I made a suggestion that there be a space below the article title where the writer can put the subject of the article - a single word or more but not to exceed one line of type. Would this be the same as what you are advocating?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what 'tags' are for? For example: I just tagged an image with the word 'lighthouses' and when I now look at that image, other similarly tagged images show up. When you use the search function, you will have similar results.
I think gather needs to make it easier to post articles/images to groups. Clicking through a huge list of groups is becoming painful. How about being able to create a group of groups?
tags are terrible because so many people write so many articles or publish images in those tags that it's hard to find what you're looking for. And, many people ignore the articles I have tagged in my profile and instead they comment on the images which is easier for them. So, I say, how are those two things easy buttons? We need something more simple. Categories. One for fiction, one for poetry, and so on. That might just make things easier, or maybe not.. Who knows.
Something needs to make it easier - I can't get tags to work for me, so many don't use or don't use appropriately (probably me included) - and search brings up waaaaayyyyy too much. Publishing is a pain too, don't do much of it anymore. Takes forever to click through everything.
good idea....I would like it too if when I am paging through images, click on one to look and comment, when I click back to images, it would not take me back to the first page. I don't always notice what page I am on at the time and so I have to page again until I get back to ones I have not yet seen...... hope you have a great weekend...and thanks, Carl, for your groups...all good ideas
No... they should make and easy button that makes posting and seleting groups, easier and FASTER. It's such a pain to spend 15 minutes selecting the appropriate groups, etc,. that I just don't even like to post very often. I dunno.. maybe I'll just delete all but a few groups. OR... they could do a "select all" and be done with it. If someone doesn't like the content, they can delete you from their group and be done with it.
Perhaps they would let people trade in a modest number of points for this kind of ad. If it generates enough views, the points could act as an investment.
Kevin, when I first joined Gather, I tried the tag search. Because people assign their own tags, most of what came up was unrelated to what I thought it would be.
Therefore, I stopped using them for searches. (so how many people on Gather use them consistantly to view articles)
As for the spotlight, someone has to come view you home page to know you've spotlighted something.
When you post an article, who views that article depends entirely on when you post it and who is on at the time, and who you are connected to. It's haphazard.
The only viewing that's done that isn't haphazard is if someone has your content set where their notified of your posting, (via email) or if someone has you checked as a subscription.
Outside of that, emails work, or should I say use too.
The person getting them has a choice to view or not view. But they know you're content is available for viewing.
I want to be able to group my groups so I can publish to just the ones I want. I tried to do what Kevin said to do, Thank you Kevin, but my computer didn't want to talk to iMacros. Something about ActiveX. I have the same trouble with other applications of Active X things.
Aha! -- Thank you for the explanation. I interpreted your comment to me incorrectly. I thought you were inferring that I was drawing attention to my post or comment above in some way, not generally how to advertise content we publish!
I do agree with you about tags. They are misused and misunderstood. ...and therefore aren't as effective as they could be. Overall I think content searching has improved on Gather since the 'early days'. However, you do have to know the quirks inherent in searching in order to avoid a lot of erroneous content. Gather could easily fix these problems, but have chosen instead to leave it as a 'broken' tool.
Feeds also have little value (at least for me), especially if you have friends that are prolific commenters.
Therefore, I use the 'Recent Articles' listing in LIST mode to view all articles published over a given day...and then pick out articles of interest. It works for me, and ensures that I don't miss anything.
I'm glad that you brought up this discussion though. Everyone uses Gather in different ways and it's interesting to see what works for some and doesn't for others. There ARE a lot of ways members can locate you and your work, and ways to make it easier for them...but unless everyone knows about them and uses them (and they are easy to use), they aren't very valuable or effective.
I was really surprised when I returned from vacation and saw that we can no longer just add everyone in our mail list to an email. What the HECK is with that????? I can't imagine why Gather thinks that is an improvement ~ it's pure frustration! I really don't get it. Maybe it's an experiment to see how long we'll stay to can earn money or points toward reward cards until we all just drop off, one by one, out of frustration. That thought has crossed my mind more than once! ;-D
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Comments: 64
For example: I just tagged an image with the word 'lighthouses' and when I now look at that image, other similarly tagged images show up. When you use the search function, you will have similar results.
I think gather needs to make it easier to post articles/images to groups. Clicking through a huge list of groups is becoming painful. How about being able to create a group of groups?
They do! ...two of them!
"spotlight this" and 'tags' (as Landen points out above).
I WOULD like an easy button for publishing though.
We need something more simple.
Categories. One for fiction, one for poetry, and so on. That might just make things easier, or maybe not.. Who knows.
hope you have a great weekend...and thanks, Carl, for your groups...all good ideas
Huh?
Therefore, I stopped using them for searches. (so how many people on Gather use them consistantly to view articles)
As for the spotlight, someone has to come view you home page to know you've spotlighted something.
When you post an article, who views that article depends entirely on when you post it and who is on at the time, and who you are connected to. It's haphazard.
The only viewing that's done that isn't haphazard is if someone has your content set where their notified of your posting, (via email) or if someone has you checked as a subscription.
Outside of that, emails work, or should I say use too.
The person getting them has a choice to view or not view. But they know you're content is available for viewing.
Kill This Article and Win 5 Pepsi Codes
Aha! -- Thank you for the explanation. I interpreted your comment to me incorrectly. I thought you were inferring that I was drawing attention to my post or comment above in some way, not generally how to advertise content we publish!
I do agree with you about tags. They are misused and misunderstood. ...and therefore aren't as effective as they could be. Overall I think content searching has improved on Gather since the 'early days'. However, you do have to know the quirks inherent in searching in order to avoid a lot of erroneous content. Gather could easily fix these problems, but have chosen instead to leave it as a 'broken' tool.
Feeds also have little value (at least for me), especially if you have friends that are prolific commenters.
Therefore, I use the 'Recent Articles' listing in LIST mode to view all articles published over a given day...and then pick out articles of interest. It works for me, and ensures that I don't miss anything.
I'm glad that you brought up this discussion though. Everyone uses Gather in different ways and it's interesting to see what works for some and doesn't for others. There ARE a lot of ways members can locate you and your work, and ways to make it easier for them...but unless everyone knows about them and uses them (and they are easy to use), they aren't very valuable or effective.
Triple Points Again Today ; )
You might get something you don't want if they give us easy buttons. So far all the upgrades haven't been living up to the name UPGRADES!
Karen