April 18, 2008 10:22 PM EDT
(Updated: April 20, 2008 02:03 PM EDT)
Rather than spread these around all over the place, let's compile a list of issues created by the latest upgrade that we would like to see corrected. I'll start with the big ticket items that have been brought to my attention:
- Make the profile feed optional.
- Provide the ability to choose what appears in the feed.
- Provide space on the profile page for recent content besides just the Spotlight.
- Extend the histories on the personal feeds (i.e. the My Feeds) so older content is not lost.
- Correct the Google indexing issues of private profile information, comments and feeds.
- Less cluttered and more personal profile pages.
- Pings and friend requests remain private.
It is important to note that these requests
will not affect the Gather experience of people who are currently enjoying the upgrade. These changes will however improve the Gather experience of the people who have been extremely dissatisfied with the changes put upon them by the implementation of Hawthorne.
Thoughts?
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Comments: 81
"Images for Me"
Along with what you've listed....these small compromises would make me very happy!
Here's what else I've heard people ask for.
- Once you've set the feed - for that time period - to what you want to view, that it stay that way and not revert back to the everything delineation.
- The my gather page be less cluttered and chaotic for viewing.
- Make pings and connection requests private again.
-
Chris: From other comments, I am fairly sure you want your page to feel like your own again. I want mine to feel like "me" again, even if the icon was a raccoon. I want to feel somewhat safe about what gets fed to Google although I don't think we can really do much about that. But I'd like our pages to look user friendly again.
It would be great if our pages can actually be about *us*, so when people look at them to see our work, they don't just see a bunch of other stuff.
Hi, (name omitted by me but it showed up for the member)
my profile (name omitted by me) your status (i.e. "is happy")Gather PointsTM: 3,170
A Gather person (Chuck?) then came on and said it was a caching issue. However, even though MAJOR privacy issues weren't breached, a member's points were revealed and some other stuff. Also, NO action could be taken (no points redeemed, etc).
But still....what if the member was in a private group and didn't want anything revealed to anyone else? There are private or moderated groups here. I'm just thinking randomly in a comment.
I would like to see less stuff hidden and easier to find, like it use to be.
I would appreciate less clutter ... no feeds [ I really don't want to see who pinged who and who is friends with who ] and I don't need everyone's comments right there "in my face" and out of context either .... These things make it too distracting ...
I would like to be ABLE to see the thumbnails of the pictures .... not straining to see if I really even WANT to check out those tiny little blurs that gather is now passing off as thumbnails ..... they are waaaaay too tiny for my eyes ....
I would like to NOT have to click multiple times to access the information that only took one click before the downgrade .... I have mobility problems with my hands and body and it actually HURTS to click so much ..... that was one of the nice things about the site before they changed it .... I was able to stay online for a longer period before my hands gave out and I had to leave .....
Could some of these items be added to your list? .... I know that not EVERONE has the same needs as I do ... and not everyone is bothered by the same things ..... but for ME, it actually IS more physically challenging to come onto this site now ... and I do not wish to subject myself to unnecessary pain, eyestrain, and headaches just to utilize a site that has made it difficult for me to get around ........ I think there are quite a few of us with disabilities of one sort or another who came to gather and reached out to others and made friends .... it would be a shame to lose them ...
I disabled pings and I am changing my profile, removing more and more private information.
I agree with these items.
Does Gather have anything to do with the Google indexing? I think this would be good advertiser strategy for them...
Yes, they can control which areas the search engine robots can visit and are allowed to index in their search engine.
"Kathryn Esplin-Oleski"/Gather.
it is "Kathryn Esplin-Oleski"/profile./Gather.
Comments have been indexed since forever. Groups, too.
if you disable pings, they won't be on there.
1. Increase the size of the comment box that we write comments in (by a lot).
2. Make comments editable for 2 minutes (this is normal at many sites and allows typos to be corrected when poor editing facilities are available for the original comments.
3. Add a "link" tool to the comment and email editing facilities so we don't have to type in HTML all the time (the current system wastes our time, many people have trouble understanding it, and the link tool is readily available on the "publish editor").
4. Make the visible typing area much larger for the publishing editor. While not as ridiculous as the comment box, I still work in this editor using only about 15% of my available monitor to view what I am writing. This makes it annoyingly difficult to catch format inconsistencies and other editing problems.
The fact that Gather instituted Friend sets with Guthrie - and Tom then had a chat asking about affiliate shopping - and would we like to share our purchasing information among our friend sets - screamed out at me that this was the next big step for Gather and Hawthorne is but a stepping stone toward Iago.
I actually have no idea of the code name for the next thing. But I will be REALLY surprised if it IS Iago. Thought of that the other day and the irony.
Affiliate shopping is coming. Just my news hound nose for news talking.
Zippy, writing elsewhere? Where did you land?
What I do see is accidental (like how I found this article)
I know, I'm moving off target. That's another conversation altogether.
HERE
And excerpted below:
"privacy.jpgA study from Privacy International has ranked Google at the bottom of a list of major internet destinations for privacy.
The study found that while a number of other Internet companies have issues with data protection, none comes as close to Google in "achieving the status of being an endemic threat to privacy."
Issue with Google included:
* Failure to provide an expungement option for retained data
* Failure to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law
* unstated or indefinite length of time for data retention, without clear limitation on use or disclosure
Nicole Wong, Google's deputy general counsel said in a response to the report that Google aggressively protects its users' privacy and stands behind its track record.
Privacy can be a touchy subject; generally people want their privacy maintained and yet the delivery of many services from Internet startups is dependent on personal data to deliver personalized content. It has long been known that Google gathers more personal data than any other company, yet Google's growing marketshare would seem to indicate that people are willing to ignore these privacy concerns. From an industry perspective, personalization is a defining quality of the new Internet - without this data we would be winding the clocks back to 1999."
Night everyone!
The membership number has not gone up a WHOLE lot since March 07. I don't think we are at 500,000. Not sure. But you get the idea.
Oct 06 membership was at 100,000.
i am number 20491, membership in the 20s, Jan 06.
All day today the home page had glitches when I opened an article a blue screen appeared with the title across the center and nothing else. Did this on two separate computers two separte IP addy's
I miss my groups owned drop down box, the only way I can get to my groups is through the emails to my home account for approvals as it would take all day to scroll through the groups I belong to.
I've been gone most of today. I have bookmarked My Gather, so I can go directly to Articles by my smallest friend set of 50 people. It only showed 2 articles! So I am missing all the stuff written since I checked last night, because the feed has been reset. When I go out of town, I used to be able to come home and go back days under "Articles for Me" and see what I missed. Now if I come on at the wrong time of day, I can't even go back ONE HOUR!
Alexa was interesting. There was a way to go back to the very beginning of their records, they call it the way back machine.
Anyway, I will have to do more tomorrow, is really late here and I need to get some sleep.
namaste
I really hate the fact I cannot spotlight my older articles; it should be my choice what to spotlight not Gather's.
And what happened to the friend count?
The one week traffic details are a good indication that this latest upgrade has put a damper on traffic and pageviews. It's been in steady decline since April 11th (hmmmm, any guesses why?)
Thanks for your work - S
Thanks
I agree with your list as stated in the article. I'd also like us to be able to configure what shows up in our own profile and have it be "sticky", be it a feed, content or a more minimal approach.
Tom (head of Gather) will be holding another "Talk to Tom" chat this coming Tuesday (4/22) at 12N EST. In the meantime, we welcome you to post your additional feedback and suggestions for Gather improvements At Gather Member Support.
"I call this "undetermined" in truth when it comes to Snopes verification of this at:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/vargas.asp
What this means is that an investigation is ongoing and that the TRUTH of this is not yet determined. For the sake of accuracy, verification of the truth of the incident should be determined before a person is determined guilty. At this point, there is some question as to whether this is a hoax or not. What news sources say it is true? I am as horrified by anyone about this potentially happening? But I see no reference to where it actually DID, no news source listed.
I would sign the online petition to investigate the artist's actions because ANY act of animal cruelty like this would be unacceptable to me. But I do have to say that the article alone is not proof (yet) of his guilt.
Verified sources of this incident need to be noted and cited for the rest of us to learn about. What headlines were made? Where? In what news organizations? Keep us informed, I beg you."
Of course, it hit Google's number one spot and will bring people to Gather, true or not, even though the facts are not cited. This opens Gather to litigation.