There have been a lot of changes on Gather over the last several months -- from the look and feel of your My Gather page and the introduction of feeds to a new homepage experience and simplified navigation. Some of you loved the changes, and some of you... well, let’s just say you wanted things tweaked.
We listened to what you had to say -- what you liked and what you didn’t like -- and have been working hard at making improvements based on your feedback. I’m happy to report that some of those improvements will be introduced across Gather in the next few days. Here’s a preview of what’s to come.
Your My Gather Page
“My feed is too cluttered”
“Content moves so fast on my feed that I miss things I care about”
“I don’t want to know who pings who -- just show me the content”
We heard this feedback from Gatherers and wanted to correct what you didn’t like about your Gather feeds.
Soon, the main feed area on your My Gather page will be streamlined to only include info on the content being shared by your friends (posts, photos, and videos). To better reflect this change, the feed will be renamed Content for Me.
You can toggle among the three tabs at the top of the content feed to check out content for you by your friends, content for you from your groups, and content for you based on your interests.
That third tab, the “interests” feed, is actually a dynamic search feature that constantly combs the site for info on the topics you’re most interested in. Throw in a few keywords, separated by commas (ex: golf, Aruba, potty training), and your interests feed will populate with terrific content based on those words.
You may notice there are no comments in your main content feed. Gather filtered the comments from the main feed and placed them in their own feed just below the content feed. This space is aptly named Comments by My Friends.
This is where you’ll see the public comments being made by your friends all across the site. You can easily filter this feed by friend set to check out what a particular group of your friends is talking about.
The social stuff your friends are doing on Gather is also being removed from your main content feed and placed in new area on your My Gather page called Friend Updates.
Located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, Friend Updates is where you’ll see the friends your friends are making, the groups they’re joining, who they’re pinging, and when your friends make new friends on Gather.
Finally, an entirely new feature is about to be unveiled on your new My Gather page. This feature is called Friends of My Friends. This is a quick look at the people on Gather who your friends are friends with -- people you might also know and want to connect with.
Groups and Explore Landing Pages
We also listened to your thoughts about the pages you land on when you click on Groups or Explore off Gather’s main navigation. We’re making some improvements here, as well. Based on your feedback, we’re moving the Gather Picks box from the bottom to the top of these pages. Included in the module will be more prevalent links to the Gather Essentials. These are the flagship groups on Gather and are moderated and featured by members of the Gather Team.
Gather Points = Cash For All
Some of you will say we’ve saved the best for last. In just a few days, Gather will open the Gather Cash program to all members. As you know, everyone on Gather earns Gather Points, which can be used to redeem gift cards at some retailers. Soon, all members will be able to redeem Gather Points for cash payments to your PayPal account. Three PayPal redemption amounts are available:
$25 for 1565 points
$50 for 3125 points
$100 for 6250 points
This move will allow all U.S.-based members to earn cash. It’s the first step in our process toward opening the Gather Points program to our international members. (More info on that to come.) You’ll need to have an existing PayPal account to receive PayPal payments.
There are a few more bells, whistles, and cool features that will be added to the site with the upcoming release. But these are the main changes that most affect your day-to-day experience on Gather.
Thanks for your continued feedback and ideas, all of which we believe makes Gather better and better!
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Comments: 193
Just my guess :)
Thank you.
Will items in the "Content for Me" feed continue to share in this 1,000 item 'pool', or will a fixed item capacity now be designated for content?
I do have a question though. When we redeem for a paypal payment, does it automatically default to the email address we have for Gather or can we specify the email address where the payment gets sent? The reason I ask is that currently my gather email address is not tied to my existing paypal account. It's no problem to add it, but would be easier for me and my online business if I don't have to.
So, if you already have a paypal account, you're golden.
Could you please confirm that the new PayPal option either will or will not impact members currently enrolled in the cash program?
Also, to redeem for the new PayPal option, will members be required to verify their citizenship or residency in some way?
Thank you!
I am also at a loss as to why we have to have twenty intermediate steps before our international contributors can get something for their time and effort. Why don't we fix that broke first before diddling with the rewards the US folks can already cash in.
Perhaps you should stop telling us what we want and listen to what we ask for.
I don't think you CAN hear us.
ralph got a free soda? was it mountain dew?
FWIW, anyone can feel free to flame away. I'm entitled to my opinion on this and it annoys me that I wasted the time 'earning' the cash option and now ANYone can cash in for $.
"...to redeem for the new PayPal option, will members be required to verify their citizenship or residency in some way?"
One of the most effective ways to notify my network of friends and colleagues about my articles is with mass emails. Please re-install the ability to highlight all recipients of emails. Having to click each and every recipient is very discouraging.
I do have a suggestion for those members who feel as though their feeds are clogged with one or two members content and comments as a result of the current summerpics photo promotion. You could disconnect from them temporarily... and then resume your friendship after the promotion. Just a thought.
Thanks!
As another solution, you can also simply block them from your feeds temporarily without having to disconnect from them.
If anyone wants to disconnect from me over a promotion, good riddance.
Thank you, Pam
Not sure who to mention this to now that Jennifer Hodges is on vacation as she took care of this for me in the past:
My blog is set to send RSS feed to My Gather pages. Last week my blog entry did not show up at Gather until after Jennifer "tripped the switch". This week again, the RSS feed is not working from my blog to My Gather.....I posted a new entry in my blog Saturday and to date it hasn't shown up at My Gather yet....
Any help will be appreciated!
I really appreciate the more prominent display of the Gather Essentials. Some of us believe that such things are well -- essential.
A small gripe of mine is the Feed does not retain the setting. If I want to only be fed posts, I have to reset the preference each time I visit the page.
I have also had the problem with friends not showing up on my feeds. I have disconnected and reconnected and that fixed it but it's something Gather should look into.
I give up *sigh*
Members on the cash option can still get a check and they can place a Paypal order for any amount of money they have earned.
I miss seeing the counts, but don't understand how they help know where you've been or are going, flit. What don't I understand? I suspect this might be because I would never remember the number of comments present the last time I visited articles, so nothing short of a flag to indicate "new comment" would work for me.
Gather is the BEST!
~E
Sometimes I can remember if the comment count has changed or not and it is helpful for me. It's also nice to know if a friend has posted something that hasn't gotten any or little attention yet so I can prioritize and look at that first. What would be ideal is some sort of indicator that there has been new activity on a thread since I last participated.
Ya did hear me and I appreciate it very much!
This was a welcome announcement.
A sparkly glitter graphic warning would be a huge help. Pam, could you pass that on to the team?
AND
may also participate in the new cash/Pay pal option.
If this is correct, it is merely a way where everyone participates in some form of cash option, and that sounds more than fair.
I am NOT on dialup ...but I am still not inclined to click into every single article to check for a follow up ...the same as I'm not willing to set up and email account to get notifications for when people publish .... I fail to see why things that used to work at a glance should now take 2 or more times as many windows or clicks...
it's not like it's even improving anything in Gather's stats, either, far as I can tell.
doesn't say up there that I saw re: the curfew having changed either... view your connections articles by a certain time or we wipe them out... that's SO much crap
if the ~f_feed~ can't handle 2 days worth of articles, why are we bothering with it?
I do like the fact that the social crap that I could care less about will be over in an easier to ignore spot of its own ... but I'm really, really tired of being ~fed~ a line about how much Gather cares about our feedback ....
If I wanted to be ~fed~ garbage I would go to McDonalds
Berf, Striker says "I won't let you down"! :-)
In short, we're the ones who make Gather look the best to potential partners.
Some cash members this may be true but there are many more cash option members on this site don't post quality content. They post games, and blurry pictures. If i was an advertiser I wouldn't like a site to put those people in a special seat. Cash option shouldn't be something people create lists for and game the system to get there, it should have been a reward for posting quality stuff. But since it isn't and never was, I'm glad to see that cash is being opened up to everyone, because many of us that live out in the boonies don't have Macy's and Home depot. Cash can be spent anywhere. :)
In online business, it's a numbers game. How many pageviews does a site generate? How much time does the average user spend on the site? How many times per day will they see my ad? Honestly, most of the partners probably don't care if 'quality' content is posted or not. They only care that we see their ads and act on them over time. And the more time one spends on a site the more likely one is to see the ads.
Gmail is great. It is always there - you don't need to download it, you can delete and put into trash - but if you want to find it, it will be there. You don't even need to Empty the trash.
You can also Archive messages forever. You just go to Gmail to sign up.