Talk to Tom: Improving the New Gather

I have just one suggestion, I mean plea,

Change it back, please

You're a brave soul. Call me if you need counseling.

Tom,
on a serious note the reason we all loved the old gather is because it was unlike anything else on the internet. The page set ups were easy and convenient to access, we could get from point A to point B without getting lost in the noise and the clutter.

Hi Tom!
One thing I do like about he upgrade is you can see the person profile picture on their article. There are several people have the same first name and first letter of their last name so that does make it easier to figure out who it is writing the article or posting the image.

I think I have been on gather about the same amount since the upgrade because I am finally getting use to it, but honestly I like the post-upgrade better. I really don't care to see who pinged who or whos friends with who now but I've stopped complaining about that now.

The one thing that is really throwing me off though is the fact that there can be 4 people who rated your article but only 2 page views. That doesn't make sense to me. How can you rate an article if you haven't viewed it?

Thanks for taking the time to sit down and chat with us about this upgrade. I know a lot of people haven't taken to it very much and I think its great that you're willing to talk about it.

I've had no good experiences with it. The feeds are cluttered with useless, stalker-friendly information, I can't find when my friends publish articles because they're buried in pings and comments, and it's been extremely frustrating to post questions on the "help" articles that not only weren't answered, but disappeared from my history entirely.

Tom, this is not what anyone wanted. I think the community has made that quite clear. It would be a good step toward repairing Gather relations if you would rein in the people who spoke to us so condescendingly over the weekend, as if all we needed to do was refesh our collective screens.

Could you also tell us what happened to the members' poll that was removed abruptly from the front page on Friday evening? Thanks.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?:

My experience with gather post-release is worse, I almost don't want to be here nay longer. I dislike the cluttered, messy home page that I am forced to look at. I also really dislike the feeds~

What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least? :
I like nothing about them. I dislike the cluttered view, and the fact that there is no "preview" info about the article available.

Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?:

Much less. I didn't really want to have to filter through all of the info on gather. It seems rather childish here now.

Part of the problem is I'd like My Page to look like MY Page. I like seeing articles, then comments in a separate place, where they belong. All together, it's entirely too easy for a harasser to follow us around the site.

The feeds aren't helpful. I don't want to separate one group of connections continually from another. Also, it's frustrating that if you sort someone's articles or comments, then go to one and try to pick up where you left off by clicking back to their page (or feed, or whatever it's being called now), you have to start all over and go through however many pages to claw your way back to where you were.

I have not encountered a soul -- connection or passerby -- who has had a positive experience. There are many new things to play with, sure, but none of them are equal to or better than the old things we had.

What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?:

My "urgent" request would be to have the option to revert to the way gather looked before this upgrade.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?
What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?
Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?

What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?

I find Gather less compelling. It is too busy, I cannot find my friends who I like to read and I cannot find their content.

I do not like the feeds. It is too hard to read, and again it is too busy. Even when I go to my groups, it is too busy. I do not need to know who is friends with who and I do not need to know who pinged who.

I used it more, but only because it was so difficult to navigate. Also I think I was on more because we were all commiserating about how we did not like the Hawthorne upgrade. I spent too much time trying to navigate the site and I found I was very frustrated.

I think you need to return Gather to its previous form. You made too many changes at a time and you did not improve the site. It is more difficult to navigate, it does not meet my needs. Get rid of the feed that tells me what everyone else is doing and make it so everyone does not see what I am doing. I feel my privacy has been invaded and it does not make me feel safe.

I hope Gather will take the time to listen to the community and understand their concerns in a manner that is professional and of the caliber I have come to expect from the Gather Staff.

Mentioned before that the Feeds trivializes our page and makes it look much less profesional. Also, after 18 months of not using outside email notifications, I have returned to using them because I can get ALL my notifications from ALL my connections in one glance and one click away, in a timely manner.

If I don't comment on the items in my email notifications for a day or a month, they will still be there as long as the member is still a member and has not deleted that content.

With the FEEDs, only 200 items including comments, articles, images, video and pings will be allowed. That would be about 5 minutes of my contacts. I have already had the experience of not being able to get to content becuase it overloaded my Feed.

I have no use for the Friend, Group Feed. From time to time I use My Feed - to click on my ariticles or images.

BUT - the feature to search on Groups OWNED has disappeared. That is a shame.

I would like FEEDS to be optional so that users who wish could turn them off or turn them on and off at will.

People from outside Gather and potential clients and clients of mine do click on my namespace/profile to see my qualifications for freelance writing for which they may want to hire me.

Karie anne was exactly right. Spotlighting and page views were an upgrade. The rest is difficult to read and/or navigate at all. It's like opening your closet to get a shirt and having jeans, shoes, pants, sweaters, shirts, belts, and several puppies fall out on you. The shirt you want may be there, but good luck finding it.

I'd also like to know how to spotlight (or access, but I'm sure there's a way around this) old material. I'm not the only person who's asked this over the weekend, but I can't recall seeing an answer.

This does seem to be a time where Gather management should truly listen to its community. No one has complained for the sake of complaining. No one has NOT tried to work the new system out of recalcitrance. It's not an age-group problem, as was discussed by some. It's a problem of changing something your community, who makes you money, was comfortable with into something we didn't ask for and aren't happy with. Even the people who seem to be OK with it haven't sounded enthusiastic about it.

There have been many, many articles written about the update this weekend, some funny and some serious. I would recommend reading a selection of them from across the board. Even those of us who were funny and/or insubordinate made good points and had something to say that management should take time to hear.

I was wondering if the boycott worked this weekend?
Just curious.

I found the old UI a lot more efficient. Navigation was a snap. Not only that but I was able to come up to speed on it in my first 15 minutes on the site. The separate article and comment sections provided a convenient path to what I wanted to find.

I sorely miss the subscription feature. A lot of the content I followed came from subscriptions.

It seems to me that the current UI was released to meet a deadline and was missing some things that would have made it much more useful. In particular, the ability to save default views of the feeds.

What I'd like to see is the ability to filter the main feed as a default view and to save other filter sets. I'd be much happier with a set of check boxes than the drop downs. Being able to filter by only one criterion is limiting.

I'd rate the new UI as a bit below harmless as far as the value it provides. It's not crippling but it makes access to content more difficult than it was before.

Spotlighting seems like a nice feature but the inability to spotlight older content limits its usefulness for now.

I'd like to say that there was something about the new UI that makes my Gather life easier or provides something new that I had no idea that I'd want. Unfortunately I can't. It's not all bad but nothing is significantly better.

As for using Gather more or less, I've probably used it more out of frustration with my inability to do anything I want. I acted as if I'd click the right key and a golden light would shine upon me and everything would be clear, if only I could find a way to do it. This didn't happen and my patience, like that of many here, is running quite low by now. The problem is obviously not just me. I don't even think it's just us.

Another specific issue: when I publish an article, it takes up to several minutes for it to show up on my page. I am unable to find my own work until someone I'm connected to comments on it. I did manage to track a couple of them down through tags, but that's only because my friends and I have a specific set of tags that we use -- otherwise, tags have never been useful to me on Gather. Where does my new content go when it's in this limbo, and why can't I access it?

Also, the "feed me" feature is disturbingly named, and like tags, I can't imagine actually finding anything through this. It doesn't seem so much designed for a younger user as it just seems juvenile.

I really like the view counts. I find that I spend a LOT more time attempting to navigate here. It is almost painful, to be honest. There's a constant low-grade irritation. Nothing stays "customized" in my feeds, and the 500 activity limit means that I actually regret commenting on things. After all, that takes up space that could knock someone's article off of someone else's feed. Why would I want to do that unless it was really important?

Further, I have a few game-playing friends (one especially) who are loyal readers and commenters who are game players. I know a lot of Gatherers resent game players. Personally, I'll admit the ones who want me to play games with them but read none of my comment don't get many comments on their games either.

The things is, I now must decide if I want to still see content by people who spend evenings chatting, or come up with 40 things that start with the letter M. Even two or three of those people and if I'm not Gathering several times a day I could miss an article from someone I really enjoy reading.

Also, I've noticed when I go to pages that there are things that were recently published that AREN'T in my feed, even though articles by the same author are. (We're talking items published less than an hour apart). I'm not sure what is causing that glitch, but it really worries me.

I haven't Gathered all day, but I don't Gather much on Mondays because of family time. I found that I had to Gather continuously Sunday, and still was certain there were many things missing. It was neither comfortable nor enjoyable.

I don't have time to work in a few hours of Gathering tonight, because I won't get enough accomplished to really feel like it was something I enjoyed, or something that contributed to my connections.

I would like to see a preview of the pictures people are commenting about. an image by XX doesn't tell you much.

Also, I would like to have an option to sort by content only (articles, pictures, and video) instead of only one at a time.

Tom, I'm not impressed at all with the new design for Gather.

I'm not the oldest member here, but I'm certainly not the youngest. I can tell you that visually the pages are now painfully busy. Scanning them is hard, reading them is hard, and enjoying them is impossible.

I work at a computer screen all day, and I'm betting most of the members here do, too. The last thing we need is an overload of information blasting at us during our leisure surfing, too.

I don't care to know who pings whom -- certainly don't need to see both ends of that communication reflected in my feed -- and I don't really want to know about connections and joining Groups all the time.

My method for enjoying this site was to "comment stalk" the people I liked as a means of finding good articles to read, but sorting the comments away from the rest of the chatter requires setting my preference from the drop-down *every time I went to my Feed page.* I would prefer to set my preferences and leave them that way, at least per session until *I* change them.

I am also curious about why we have this update, with many interesting features that I don't believe I've ever seen anyone ask for or about, and haven't got features we HAVE asked for, repeatedly. I don't have a problem with games, but why can't the site separate games from articles and either make us all happy or at least shush the complaints about "clutter"? And why can't we get a "block member" feature? I can't even list how many people I know who have asked for this, and even more who might not have asked but want it.

Wouldn't it seem that the best way to work with a community who makes a profit for the site would be to institute changes that the people already here have asked for repeatedly, rather than make changes that seem aimed at attracting new members who see similar features on other social sites?

I'd like to see the # of comments an article has shown with the titles again. This is especially helpful to members who are on a dial-up connection.

Please address the sudden removal of the opinion poll about this update, Tom. As it stands now, those of us who saw it yanked so quickly see it as getting rid of bad press. I have seen many people ask about this over the weekend, and unfortunately, the longer it goes unadressed, the more of us will ask about it. Sorry to make you feel like you're talking to the White House Press Corps, but that's the impression its summary removal gave us all.

Hi Tom, first I'll answer your specific questions:

* How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather?
Honestly, it sucks. I hate it. I can't easily find any content later than a day by any of my connections. I used the Images/Articles for me pages to help me view content for days I was not on here. I could easily set a time frame (from one day to the next or whatever I needed) and catch up on my friends pictures. This new 'update' makes that impossible or at the very least tedious and annoying.
Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?
It is leaps and bounds worse. I am compelled to toss my computer across the room. . .does that count?
* What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?
I hate the feeds. I do not like anything about them.
* Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?
Significantly less, because the update annoys the living daylights out of me. As I mentioned before, I can't find anything I want to view without opening nine frillion pages. When I did post / comment it was on articles venting my frustration with the lack of concern / bad attitude expressed by some of your staff members. I posted one photo. . . of less than stellar quality. Honestly you want to know where I have been? Boomertown. At least I can find my way around there.
* What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?
Urgent: Get rid of feeds
Urgent: Bring back 'recent content' on our namespace. Keep the spotlight, but allow us to be able to feature older content as well.
Urgent: Bring back "images for me / articles for me / videos for me" pages.
Not so Urgent: Get the pings off our namespace (I can live with them IF You fix everything else.

Apryl said it best: "we all loved the old gather is because it was unlike anything else on the internet."
I was on myspace and facebook before I found gather. One of the main reasons I left both sites was the addition of stalker friendly features like feeds. These new updates make gather just a cheap knock off of those sites. I loved that gather was about the content its members created, and that content was the first thing I could see when seeing a members name space. Now all I see is mindless chatter.

I liked seeing the comment count on articles so I could find out if the comment thread had changed since the last time I looked. The comment thread is an integral part of an article that tries to make a point.

And yes, like Kris just said, I would like to know why the poll was pulled so fast. Just because emails were sent alerting people to the poll (I know many people who do not check out the front page on a regular basis), does not mean the results were skewed either way, people could vote as they saw fit (thats the beauty of an anonymous poll like that).

I've not found a single image any of my connections has posted since the upgrade, by the way. I feel that I'm missing out. I like having a page with images I can look at if I want, even in thumbnail form -- now we have absolutely nothing to go on except the word "image." This seems an unnecessary slur to the many talented artists and photographers on the site.

If you want to improve Gather, please, just put it back. I never in my life want to see another stream of comments/pings/new connections, etc. I have been buried and don't know hardly where anyone is. I go through email to find people. I keep getting off Gather because being on is so frustrating. I miss my friends and reading articles without all the hassle. The only thing I think should stay is the comment count. With that you know there is a comment that needs addressing. Past that, I just want the old Gather back. I do not like the new Gather and never will. That is a promise.

I liked having the old My Page also. Something a friend or family member not connected to Gather could go to and see my work at a glance.

I really dislike all the yappy nonsense of the feed. I don't care who pinged whom and who is now a friend of whom. It seems so juvenile to me and a waste of space.

This whole change was unnecessary unless it was instituted to create more clicks. Well, you've succeeded with that.

The only reason I'm still here is because of the interaction with people I've met on here.

This was a huge mistake.

There are several online communities that offer members various page layouts and looks from which to choose when designing your own page. I think Gather should consider this option immediately if not sooner, because I've not seen a single good thing said about the new "My Page" -- which is really Everyone's Page With My Tiny, Tiny Icon In The Corner now -- and allowing us to correct the visual difficulties would be constructive to rebuilding relationships with members.

The only good thing about the so-called upgrades is the view count. Other than that it sucks. It's like gather on drugs. How can anyone else find my articles, when I can't even find them in that mess? If I wanted a middle-school type webpage I would have gone to MySpace, Facebook etc. It was because Gather was NOT like that, that I enjoyed it.

Why would I want a constant run of comments by me and other people on my front webpage? I'm trying to get people to read my column...not see what somebody else commented regarding somebody else's article! As it stands now...I'm ready to delete all friends, so I don't have to deal with that mess.

The whole thing is a dreadful mess.

Although not nearly as constructive as just admitting a mistake was made and attempting to reinstate the many things we liked which are now gone.

Cheri made an excellent point. I saw a mention of her article on "My" Page, and meant to return to it, but it was quickly buried in a stalker's dream of information about what everyone I knew was doing. It took me hours to remember it was there, when in the past I regularly went to "articles for me" and paged back as far as I had to to find what I wanted.

Hi Tom. Good luck tomorrow. You're going to need it.

I wrote a relatively detailed, coherent article detailing my likes and dislikes with regard to Hawthorne. The estimable Dame Ruth recommended I publish it in its entirety in the comment thread of your chat tomorrow, but I don't think publishing the world's longest comment in the midst of the frothing masses is the most effective way of being heard. You can read it here, if you get a chance:

The Hawthorne Effect. I provided links to a couple of other articles on the upgrade at the end of my article, and please, if you read the article, make sure you read the addendum at the end.

In a nutshell--I don't care for the new way we've been given to navigate the site. It is not delivering my world, my way. The feed itself is hard on my over-40 eyes and the size of the feed (how much information it can handle) is extremely limited. I can live with the changes, but I don't like some of of them.

The "Feed Me" feature is an open invitation for harrassment and worse. We NEED a "Block Member" Feature. Why can I block someone from my GROUPS but not from my own personal space?

My Gather page is chaotic and cluttered to the point of being unusable. It was jammed down our throats incessantly -- "Sort your friends!" -- so I did. I was told this would enable me to filter my feeds. So why can't that be a permanent choice I make? Once I leave My Gather Page, it reverts to the GATHER default setting. Am I only borrowing my Gather Page from you? Why can't it be what I want?

If John O. pinged Kris M., doesn't it logically follow that Kris M. was pinged by John O.? It's inane and redundant.

The UIs are clumsy at best. Check my clickage since the update -- I've tried your Brave New World. I miss the old one.

I think it would be great if we could customize our feeds better. I really hate seeing all these stupid pings and who commented on who. Sometimes I might want to see that so I know who's on and active at any given time. But otherwise, I want to see my friends' new articles and images, not their pings or who they added as friends. It's useless junk and clutters things up.

Honestly, I don't get the point of pings at all. I mean, we can already leave comments or use the private messages to talk to our Gather friends. So what's the point of a "ping" anyway? What IS a ping? I don't get it, I think it's pointless.

Basically, the feeds are too much. I want to be able to see articles by my friends, images by my friends, articles of interest to me, and the articles in my groups. I do like the Group Feed, because before I had to open each group individually to see if there was no content.

"Urgent" request, if Gather does not go back to what it was before, PLEASE make it so that we can change the format of our feeds. I do NOT want to see "all activity" every time I go to my page. It's so annoying.

I have a 10 page paper to write.... so don't have to go through and make a condensed version of my article for you but this is important to me, so I am doing it anyway.

1. 
   Comment counts are an indicator of activity. PLEASE put them back.
2. 
   People with disabilities matter, and accessibility should be considered and tested prior to massive changes... ideally even prior to minor changes.
3. 
   Allow us to set our preferences once and let them stay that way.
4. 
   Give us our Articles (Images/Video/Comments) For Me links back. You can keep you oh so useless without comment counts/depth ~feeds~ ... just add it as a link under ARticles (Images/Video/Comments) tabs - we will adjust.
5. 
   oh yeah, and tell Jason to QUIT INSULTING OUR INTELLIGENCE

For more in depth info, please feel free to stop by here

OH ...and to answer your questions

1. It ain't nearly as fun - feels like work, and the noise gets in the way of the relationships and the writing
2. 
   Love the IDEA of group feed - especially if I can someday group my groups.... but I want comment counts there too, please. No comment counts - no indicator of activity - no visiting birdie
   
3. 
   Now you're making me feel guilty. I normally comment on my friend's articles. Almost everything that isn't a game or an email forward. This weekend I found interesting people in interesting articles and did not budge from there. Probably on almost as much in terms of time... but extremely limited interactions compared to usual
4. 
   
5. Urgent ...as much as I'd like to be selfish and say comment counts - cuz their lack ruins EVERYTHING for me .... I would say that making Gather work for people with disabilities should be #1. THEN give me my comment counts back.

Kathryn also made a good point: finally we have the ability to organize our groups alphabetically, but the "groups owned" feature was taken away. What possible reason could there be for this? It's not necessary to throw away one useful tool because we now have another with a similar purpose. I have asked for alphabetization features before and found it extremely frustrating to see it replacing something else useful instead of accompanying it. Why on earth would anyone designing the upgrade do this?

Just for a little slice of futile fun, I'll ask for a comment editor, too. I, personally, don't need animated smileys, but if that's what it takes to sell the kiddies on the feasibility of my initial proposal -- bring 'em on.

At the risk of being redundant, we need a Block Member Feature.

I started on Gather as a paid correspondent in December 2007. The few changes between then and recent weeks were good ones. I slowly came to truly enjoy Gather and have been contributing way more material than my correspondent contract requires. I was on the road for a couple of days this past weekend and when I logged onto Gather I felt like I was in a foreign land. I mean no disrespect, but I don't like it at all. I miss the "old" Gather and truly hope you'll consider changing it back,

I'll also echo anyone who mentioned the "stalker's dream" of the Feed page.

I do know that the "View My People's Recent Activity" active link was available in the old version of the site, but it was less obvious, and it didn't include the redundant pings.

It's still a little too much exposure all at once. A little privacy was nicer.

John O. wrote: "On the upside, if I'm off gather for a length of time, it's easier to catch up with, say, three days of missed articles, since the new screen holds so many."

Good luck with that John. The feed only holds 500 total items, and that includes every ping, new connection, status change and blip your connections produce. After that, the content is gone, which is my biggest gripe. With 60 or so connections, material stays on my feed for about 24 hours or so before its bumped off.

View count and spotlight seem to be good additions, but the price is too high.

My Gather is a design nightmare- it is hideous to see streams of comments, pings, and friend notifications. UGLY! Layout is dreadful. Too much white space and the whole purpose of being able to review a member's content on a single page is now a 3 page job. I equally mourn the loss of My Content for easy review.

I have removed "friend" ties with several member editors and high posting members due to the clutter on the stream. The design is not just "new"; it is NOT user friendly!

As a company you have the right to do whatever you think is best for your company, but as a user I have the right to decide whether I want it. As a result, I need to decide how and if I want to continue using Gather.

Personally, the new overall look and navigation are onerous. Privacy issues are of concern as well. Especially as stalking is not unknown on Gather. Best of luck Tom.

I think Gather's most attractive characteristic for me was its content-centric design. Everything pointed to articles, images, and audio/video. The new UI seems to be more about social interaction. I'm hoping the focus can remain on the content.

KEO claims: "BUT - the feature to search on Groups OWNED has disappeared. That is a shame."

KEO, what are you talking about? The option to search my groups owned is still there. Go to My Groups, and on the left, where it says

View:
all
owner
member

Select "owner".

In addition to my comments above this is my article which I wrote regarding my experience with Gather
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977311822

Janna, you're right. I've been moderating content. It took me a while to find where to do it.

As someone who became an expert in customer service without ever wanting to, I think you should also take a look at the "Support" and "Help" articles from the weekend, because the only person involved in them who didn't seem to deliberately talk down to the questioners was Chuck. All the others seemed relentlessly intent on telling us how much they loved it and we would too if we just did this one long involved process. Also, the fact that no one addressed the many questions about the poll and then had to address repeatedly the poor people trying to redeem their points (and, it seemed to me, get out of this place for good) speaks to a lack of basic customer service training, the kind I gave at least a hundred people I hired.

We aren't a stupid community. It's not that we just don't get it. We had the rug yanked from under us overnight, and then instead of being consistently helpful, most of your staff answering questions (again, Chuck was very professional and helpful) spoke to us as if we were all developmentally challenged and/or just complaining for the sake of it. There were two articles of Help, with 200+ comments on each. I don't think sifting through those was anyone's idea of a fun way to spend a Saturday. Your staff needs to understand its mission, as well as quite extensive retraining in customer relations.

I can't find any of my regulars anymore. My page is a mess. The print is too small and I have had a headache the last few days from trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I use to just spend a little time on Boomertowne and alot of time on Gather. The last few days I have boomered more than I Gathered. It was too frustrating for longterm usage. I never felt like that before this upgrade. I love Gather and its unique appeal.But it isn't unique anymore. I used to be a place to connect and create. Now it is stalkerville. I hope you can fix it quickly!!!Please?

The old Gather was so warm and inviting, easy to see and read and find things. Easy to keep up with friends. The new gather is messy, crowded and tiny. I get so tired of trying to see the images that I find myself just surfing around and then logging off and going to another website. I would still like to be able to skip over pages instead of going next, next, next. I did put in a request in 2006 to be able to jump to pages, that was about the only thing gather needed to add. I would also like to spotlight old articles or groups. I am trying to get my classmates to log on to this site but now it so messy I don't know if they will find the groups I am trying to get them to join. Please change it back, please, please, please!

I'm not an old hand. I'm not a newbie.

I know my way around a computer.

I can navigate the "feeds" and I can read them just fine.

However, I don't care for the changes. Although I see more of my friends activities
in my face," it is distracting rather than helpful. And I can see it only for short times. Before, I could look at their articles, comment, and then follow along by checking back with my comments. Now, I must stalk them from article to article to keep track. I try to go back to miss nothing, and I get way behind. And I have less than 100 friends (by choice).

Also, I think your format facilitates the less pleasant sort of stalker.

Even if you want to leave this feed feature (perhaps set up a "feed" page), I would recommend leaving an option with previous screens for those who are most comfortable navigating that way. I don't think that will undo what's been done. For me, I'd prefer all the activity not be on "my gather" page. But I can adapt. Many, however, feel disoriented without the methods they have worked out over time. If you can accommodate them (and you can without completely eradicating the feed concept), why not do so and make everyone happier?

My husband says dido!

Just change it back to the way it was at least.

I hate it. please bring the old gather back. the only thing I like is the page views other than that it stinks. when I look for articles from my friends. there are maybe 10 or 12 and then I am done. I am on alot less this way. please bring the old gather back.

* How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?
I liked the old Gather page. Like Kathryn, I sent people to my page and used it as an online portfolio. It's unlikely to work well for that now. The new page is cluttered with things I really do not want to know. I care who is friends with me. The new Gather experience is much less compelling. Much more like being in high school, much less professional.

* What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?
If I could turn them off, that would be my favorite thing about the feeds. The subscriptions feature worked well for keeping up with the people I wanted to stay in touch with. I do, however like the view counts.

* Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?
If I have been here any more, it is only because it is harder to find what I want. I have not looked forward to using Gather.

* What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?
Give us the option of keeping the old layout.

Tom, one of the distinctive things about Gather has been its emphasis on the user generated content. It has encouraged lots of interaction and made it easier to see which people online share your interests.

By contrast, the feed is much more simplistic, trying to replace quality by volume, and creating potential privacy issues. My suggestion would be to leave the feed in place as a selectable option, but also let members design the look of the profile page to emphasize the things they want to share. The "classic" Gather look did this, but it was a "one size fits all" approach.

The Spotlight concept is a step in this direction, but I agree that we should be able to spotlight any of our content, regardless of how old it is.

I've been using Gather about as much as before, but found I had to do a couple clicks to perform operations which formerly needed one click --- not a good thing.

The feed: I don't like it. I preferred the old style which had a list of recent articles, images, and videos. I don't like that a random visitor to my profile will not see my recent content, but instead gets greeted with a list of recent activities, most of which aren't content related (i.e. pinged by so-n-so, befriended by so-n-so, etc). Now content is buried, requiring multiple clicks to view someones recent articles, images, videos and comments. Basically, the changes brought on by this latest Gather upgrade has virtually left me with another Facebook profile, and I already neglect the other one.

Just an observation, it looks like the recent upgrade was designed to be click heavy to increase page impressions. I understand the reasoning behind that, but these changes have not made the site any easier to navigate or appealing. I realize Gather needs to pay the bills, but these changes are counterintuitive if it leads to less people using the site.

Spotlighting: has its merits, but it's not practical. After the upgrade, I could only spotlight one article on my profile page. The most prominent "feature" on my profile page after the upgrade was an annoying animated gif of a sparkly dog that someone inserted into their ping (I quickly deleted it, plus the rest of my pings out of frustration).

I would fully support a downgrade to the previous release (and an "Urgent" one, at that). Gather cannot compete with the likes of Myspace and Facebook on the social networking front, and any moves to clone either of those two sites will only lead to more frustrations and more people leaving the site. I would much rather see Gather move towards promoting member created content because that's what made this site unique in the first place. It's why I'm still here.

Off hand, I'd say you've got some problems. You've chosen to re-tool the show half-way through the first act, and now half the audience is squirming in their seats and the other half is reaching for their coats.

People don't go to the theatre to feel uncomfortable.

Hope you got a good second act.

I agree with most of the comments saying they don't care for the new change. There is much on my page that I don't care for. It's cluttered and difficult to navigate.

I would like to see activities in separate sections again. I would be content if I could at least opt out of the ones I don't want to see in my thread, and my choices would stay selected until I want to change them again.

Chris made a point I noticed myself. If the site profits from clicks, the upgrade has certainly increased profit, if not appeal or contentment. I have to click through extra pages just to find a friend or even find my own work at times. The conclusions that are going to be drawn from this are not very good ones.

Priscilla said everything I would have said. I don't like the NOISE

Hi Tom, when the poll on the Gather homepage was removed, I decided to make my own poll to see what everyone really thought about the upgrade. Here are theresults.

Don't like it: 70 (73%)
It's OK: 19 (20%)
Like: 7 (7%)
96 participants

I am not a big fan of the upgrade myself. But I do like the idea of being able to see the page views.

Much of what I felt has been said by Kris, Karie Anne and Nippy Katz but I would like to chime in one specific thing. The information that is now on our My Gather page in the 'Friend Feed' USED to be in the left-hand margin WAAAAY back when Gather was first released. It was useful THEN because it wasn't the focus of the entire namespace. The CONTENT was the focus of the namespace and the 'social networking' aspects were off in the margin. Plus, it was ALWAYS there, no matter what you were looking at. It inhanced the social aspect of the site without hijacking the entire experience. Thus, you could stay informed if you wanted to but the content wasn't drowned in it. If you want the 'friend feed' put it back in the left-hand margin. That was a good idea that you did away with many updates ago.

Oh, also, pings are useless. They can go altogether.

...NOISE on my home page--I have no interest in seeing all the activity of my many contacts. over the weekend I nearly deleted all but my few favorite friends because I was so sick of seeing all that uninvited info in my face!

So, constuctive suggestion? At least give us a button to OPT OUT of the feed stuff, as in a 4th button that says NO FEED!

Oh, yeah -- the old "dashboard"... I remember that.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?

The post-release has, to some degree, simply ruined Gather and turned fun into drudgery and work. Logging on to Gather is a "bother" now, instead of an "experience." If any kind of "experience" still remains, it is a negative one. "Compelling" is the last word I would ever use to describe the "Gather experience" as it is now.

What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?

I have completely turned off the "Feeds" and utterly ignore them, as I am sure many others have done. They are irrelevant, useless, unsightly, unprofessional, and as intrusive as a wire-tap on my phone. They expose Gather members to nutjobs to like to stalk and harass other members. They are pointless, ugly, a violation of member privacy, and have thoroughly destroyed the clean and simple look of the pre-release "My Gather" page.

Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?

Not only have I used Gather less in the last three days, the time I actually did spend on this site was depressing, discouraging, gloomy, nonproductive, and an overall bad experience all together.

What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?

If I (or anyone else) told you what changes would be needed to "improve the current release," would it make any difference?? Would it stop you or the rest of Gather HQ from going right ahead and doing whatever you plan or decide to do anyway??

I have had no activity, I just came by to see if you changed it back. You "had" a good thing going.

If Gather continues as a myspace clone, I will just go to myspace.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?
The layout leaves a lot to be desired. It's very cluttered and not intuitive. I've adjusted to it, but I'm not a fan of it. The experience isn't as good because I only have so much time to view the content that does display before the feed resets for the day. Also the article and image feeds are missing a lot of content from my connections. As a result, it takes a lot longer to do certain tasks because of the issues with the feeds. You gotta change & fix this if you're keeping this insane design structure.

What is your favorite thing about the feeds?
For what content it does deliver, I can access it faster than I could through the old method.

What do you like least?
Besides the fact that I'm missing a lot of article/image content my connections are posting, I don't like the time delays in the feeds. Some of them take hours to update. I also don't like non-relivant data like connections made & pings made in any feed at all.

Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?
I may have used it more because I was trying to figure everything out and find methods to access the content I was missing in some form of routine (eg: general gather images tab after browsing my feeds). All of my activities with regards to publishing were the same. However, I think I viewed a lot more content of individuals I am not connected with because of the process I had to go through in order to find missing feed content from my connections.

What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?
I don't think there is enough space in this comment box for me to list everything I *think* you should alter, tweek, illustrate, redesign, test, and fix, lol. However, the most pressing issues and ones I do consider somewhat urgent are fixing the feed coding so that 1 No published article/image/video content from connections is missing from the feed stream. 2 Changing the time reset on article/image/video feeds to span a few days or ideally up to a week, rather than once a day. 3 Improve the time delay within the feed update system. It's too long a delay currently. Plus it varies by content type and time of day as to how fast the feeds do update. This process needs A LOT of improvement!

I also think Gather should provide easy, clear and concise tutorials on how the navigation and functionality works under the new system compared to the old system the members already know. People are having a very difficult time finding things now.

Tom, I've been on the new Gather more, but that is because I finally have my own computer. Partly. Here is what I like about the NEW Gather:

the feeds: i love the feeds. i like having the freedom to switch which groups I can add or not to the feed...that's a great feature, since it give me the ability to more quickly access the groups which I think are an important gather feature. right? in terms of the friends' feed?

I DO love the friends feed, but hate that it gets clogged up with pings, and quite frankly it makes me extremely nervous. It's a playground for stalkers and could wind up being a real danger--I don't think we are able to make our profiles private, are we? And even if we could do that we could not be private on a public article or image.

I don't know.

I do like the groups feed. I think it's great. Navigating is a little bit clumsy and awkward, either the background is too blasting white, or there are too many colors on this page.

I have heard that one woman had to leave because she can only read large-sized print. Well, guess what Gather? There are many elders here on Gather who care about the size of the FONT. And sometimes I think simple can be fine. I really dislike orange, though. Can you guys change THAT?

I think Gather should go green. LITERALLY. The color green.

If the site profits from clicks, the upgrade has certainly increased profit, if not appeal or contentment. I have to click through extra pages just to find a friend or even find my own work at times.

I'm lazy. I am navigating from mail notifications and clicking less.

I HAVE TO ASK FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME:

PLEASE GIVE US THE ABILITY TO CLICK ON *SPECIFIC* PAGES ON FRIENDS AND GROUPS PAGES.

I HAVE SEVENTEEN PAGES OF PHOTOS, FOR EXAMPLE, AND I HAVE TO KEEP HITTING NEXT, NEXT NEXT AND WHEN I EDIT IT GOES RIGHT BACK TO THE BEGINNING AGAIN!!!!!

THAT'S CRAZY.

I WANT TO CLICK ON PAGE 11 OF 17 AS SOON AS I GET BOUNCED BACK TO THE BEGINNING EVERY TIME.

FRIENDS, GROUPS AND IMAGES SECTIONS DRIVE ME CRAZY.

One thing you can change is the font size. In Firefox ctl-plus sign to increase. I forget what it is in IE.

Easy access to content rather than seeing a summary of people's interactions is what I'm after.

I would get on my knees and beg if you would please let me check a box on my email that blocks mass emails. I would be happy if I could stop getting endless emails about things I am not interested in. I seek out what I want to read. Currently I delete every one of these unread. With the last batch of changes it should be easy enough for the spammers to remove those of us who absolutely hate it.

Berf's point was excellent. I haven't approached Gather as "I wonder what's up on Gather" -- it's been "I guess I'd better go see what I can find at Gather." Less recreation, more work. If I want to do work, I'll go to work.

Also, why don't our comments, as well as our articles, show up immediately? This has never been a problem before and I don't see who or what is served by this change.

I prefer pre-gather. I am hating the feeds and lists on my page.

I do like the article counts though.

Is it possible to make our pages customizable, to please those that preferred their pages the way they were, add a small feed or please the feed lovers but give them some of the stuff we had before.

Facebook uses these feeds, and they annoy the crap out of me, which is why I turned them off. On your own page though you have the ability to click and drag boxes of info around the page. That way the stuff you care about is up top and the other things like feeds are at the bottom. You can also just delete boxes of info all together. Is it possible for Gather to do something like that?

Tom:

I came here to Gather to expose people to my writings, to meet other writers and to express my views and feelings and to receive feedback from all of this.

I am really considering removing my content and keeping it on my personal website instead.

You wrote and asked us:

"How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?"

My experience with Gather pre-release was great. I could move around and get to where and what content I chose to with little problem. The only thing I truly hated was/is the editor. As I suggested before, a good import program would work so much better -- I could upload my story in Rich Text files and they would appear on my "slice" of Gather without me doing a lot of editing and re-editing.

"What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?"

I hate everything about the feeds. I don't subscribe to Facebook or those other social networking sites -- and social networking is NOT what brings me here to Gather, as I stated above. The feeds need to be implemented as a PERSONAL OPTION and not as a manditory "new feature". On a personal level, I DO NOT LIKE having others to know where I went and what content I've read; and I DO NOT CARE that someone has connected to someone else whom are "connected to me" somehow.

"Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?"

I used Gather less after I spent four hours looking at the "new Gather." The only reason why I'm here now is to check to see if anyone has provide feedback to my latest posting. Before the change, I was on Gather on average four times a week, and posting some sort of content at least once a week. This is my "busy season" and while once a week doesn't sound like much -- the five or six hours I spend that one time a week makes up for it, I feel.

"What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?"

I simply want the "old version" back. It was simple, uncomplicated and a joy to be a part of and to contribute to. This version feels and looks like every other "groups of people" and I didn't sign up to be a part of "groups of people..."

"And finally, I'd be grateful for any thoughts you might have that I have missed above."

If I was in charge, what I would do is:

- offer each member the choice to use the "old version" or the "new version." This should not be hard to do and will permit each person the abilty to control how they wish to be expressed to the outside.

- spend some resources on a method to improve the editor. I am sorry, but that should have been a greater "priority" and "improvement" than anything else here. Gather depends upon people to write and express themselves, but the editor which is used discourages people from posting.

- I don't care about the "points" and I'm sure that other people don't truly care about them. If there was a way to "turn off" the "points" for those who don't really care about them, it would reduce the amount of "point whoring" which has become a feature I don't believe you counted upon toward Gather's success. I would much rather read the comments and feedback from folk.

I love Gather and thought I have finally found a place where I can write, post comment to other writers and contribute in forums geared to my personal interests. However, if Gather is to morph into yet another place for people to just "hang out", I'm not interested and I would much rather place my content onto my personal website where I knowthat the only things I would receive there are feedback and suggestions to make my writing tighter and more attractive to the general public.

Settummanque!

Oh, and another thing. In IE, which is what I use, clicking on a person's image when they makes a comment on your article deletes the entire comment instead of taking you to their page. I brought this up in the help article a couple days ago but it was ignored.....or at least it was ignored for the few hours I was on to go back and check to see if it was addressed.

I like the number of views on articles and images. I also like the spotlight feature. I would however like to spotlight content that is more than a few days old.

I would prefer, when I click on a person.gather.com link, that I see their articles, images, and videos on one page. And their profile page be a separate link.

I am afraid that since a person's articles, images, and videos are now separate, some content is going to be missed. You might be there to read about my awesome day, but miss my video of the cat chasing a siberian husky.

I think it's too much work with the feeds. The default is 'all activities' which means pings, new connections, profile updates, it's just too much. You've got to click to see comments, click to see articles, click to images, click to see videos.

I wish the feeds were more customizable. Do you want to see pings? Y/N Do you want to see new connections made? Y/N Do you want to see when someone has updated their profile? Y/N Do you want to see when someone has joined a group? Y/N

I also wish that when I do see comments in the feeds about images, I could see a thumbnail of that image. I might want to see that beautiful child's discovery of his bellybutton. But it's just a link instead. And I probably won't click it because I don't know what it is.

I have been using the main 'articles', 'images', and 'videos' links to see everyone's content instead of using the feeds. It seems to be the only way I can find something.

~*~

May I suggest that in the future, there is more beta testing the updates. Let us the Gatherers (not just a choice few) choose whether or not to beta test. And if we do choose to beta test we give feedback on what is working and what is not. There have been so many 'glitches' in this new upgrade.

I like the old format with the My Gather with the articles, then images, then videos, then comments of my connections. I do not like spliting up my connections into a "Best Friends" and "Everyone Else" - that's stupid -- why accept a connection request if you don't plan on interacting. I think seeing the pings is invasive - pings are a sort of private thing, like an email. I don't care who is connecting with whom either. My spotlight section doesn't really work - it is only spotlighting my last two articles - which is what people would normally look at if they happened upon my page. I wouldn't mind the feed section if it were a third option - like a special search page - not the normal thing we see. I think there should have been a huge tutorial planned for our community before the weekend because everything I learned about using the new system, I had to ask friends about. It's very confusing.

I think everyone has said it all...and right now, I am plumb exhausted. Hopefully, after a good night's sleep I can write something coherent.

I want to thank you for opening this up to discussion...you were a very brave soul. Guyana.

I have to say that I really don't like the look of the new Gather. I liked how my namespace page looked before MUCH better than the way it displays now. I don't like the feed buttons and would remove them if I could. I've been "adjusting" and working at learning the new way of doing things, but the old Gather was much easier to navigate and felt more "friendly". Now the pages look like pages on other sites and I feel it's a more cluttered look. In my opinion, BEFORE was much much better than the current Gather version.

Looks like you've got it covered. If we did have more control over how our pages are set up, I think I could really enjoy that... and it would make each member's page more unique. I'm all for creativly expressing yourself.

..
u wishing you laughter

Thank you Tom for asking. I admire that you did that.

I like seeing how many click on my articles. That is good!

There is too much work now to get from place to place, it takes up time and by the time I get where I want to go, my "break" feels used up. I liked the way things were better. I still want the ability of a list of names, like my choices to mail to, only one that I could click on and go to their pages to see their latest articles. I don't want to spend time looking through pages to find people I am connected with. The theory I guess is that we comment on who comments on us, but I like to visit people if I miss their articles on a thread...and it takes time....a list like the one we use to write people would have made somethings easier.

I can see the thoughts behind the changes, but I think you put too many in at once. I think when we clicked on Gather for the first time, there might have been an overview of the changes available. It took awhile for me to learn about Gather when I got here with no overview to understand the site... it was like going to a new site all over again. This was one reason I have never left, as no site anyone told me about was not as easy to use as Gather. Most other sites have chat rooms and I am not a real chat person.

I applaud you for making changes, but many of us felt abandoned and somehow like we were Alice in Wonderland....

I sure will try to be in time for the chat. But as to my opinions, they echo what Kris M. says. Other than the page views I would rather have things return to the way they were. And I would like a straight answer to if that is possible.

In America, right now, we are being feed a lot of lies, useless info and innuendo. We don't need it here on this site. The way people were treated this weekend was inexcusable. The poll being pulled because the voting wasn't going the way someone would like is inexcusable.

Actually, springing so many changes at once, without input from the members is inexcusable too. I realize that even with the changes, the site owners will make money, because even if the current members leave you will get new members. But there is something so terrific about Gather, that it was encouraging quality content as well as allowing the silly games that people like.

It will be a shame to lose that presence online and make this site just another juvenile MySpace kind of place.

just my view

Hi Tom ~ THE GOOD: I like the profile view count. Just noticed it. And, the SPOTLIGHT is very nice.

One curious thing -- photos are being duplicated several times when publishing.

I've definitely used Gather less in the past three days. More content would have been posted -- except I had to flip from different locations to do so. One computer was able to post Articles -- The other wasn't. Then, reading all the different tips of where everything was took hours ~ and I was still a little confused about some of the tips. I admit I had to get smelling sauce to be revived from my initial shock.

Trying to figure out the navigation still has not yet been accomplished successfully for me. I am missing tons of content that is so interesting, and I wonder how it all slips by, but then I realize I've been spending more time trying to figure out where I am on Gather. And, I think I'm pretty good at being a savvy computer wiz -- but this one really is a challange. It's like an unorganized Art Journal.

I can SEE where this could have been GOOD minus the upfront pings and comments. And, I really DO NOT think that it is a good idea to show who is connecting with who. This is probably the only site I know of where people actually slander others behind their backs. I've really never seen anything like that before. Nor have I ever seen people attack people that they don't even know for egotistical reasons. And, I really doubt if upfront pings and comments will make those situations better.

ARTICLES, IMAGES, VIDEOS should be upfront. The pings and comments are secondary, and the frienship connections should be private (with only a count if that). The friendships ~ although always accessible before should not be in the forefront for everyone to SEE--it should be more of an effort (if accessible at all) to others outside of those involved.

The pings were probably the most SHOCKING of the Gather changeover. Although, I must say, I tended not to see them as readily before. Now I'm really overwhelmed by them. Maybe if they were at the bottom of the page or something.

The ARTICLES, IMAGES, VIDEOS are far more important to SEE right up front (the way it was before).

The SPOTLIGHTING is nice, but not BIG enough. Thank goodness the Groups remained the same.

There is enough content on one page with the NEW GATHER to actually warrant several pages like a notebook with tabs. I'd have to sit down and do a Web Design sketch to actually SEE how this could look better in a different format.

Really, Gather was extremely nice just like it was. Add in a SPOTLIGHT, profile view counts, and that would do it!

Overall, it may have been too much too fast. One thing at a time may have been much better for the amount of people who are in the Gather Community. Each time there is a change on Gather, there is a definite slow down in production.

Going back to try to find something now that is buried somewhere. . . .

{tip-toeing off}

I have tried to be open minded, I like the old way better. It feels cluttered, I strongly believe clutter hampers creative potential.

The page views I guess could be nice, but mine haven't been working right. On my latest photo it says: views: 4 | rating: 10/10 (23 votes) | comments: 24, those numbers don't add up.

I created a post anything group, I have never had a group before. I did this two days ago to keep up with my friends and connections, in hopes of having an easier access to their articles and posts all in one spot.

Content Tom. It's supposed to be about the content. Articles. Images. Videos. And they are lost in a sea of sophormoric pings and "friendings". I'm not in high school, and haven't been for 30 years, and don't give a rats patoot about who's pinging who.

CONTENT. I want to see articles without specifically having to go hunt for them.

CONTENT. I want to size reasonably sized images that might catch my interest. And when a "friend" comments on the image, show me the image they commented on, rather than "X commented on an image". That's utterly useless. I might not be well acquainted with X, but I might like the image.

CONTENT. Show me bite size pictures of videos available for me from recent postings.

CONTENT. CONTENT. CONTENT. Lose the social junk. I honestly don't care. Really. I don't. As everyone else notes, this is no longer fun. It's drudgery. I'm avoiding my home page like the plague. Which it is. A plague. Instead of locusts, it's a plague of useless junk.

Why not give folks what they really want? I've been here a year and folks are alway asking for the ability to edit comments. For heaven's sake, what's so hard about that??

And now all my past content is practically unfindable, by me or anyone else. And the cherry on top has been the downright rude response of Gather support group.

CONTENT. CONTENT. CONTENT. Looks like somebody forgot their mission statement.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling? For me it is better and more compelling. I love the new look, it's shiny and more modern. I get a lot of use out of the new features. I love my new profile/namespace. I adore the spotlight. Page views are pretty nifty, too.

What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least? I love Feed Me - I have been using that to view the things I care about most. Least favorite - deleted comments and articles seem to still show up in My Feed.

Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?
More! I was excited about the new features. I also got involved in a few debates (and an argument with one person spreading false information that correspondents were leaving over the release), which was less fun. I tried to help people figure out new features where I could. Oh, and I had my first book chat - that was pretty much a coincidence on the timing, but it was fun! I spent a lot more time pinging, commenting, and finding new content than I had previously though. I made some new friends. I found myself communicating and interacting more than I previously had, and discovering some new content.

What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?
I think having the default view of the My Feed show only articles + images (with the other options still available in the dropdown) would help a lot of folks who are only looking for that sort of content to be visible on their profiles. One problem I am having - my live journal's rss feed is set to post to my Gather once a day - and it seems to be posting the article multiple times. I'm not sure what's going on there. Not urgent things, but kinda would be cool to have the journal thing fixed. Deleted comments/articles showing up in the feed - not sure if that could be fixed, but that's something else. When I send a friend's request or mail to someone from their profile, it sometimes messes up the view of the profile when it processes. That's another little glitch.

Tom...
Your best move at this point is to simply say "oops!' AND RETURN THE SITE TO ITS ORIGINAL PURPOSE, i.e. focus on writing, writers, good conversation among intelligent adults and ease of accomplishing these goals. The mess and clutter and juvenile garbage dump this "update" has created is guaranteed to cause the grownups to leave en masse and you'll be left with nobody but a bunch of pinging kids bouncing off the once-shining walls of Gather.

I have used Gather just as much as usual and pretty much in the same capacity, with the exception that sometimes I woud see a comment pop-up in my feed that a friend had left and that motivated me to go to the article to comment as well. I agree that I don't need all of my activities shown in my feed on my profile and that, in an effort to spotlight older pieces, I have had to republish those pieces (kind of a waste of time that was necessary in order to make the best use of the new function).

I don't like it

There is a lot I like but so much that i dislike for one
The way I interacted on Gather before was so warm and inviting, easy to see and read and find things' and easy to keep up with friends. The new gather is messy, crowded and tiny, I have trouble reading my page.

I like the spotlight and look forward to the day when I can spotligt any of my stuff.
I like the views although I do not think they are working properly when you have 22 unique comments and 11 views something is off.


I particulaly hate the pings/commetns etc I do not wish to see them in the least. To me this is very imature It reminds me of High School when we wanted to know what john said to Mary I am older now and this is ridculus

The feed concept is I think is good but when you have a ton of friends there content falls off and I miss out on there stuff.

ANd most of all after viewing this weekend I had a headache from my eyes hurting in trying to look at this. So I too spent more time over at Boomertowne then I did on Gather.

I have not looked at images /videos as it was too hard to find, I also found another site called Webride were I spent some time instead of gather looking at there videos instead because I got frustrated here. I spent my time writing for Gone web site a travel blog which was easier to navigate. I also joined Harpers First Look web site so I could still write book reviews if I have trouble navigating here. don't get me wrong I will always gather and I hope just as much but unless I can control the pinging/ can see it easier I will spend less time here and more time else where.

I like the concept of the upgrades and if they did as promised I would be a little happier but my EYES HURT.

I don't like it! I can get used to some features, like the spotlighting. But if someone clicks on my icon, they see the one or two articles written lately and then anyone who pinged me or commented on me.

I do not like my homepage. Basically the feeds. I know that people generally do not post bad pictures. If one of my connections comments on a picture of a me non-connection, I do not get to see the picture previewed as before. I am visiting a lot less pictures.

The font size, for over twenty feeds, is so small. I am not blind but feel like it. I know that I can increase the text size, but then I forget to change it back and seeing something that was already large, life size, can be a shock to ones system.

I think that I have been less active. But maybe not. If every time I come to the computer, I click on one comment by so and so on an article by so and so, I find two articles. The current one and at least one other underneath it. But that used to happen before as well.

I may be back with more gripes and praise. It is 6 am and I am not a morning person. I don't even know why I am up o early.

I am having trouble now with signing on to Mozilla Firefox.. .the rest I will learn but just can't log on using MF anymore...
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Tom - As a relatively long time Gather user and someone who has gotten to know people here, I appreciate your trying to keep Gather changing and improving.

Having noted that, please try and consider who your CURRENT users are, not just your target users. It seems to me that integrating current users and target users would be best and this particular change is not good for that.

Since I'm a Baby Boomer, I decided to check the new Gather with the Facebook type crowd and reactions were extremely negative. A 20 something son, very into tech and Facebook stuff, said it was way too "cluttered" . A younger person, about 19, agreed.

Speaking only personally, it feels like I am being stalked by RSS feed instead of having it be user friendly and a normal part of the interface. For instance, I don't like the fact that people can come to my page and see every single comment I've had as well as those of my connections. Articles of mine get noticed less often and I notice those of my friends less often as well.

If people don't like this, how does this help Gather? It is a bunch of clutter. Sure, I can set my page temporarily to see my articles but I can't get it to stick so that it looks that way for everyone. I simply turned off the Ping option but I can't seem to turn off the other options. I feel stalked by RSS and my work (writing) gets covered by the changing page feed.

Honestly, the Gather upgrade hasn't really changed much of how I use the site, although it has exposed me to a lot more of my friends' content that I'd've otherwise overlooked. However, I would definitely appreciate adding more customizability to the feed. Namely:

-- I would like to be able to lock a specific feed setting in place so that it stays that way when I return to the page, and/or be able to access a specific feed setting through a single URL bookmark. Yes, I know I can just use the dropdown settings to view only articles, or only images, or whathaveyou -- but I'm lazy like that.

-- I've noticed a glitch after I send someone a mail that makes their namespace -- er, profile -- oddly blank.

-- Views seem to be working, but they seem to appear out of sync with real time, which is confusing the heck out of people; some clarification on how often this number is updated would be good.

-- I'd like to be able to see the opening text of articles again in my group articles list.

-- ... and that's about it, really. You've covered most of the other concerns I've seen in the 'good/bad/etc' section. I want to keep the functionality we've been given; I just want to see more customizability available soon.

Still, while we're on the subject, there are a few other things I'd like:

-- Being able to title images.

-- Being able to remove multiple pieces of content from a group at once.

-- Being able to feature images and videos in a group.

-- For future updates, more time to prepare - perhaps articles explaining the proposed changes (and that notification popup) two weeks in advance?

Here is a great tip Tom, revert back to the old gather.. Yeah the page views are nice to have but they dont work right, spotlight is good(keep that) oh, and you guys wanted to do this whole upgrade thing and still after all the complaints people cant edit their comments.. what the heck.. oh, no one likes pinging.. thanks

I prefer the old Gather as well,even though I have become comfortable with what it is now.I have pinged someone one time and don't know anyone that actually uses the feature.

I had not quite figured out how to use the old Gather and I find the new Gather somewhat overwhelming.... although.... I see that there is a lot of potential.... there is also going to be a learning curve to climb...

I get overwhelmed trying to find things.... There is just so much information being offered... not necessarily a bad thing... just a confusing one until I learn how to sift through it....

Angel

AND RETURN THE SITE TO ITS ORIGINAL PURPOSE, i.e. focus on writing, writers, good conversation among intelligent adults and ease of accomplishing these goals.

I agree with Ruth. It would be nice if there were an area dedicated to people who share these goals. It's hard to find them in the mix these days.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather?
The same for me (It just became similar to facebook)

Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? NO

Why?
Because, I have final exams and have no time for open discussions.

Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?
Not so much different, but, I'm thinking now of posting the holy Torah as a sort of culture exchange.

What would you change or improve on the current release?
Nothing, except that I'll choose to approve comments first, because there are some idiots here who don't respect others' opinions or beliefs.

Also, as a professional writer, I do have to say I won't be hanging around here very often if Gather stays this way. Recent articles have 98 or more comments because they were easy for people to find. Current ones? Nine or ten comments - and on things that Gather helps promote, like books and book reviews of publishers who ADVERTISE or have groups on your site! Why would THEY want to stay here if they can't get their authors promoted? What is the business sense in that? I'm baffled, truly.

Also, I don't feel like I have a personal page here but a bunch of....stuff...making the feed the priority, not the GATHER community or people.

If I wanted to broadcast every single comment made by my connections, I'd send mass emails and I'm sure I'd receive a ton of angry emails in response. I feel like I'm snooping on people without even trying to - when I come to my page and see all the comments made by anyone I've "connected" to.

Plus, the pings seemed to be more private or not easily found but now they are there right up front in the feed unless disabled.I disabled my Pings, one of the few options available. One less thing to worry about and one less option I can use. I actually liked the Ping option - BEFORE the upgrade.

Finally (and yes, this is REALLY the final comment) using the "disable email notifications" button isn't working for me. I still get notified every time a connection leaves a comment on an article, clogging my email system.

There is too much missing from my feed. Lots of articles and photos my connections publish do not get on my feed list and the list is always truncated to within a few recent hours. I feel like I'm missing half of what my connections are doing and I don't have the time to visit each of their pages individually.

I used to love to come to gather every evening. Tonight I hated to turn on my computer because the new gather is too cluttered. I don't care who's pinging who or making friends with who else. All I want to know is what articles and photos my connections have published and I got that very easily with the old gather.

The number of views is confusing. Is that the total number of people who have viewed the item or just the ones who viewed and did not comment, since many of my photos have more comments than views.

My main suggestion: go back to the way gather was before the upgrade (which I consider to be a 'downgrade')

Just as an example, even though I disabled the function, I just got NINE email notifications that one of my connections made comments on various articles! Ouch.

Hi Tom, I don't want to complain about anything, change is good! But at home where I mainly use Gather, including "publishing", I use an IMAC and I am unable to cursor through my groups to choose them when I publish photos etc. A blue section appears when I'm at work on my PC but that doesn't appear on the IMAC so I have to 'guess' groups to add and have to update that at work, which is not really convenient as I don't really like or have the right to take up time at work. On the IMAC it is a real jumble and doesn't look good at all, which would turn off anyone who would be a potential new user of Gather with an IMAC. It has always been difficult to 'stanzaise' poetry which has stopped me from putting poems on Gather, as I have to divide lines by a forward slash. Give macs a chance!!!

Right now, if given the choice between pre-change and current Gather, I would choose pre-change in a heartbeat. I think that says a lot about the value of this as an improvement, at least from my point of view.

Spotlighting and page view counts could have easily been added without changing the look of the site, and those are the only two features I see as improvements.

I will echo the sentiments of may others in this thread. I don't have a "favorite" thing about the feeds. They look horrible and clutter up the "My Gather" page with useless information, and require extra clicks to set to a view that is useful (and even THEN it's inferior to the old view that had recent articles and images both shown in the same view). I also hate the difficulty users have in looking at older content with the new system.

In the last few days, I have used Gather slightly less than I normally would have. Part of this is not wanting to be bothered learning my way around, and part was my general distaste for the new look.

Improvements I would like to see:

1) Make the feeds completely optional. This would be the best solution. I'm not sure how feasible this is, but if I could simply go back to the old look, I would gladly give up features like spotlighting and page view count.

2) If #1 is not feasible, then PLEASE give us a default setting in the feeds that is as close as possible to the old My Gather content: Articles, Images, and Videos all together, and make this the default so we don't need to click on it every time we load the page. This is an easy change. It should have been implemented with the upgrade. Do it NOW. It will fix much of the source of complaints.

3) As someone mentioned above, why can we still not click on a specific page of images or articles from someone's list? This seems incredibly obvious.

4) Can we please have a bulk-mail block feature on Gather messaging? (Okay, this one is my personal pet peeve, but I'm going to keep asking for it).

In general, Gather seems to have better customer service response then a lot of similar sites. I appreciate that you were willing to move this discussion up instead of waiting. I was less pleased with your decision to take down the poll about the changes. I can probably be debated whether the poll should have been put there to begin with at that time, but taking it down just looked awful PR-wise. It made you look like you were burying your heads in the sand and were unwilling to hear the opinions of your userbase. I think this thread and the planned chat tomorrow go a long way toward making up for that. Hopefully you will take the further step of acting on the suggestions that have been raised here.

I have noticed dramatically fewer comments on my and my connections' articles/photos since the upgrade. Obviously people are not easily finding what they'd freely been commenting on before the upgrade. Fewer comments/points is definitely not a good thing.

If you're looking for an all-or-nothing answer Tom, I'm sorry to say I'm not a fan of the new Gather. Pinging, friends etc, is not why I originally joined. I liked it because it was focused on content, and not simply a social networking site.

Certainly there are good points - more information on contacts at your fingertips, the spotlight feature looks good, though I haven't used it.

But my homepage is looking more like a MySpace or Bebo page than it ought to. I have no interest in who is pinging who and minimal interest in who is commenting who, unless it leads me to articles I would otherwise have missed (so far it hasn't).

Way too cluttered, too much background noise. Goods concepts but need rethinking and a focus on content.

I really, really do not like it. Very clumsy to navigate. I used to be able to see my friends articles, photos and videos all on one page. I loved gather the way it was. The new layout reminds me of Facebook. Gather was unique. Please don't turn it into Facebook Two.

Uh Oh... Tax due day and Gather complaint day all rolled into one :)

I'm curious why Gather went with the new "Feeds" system. Was it a matter of making things easier for members or trying to match the style of Facebook? I know that feeds can be helpful for many things too.

I agree with many above comments. We really don't need to know on a feed when someone gets pinged or who added who as a friend.

I do want to commend you guys though as you're constantly looking to make this a better experience for the members. Despite the complaints and gripes, I think you're doing your best to meet the needs of all members, even though that process can take some time to work out. Keep up the good work!

Another great idea just hit me Tom...I say you and Tom of Myspace should have a public debate...similar to Hilary and Obama...you guys could play into the political fun that's going on and really give your websites some solid promotion...think about it :)

You're missing the point entirely Tom, you're fluffing about with looks and nitpicking what was already obviously very acceptable to the majority of members and completely neglecting the larger issues.

What about some really useful organizational tools in Groups, as it is stuff just files in there and gets lost in the haze... What about some folders, and a place to focus resources that might NOT be in Gather?

Come on, all this cosmetic stuff is ok but please, do something REAL at the same time... There is NOT one place in a Group that we can put a URL that will display HOT on a Groups Front Page?

Even Facebook figured that one out? Honestly, I feel boxed in and I'm beginning to think that that's just the way you like it...

"I have noticed dramatically fewer comments on my and my connections' articles/photos since the upgrade. Obviously people are not easily finding what they'd freely been commenting on before the upgrade. Fewer comments/points is definitely not a good thing."

Patricia S., Apr 15, 2008, 12:44am EDT

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

* How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?

Less compelling. The default feed was much too much noise, and right where it's hard to avoid.

* What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?

I love the ability to set up the group feeds to follow activity in select groups.

I hate seeing ping activity and connection activity in the main feed.

* Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?

More - because I wanted to learn how to use it again the best I could, and felt if I didn't quickly learn how to do what I want to do here with the least frustration possible, I wouldn't come back to the site. Although I spent more time here, it was time spent less pleasantly. It didn't feel intuitive, trying to learn my way around, and visually, every time I had to go to "my gather" it was really unpleasant.

My activity was the somewhat the same regarding articles - I still read a lot. But how I found those articles was more hit or miss, I found I was missing a lot that people posted, harder to keep up as things are quickly buried by other activity reported in the feed. I also noticed I was less drawn to look at photos. Seeing the preview of the photo, as we used to, did a lot to attract my attention and get me looking at them. Without that, I wasn't. I also didn't notice video as much as I did before.

* What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?

Allow us to opt in to seeing the different types of activity on our feed. You might also consider giving us more control over what activities of ours others are allowed to view. I feel like being able to go to someone's page and, without being connected to them, see everyone they ping, and read those pings if I want, is a violation of their privacy.
`
Ideally I'd rather the feed looked more like our old gather than the feeds other sites have - visually it was calmer, more pleasant. I'm trying to explain why but finding it difficult to give more than impressions - the entries seem smaller, less defined, a whole lot of information all thrown together in a box without clear dividers and too close together. I wonder if giving us the ability to choose how many results we want displayed on a page would separate and de-clutter some, for those of us having that problem, while those who thrive on more could still have it.

Most urgent, for me, is to be able to disable non-essential information in the feeds (pings, connection activity) and for the appearance of feed itself to be improved (activity more clearly divided, appearing less scrunched together, etc).

Spotlight feature would be good if it worked correctly. As is now nothing before 4/7/08 can be spotlighted.

I hate everything about this upgrade, and I don't consider myself to be a complainer. If you are going to keep this thing feed you have up there, frankly I don't care about who pings who or who says what on someone else's article, I want to be able to get about as I was before this upgrade. I can still publish to all the groups I used to, but I am getting way fewer readers and I am commenting less, I just can't find people and I have people asking me for older article addresses, just three or four back as they can't find them and right now doing a bit of a series of writing. Now this is a serious mess Tom, and I know I don't have much of a voice here, but I am friends with most of the people above me, and I see some of them like some things, I think maybe you could give us a choice to turn off the feeds, actually sometimes I say something on one person's article, that to them might be a bit personal and I don't really think everyone that comes to my site should be able to read all that stuff. I have been on a lot less since the "upgrade" as it is difficult to find my friends, I am having to type their names in to locate them. Used to be they would comment on me, and I could click on that and it would take me to them, but so many cannot find one another, it is like we are in a maze, and I don't think it is my age that is holding me back, I can get around, it is like there is a big nuisance as though little kids have toys all over the floor and you have to watch where you are walking. Take us back home, Tom, There is no place like home.

I've been here almost 2 years, and weathered many upgrades and glitches. This, is by far, the worst decision I've seen you make. I personally have found nothing about it that I like better, and I don't need more time to learn to use the features...I can use them, I don't like them. From a business standpoint, you may believe that this will create more page clicks, thus more revenue for you. Actually, from what I'm reading-the loss of members may do just the opposite. If you are trying to reach a younger membership by switching to a more Facebook type site, I think it will fail. Most of us are older, we like to write and make connections with other people. We aren't looking to "hook up" or talk about last nights party. In other words, we would bore those teenagers to death...and you can build it, but they won't come!

This was a wonderful website, and your members enjoyed the experience most of the time. I think you can tell by reading the above comments, the articles and the messages that the majority of people here are unhappy with the upgrade and with the lack of attention paid to questions and requests. It simply doesn't make sense to me that a business owner wants to tick off the people creating the revenue. Without your members, you have no site.

I WANT THE OLD HOME PAGE BACK

our profiles run down a line it looks childish.

you finaly had it working great

dont fix what isnt broken

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?

I think the old Gather was much easier to navigate. I liked having all my connections' articles, images, and videos in one location where I could go, see them, call them up in different tabs, and comment away. I now have to go to My Feed thing and go individually by articles, then images, and then videos. I hate all the added info (who is pinging who, who is now friends with who, who commented on this, etc.). I don't care about any of that. I liked it when pings felt more private. I also dislike the way our pages look now. I liked going to members' namespaces and seeing all their images and articles there on their page. Now I have to go to their page, which is now filled with all the useless info of pings and comments, and click the articles and images tabs above to see all the latest things they've posted.

What is your favorite thing about the feeds? What do you like least?

I like it that I can make a list of the people I like to keep up with and comment and view everything they post. I just have to click the friend list I created for them and it will show me only the things they have published. But even it looks awkward and "ugly". I don't care about the pings that other people make or who they are now friends with and I don't like it that just anyone and everyone can view all that information about me. Like previously stated, I liked it when pings felt private.

Did you use Gather more or less over the last three days? Why? Did you do different things or were your activities basically the same?

I would say less. At first it was simply because the new layout was hard to understand and get the hang of. Then once I figured it all out it was too much effort to find everyone and their publications to even bother with. Plus I no longer like the Gather look. It's ugly and cluttered. I liked it before. I was proud of my namespace and the articles and images it contained. I took pride in what I posted because I knew it showed on my namespace and was a direct indication of who I am.

What would you change or improve on the current release? Are any of these changes something you consider "urgent?

I would make the namespaces look the way they used to. Put the profile and pings back on a secondary page where one has to click a link to go to them as before. Get rid of the fact that everyone can see each and every ping. I was under the impression that Gather got rid of the subscription feature because some weird people out there were using it as a means to harass and basically stalk others here on Gather. Will this feature where one can see every single move a person makes here on Gather not just make that even easier?

To sum it all up for me, the new upgrade has some good features. For example, I like the page views, although I don't really see the point in them. I'm not sure how knowing how many people view my submissions helps me in any way. All I can see is that many more people view my things than those who comment on them. I think the idea behind the spotlight feature is a good one although the way it's being done is sort of faulty. It would be nice if we could spotlight any article and/or image we have ever posted here on Gather and not just items published within the last 8 hours. If the Gather look of the namespace went back to the way it was before, the spotlight feature could still be used in that we could choose the five articles, four images, and four videos that show on our namespace page. Also, it would be nice if I could actually log in to redeem points for gift cards!! I currently cannot do so! Finally, I would have to agree with those who have stated that the upgrade seems to have changed the focus of Gather. Before it seemed to be focused on content (thus the images and articles being the main thing seen when you went to person's page); now the focus seems to be on the individual member (hence the pings and who they've connected to, commented on, etc. being the big thing). All I want is for my namespace to go back to normal, back to something I like the looks of.

Linda, the views are the people that do not comment. They are a separate number from the comment count. That's my assessment at least because yes the numbers are way off.

Please change it back. I would suggest this change if you do.
1) The rating column is on top
2) The comments already made are in the middle.
3) Join the conversation and post is on the bottom.
I suggest moving the comments already made either to the top or bottom. That way the rating and posting would be right together. Sometimes with a lot of comments already made, it is difficult to remember if you rated or not before posting. Sometimes the rating gets skipped over for this reason.
Other than that... I like the page view count and the spotlighting.

The upgrade seems to have spawned a whole new set of tics: two of my articles disappeared immediately upon hitting "publish" and the same happened to a friend. In the interest of full disclosure, all three of those articles were quite critical of the upgrade, and while I'm not a conspiracy theorist I still think that's worth pointing out. Similarly, a friend just published a new article and a previous one completely disappeared. We were at least aware of the tics we had before -- now we've got to learn a whole new set. That wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen after every third or fourth upgrade, and it's not just a small problem, it's a fairly noticeable one.

First of all, Tom, thank you for this response. It helps a lot to know you are listening and paying attention to your users. I appreciate your time and consideration.

Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for you in this case, you have gathered together a group of writers/artists/musicians/creatives who are paying attention and care about the visual space we are using. We are spatially and visually correct in NOT liking what we see. The new Gather is aesthetically displeasing and cramped compared to what we enjoyed before.

Understandably we artists want to arrange our studio and writing areas in a way we work best. Anything you can do to accommodate that request from your users will be greatly appreciated.

What is better after the upgrade:

View counts -- although they seem to be working reasonably well on my articles, they are clearly off on my photographs (i.e. 30 separate comments, 32 ratings, 19 views).

Spotlighting -- I love this feature but am aggravated that I can't spotlight my older articles. Also, wouldn't it be simpler to have a "spotlight" button next to the "publish" button? I suggest this for simplicity and to save the extra step of WAITING for your article to hit the feed (the lag can be considerable) before you can complete the spotlighting function.

What is my favorite thing about the feeds? Nothing. I hope you will allow us the option to turn off the noise (pings, connects, comments) so we may return to the content (article, image, videos). For receiving information about content, I much prefer the previous layout which was much easier to read, see and navigate. Trying to see the mini-thumbnails of the photographs on the new feed is annoying and discouraging. And I have perfect near sight!

Changes I consider urgent: Give users the ability to control the types of information they receive on the feed and to have some control/options in designing their own Profile Page (simply being able to spotlight more of our own content would help). I much, much, much prefer the old layout to the current layout.

Other improvements I'd like to see: page numbers

Again, thank you for listening.

Here are my two cents, Tom.:)

I like the spotlight feature and it would be nice to have the spotlight feature for images as well, no matter when it was published originally.

I like the page view info.

Please give us the option to set up our page as it was. It worked and it was easy to maneuver and find my friends articles and images.

I second the improvement suggestions that Austin Cushing made, they sound like fine improvements.

Personally, I like a bit of freedom in setting up my page. The RSS feed and pings and who connected with who, is truly annoying as a main page and clutters up the process and slows it down by having to use extra clicks. It also does open the door to a stalker situation.

I've only been active for about a month, but this is a great site and I hope you will find a way to give us all a few options. Improvements are a good thing, but I find this one is not considered an improvement by 92% of your current users.

If you are trying to change your customer base so to speak perhaps it would be a good idea to provide options that would attract new users and keep your current member base happy.

You are a brave soul to address this issue openly - more power to you:)

The first thing I would like to see would be for the Gather staff to apologize for the rude and condescending remarks made in the (un)help articles. That would be first and foremost.

Like many others, I prefer the look of the old Gather. It was professional looking. It was something about which we could be proud, something we could show our friends, family and even persons interested in our writing skills. Now our own space is not ours. You have given our space to our friends and allowed them to put write all over our walls! When they're not doing that, they're passing notes. "Guess who is friends with Susie-Q!" Seriously. I stopped caring about that back in junior high - and that was a long time ago.

The things I like? Page view counts and spotlighting. But I would allow members to spotlight any and all writings/photos/videos that they wish. Doing that could also allow you to keep the feeds - but if we could spotlight 25 articles, the stupid chit-chat in feeds would end up on page 2 or 3, out of our way and less obvious for potential stalkers.

Except for commenting to friends about the Gather yucky pages, I was on much less since the upgrade. Being her now makes me frown, not smile. It makes my eyes water and my head hurt. Clutter is no fun at all.

Clicks may be good for business, but they don't make the average person happy. It makes little sense to have to click 4-5 times to get the results that one click used to give.

All of a sudden tonight, I have:

*Received three friend requests that aren't there. I click to review them and am told I don't have any. (This is on top of the idea that I requested to be friends with Kate C. the day after Hawthorne and we have a pending request between us that neither can accept or decline because it doesn't show up anywhere, also known as Lainie-La B Syndrome);

* I just had three (3) articles disappear entirely (some of them weeks old, yet ones older are still visible and available);

* An article published to everyone was suddenly unavailable to someone who's been active on it;

* Some of my mail is coming up in in code;

* My main friend set scrambled itself; and

*In attempting to fix my scrambled Friend Set, I got bounced completely back to my desktop. When I came back in and attempted to continue, I kept getting script errors once I had more than three friends on the list.

I've never had ANY of these problems before. I'm not blaming the update, but something's rotten in the state of Gather.

I just checked my article 'feed'. There is a grand total of THREE articles listed. My 100+ connections usually publish 30 articles a day. That's 90% missing articles for me. I do not have the time to check all my connections individually. This new feed thing is really disgusting and frustrating.

Thank you, Berf, for agreeing with my lower comment/point comment.

How does post-release Gather experience compare to pre-release Gather? Is it better/more compelling or worse/less compelling?:

I liked the PRE-RELEASE Gather better. The Front page/home page when I hit "MY GATHER" is a disaster. I like seeing my friends articles, videos, and images listed but in the old format ... I do not want to know who connected with whom, and who pinged whom. That is a total and complete waste of my time. When I have to spend my valuable time searching for articles I REALLY want to see, I get frustrated and leave Gather for the day. This is the ONLY time I have been in Gather today. I liked the old format because of the ease of moving around Gather. I had subscriptions set up for certain people so that I knew I wouldn't miss the second or third chapter in an article, or that photo their lasted photo/video. Now I have to set up to get e-mail notices for when these are posted. This is all well and good UNLESS like me you are following SEVERAL peoples stuff! This site is very cluttered and ugly now. not something I will recommend to my friends.

O'm sure what I am about to write is already here somewhere, but I do not have the time to read all the lengthy comments to find out, so..

I have spent less time here since the upgrade in part because I have been busy, but also in part because the current layout is so inefficent for finding anything that what little time I have had, I've not felt like wasting wading through empty oyster shells to find the pearls. If it stays like this, I'll be here less and less. I have a couple of articles I want to publish, and some new photos. But the way things are now, I don't feel like bothering because I doubt they'll be found.

My experience is much less pleasant and productive since the change. I am at Gather because I don't LIKE trivial "facebookish" sites. If you want to be like that lower life form, I guess I'll just go back to Slate (though that has also turned rather teeniebopperish in many aspects).

Now, my gripes/suggestions:

I HATE the feeds the way they are now. They are just about useless. If we are stuck with them for life, could you please STRONGLY consider four changes that seem like a reasonable compromise -

1) let us individualize the defaults so that EVERY time we go back to our My Page we do not have to waste time getting rid of the clutter (ping notifications, new friend notifications, etc,) to find something actually worth reading or looking at.

2) let us select on more than one category at a time (I'd choose articles, photos and videos, and if I could make that setting my default, at least I'd never have to look at a ping notification again!),

3) go back to listing things by CONTENT, not by author. While there are a few (VERY FEW) authors I seek out, most of my reading selection is made by topic. I have to wade through nearly a whole line of text in the feeds to find the title. My photo viewing is DEFINITELY made by selecting on thumbnails of photos I like. If the thumbnail is not appealing, or the umpteenth shot of the same vacation trip, I don't bother opening it. So please somehow put the thumbnails on the feeds - or at the very least maybe it's time to start requiring photos to have accurately desctiptive titles like everything else does.

4) Put number of comments on an article on the feed info. It's how I tell something new has been added to a discussion I've been following.

Oh, and for me, the drop down menu at the feeds doesn't work, so I can't change it at all. I have to use the tabs at the top of the page to view things.

Gather staff has already told us that we're not going back to the old page type. I do hope you'll give us each a choice in what is in feeds. And to let us spotlight old material - and up to about 25.

Do you realize that this cluttered feed mess is going to cause people to want fewer connections rather than more connections?

I've read in a couple comments here that there is a feed limit of 100 or 500. That is why I'm only getting a few articles on my feed? They are being choked out by all the commenting, pinging, game lists and friend making by my connections? This would obviously cause me to want to trim my connection list down to get rid of some of the people who I rarely hear from. And I have only about 100 connections; what a mess people who have hundreds and thousands of connections must be dealing with. That is ridiculous!!!