Take two: ICE UPGRADE is here: What is your reaction?

I'm still lost from the last "upgrade", now I will never be able to find myself.

I Just logged on, so I am still looking around.

I miss the feeds at the bottom of the articles to find other articles by the author I am reading.

My Friends from Facebook are sending me emails from Facebook because they cannot use Gather.

Now that says EVERYTHING

I CANNOT FIND MAIL.

I know we don't get a green envelope on our page anymore (WHICH WAS A HUGE MISTAKE TO REMOVE) but I cannot find mail anywhere.

you really do not want to know Kath....

++++\\there are no read letters at the top of this.....&%$#%@#$%^&

Also, I sent a group email from Gather Broadcasting and it was sent. But I don't have an email about it.

Randee, you are right.

incredibly slow and pages timing out far too often

I hate what they've done to the Essentials and am uncertain that it's going to be worth the investment of time to continue as an editor even one day/week - so far haven't even been successful getting there because of glitches ...somehow I doubt few will notice either way

and the broke the work around/back door to Articles for Me.

I agree with the comment Danielle had about finding other articles on similar topics. It was nice.

I am boggled by how the staff manages to bungle things when they fix certain other things.

I admire their aims but the things that are bungled absolutely kill their aims.

Yep, flit.

I tried commenting on MaryAnne's article but the pages timed out.

I called Gather earlier this morning to tell them that people are having a lot of trouble. Pages too slow, timing out and people not being able to publish.

I was at the preview yesterday, but where is our mail?

Mail is on MY GATHER.

But why the FREAK should we have to CLICK ON TO MY GATHER JUST TO GET MAIL?

WHY?

I don't have time for this.

I had to log off and on twice to find me at all.

0 views on this article...not really..but that is what it says.

I thought I logged on to the wrong website when I clicked onto gather with my browser,wierd still serching and exploring a little lost,I don't like how the whole article takes up the whole screen and seems out of proportion, I really liked the old way things were done, but I not fully opionionated as of yet..still exploring....& ~ Lost~ :)

Spencer, yeah I can believe it.

I just use my Foxfire tabs. I just type K....on a tab and it brings up kathryneo.gather.com and brings me there, otherwise.........

To me this new website looks generic & new, don't you think ???

The layout is rather lackluster. I don't feel that any of these changes are an improvement since the terminology for finding things isn't very logical or intuitive. It's just a makeover to me with very little improvement to site functionality. What a waste of programming hours.

My gather page was always my homepage. So I see no difference there except the main top navigation should be larger than the feeds navigation. Currently it's the opposite.

I'm not a fan, but I can use it.

generic, yes...new? not sure what you mean. But in some ways, a throwback to two years ago and more...with the article taking up the whole page....

I was just on Facebook.

My Facebook friends are sending me emails because they are having trouble using the new Gather.

Facebook is easy! And everything works. And there is HOME. And ...I could go on...but I don't have time.

We need our GREEN MAIL ENVELOPE BACK.

I know immediately on FB if I have mail, if I have friend requests, etc..I don't need to click to other pages to find that info.

It is a little confusing, but I will probably get used to it like I did before.

The Jury is still out. I found my email receipts on my Gather home page, it's how I came here.

Apart from the MAIL being difficult to find - it is on MY GATHER - which is another waste of our time - we have to click to that page and it will take people a lot longer to find out if they have any emails, but apart from that, one of the most serious flaws is Gather has just cannibalized their entire ESSENTIALS.

Very serious mistake.

IT was noted yesterday in the Preview that people WILL NOT understand that these tabs at the bottom are the ESSENTIALS, people will think they are extensions of Terms of Service notes.

Now, fewer people than ever will read ESSENTIALS.

Just got another outside email from a friend not able to find mail and his/her reaction is this upgrade is awful.

Yeah, but Carl - when I checked mail from MY GATHER a few moments ago, I did find the email I sent from Gather broadcasting.

But since I am on this article and NOT on MY GATHER, I have no way of knowing NOW if there are any NEW emails.

I have to do other things.

See you later.

I don't care for it. You know have an extra click to find articles if you are not connected to a person. I hate the way our articles look. The big huge ad takes up most of the page and I really don't like that other peoples articles are advertised on my article before my own.

I am glad i am going on vacation tomorrow so I won't be on much today. Hopefully all the glitches will be fixed while I am gone.

Views still at zero.

Removing the green envelope is affecting Gather's bottom line. People have to CLICK to MY GATHER just to see if they have mail or not.

9 times out of 10, people will not take the time to do that.

Fewer views, fewer comments, fewer people staying, fewer ad dollars.

Gather is not "friendly" any more. I hate not having the "HOME" "FEATURED" page.
I've been here about 10 minutes this a.m. and I already don't like it. NOT FRIENDLY! How can ANY site NOT have a HOME page? Where does a first=time visitor go?

I had all the posts on my article disapear before my eyes...
I can't even read 'posts' no they are ARTICLES in my own group
I think untill i get a larger memory bank in Einstine I wont be able to domuch
I wonder if this will post.

oh it worked YES

I did find mail but there were flashing ads beside the mail very distracting
they were everywhere before [about4am] they are not as bad now. I miss getting the news on the front page that is no more

Yeah, the mail is the main problem. Even worse, IMO, is that I can't find my latest comments under "My Feed" rubric on my homepage. In short, I'm not too excited about these changes...

Blessings and best wishes - S.

I just about stopped visiting Gather after the first round of "improvements" - doesn't look like this is going to get me back :(

I have got a lot of getting used to.

I haven't really gotten a chance to play with it yet, so I'm not really sure what I think at the moment except that it definitely looks very different.

Also, it's extremely slow to load, especially comments, and it keeps kicking me off so I have to log in again every time I post a comment.

Ice, Ice, baby! It is what it is and we're stuck. I was hit by the publishing glitch for spending too much time on the page creating my post. Save and transfer back and I was back in business. As long as things work like they're supposed to......

I am doing okay with it!

I missed the last upgrade and am just getting here this morning. The web ap we use at work to manage courses upgrades and we find out all the wackiness in the first few weeks. I guess upgrades are just a way of life for me. I'll

deal with it.

That wasn't the upgrade, that's me before the first cup of tea.

"I miss the feeds at the bottom of the articles to find other articles by the author I am reading."

This feature hasn't gone away!

It is now located on the right-hand side of the page in-between the ads. The "Related Articles" section is also still around, but with a new title: "You Might Also Like".

i liked it the way it was.. .this change was to make it cleaner but I agree.. messy messy.. but we all know we are addicted to Gather and we'll navigate it.. but doesn't it seem like they are constantly making upgrades without Gatherite imput????

Thanks for condensing all the new info here for us Kathryn.
I haven't done much here this morning but did try to comment on Ed Nudelman's article about Pris's award and after hitting the submit button, the comment just hung there without posting all the while saying that it was posting. I finally had to X out of the article and when I went back to check it had posted.
I like your idea about the contact names and what they do but their email address should also be listed. Have you ever submitted this idea to Gather?
thanks again

Thanks, Kathryn, for pointing out these changes in the features. I hadn´t noticed the Home Page tab missing, mainly because I never go to the home page unless one of my friends has their work featured.

Hey Kathryn,
Is the only way to get into our mail on here now from our My Gather page?
There used to be a tab at the top, far right that we could use to wrap into our mailbox at any time and I don't see it here anymore either. I used those tabs a lot.
Did they remove this too or maybe it's just not loading for me.

I don't like this new set-up at all...

I just got on a few minutes ago but I'm lost!!! Finally figured out the rating thing!!! Ugh!!!

This site is depressing, im not a happy camper.

I like to see that Gather home page again.

Kevin: Thank you for pointing that out.

Lori: Yes MY GATHER is the only way to the mail right now.

Formerly, the green envelope had been the standard since Day 1.

John F. Walter, thank you.

It IS tough, I realize. I am not happy and a lot of other people are not, either.

It takes MORE work just to see MOST VIEWED or MOST COMMENTED POSTS, which is what I wnat to see now in my 5 minutes here.

I just had an thought. If we have to click on more links - they will get more advertising dollars right

No, not really, Shelley. They get more ad dollars by bringing in more new people who stay. That does not look likely, considering everything in the last year.

There have been very few new members in the last 12 months, compared to previous months.

Ithink once you get used to it ,than it will be easier.

When I joined in Jan 06, there were 20,000 members. In June of 06. there were about 50,000. In October 06, there were 100,000. Between Jan 07 and March 07, there were 250,000 members. By August 07, there were 400,000.

Now, there are about 500,000.

The biggest single increase in members and promotion occurred during the original First Chapters Contest, between Jan and August 07.

The membership numbers are not official, they are my own estimates based on the member numbers of people I connected with during those times.

Tom has been quoted in recent weeks as saying there are 500,000 registered members, all time.

so far I hate the upgrade. but after the last time we upgraded i'm not going to waste my time complaining about it because we learned last time that gather could care less how we feel up these so-called upgrades. they're going to do what they want, when they want, and how they want and our opinions mean nothing.

People, I agree. And people vote with their feet.

Well, I just tried to get to your "post" and internet explorer cannot display this page", I then refreshed and here you are! I do miss the frontpage...

I really think they should restore our Mail envelopes on our pages. By the time I checked My Gather, I had 12 mail messages.

Gotta go.

Lyn, yep.

I have no hope left for Gather. I use Firefox which is MUCH better than IE. But I usually have tabs open to Mail, my profile, MOST VIEWED ARTICLES, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Word.

Whoa, I never had a bit of problem, and it looks a lot cleaner to me, except for the feed, but the article page looks cleaner. It moved faster when I posted my article, too. I never used the green envelope, I always just clicked on my messages, because I always have new messages. I do miss the Homepage, though, and Today's poll. I thought the last upgrade was harder to get use to than this one.

Where are the stars?

Kathryn,

I do believe that there are 500,000 members. However, only 1% of that amount are really active or engage other members on the site. I don't see this change helping Gather significantly improve this percentage long-term.

Where am I? Is that you mom or the sister I never had?

Kevin: Exactly.

Rosa: There is a tag called RATE. Hover over it and rating stars should appear.

Ron: Where are we? Jam yesterday, Jam tomorrow but never Jam today. Curiouser and curiouser. Fell down the rabbit hole.

Upgrading without considering the client base is a tactic that Microsoft invented. Apparently at Gather they think they have the same amount of clout and can get away with it.

Maurice, I just think Gather staff is lost.

I think they're just arrogant.

So far, a LOT less activity.

On my Gmail notifications, about 27 comments in 10 minutes.

Usually, it would be 27 comments in one minute.

Oh wait, I think I changed my mind. I just found out I cannot add a link in my comments anymore. Bummer. Why did they do that?

Thanks for the info on the stars Kathryn.

You can add a link in you comments, Rosa. Same as before - with the right code.

They changed the code?

Just logged in..

...Wow !! What a difference.

I'm not real keen on it. It looks more like Helium now. Lots of white space on these new pages.

I really dislike the fact that text is left justified. I found it much easier (more comfortable) to read content that was in the middle of the page, instead of having to focus to my left all the time. I see neck aches and localized eye strain on the horizon.

The shape of the space for group banners has also changed -- places where the banner image is covered by Gather graphics have been moved around.

...and of course there's new navigating techniques to learn.

Yee-Haw !!!

Well, since you've asked ... Things I hate about the new (and the old) Gather.

#1: The stupid feed on my home page. I have my preferences already set on my friends so when they post an article, I get an email. I don’t want a list pushed in front of me every time I go to my page. I would much prefer a list of articles & images I have posted so I can make changes and get more of an overview. In other words - more like a blog page.

#2: The way email "invites" work. You get the option of clicking Accept or Decline but you don’t get to REPLY. Quite often people leave me very nice messages when they ask to be included as my friend or invite me to a Group. I have to either Ping them back (which I think is noisy and also public) or find a way to email them somehow.

I also prefer getting emails in my regular EMAIL account. Having to remember to delete emails on Gather is a royal pain.

#3: When you add a photo image to one of your articles, why is it now appearing at the bottom of the piece instead of at the side? And why does my icon have to appear next to Everything I write? Boring and annoying.

#4: In the spirit of trying to post something (to see if it disappeared like it did for you, Kathryn), I figured I would do that. But …. Where is the publish button? I actually had to click on Help and do a search to figure out how to “share” something. Now it’s called “share” instead of “publish” whichi s odd. “Share” … reminds me of when people “share” criticisms. Yucch.

Okay, so after I clicked “share a post” I waited a long time and then pasted my poem in as usual. And, as usual, the text appeared double spaced, ignoring all of my formatting (my poems are usually single-spaced in stanzas). That’s annoying and they still haven’t fixed it. So, after reformatting it, the post submitted very nicely. The photos loaded. It all looks fine.

All in all, just more stuff to get used to, I guess. The main problem I have with Gather is that I have an 8:30-6:30 job in a hospital setting, thus very little time to “play” on the Internet. When I get home, I’m usually not in the mood to read since I spend all day on the computer at work. I like quality time reading interesting poems and stories, mostly.

I hope "share" isn't the new word for journalism theft.

What is the new code for linking in comments, Kathryn?

Will Kevin have to rewrite all of his "help" articles? Oh, the continuing soap opera of Gatherworld.

I added my thoughts here, Kathryn. I've seen more NEGATIVE than POSITIVE thus far.

My daily question gets anywhere from 60 to 80 views.. I am curious to see tonight how mnay I get now that you need search dogs to find your email.

not having a home page is like removing the peanut butter from the pb&j...just wrong.

Another really crazy thing is that if one publishes a photo and wants to SPOTLIGHT it, you then have to click MY GATHER to be able to publish another one since that's where the SHARE LINK is.

Making more clicks for us again... I'm not surprised by that.

Not so good.

I joined gather less than one month ago. I think if it had looked like this (unprofessional) I would not have joined. :( I love Gather. I hope they improve it. Man...just go back to the way it was yesterday and that would be a big improvement.

I also am angry that they are not featuring PHOTOS like they did before, and the featured articles are hidden on the bottom of the most viewed page.

Bad move, Gather. Maybe I'll just write FLUFF now since there's not any REAL features to work toward...

I think this is a horrible incarnation of gather. It is not designed for those who enjoy quality content, but rather crappy, half focused pictures and mindless games. It is all about who is 'popular'. I am like Jennifer, I am beyond mad that they are not featuring quality photos anymore! I have met lots of very talented photographers on here by checking out the featured photos every day.
Gather right now looks like something a 12 year old in computer applications class threw together in 20 minutes in geocities page builder. It is childish, clunky, and directed only at promoting crappy work that only gets there from "LOL DB10!" ratings :\
I am a tad bit miffed this morning.

It's just plain butt ugly is all I can say....the giant ads crusading down
the right give me a friggin' headache and forcing me to dive in between
them to operate and view content, will require aspirin for extended sessions.

The actual article or poem fades out in the graphic scream and it has become
most apparent that this site is now dedicated to advertising more than its members.
It's become another herded cattle call test much like the government plays on us......how long will it take them to quiet us down and forget that they once published original work and we are now are mere "posters" in the mass-produced e-word slaughterhouse.....and if the artists mind their original creations and designs now relegated to mere "photos" ....who really cares...those artists are always the upstarts anyway....and when you're playing a numbers game, it's best to blind the masses first with hyper-decorative psycho babble and dribble "feed" just enough to keep them hungry for another a little taste...so the thin surface appeal suffices to keep them in a dulled comfort zone of denial.

I don't think Gather wields as much influence as it thinks, and it forgets that its appeal
came from the quality of the originating and original content that it now turns its nose down to by burying it in crap.

But in t he end it does not matter what we, the active membership thinks. As we have seen before Gather could give a darned less, anytime people express displeasure in their "upgrades" we are simply told to shut up and deal (and often times in such direct language) or we have our concerns turned around and repeated to us in what I call "happy face language".
Not cool at all *sigh*

I keep getting kicked off and have to sign back in. Very frustrating.

Come on Kathryn - it's time... bring back the bride! Everyone here at Gather is waiting for her grand return!

To quote someone on Pam's Pings

"The old timers are going to HATE it." Yeah. . . we do.

Looks like reading the profiles of gather staff after this update is going to be just as fun as with Hawethorne.

Takes forever....if ever....to get on through Firefox...IE works better.
I have tried to rate articles and can't get the numbers to hold steady
long enough to even click a star...I immediately get switched to
sharing with other sites, because the referred areas practically overlap.

Lest we forget ......we old-timers need to keep the memory alive:

Once upon a time.....Gather had a dream:

Old Highlights of Gather's Early Conception
From TMCnet September 21, 2005

Gather.com Launches Website for 30 Million Public Radio Listeners to Interact and Share Diverse Perspectives; Earnings-based Model to Supplant One-sided Blogging
BOSTON --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 19, 2005 -- Gather(TM), the unique online site where public radio listeners and other informed, engaged people share diverse perspectives, announced today its public beta launch at www.gather.com(TM). Gather is the first online outlet to encourage global perspectives to emerge across a wide variety of topics and be heard above today's media noise. In contrast to other media and single-sourced individual blogs, which are hard to find and difficult to compare across a single topic, Gather provides a high-visibility environment where writers, bloggers and other individual contributors can come together to provide a 360-degree global view into shared areas of interest - and get paid for it. ……
Today, public radio listeners enjoy diverse radio programming that spans local and national news and political commentary, business and economics, food and wine, spirituality, music and comedy. Listeners to a single program share a common passion, yet have varying perspectives on a single subject. The one-way radio medium fails, however, to capture this collective knowledge and does not allow people to interact together in a broader forum.

"The 30 million people listening to public radio every day have a depth of knowledge and perspective to share. They often have more in common with the people hearing the programs they love than they do with their neighbors or family," said Gather Chairman Bill Kling, who is also Chairman and CEO of the American Public Media Group, the nation's second largest public radio organization. "Gather allows this audience to dynamically interact and form friendships with people who add value to their passions through shared experiences and perspectives. That may lead to conversations or to adventures with similarly interesting people."

"Gather is creating a unique place online for me to interact with smart, engaged people. It's a place where I can be rewarded for contributing my perspective through thought, art, or commentary," said Verie Sandborg of Deerfield, Illinois, a Gather member and frequent contributor.




.....then there was an enormous flood ......and it was washed into oblivion in its "mainstream" rush to become a surface reflection of the world.....where the depths and the original inventive nooks and crannies take very concerted effort to ever find.....many of them just drowned. But you can see their remains in colorful little bubbles all over your front page.


And.........where do "my paintings" now go.....the "team" seems to think that they should be happy to be "my photos"? They are not happy at all. "Images" was vague enough, but when the world of original art on a popular site gets relegated to "my photos" you know that they're losing interest in original work and simply looking for light-and-lively reproductive clones....this continues to cheapen Gather's profile. It may be more "mainstream" but I always thought that Gather wanted to profile and represent quality and originality.....well, they used to......how sad....how very, very sad.

Kathryn, I haven't checked again in the last hour, but all the pictures I post with my pieces, not sure what to call them, show up in the titles list, but not in article itself, I hope this is just another glitch, haven't got a lot of time to fool around with it today, but will check back later, Take care. (not enthusiastic about the whole thing either, don't like the left hand viewing, liked the center spacing better , we may need another upgrade.

Pam, but we are not happy.

I just saw Lisa Walker's press release to the media:

July 22, 2008 - GATHER, THE PREMIER ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK FOR GROWN-UPS, UNVEILS NEW SITE DESIGN
by Lisa Walker

HERE

Laura, I had that trouble with ratings, too. I only rated one article - because I forgot, but yes, it was difficult. People will be reporting back that they accidentally rated much lower than they wanted to.

I'm totally confused.....again. Everytime there is an upgrade it seems my learning curve goes down. I have no idea where to find anything. I'm hoping readers can find my posts, but I'm not optimisic, since I can't find anything.

Rosa, it is the same code. Give me your outside email and I will send it to you. It cannot be explained in the body of a comment because the code activates.

See Jennifer N.'s comment? That is a comment with a link. I think that is what you meant.