Some of the upgrades aren't cool. Some are very cool.

I can make big Black words! =)

Italy too! How cool is that!!! =)

Okay...so how did you do that?

You high light the word and push ctrl b for black

you high light the word and push ctrl i for italy =) I'm haveing pizzia now! =)

Marylin taught us on another post! =)

Thank you so much Cindy.  It is greatly appreciated.

black = bold =)

I love that you guys are teaching each other to use this new release.  How fun!

Is follow that conversation new too?

Yes. It's something a lot of people have been wanting for years now.

It's true, Melanie.  I haven't used that new functionality yet myself, but I am excited about it because a lot of people have requested it in the past.

We have tried to build in some common-sense limits on how it works (a maximum number of emails it will send to you each hour, even for a very active conversation).  We also set the follow-the-conversation link to expire after 7 days (when most conversations seem to wrap-up) so people aren't periodically called back into years-old dialog.  We will need to tune these parameters, so please let us know what your actual experience is using the new technology.  Thanks!

What all is new? I heard they were going to upgrade, but I didn't catch what the upgrades were. I noticed the follow the conversation and some comment options and the whole reply to the comment thing. The thing that bothers me the most, is they made the notifications that tell me I have messages, group tasks, or friend requests,super small. It's the smallest test on my screen and if it were smaller, I wouldn't see it.

So, now that I'm back from hiatus, what else is new?

Hi Ashley- you can read more about the changes in an article by MaryAnne.  Please also visit help.gather.com with questions about Gather anytime.

You know I think some people used that to try to gain popularity with their posts, I never followed popularity, or such things in my time on here.  I'm not here for the money, its an added bonus, however, I'm here for the fun and the friends, and the discussions.

Mooch

It doesn't look like points are updating very often either....anyone know?

I don't like a couple things!

I'm kinda glad the people portion has changed.  Now it's not so much a popularity contest to see who gets the most views, comments or highest ratings.  Perhaps it will cut back on the troll patrol as well.

I have not been on for a day, I am noticing some changes.

I like the comments, that is cool. It makes it easier to follow conversations

I am still not familiar with it. Hope you have a nice weekend Teresa.

I haven't checked that.  I liked that part as well.

Teresa- thanks for the feedback.  We found that the old people page was self perpetuating.  People that were on it received more views, in part, beacuse they were on it. This mean that the page stayed largely the same each day and prevented other people sharing their thoughts here from being seen.

We noticed that people tend to learn from their friends through a process we call social discovery.  We follow our friends into good conversations.  It's a direct analog to how we discover things in the offline world.  A friend sees a great film and tells us about it.  Then we go to the film.

With this release, we are exploring another type of discovery works as well.  This is a type of social discovery, but it is focused on the movement of herds/groups of people that we probably do not know.  In the same way that a crowd staring up at the top of a building causes us to look up, we expect that calling out what people (even strangers) are doing on the site may provide a method for finding interesting stuff.

We are experimenting with new things here, to be sure.  And we wil refine/change them over time.  But this People page is an experiment in that direction.

Personally, I like it because there is a ton of life on the site and that was hard to experience before.  With this page now in place, it's easy to see that there are great conversations happening here every minute of every day.

Of course, none of this means you will end-up liking the experience.  We are grateful for the candid feedback today and would welcome your thoughts once make a few adjustments to that page as well.

Thanks Teresa, for Gathering, and for helping make Gather a better place!

WOW you got Tom to comment on your article!! LUCKY!

The PEOPLE PAGE SUCKS!

i suck too

here

let me show you :P

*snickers*

I feel special.  Tom commented on my birthday.  Thanks for the present Tom!  LOL  Also...what does follow the conversation mean?  Is that what is on the people page now?

Also...I can understand about the popularity thing. I often went there to find new profiles to view, but usually it was the same ole same ole. I still wish that there could be some way we could view how we are doing though...

I agree with what you state here.  It was nearly impossible to find new members to connect with using that portal.  Most of the time I would just search out people through friends' profiles are through a search for topics I was interested in.  However, it is fun to get the occasional wildcard connection.  With the same people always there, it was impossible.

I hadn't noticed the one with people, I did like being able to see activity levels. 

I feel lost--I never even saw this people page you all are discussing.  I didn't know I was unpopular....LOL

Jennifer...  You showed up sometimes, I saw you there.  But I guess you wouldn't know...huh???  LOL

Nope ...not at all....LOL.  At least I made it to the big time a little..... :-)

On this I do agree~

I guess the upgrades are okay, probably won't use the majority of them very often. 

sorry you dont like it!

I like some of it, not all of it.  Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for sharing you post on Helping out One Another

I haven't had time for the people pages in months but when I do have spare time I'm gonna miss them. :(

I can't use the bold command because control + B opens the bookmark window. Oh well.

Hm It's Okay... I say that with a wishy washy tone... but I don't like how it self updates. Then there are chats that we've asked to self update that don't.

It seems we'd more need self refreshing pages on CHATS more than the "people" page. *shrug.