the feeds was that they do not fit the classy style of SM as I joined it, as I expect it to be. I fear that some of the SM staff does not value the time of the SM customers, early on in my professional carrier I did some programing, a few years ago I did web site design (much in raw html), now I am a network administrator, and yet I find SM's help on CSS customization confusing and frustrating, I have to wonder how many of your other users are totally lost with it. Myself, if I had the time to learn CSS, would have no trouble doing what I want, but I don't have hours to learn it, can't we get some quick cheats on how to make cool changes in a much more straight forward manor. And PLEASE can we have better wranings/explanations of changes a reasonable time (one week?) before they occur, and a solid date and time when those changes will occur. Yes there has been much talk about how wonderful these changes will be, but there has been little to no real world info as to what will happen, where did anyone before you (baldy) state that the basic site would mantain it's look and feel?.

James.

Sorry to be blunt, but I have to wonder how much of your time (that is obviously worth zillions of dollars a second) is being spent complaining in here? You might want to try something more logical like sending a very short & sweet email to the techies at SM when you have a problem rather than fumbling around for an hour or more trying to learn how to do something relatively simple like changing a font color. I've always gotten helpful and happy responses within minutes and problems fixed nearly instantly. Make way for progress and improvement. If your time is equal to so much darn money... spend it learning to tweak rather than complaining. Or, if you're in such a hurry... ask the "geeks" via email to show you how. Small potatoes. I'm sure things will be up and running smoothly again soon. Most people completely understand that servers go down at times... your millions of fans will too.

[Baldy]

Ouch, I don't know how to apologize for how long it's taking to come back up. Knowing how critical many of your sites are, we can only imagine how painful downtime is for you.

We've had a standing maintenance window Monday nights/Tuesday mornings (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=2161) for a long time, but many of you never noticed because most of the time it's pretty brief or doesn't happen.

We really appreciate the amazing support we receive from so many of you.

To answer a question: the AJAX stuff allows you to enter/edit things instantly without having to go to a pull-down menu, choose an option, be transported to a page to change a gallery title, and then be transported back. You just click the link, an edit box comes up on the page you're viewing without reloading it, and off you go.

All the best,
Baldy

[pumpkin]

Sorry to be blunt, but I have to wonder how much of your time (that is obviously worth zillions of dollars a second) is being spent complaining in here? You might want to try something more logical like sending a very short & sweet email to the techies at SM when you have a problem rather than fumbling around for an hour or more trying to learn how to do something relatively simple like changing a font color. I've always gotten helpful and happy responses within minutes and problems fixed nearly instantly. Make way for progress and improvement. If your time is equal to so much darn money... spend it learning to tweak rather than complaining. Or, if you're in such a hurry... ask the "geeks" via email to show you how. Small potatoes. I'm sure things will be up and running smoothly again soon. Most people completely understand that servers go down at times... your millions of fans will too.

Wow what loyalty. Why attack him? I'm not sure what field you're in, but I'm sure that if you found some third party unrelated to your job had closed down your office one day, and that you couldn't go to work and get paid, for reasons entirely beyond your control, you wouldn't be too happy. Another example: if you're renting shop space from a company, but they decide one day they need to perform routine maintenance during your shop hours. You arrive at the shop in the morning and find that the people providing the very space for your livelihood are preventing you from using it.

I like smugmug a lot, but I can see where these "complainers" are coming from.

[landrum]

While I am quite excited about the upgrades (maybe my customers will be able to navigate on their own better now), it's been almost 3 hours since the last update on what's going on...and still nothing. I never got an email regarding this upgrade. I do get the emails from you, as I have the one from July...:dunno

I, too, don't like the fact that my customers are being redirected to this forum. I think that your message needs to be directed to the pro user customers, not so much for the site owners. I think that the customers seeing this thread may start to have doubts about my site's reliability (as there are some comments here that are harsh to say the least!!!)

I am the first to defend smugmug and tell everyone how great this service is. I have to say that they definately dropped the ball with communication on this one though...:uhoh

Please give us an update.

[winnjewett]

To answer a question: the AJAX stuff allows you to enter/edit things instantly without having to go to a pull-down menu, choose an option, be transported to a page to change a gallery title, and then be transported back. You just click the link, an edit box comes up on the page you're viewing without reloading it, and off you go.

All the best,
Baldy
Sounds fantastic! I can't wait.

-winn

[Baldy]

and as long as i'm here waiting to get a look at my albums....

having not been able to look at the code for the new pages this may be moot, but it would be nice to move away from a table based layout to one that is all css positioned, that way we could really get into some serious customization.

cssZenGarden (http://www.csszengarden.com/) is an example of what i'm talking about.

yes, i'm a web developer. sorry.

probably one of the reasons I LOVE smugmug though. I know there are some code monkey's back there somewhere. Keep up the great work.Exactly. :D

[stupidkrazykarl]

Even still however, I doubt better communication would have helped this situation. The matience window has been posted for ages, and the only reason this is taking so long is simple bad karma.

These things happen.

[JamesJWeg]

Sorry to be blunt, but I have to wonder how much of your time (that is obviously worth zillions of dollars a second) is being spent complaining in here? You might want to try something more logical like sending a very short & sweet email to the techies at SM when you have a problem rather than fumbling around for an hour or more trying to learn how to do something relatively simple like changing a font color. I've always gotten helpful and happy responses within minutes and problems fixed nearly instantly. Make way for progress and improvement. If your time is equal to so much darn money... spend it learning to tweak rather than complaining. Or, if you're in such a hurry... ask the "geeks" via email to show you how. Small potatoes. I'm sure things will be up and running smoothly again soon. Most people completely understand that servers go down at times... your millions of fans will too. My time spent writing did cost me you are right, however it is the hope that SM will make a few changes to help prevent wasted tie on the customers part in the future. Due to what I do proffesionally I understand the pain of hundreds of people calling asking for help with very basic problems, as such I try not to e-mail SM support unless it is a real issue for me. Maybe I am wrong but I don't think they want to spend all day answering CCS customization questions from every customer.

James.

[Ben:::D]

Hey guys,

Glad to see smugmug is making some changes. Of course, I had the knee-jerk, "Hey, what's goin' on here?!!" reaction too. But I'm glad things will be getting better. Keep up the good work.

[landrum]

Thank you for the update and the redirected link. I appreciate how amazingly frustrated you guys must be right now, even more than your users are. I also appreciate the fact that you are listening to our frustrations and doing what you can to ease them.


:thumb

[JamesJWeg]

Ouch, --chop--
All the best,
Baldy
Thanks for fixing the link to not point to this thread. In spite of my complaining, I do understand when things go wrong, right now I am working on a database repair that quick calculations tell me has cost somewhere around 6,750 student hours of educational time this week. :wxwax Sorry if I was a little over the top yesterday, I had a bad day and it boiled over with this. Just please take note of what the complaints in this thread are really about, and once the updates are done and you get some sleep, see if you can setup some SOPs to ensure that this doesn't happen again. IMHO, the current mantance window setup is not a good one, tue - wed would be better, and anything big should have an e-mail warning 1 or more weeks ahead. FWIW, for those of us on the east cost some of your little updates run into the morning here, it sucks to walk into work and find your site down.

James.

[onethumb]

In case anyone's just refreshing this thread, there is a new thread (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=148273) I'm using exclusively for status updates and announcements.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to post constantly with updates, but we're busy trying to fix the problem. I'm trying to find the best balance between fixing and communicating what's going on with the fixing. :)

Thanks,

Don

[allencharles]

Cons with Smugmug:



1) I am offended that I was lead to believe I could build a sight like (example, www.emphoto.com (http://www.emphoto.com/)) and it turns out emphoto is not even hosted through smugmug. So it’s impossible to have the look like emphoto through smugmug.



2) I have spent $550.00 month to be advertised in three Michigan phone books, only to find out that customers today would only find a link to a smugmug forum.



3) Every time I turn to my sight it has been changed due to upgrading. I find this necessary, but offended that I do not have the option to accept these upgraded features or not, because as advertised, I thought I would have “my own look and feel”.



Pros with Smugmug:



1) This is the first sight I have ever put together and smugmug support has been very very helpful.



2) I really like being able to see the hits on each gallery.



3) Until today, my site has been very reliable and pulled up every time. Another wards, I feel my customers will be not have any problems coming to my site and this has been comforting.



All in all, this will be my last year with smugmug. I very much appreciate their help, but I don’t have the time to fiddle with changes every month….I’ll have to find another service so I know I’ll have my own look and feel that I want.



Allen


Thanks for fixing the link to not point to this thread. In spite of my complaining, I do understand when things go wrong, right now I am working on a database repair that quick calculations tell me has cost somewhere around 6,750 student hours of educational time this week. :wxwax Sorry if I was a little over the top yesterday, I had a bad day and it boiled over with this. Just please take note of what the complaints in this thread are really about, and once the updates are done and you get some sleep, see if you can setup some SOPs to ensure that this doesn't happen again. IMHO, the current mantance window setup is not a good one, tue - wed would be better, and anything big should have an e-mail warning 1 or more weeks ahead. FWIW, for those of us on the east cost some of your little updates run into the morning here, it sucks to walk into work and find your site down.

James.

[picturethisdetroit.com]

The only thing that I see could be improved with a new design is making the STYLE drop down box more visable. My website www.picturethisdetroit.com (http://www.picturethisdetroit.com) generates over 14,000 unique visitors per month (most being redirected to smugmugs galleries). Most our visitors are not aware of their options to change the style of layouts due to it's size and or positioning on the page. This is a shame and I wish this option/drop box, would get the views it deserves.

[colourbox]

While I upgraded to Pro to beat the price rise, my livelihood isn't depending on this site...yet...so I'm fortunately not too worried about the delay and am eagerly awaiting the cool new changes. But I still am wondering, for the sake of those whose income is affected by this. Is there any particular reason this wasn't scheduled for a Saturday night? Why in the middle of the week?

[DigitalGuru]

Don - Great job! I like the new style very much. I also like your positive attitude that seems to come though in your messages/replies.

Here are some of my suggestions...

(1) I've (and my customers) had problems with navigation. I can go into my folders but I can't easily traverse back out/up. I loose the map at some point (ex: "Portraits->Davis->Davis Children") and end up having to click "my photos" to get back to the front page. Is it just me or is anyone else having this issue? Will it get corrected with the new interface?

(2) Also, is there a way enter a "coupon code" so certain customers can get discounts or buy "gift cards"? Or a way to set up a credit. Or a calculator to increase discount for high volume buyers. Or setup up package prints (1-8x10, 2-5x7, 8-wallets)?

(3) Can you increase the upload max from 100Meg? When I do a wedding, it would be nice to upload more than 100Meg at time.

(4) ALL of my customer get confused between the file name (ex: CRW_801) the the picture counter (25 of 134). They think that "25" is the photo they want. Can you put the file name (even if it gets truncated) under/over the thumbnails an any of the view modes?

(5) Instead of "proof" across the print, can do the same function but let us call it something else...like "sample", "preview", etc? On top of that, can you offer the option to put that embossed word in the lower right hand corner of the print, no matter what the customer crops or print size is selected? I'd like and embossed "DG" (for DigitalGuru) in the lower right had corner no matter how the customer get the print.

(6) For direct links to folders...that cut and paste from the address bar in internet explorer...can you make the link name related to the company name I picked? Also, a button that gets back to the top level so these potential customers can browse my portfolios without me have to state that in the email with the direct link?

(7) Is there a way to hide, make "not visibile/public", but still have a direct link to a folder so I don't create clutter for customers. I don't want all my private folders visible but I want them accessable. For example, my wedding clients may have a proof folder but I don't want it visible by them or anyone. They get to it through the link I email them. So once they pick their prints, only those folders are visible publicly.

(8) can you do a "slideshow" in the "elegant" view. So thumbnails on the left (and move to the appropriate page) and the slideshow on the right. And the current thumbnail highlighted while the slideshow runs.

(9) create a "wishlist" along with the "add to cart". some clients don't know what they want so if i can see their wishlist and help them crop/choose prints, it would make the sale faster.

Sorry for the extremely long message! I hope I didn't post this in the wrong forum...my apologies (and redirect me) if I did!
-DigitalGuru

[bigwebguy]

...

(7) Is there a way to hide, make "not visibile/public", but still have a direct link to a folder so I don't create clutter for customers. I don't want all my private folders visible but I want them accessable. For example, my wedding clients may have a proof folder but I don't want it visible by them or anyone. They get to it through the link I email them. So once they pick their prints, only those folders are visible publicly.

-DigitalGuru DG, you can do #7 now. Just mark your album as private. Anyone can still get to it via a url as long as you don't password protect it.

[onethumb]

DG, you can do #7 now. Just mark your album as private. Anyone can still get to it via a url as long as you don't password protect it.

And ShareGroups will let you share a handful of private galleries with a single URL.

Don

[clousephoto]

Just thought I would say that, and correct me if I am wrong, but emphoto is hosted on smugmug! if you navigate through the site, it works just like smugmug. In fact, if you click on "Weddings" it redirects you to the smugmug page with the notice. She just has an index page on her domain that has links to smugmug. This can be accomplished with the "Pro" account or if you have your own domain. She also has her pages "customized" so that they look like her main page since she has a "PRO" account.

Amanda


Cons with Smugmug:



1) I am offended that I was lead to believe I could build a sight like (example, www.emphoto.com (http://www.emphoto.com/)) and it turns out emphoto is not even hosted through smugmug. So it’s impossible to have the look like emphoto through smugmug.



2) I have spent $550.00 month to be advertised in three Michigan phone books, only to find out that customers today would only find a link to a smugmug forum.



3) Every time I turn to my sight it has been changed due to upgrading. I find this necessary, but offended that I do not have the option to accept these upgraded features or not, because as advertised, I thought I would have “my own look and feel”.



Pros with Smugmug:



1) This is the first sight I have ever put together and smugmug support has been very very helpful.



2) I really like being able to see the hits on each gallery.



3) Until today, my site has been very reliable and pulled up every time. Another wards, I feel my customers will be not have any problems coming to my site and this has been comforting.



All in all, this will be my last year with smugmug. I very much appreciate their help, but I don’t have the time to fiddle with changes every month….I’ll have to find another service so I know I’ll have my own look and feel that I want.



Allen

[JamesJWeg]

And ShareGroups will let you share a handful of private galleries with a single URL.

Don
The curse of sharegroups is the lack or organization, would we per chance be seeing a change in that soon?

James.

[JamesJWeg]

Just thought I would say that, and correct me if I am wrong, but emphoto is hosted on smugmug! if you navigate through the site, it works just like smugmug. In fact, if you click on "Weddings" it redirects you to the smugmug page with the notice. She just has an index page on her domain that has links to smugmug. This can be accomplished with the "Pro" account or if you have your own domain. She also has her pages "customized" so that they look like her main page since she has a "PRO" account.

Amanda
I was also mislead by the emphoto referances in SM when I signed up. It was not until after I upgraded to pro that I realized that emphoto's front end was not hosted on SM, I just never complained about it, imagine that. :rofl

James.

[clousephoto]

I was also mislead by the emphoto referances in SM when I signed up. It was not until after I upgraded to pro that I realized that emphoto's front end was not hosted on SM, I just never complained about it, imagine that. :rofl

James.
I guess I take things like this for granted as I am a web developer by trade and photographer by night. I can see how it would be confusing.

[JamesJWeg]

I guess I take things like this for granted as I am a web developer by trade and photographer by night. I can see how it would be confusing.
The confusing part is that em's front page is on a real web server, and if you went there to look at it as an SM example site and didn't pay attention to the url it leaves you thinking that you can do actual html pages on SM, which is not true, I don't think SM should use it as an example since the front end is not SM hosted.

James.

[landrum]

(3) Can you increase the upload max from 100Meg? When I do a wedding, it would be nice to upload more than 100Meg at time.
What I do is open multiple windows to accomodate what I have to upload and let it run overnight. Most of the time I have no problems with all the photos uploading that way.


(4) ALL of my customer get confused between the file name (ex: CRW_801) the the picture counter (25 of 134). They think that "25" is the photo they want. Can you put the file name (even if it gets truncated) under/over the thumbnails an any of the view modes?
I have also had this confusion. I make sure to tell my customers to reference the BLUE number written above the enlarged photo, not the white one. I have not had any trouble since I started telling people that.

Thought that maybe that would help... :D

[landrum]

The confusing part is that em's front page is on a real web server, and if you went there to look at it as an SM example site and didn't pay attention to the url it leaves you thinking that you can do actual html pages on SM, which is not true, I don't think SM should use it as an example since the front end is not SM hosted.

James.
I was confused by that site at first also, but I think it's fine to have as an example. It just shows how much you can actually do with the service. I have my own domain and would like to intigrate web pages with SM, however my amazingly limited knowledge of HTML and web development have kept me from doing anything thus far. Maybe someday...:lust

[Andy]

To answer a question: the AJAX stuff allows you to enter/edit things instantly without having to go to a pull-down menu, choose an option, be transported to a page to change a gallery title, and then be transported back. You just click the link, an edit box comes up on the page you're viewing without reloading it, and off you go.

All the best,
Baldy

i've been using this new version for a while and guys: it totally rawks! :bow :bow :bow

maps? ajax? who knew :lol3

[Andy]

Cons with Smugmug:



1) I am offended that I was lead to believe I could build a sight like (example, www.emphoto.com (http://www.emphoto.com/)) and it turns out emphoto is not even hosted through smugmug. So it’s impossible to have the look like emphoto through smugmug.

no, it's not. you can customize to your heart's content, if you'll read about cobranding here on dgrin, you'll find dozens of sites to choose from, get ideas from, etc. emphoto's photos are absolutely hosted on smugmug, em, is married to the co-founder of smugmug.com :D





2) I have spent $550.00 month to be advertised in three Michigan phone books, only to find out that customers today would only find a link to a smugmug forum.





your advt bucks will pay dividends for the years to come - i use the phone book all the time! smugmug will be newer, fresher, cooler, faster easier and better after this upgrade.



3) Every time I turn to my sight it has been changed due to upgrading. I find this necessary, but offended that I do not have the option to accept these upgraded features or not, because as advertised, I thought I would have “my own look and feel”.





*every* time? hmm - exactly when, please, other than today? :ear

Pros with Smugmug:



1) This is the first sight I have ever put together and smugmug support has been very very helpful.



2) I really like being able to see the hits on each gallery.



3) Until today, my site has been very reliable and pulled up every time. Another wards, I feel my customers will be not have any problems coming to my site and this has been comforting.



All in all, this will be my last year with smugmug. I very much appreciate their help, but I don’t have the time to fiddle with changes every month….I’ll have to find another service so I know I’ll have my own look and feel that I want.



Allen[/QUOTE]

sorry you'll be leaving - but you may want to check out the new features :deal

thanks for writing and telling us your thoughts

[Andy]

I was also mislead by the emphoto referances in SM when I signed up. It was not until after I upgraded to pro that I realized that emphoto's front end was not hosted on SM, I just never complained about it, imagine that. :rofl

James.
btw - how could you have been misled? her photos *are* done on smugmug - and the help sections on cobranding have always always stated that other web programming could be done in front of your smug site...

but now with the improvements onethumb and crew have made, that opening page could just as easily be done on smugmug :deal take a look at digitadaze.smugmug.com and many other sites.

cheers

[nasadiver]

What I do is open multiple windows to accomodate what I have to upload and let it run overnight. Most of the time I have no problems with all the photos uploading that way.

I have also had this confusion. I make sure to tell my customers to reference the BLUE number written above the enlarged photo, not the white one. I have not had any trouble since I started telling people that.

Thought that maybe that would help... :D
Have you ever heard of the program "StarExplorer"? I just purchased it yesterday and it allows you unlimited uploads to SM. It is a very comprehensive program that allows gallery creation/customization on the PC and then automates everything being loaded to SM. I had uploaded about 600 pictures from a 2,300 shot weekend (sports) when I went to bed. Woke up to find the site down. I'm waiting to see how many went before the shutdown and I am really hoping the interface still works.

It also allows downloading of sales datas in CSV format for import into Excel which works great. Was able to tally sales from each gallery/tournament very quickly.

The link is http://www.starexplorer.com

And no,...I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I saw the link in a Nikon forum on dpreview and just purchased the program yesterday. Very happy with it.

Now on to bigger fish,....any idea on when SM will be back up?

[Baldy]

Can you increase the upload max from 100Meg? When I do a wedding, it would be nice to upload more than 100Meg at time.The new Universal (beta) uploader that works on pretty much everything is getting a new release today and it's unlimited.

People gave us great feedback on that uploader — many thanks! The biggest change in it is we can process the images as they get uploaded, so not only can batches be unlimited but the photos are showing up in your galleries during the upload so you can work on them.

[Mike Lane]

Cons with Smugmug:



1) I am offended that I was lead to believe I could build a sight like (example, www.emphoto.com (http://www.emphoto.com/)) and it turns out emphoto is not even hosted through smugmug. So it’s impossible to have the look like emphoto through smugmug.



2) I have spent $550.00 month to be advertised in three Michigan phone books, only to find out that customers today would only find a link to a smugmug forum.



3) Every time I turn to my sight it has been changed due to upgrading. I find this necessary, but offended that I do not have the option to accept these upgraded features or not, because as advertised, I thought I would have “my own look and feel”.
Hmmm. I was able to get way more fancy with my site than emphoto did with the previous round of SM customization options. This new update should make it even easier to do. I guess if you can't possibly be satisfied with a site that doesn't have an entrance page then hosting is your only option. The thing is that I think you'll be disappointed to find out that you will have to do the exact same thing (host non-photo related things like entrance pages on different services) on pretty much any photography site out there on the web. If you find something that allows you to do that, I'd be interested to hear about it. Stick with dgrin at least to satisfy our curiosity (heck maybe if you find something better smugmug will want to match it).

Anyhow, hopefully you'll keep us all informed on how it goes.

[Baldy]

Now on to bigger fish,....any idea on when SM will be back up?We just got past the major hurdle that was holding everything up. So, if things go according to plan from here on, it's soon.

[Andy]

We just got past the major hurdle that was holding everything up. So, if things go according to plan from here on, it's soon.

i'm in. uploading photos as we speak :cool

good job, guys. i know you all were feeling a ton of pressure from everywhere.

[Mike Lane]

I was confused by that site at first also, but I think it's fine to have as an example. It just shows how much you can actually do with the service. I have my own domain and would like to intigrate web pages with SM, however my amazingly limited knowledge of HTML and web development have kept me from doing anything thus far. Maybe someday...:lust
There seems to be a lot of people in the "if-i-only-had-the-time-to-learn-css-and-html-i-would-have-the-smugmug-site-of-my-dreams" crowd. This is one thing that I think I've got down fairly well, maybe I should offer my services to people. I hate to see people wishing they had a customized site but don't want to sit around to figure out how to do it.

I wonder what the smugmug higher-ups would think of that? Would they even care if someone offered css and html help on the side?

[colourbox]

And there it is!

[leebase]

Woohoo!

Lee

[Mike Lane]

We just got past the major hurdle that was holding everything up. So, if things go according to plan from here on, it's soon. Should something have changed? My page is back up but nothing appears to have changed.

EDIT: I understand now that the gallery changes are soon to come, nevermind.

[Baldy]

I was able to get way more fancy with my site than emphoto did with the previous round of SM customization options.Mike, you really did a great job with your page. I was showing Tim O'Reilly (http://www.oreilly.com/), Mr. Influential Uber Geek of The World, what's possible with customization and showed him your site.

It will be interesting to see what you do when the new gallery style goes live (smugmug is up but not the new features yet), which is so much more customizable. Stage 3, customizing your home page, is still to come.

Everyone: the reason we used www.emphoto.com as an example is we get so many people inquiring about whether they can integrate Smugmug into their current sites, from Senator Obama to The wall Street Journal to any number of photographers like http://www.picturesink.com/ It's a very common thing to do.

[Mike Lane]

Mike, you really did a great job with your page. I was showing Tim O'Reilly (http://www.oreilly.com/), Mr. Influential Uber Geek of The World, what's possible with customization and showed him your site. Holy crap thanks! So uh, I'm a good teacher and a good writer too, is Tim hiring?

I kid I kid.

No but seriously...

[Baldy]

I wonder what the smugmug higher-ups would think of that? Would they even care if someone offered css and html help on the side?I'm pretty sure the smugmug higher ups would love it, especially coming from you. :D

Keep in mind that our mission must be to make it very hard for you to get business. In other words, there is relentless pressure on us to make this easier, so we'll be adding stuff to do that.

It's sorta like Nik's great upload tool. We love that he does that but we also have to make our uploaders unlimited, etc.

Having said that, full customization with major bells and whistles will always need good CSS & HTML guys.

[cjohn]

Should something have changed? My page is back up but nothing appears to have changed.

EDIT: I understand now that the gallery changes are soon to come, nevermind.

Same here, nothing seems to have changed. Bigger problems than expected?

[{JT}]

We were just talking about this and have no problem if someone wants to make a business out of helping others with customizing their site. Of course it would not be affiliated with SM in any way, but I am sure most pros would not care after seeing your work :)

There seems to be a lot of people in the "if-i-only-had-the-time-to-learn-css-and-html-i-would-have-the-smugmug-site-of-my-dreams" crowd. This is one thing that I think I've got down fairly well, maybe I should offer my services to people. I hate to see people wishing they had a customized site but don't want to sit around to figure out how to do it.

I wonder what the smugmug higher-ups would think of that? Would they even care if someone offered css and html help on the side?

[leebase]

I don't see any changes? I've refreshed -- is there something we need to do?

Lee

[Mike Lane]

I'm pretty sure the smugmug higher ups would love it, especially coming from you. :D

Keep in mind that our mission must be to make it very hard for you to get business. In other words, there is relentless pressure on us to make this easier, so we'll be adding stuff to do that.

It's sorta like Nik's great upload tool. We love that he does that but we also have to make our uploaders unlimited, etc.
Well you heard it folks, all your customization problems are no more! Step right up for the smugmug site of your dreams. Rollovers, transparent looks without pngs, jello mold layouts, rounded corners, shaded boxes, you name it can all be yours (some features may not be possible until the next round of updates).

Actually, let me get my gallery fixed after baldy and crew break it (just kidding guys) first and then I'll get busy helping anyone else. Heck I need to build up a portfolio so it'd probably be free for a while too!

You guys are making my head way too big...

[Francois]

I think the 'Elegant' style is now 'traditional'? It is there that I see the advertised new look. The other styles are still the same.... ??

[Baldy]

Same here, nothing seems to have changed. Bigger problems than expected?Okay, we're getting close to pulling the trigger. Here was the plan and where it went afoul:

1. Rebuild the database. That meant initializing the location fields for 32,000,000 photos. Went fast for the main database server, and the other servers should have gone faster.

2. Wait for the slow server, which is the fly in the ointment we didn't anticipate and can't yet explain.

3. Restart with the old version but rebuilt database.

4. Go live with the new features.

1-3 are done. Working on 4.

[afleetingmoment]

I'm getting a page cannot be displayed error when trying to upload. Is anyone else having this problem? I can view all of my galleries just fine.

Thanks!
Lissa



Okay, we're getting close to pulling the trigger. Here was the plan and where it went afoul:

1. Rebuild the database. That meant initializing the location fields for 32,000,000 photos. Went fast for the main database server, and the other servers should have gone faster.

2. Wait for the slow server, which is the fly in the ointment we didn't anticipate and can't yet explain.

3. Restart with the old version but rebuilt database.

4. Go live with the new features.

1-3 are done. Working on 4.

[leebase]

I think the 'Elegant' style is now 'traditional'? It is there that I see the advertised new look. The other styles are still the same.... ??
Nah....the changes just finally clicked in for me....I think they just needed time to update the caches or something.

Lee

[Francois]

Okay, we're getting close to pulling the trigger. Here was the plan and where it went afoul:

1. Rebuild the database. That meant initializing the location fields for 32,000,000 photos. Went fast for the main database server, and the other servers should have gone faster.

2. Wait for the slow server, which is the fly in the ointment we didn't anticipate and can't yet explain.

3. Restart with the old version but rebuilt database.

4. Go live with the new features.

1-3 are done. Working on 4.
Sorry Baldy, I am probably being too impatient.... I see some changes now...... different cart, green tabs, etc. ..... :thumb :thumb

[leebase]

Nah....the changes just finally clicked in for me....I think they just needed time to update the caches or something.

Lee
Love the new look -- love that "buy this photo" is now prominently displayed. I wonder if my sales will pick up (they've been dismal).

Lee

[allencharles]

Andy says “*every* time? hmm - exactly when, please, other than today?



Andy…..I guess my memory goes a little further back (ie. July 5, 2005), quote from smugmug “We're working on improvements to our header & footer and, try as we might, we can't complete the improvements WITHOUT AFFECTING SOME CUSTOMIZED PAGES.”



Just over a month ago I had to spend three hours figuring out how to fix my site after the upgrade…..so once again, I feel if I want my look and feel this is not the way to go about it, but I think it’s great for the one’s who feel they will get more from the upgrade. It just hasn’t worked for me….I’m just too busy working with customers.

Allen


no, it's not. you can customize to your heart's content, if you'll read about cobranding here on dgrin, you'll find dozens of sites to choose from, get ideas from, etc. emphoto's photos are absolutely hosted on smugmug, em, is married to the co-founder of smugmug.com :D



your advt bucks will pay dividends for the years to come - i use the phone book all the time! smugmug will be newer, fresher, cooler, faster easier and better after this upgrade.



*every* time? hmm - exactly when, please, other than today? :ear

Pros with Smugmug:



1) This is the first sight I have ever put together and smugmug support has been very very helpful.



2) I really like being able to see the hits on each gallery.



3) Until today, my site has been very reliable and pulled up every time. Another wards, I feel my customers will be not have any problems coming to my site and this has been comforting.



All in all, this will be my last year with smugmug. I very much appreciate their help, but I don’t have the time to fiddle with changes every month….I’ll have to find another service so I know I’ll have my own look and feel that I want.



Allen
sorry you'll be leaving - but you may want to check out the new features :deal

thanks for writing and telling us your thoughts[/QUOTE]