The other day at recess I decided to teach my wee ones the game of Duck, Duck Goose. You remember the game, Tom...you probably played it long ago in a school yard? In this game, the children sit down in a circle facing each other. One child is chosen as "It" and walks around the circle. As the child walks around, they tap people's heads and say whether they are a "duck" or a "goose". Once someone is the "goose" they get up and try to chase "it" around the circle.
The goal is to tap that person before they are able to sit down in the "goose's" spot. If the goose is not able to do this, they become "it"for the next round and play continues. If the "goose" is able to to tag "it" before "it" sits down, then "it" has to sit in the middle of the circle. They are in what we call the pickle jar. I can't help but believe you Tom are in the pickle jar. But then again, maybe that analogy is incorrect...perhaps it is I who is in the pickle jar staring up at the sky, essentially locked out of the Gather Game.
Sincerely yours,
Ladybess
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Comments: 111
Good morning gather.
hehe
MySpace has been doing the same things recently with letting you know everything connections are doing. It makes you feel like you are being stalked.
I think it was well planned to be introduced on a Friday morning. They could answer a few questions and then hit the road for the weekend. Too bad you missed the supercilious team members (not all) who kept talking down to us from their lofty perch of superiority.
Ummmph!
I feel that Gather started as content-based and has gone over to the social side That doesn't work when I have 200+ connections...I can't imagine how it is for people who connected with a thousand! Knowing every move of 200+ is driving me batty and hiding the things I might enjoy.
Another negative...select articles and the people publishing are highlighted, not the article name. There are some people who I read/view everything they publish because I know what to expect from them. Others I may just read when interested.
I've never really complained about any of the changes - until now.
I think we should stage a protest. Leave Gather alone for 24 hours and see how they like them apples.
1) View counts -- this is interesting information (although not particularly useful*). What I find it odd that you give users "an improvement" that doesn't work in real time -- there is a lag and you will notice the "count" doesn't always add up (i.e. you will have 20 ratings, 20 comments, but only 16 views). So currently this "improvement" is a distraction and annoyance to those who find the numbers aren't making any sense.
I DO like having a view count, but I would MUCH rather have something more useful ... like page numbers on people's work. This would make it so much easier to navigate; to go to page number 6, rather than have to hit "Next" five times and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
2) Spotlighting --- I really like this feature!
However, we need to be able to "spotlight" whatever we want and currently we can't go back further than 20 days or so.
Also, in order to spotlight, one has to wade through that terrible feed thing to get to the photos or articles and hit the "spotlight" button when you've finally found it.
Wouldn't it make more sense to go to the article you want to spotlight, hit "edit" and then find a "spotlight" button next to your "publish" button.
These are things that make simple, elegant sense to me.
No other word will do....it SUCKS!
The LAST THING I WANT TO READ ON GATHER is who is getting pinged by whom and who is making friends. So if we could have a drop down box to control what mess is being splashed in that box, that would help a lot!
I love Duck, Duck, Goose
Follow your nose to Massachusetts and you can come play Duck, Duck Goose with us!
I think we should stage another protest in Boston...instead of throwing tea into the harbour, we should throw all your shoes at Team Gather or maybe we could start a big bonfire in front of their headquarters on Summer Street!
I feel like playing a funeral dirge and walk the streets of Boston lamenting the loss of my old friend Gather.
Building a Better Gather?
improve.gather.com
As for the Gather thing, I can live with it and I think it has the potential to improve in the future, but I'm hard-pressed to call this an "upgrade".
a sure indication they are scrambling to find ways to MAKE a profit but maybe not succeeding....
If it aint' broke don't fix it.
Was not broke but now is.
And as for your comment: "I can't get comfortable with....how can I conduct my adulterous affairs in private anymore when all of Gather will know when I make connections or get pinged? " I hear you sister, that is for the birds. I kept looking for a way to shut all that stuff off. Then I was thinking, do I disconnect friendships with everyone because I don't need to know when someone pinged them etc. ???
Well now I am going to play duck duck goose!
Nothing works, who the heck cares if so-and so pings what's his name and I could care less who invites who as a friend.
I was trying to play the game but can't figure out for the life of me how to feature my work (on my own space).
The left side of my space is blank because all the type is shoved off to the right and there is only the first letter of each line showing - god only knows what those words are or say (well maybe Tom does)
Is it supposed to be friendlier? If it is, it doesn't make the grade.
Thanks for posting this to BEST ORIGINAL PHOTOS,ART AND WRITING FOR 2008.
frequencies and useless stats of the members on my
home page? (crazy, truly nuts!)why couldn't that space
be simply designed to have what I choose on it, my bio
and I'd love to just have a front page with the titles to all
of my poems so that people could just pick one easily and go.
The design excess and redundancy utilized in the new
update looks like it was done by some newbie grad school
designer who just wanted to show all the tricks that hadn't
been done yet to make it look "new and exciting". I cannot
fathom who this is designed for and am continually frus-
trated by modern design philosophy that fast forwards everything
into upgraded garbage, simply because we can, catapulting
the still efficient and only recently familiarized into extinc-
tion. This "feed" stuff feels like fast food thrills to me...
a menu of cheap and unsating fare to plague your
insides with a chemistry that was never supposed to
even beckon your eyes or mouth. I am truly shocked this
time, speechless.
Gather tried to cram new features into it, no doubt to increase page views for advertising revenue perhaps, and stepped on it. "You asked for it, tell us what you think"... yeah right, ha ha. Who asked for it like that?
It's not the features so much as how they did it, and for the life of me can't believe they can put the two formats of "My Gather" page side by side and say the new one is better in my mind.
Designers get defensive of their work, it's "their baby" after all, so they don't listen to users well. I see it in industry all the time. Too bad really.... because it still stinks to me, ugly too.. ha ha.
Take care, quack quack..... ;-)
"This "feed" stuff feels like fast food thrills to me...
a menu of cheap and unsating fare to plague your
insides with a chemistry that was never supposed to
even beckon your eyes or mouth. I am truly shocked this
time, speechless."
Nice to see your comment on my page Laura...I remember seeing your beautiful thoughts on my son Will's page many times. You have such a wonderful way with words...and are always so perceptive.
When Facebook instituted its news feed - here's what happened - THIS IS NOW A PETITION ON NEWS FEEDS: CHOICE OF ALLOW OR DISALLOW - other upgrade comments welcome
I went and signed the petition. Thanks.
Love your Gather name and icon. I think I may join you in Baying at Gather...though it will not be a sweetsong.
Did I hear correctly...I mean see correctly. Did you use the word "SUCKS" in your comment to me. Now that's really something....come join us in the pickle jar and we can all ferment together.
Up in Flames
The focus seems to be shifting to the social networking side of things now, rather than the content, and I admit it reminds me of a bunch of girlfriends sitting around and chattering about who did what to whom:
"and Mary said that Angela totally dissed Fiona, so Fiona said she was gonna tell Rebecca about what Angela thinks about..."
You get the idea. Background Noise.
Also, cannot say I've ever played Duck Duck Goose. I don't think I'd last five minutes at it either... I'm still trying to figure out the rules.
I have less then 200 connections and I'm lost in a sea of comment spam...so you must be wallowing in Quicksand with 700. My heart goes out to you.
Did you not have anything to say except the generic comment?
"Okay... All you guys up there on the Marshall stacks have to GET DOWN!"
What can I say...I'm with you...this latest Update needs to find a home in the Burning Pits.
I think I am kind of lost, too. But I hope I get used to it in a few days.
looks like our goose is cooked... i hope we can hang on...
Bless you...
Girly Comments & Graphics
I couldn't help but notice how quickly the Gather poll was pulled...the results were damning the changes.
For my part, I have switched of the ping facility and deleted all pings...that has helped to unclutter my namespace page - try it folks, and see for yourselves the big difference.
A Tower of Babel it tis...a cluttered interface with everyone blabbing on my homepage so that I am completely confused as to where I want to go. Too many choices...too many people...and I'm having a difficult time concentrating and doing what I like to do best.
I do wish Gather would just tell us who and what they want to be? Do they want to be a social networking site or a serious place for writers to come together and support one another in constructive and serious conversations.
I think you have missed your calling. You would have made a great teacher. You looked at the new upgrade and critiqued it well...first noting the positive: View counts and Spotlighting. I too like those changes. At one point today I thought it was interesting that I had 33 comments but 57 views. I began wondering who was viewing and not commenting? Could some of those "viewings" actually be Gather Team members listening in on the thoughts of Gatherites.... that may be a good think if they listen objectively.
I think the new update has some real problems with privacy issues....and the cluttered user interfaces. I'm hoping Team Gather takes a serious look at the new update and tweak it. Kathryn has some really good ideas.
If Gather would only realize they have a community of writers and photographers who have been most appreciative in the past of what Gather stood for...I remember Will explaining the concept...he was so excited. Has GAther lost focus of it's mission? And if they have...should they just not be honest and tell us "Hey guys, the rides over...we want this to be a social networking site." Then I guess we would leave and find someplace else....but holy, moly I sure did love the old Gather!
Duck
Duck
Duck
Duck
Duck
Duck
Goose!
When Elsie says something 'sucks' we have a major issue.
hang in there and I will continue to wade thru the garbage to find the value
Change is Good - In Your Face is NOT
Bob: Gayle - G Nikon told me that Pam said yesterday on her article that Gather will NOT BE DELETING THE NEW FEATURES, they want our feedback but THINGS WILL STAY THE WAY THEY ARE.
Did you see Rose W.'s article? She had gone to the pings of Gather staffers - and their attirude was downright embarassing, based on the quotes she used from the pings...If that is not a recommendation for private pings, I don't know what else is.
I DO NOT know what is WRONG with Gather to make NEWS FEEDS not OPTIONAL, pings NOT private and to state that they will noT be making changes.
Sounds like self-obsessed obstinancy, to me.
Girley, you are the best and that crystal laugh of yours is ringing in my ears..
love and hugs