Gather's Daily Help Article - Part 2 - April 11,2008

Hi folks,
The first article is getting long, so we are starting a new one here to more quickly answer your questions.

Ok, I guess my question got lost in the first article. I cannot seem to find the tag search bar, and I was hoping someone could steer me in the right direction.

There were a few questions posted on today's first Daily Article that will be answered here.

I have to go to work. Maybe when I come home I will see t hat I have been acknowledged (and without the "you'll eventually LOVE it" theme going on. . . ).

Gather. . . I know this is your site and you will do whatever you want with it. But honestly look at the comments you are getting here and across the site. The MAJORITY of your members, do not like this update. We are not "afraid of change" or any of the other condescending responses I have seen. We do not like this horrible mess.

With other updates at least the love/hate camps were fairly equal. This is not an equal love/hate update.

(Since the other article is now shut off and I may not be seen)

Please consider taking a poll on your front page daily survey asking if Gather members like the old or new version better.

You could also do another with options listed that we like or dislike.

Compile the results and THEN please consider changing some things back if that is what the majority of the community would like.

This update seems to be a major setback ... very disappointing! I'm all for change ... but I prefer things to change for the better. Didn't happen. Sorry Gather but you failed miserably. You get an F- ...

j - frugal mom,

The tag search field is located in the left column of the homepage, if you scroll down a ways. It says "Try your own tag"

Thanks for all your hard work on creating a better gather. I love the idea of Spotlightss but if it is only limited to 500 I f I have just hosted a live chat with an author as I did recently my content is filled with my comments and now substantivee content to spotlight

I love the views

I also love finding my specific friends stuff ie my family settings/chat friends etc

I hate seeing all the pings/and seeing that mary sent joe a ping & joe reponded. how teeny booperish. I can not seem to filter this extraneous stuff out

I understand the complaints and confusion. I need a little more time practicing to tell you where I net out.

However, I think there is one misunderstanding if I understand the spotlighting feature correctly (and I give that a 50% probability).

You can only spotlight what is in your feeds. Eventually you will have 60 days and 500 articles worth of your stuff to spotlight.

We won't be able to spotlight earlier stuff. People would like to. I understand that, but before the change we couldn't spotlight anything. So using the half-a-loaf is better than no loaf at all theory of computer programming: we had no self-spotlighting capability before. Now we have a slice. In sixty days we'll have half a loaf.

Did I get that right? As I see it, while not perfect, it's better than what we had before re: this feature.

One negative that does stand out: Showing pings to me is, I feel, an invasion of my privacy. I plan to turn off the pinging capability as Beth said if there's no other solution.

Hi Frugal Mom,

The TAG tab on the top navigation has actually been gone for a while but you can still search by tag on the bottom left hand side of the homepage, that was never moved. As a helpful hint, if you have a certain tag in mind you can always put in into the Gather url. Example, to search for the tag "music" simply type the URL www.gather.com/music

Hope that helps!

Dawn V - We too miss the previews, but they should not be gone for long as it appears to be a glitch. As soon as we figure it out they'll be back.

the 500 is not just articles the 500 includes your comments, when you filter it down to just articles none show because the last 500 is taken up with 500 of the last things you did., and if it is in comments or inviting new friends or pinging you will never see the aticles or images, unless I am missing something drastic

I NEED the number of comments to show in the feed(s) or it is USELESS

if it is USELESS I dont care to bother with it and would like it to GO AWAY

What about not being able to sign in for your earnings?

I am not a fan of the ping sharing.

I have not yet figured out how to spotlight my stuff, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I had just gotten Gather down pat, so I'm back to square one. That being said, I'm willing to give it a try.

I have not seen an image today.

when I click on a friends page, I want to see their last few articles, their last few comments, and their last few images. I also liked seeing their last few friends that had signed on, as well, as it was a way of catching it if/when one of MY friends had just signed on.

why did Gather ask for info about how we navigate the site? seems like you've already forced us to change that. Totally.

K.S. -

"The best that you can do is to cater to the majority of the users .... the ADULTS on this site ..... why? .... because there are MANY sites for the teens and pre-teens ..... and very few for the ADULTS of this world."

It's interesting that you associate the new features with teens; they're really just tools to make it easier to see what your connections are posting. There's really nothing fundamentally childish about keeping in touch with family and friends. We're not trying to cater to a different or younger crowd, and I promise you that intellectual adults will continue to be the core audience we attract and retain.

If you don't like the social aspect of pings or friend connections, you can easily change your feed to reflect what you do want to see, like articles or images. Also, your experience is completely dependent on your connections, so you can make a friend set of the most mature, thoughtful people on Gather and only pay attention to that! We give you the tools, but it's up to you to mold your experience.

oh yeah...and as I have mentioned several times already - the Friend set page is FULL of script errors and does not work for me. Not the search. Not the list of friends - just click them to move to the right thing. Not the see more friends (which doesn't matter cuz even if/when I do click them over to the right to put them in the new friendset they disappear out of it again as soon as I save and leave the page)

It is all BROKEN

Dawn V - It appears I misspoke: The lack of article preview is not a glitch and has a quick fix. If you go into the Articles section (at the tab at the top of the page).

Once you're in the article section you'll find two icons to the right of the "date posted" pull down. Click the right button which will again enable the preview ability.

Sorry for the confusion.

I am soon going to be throwing a kicking and screaming tantrum every time I SEE one of you guys suggesting friendsets as the solution.

Did I mention it is BROKED for me?

"If you don't like the social aspect of pings or friend connections, you can easily change your feed to reflect what you do want to see,"

Why does everyone keep saying this? Everytime I go to my Gather page I have to pick articles pictures etc... I can not permanatly get rid of pings etc. Am I missing something? Is there a way to do this?

Hi Sheila and Dandy,
I have tried redeeming points and did not experience the same problem you have where you could not see the sign in box. I did however get an error on the screen, but the points were deducted from my account and the order went through.

Your experience has been escalated to our tech team. In the meantime, please try redeeming again, using IE as your browser and let me know if you see the sign in box this time. Thanks!

Mary Anne I have the same problem I can not redeem either.

constructive suggestions:
put it back the way it was so that us old or less computer savvy can still navigate and SEE (it's still super tiny on the feed, the only way i'm finding anything at all is thru the recent comments page that hasn't changed) the material. having to lean into my screen to read things is hurting my back and making me want to stop using gather all together. i'm sure my doctors would advise the same thing.

find a way to allow us to spotlight whatever we want, not just future stuff. i have some picture articles that took half a day to put together, i really don't have that time to spend re-doing it.

let us click and drag our friends into folders for friends sets if they can do it in windows, why not here? it would make that process so much easier and faster.

let us arrange our images into folders instead of tags, wouldn't a labeled folder work better? it's one of the few changes myspace did that was of value. this allowed me to hide certain images from the general public a lot easier than the way you are talking.

make the site about the CONTENT again, rather than just the comments and pings and who befriended who after all, it's the content that keeps most of us coming and posting here. and since the upgrade, i've had 6 comments. that's it. why? because no one can find my content.

i'm sure i will think of more later, but i hope you found these suggestions "constructive" and will actually take them into consideration.

I asked this on the other article with no response so I am going to post it again in hope that someone will answer it.

"Ok I guess I will be the one to ask. Is there any chance that it will be changed back to the way it was yesterday before the update or does the fact that the vast majority of people here do not like it really not matter? "

Adam -- the comment that you are responding to appeared on the prior thread it is as follows:

"The best thing you can do to help is to be as clear and constructive in your criticism as possible. Tell us what would be the perfect Gather!"

I really have nothing CONSTRUCTIVE to say about this new DOWNGRADE. The most constructive thing I can think of at this moment is:

Do NOT treat your members like children because the majority of us are NOT ... just because something seems to be a great idea on paper does not make it a great thing to implement ... I think that is being clear enough for just about anyone to understand ...

This downgrade has created a confusing and cluttered bunch of garbage on the computer screen .... and I do not feel like wasting my time trying to sort out the mess that you folks have made of it .....

I am generally a patient person ... but I DO have a life off of the computer .... as do most of us here ..... with family, work, friends, children and grandchildren .... so WHY would I want to sort out your mess just to talk to my online friends? .... Most of them, I have their home email addresses and they have mine ..... if your site is not user-friendly, then the users will leave ..... and that is MY opinion because that is the way that I feel about it .... I think that is clear, as well ......

As for there being a PERFECT Gather ..... you know very well that this is an impossibility and it is unfair of you to ask someone to tell you what would be PERFECT .... there is no such thing ... and I'm fairly sure that you know it ..... or you should .... the best that you can do is to cater to the majority of the users .... the ADULTS on this site ..... why? .... because there are MANY sites for the teens and pre-teens ..... and very few for the ADULTS of this world ...... however, it is my experience that it is the ADULTS who generally make the money and are in charge of spending it ...... it is the ADULTS who are influenced by the advertisers .... and HAVE THE ABILITY to pay for the items that the advertisers are advertising ........ I think that pretty much speaks for itself ....

-----

Having re-posted that so it is clear what I think and had to say was much more than the line that you responded to .... I would like to add this in response to YOUR response .....

the very first thing that glared out at me when I went to my Gather page this morning was: Mary pinged Joe ... and Janice sent a friend request to Gerry ..... followed by a whole page of such gibberish ...... if THAT is not catering to the teeny-boppers, I do not know what is .....

I neither want to know, nor do I care who is asking who to be friends .... who is pinging who .... or for other people to know if I am sending friend requests, or pinging, or responding to pings ............... that is extremely juvenile and I don't need it ..... nor do a lot of other people, as far as I can tell from all the comments ....... why bother to put something like that in? .... Is Mary going to be upset and all "high-schoolish" because Gerry didn't ping HER? .... is Gerry going to be upset because Mary decided to ask Joe to be her friend, but not HIM? ... WHO NEEDS ALL THIS SOAP OPERA BULL?

I want to read articles, give them comments and/or ratings if I feel so moved, and look at some of the pictures that other members have posted ...... and, if I feel so inclined, to write and publish my own articles for others to read .... NOT have to wade through a bunch of hogwash ........

Kay M. -

"You can see all your friends' most recent articles by clicking the drop-down menu that says "all activities" and change it to "articles". Yes "recent" is the key word here. I only see articles that have been published this morning when I click on the drop down menu. So if I want to see something they posted last evening then I will have to go to namespace. When I go to their namespace and click on the drop down menu it only shows the an article if posted after 10:00 last night."

True, you can't see many recent articles right now, but that's because the new feed system just started indexing them. In the next few days/weeks/months, you'll be able to see more and more content through the feeds.

No worries, nothing is lost, nothing is gone. Everything is still there, and in the very near future it'll be easier than ever to find new content.

MOGGY says "And Pam, you say its a "one time thing"...you're covering more than 2 years of publishing with a comment like that? Its as if Gather is tossing the baby out with the bath water, it just makes no sense at all and you guys are acting all nonchalant about it."

Moggy - I'm sorry you feel as though we are acting nonchalant about this upgrade. In fact, I am currently sitting in a room with six other members of Team Gather trying to answer everyones questions in a quick and honest manner. As to your question; ALL of your content can still be found under the MyArticles tab on your profile page. We're only suggesting you republish previous content if you want to spotlight it. The spotlight is a totally optional feature, you don't HAVE to republish or spotlight anything if you don't want to. Going forward, as you publish content, you'll be able to spotlight on the fly.

Are we we going to be able to see the amount of posts on an article again or do we always have to click on the article over and over to see if there are new posts?

I may take up drinking again.

Seriously, I consider myself to be tech savvy and all Web 2.0 but I am not liking this.

The changes that I was looking forward to don't function properly. Today is my Gatherversary and I was looking forward to Spotlighting my best content form the past year. It doesn't work. I can only choose from my last two articles for the Spotlight. I'm going to delete them and see if I then get two more choices.

I feel like a Peeping Tom seeing every friend or ping that is made. I know I can change that in the drop-down but it doesn't stay that way; I have to change it every time I visit the page. And I cannot make multiple choices like show me articles and images but not the rest. I'd have to do each one separately.

I have more feedback and questions but I'm going to go drink another pot of coffee and take a bottle of aspirin for the pounding headache I've developed.

MaryAnne, I checked the ability to redeem points as well and do not get the sign in box. I am using IE. I'll keep an eye on it as time allows and see if it works.

"make the site about the CONTENT again, rather than just the comments and pings and who befriended who..."

It's more than obvious that this upgrade has been geared to making the site less about content than ever.

I'm still waiting for a response to this:

Previous upgrades, I didn't mind so much, but the images on the friend feed the thumbnails are so small I don't know if I really want to see the picture before clicking on it, and I dont really want to view it if it isn't worth viewing. Also with comments - if a person comments on an image, I'd like to see a preview of the image with the comment. I'm not going to go to a picture just because someone says it is cute or whatever. Previews are prime. Speaking of images, I'm beginning to wonder whether Gather help really exists. I've sent various emails regarding my image problem but no response. Back when all Gather had that image problem, when they had to reset their servers, my Gather experience only half worked. It's still the same from one computer, only when logged into my computer as me. As local admin everything works great. I dunno the problem and neither does our system admin. Gather doesn't answer ANY of my emails. I'm using the same Windows XP, same IE7 browser, just when I am logged in as me images vanish when I hover over them to click on them everywhere but in the individuals namespace.

LYNN A says "I just saw where now we have to do friend sets. Why didn't you just leave it alone. Do you think we don't spend enough time on here as it is. What was the point of this? You are making it far too complicated. Friend sets. Why create extra steps when they were not necessary. This is STUPID."

Lynn - you don't need to do friend sets... it remains a totally optional feature. If you don't create friend sets, all of your friends activities will show up in your friend feed. If you want to have fewer friends in your feed... you can create a set of Gather friends whose work you admire most. Again, it's totally up to you.

I graduated from Computer Programmer Analyst - and teach computers, Andrea.... and I am still dazed and confused.

Gayle,

We did in fact do a lot of research and took all feedback into consideration. We found an overwhelming amount of members that were upset that they had to sift through so much stuff to get to the content they want. Some people did not like all the serious content while others hated seeing all the games. With this release you can see what is most important to you. I'm sure that once we've all had a chance to get to know he new features we will all realize the benefits.

I tried and I still do not get the sign in box. I am using IE.

which is a good thing Pam ...since there are technical errors in the friend set page that mean that I CAN'T PUT MY FRIENDS IN THEM easily

Adam- "We give you the tools, but it's up to you to mold your experience."

That's the point Adam, most don't like your tools!!!! My experience here is disappointing. The more I use this, the less I like it. It's far easier to just blow off the My Gather page and use the article/images tabs and wade through them; at least that didn't change. The only real advantage here is for those that like to have "special friends sets" or chat, and extremely good eyesight to boot. In the over two years I've been here, this is the worse thing I've seen happen for my usage.
Ahhh, never mind, I'm done for the day.

As for "Friend Sets" ..... WHY do I NEED them? .... I know who my friends are .... they know who I am .... it worked ...... no problems

Now you guys tell us .... if you don't like it, you have to do steps X, Y, and Z to change it .... it didn't NEED changed before YOU GUYS changed it ......

I have to agree with the majority here ......... change it back the way it was .... or, as Cris asks, above ....... MANY TIMES over the past few threads .... with no answer ....

"Is there any chance that it will be changed back to the way it was yesterday before the update or does the fact that the vast majority of people here do not like it really not matter? "

IS THIS REALLY THE CASE? .... The majority does not like it .... but keep brushing them aside and either not answering them ..... or insisting that they just shut up and "take" it because that is what you are giving them ...... whether they like it or not ....

I, for one, will not be putting on a "Happy Face" and saying that this is a good thing .... when it is NOT ...... If this site really IS about the members ..... then you people have SCREWED UP ROYALLY and need to take a step back and figure out how to fix things .... and NOT another DOWNGRADE like this one .....

Honey - I was using computers when they were in a separate building.

I taught myself to use over 20 different new and improved computer systems.

This is a bad, bad process done in an extrememly inefficient manner.

You screwed up.

Jason, I like to be able to see if new comments have been added to an article I've commented on. Is there any way to do this now?

John Phillip - Thanks for your words of wisdom concerning today's upgrade. We appreciate your approach! Just wanted to give you a shout out!

Jason ...I received a request to do a survey re: how I navigate Gather just in the last week or so ....

asking AFTER it's all been redesigned doesn't count

oh well...why am I even bothering.... I feel like I'm invisible today.

Still no sign in box on the earnings page for me either.

Well, this is the best example that I've seen yet of how just any change at all can be a bad thing. Watch out Obama fans!

Why is it that although all these changes and new MySpace/Facebook look are so great and exciting for the Gather staff, the ONLY page that doesn't have any changes is the Gather Homepage?

It's disheartening that you'd keep that page simple and worthwhile while clusterf-ing the rest of the pages. Coincidentally, that's probably the least viewed page by members and most viewed by potential members.... I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Judi J -

Sorry you're having trouble. Pings are meant for the world to see though.

If you'd like to send someone a message so that only they can see you should click the orange icon entitled "send mail".

I don't know why you can't see articles and will be looking into that one.

Matthew: The fix you suggested works if I'm looking at all of the articles on the site, but there doesn't seem to be a way to fix this on my friends feed for articles.

Chris,

No you can not have it set to one content type but it is just a click to see what you want when you sign on without having to leave the page or even refreshing! This is an improvement to what we had before where your My Gather page showed just a few articles, images, videos and comments from just a few of you friends. You can now set up which people you want to be informed about and on exactly which content you care about. It simply shows you everything you had before in a more simple and customizable way.

I'm adding my voice to those asking for the ability to spotlight ANY of our past articles or photos. Often, the comments themselves were as vital a part of the article as the article itself, and I don't want to lose those republishing it, I just want to be able to spotlight it. I'd like the existing conversation to be added to, not replaced.

I also don't want to be subjected to all or nothing on the activities in the friends feed. Yes, I see we can choose which friends we keep up with if we set up the friendsets, but I still don't want to see their pings, for instance. So, ideally I'd like to be able to choose the activities that appear there. I'd also like control over what activities of mine are broadcast publicly.

I have to agree with those comparing this to a feature we HATE on facebook and myspace. So far, I'm not liking it - and I'm not buying Jason's optimistic comment it will grow on us. There's a reason I'm not using myspace and facebook.

Well since my comment on the first article was totally ignored , I want to just repeat myself, I have that privilege, this whole up grade if you want to call it that, is terrible, It has changed so much and people can't find articles, took me an hour last night to be able to see mine, and I have to tell you, you are going to lose the best of your people here , so many have emailed me, they are not going to use Gather this way. I think you should re think the home page thing it is aboslutely rediculous, there is no way this is an improvement, maybe you can make all this unnecessary information a place you could click to and read it you want to, but this way a lot of confusion, rethink this upgrade please, for the sake of Gather, you don't need a person like me to tell you this, you can spin it all you want, you have just messed up a great site.

Hi Flit. I'd like to help you. Thanks for your patience!

Jason - just a click to show USELESS INFORMATION that does not include the # of comments so who knows if there is anything new there without going to each and every one.

Every single one of the feeds is USELESS at this point - sorry.

There were two posts I made on the previoius article that I didn't see addressed.

1) Do you have anyone on staff that majored in Human Factors?

2) Do you ever use beta testers before dumping something like this on the entire site? If so, are your beta testers all under age 25?

Maybe we should have a choice. Do you want the professional image that once was Gather? Or do you want the teeny-bopper image like facepage and myspace?

Someone took offense at the "teeny-bopper" useage by someone else. That's exactly what comes to mind when someone thinks we want to see pings or friend requests of our friends.

Judi J - If you'd like to find the articles by your friends:

If you look in the center of the page under the orange box entitled "Friend Feed" you'll see two drop down menus. The one of the left initially reads "All friends" and the one to the right: "All activities".

If you click on the right box you can select "articles" (it's the second option). That will show you ONLY articles by your friends.

As time goes on you can play with this more and filter it by photos or videos, or just leave it on the default of "all activities".

Chris,

When browsing the site at large nothing has changed in terms of seeing comments before going into the article. just as before, you will have to find the article in order to see the comments. Your feed that shows you who has published/commented is just to inform you. If you would like to follow the amount of comments without clicking on the article you will have to find like you would have yesterday, in a group or in someone's profile.

Flit
It sounds like you and I should discuss what you are experiencing in Private Messaging so I can get all the details. I'm sending you a message now.

K.S. -

"The very first thing that glared out at me when I went to my Gather page this morning was: Mary pinged Joe ... and Janice sent a friend request to Gerry ..... followed by a whole page of such gibberish ...... if THAT is not catering to the teeny-boppers, I do not know what is .....

I neither want to know, nor do I care who is asking who to be friends .... who is pinging who .... or for other people to know if I am sending friend requests, or pinging, or responding to pings ............... that is extremely juvenile and I don't need it ..... nor do a lot of other people, as far as I can tell from all the comments ....... why bother to put something like that in? .... Is Mary going to be upset and all "high-schoolish" because Gerry didn't ping HER? .... is Gerry going to be upset because Mary decided to ask Joe to be her friend, but not HIM? ... WHO NEEDS ALL THIS SOAP OPERA BULL?

I want to read articles, give them comments and/or ratings if I feel so moved, and look at some of the pictures that other members have posted ...... and, if I feel so inclined, to write and publish my own articles for others to read .... NOT have to wade through a bunch of hogwash ........ "

Wow, you really don't like pings! You should definitely adjust your feed to reflect what you do want to see. Or just don't look at your "My Gather".

There's really nothing "soap opera" or "juvenile" about it, though. The point of the feed is provide a one-stop page to tell you what all your friends are posting, so you don't have to go to each of their pages individually, which can be a waste of time. The feed isn't telling you anything new - all of the same information was accessible before.

You can still read articles, give them comments and/or ratings, look at some of the pictures that other members have posted, and write and publish your own articles for others to read. We haven't taken away any of that. You can and should use the site exactly as you want to.

Flit,

I'm sorry you feel that you are being ignored but I'm not sure what you are asking?

Also, your experience is completely dependent on your connections, so you can make a friend set of the most mature, thoughtful people on Gather and only pay attention to that!

This is wise advice and makes sense from a business standpoint if Gather's goal is to attract and please everyone, for every purpose. It is unfortunate that each improvement appears to say that those who do care about quality content need to sink father into a corner where they will never be found or find people with like interests.

When I put stuff in the spot light I can now only have 4 articles there. When I search for my friends articles, I can't find any articles for some friends. They have to go back and publish the articles is they are more than so many days old. I hate it. Did I mention I hate it?
I am usually one to figure out how to do new stuff really quickly. I sent you guys an email this morning about 5 am. You didn't respond back. My photos sit in processing forever. Some people keep deleting them and re adding them thinking that that will work.
Its to hard to go though the pages. It slows me way down. I am very unhappy right now. Maybe I will figure out this darn thing or not. And if its not and I decide that it slows me down way to much then I will have to find myself another web site.
I can't find my friends stuff and I don't like it at all.
Did I mention I hate it?

i've been trying to change my ping settings for a half an hour now. it just keeps sitting on the view profile page going no where.

this is faster how?

Hi Everyone - I want to address those folks asking Gather to return the MyGather and Profile pages to their previous look and feel (the way those pages appeared prior to today). I just want to be clear and set realistic expectations... Gather will not be returning to its previous display - but we do appreciate your feedback about what's working and not working for you. Once you've had a couple of days to really use the new features Tom will be conducting a post-release live chat to collect more feedback and information. That chat will happen in a week or so. We are listening... but we will not be making any immediate changes. Thanks.

We found an overwhelming amount of members that were upset that they had to sift through so much stuff to get to the content they want. Some people did not like all the serious content while others hated seeing all the games. With this release you can see what is most important to you. I'm sure that once we've all had a chance to get to know he new features we will all realize the benefits.
Jason Keaveny, Apr 11, 2008, 12:49pm EDT

May I call B.S. on that (in the most respectful way possible, of course)?

Since others had mentioned they were having trouble with cashing out I went there to do that and I am experiencing what others say. I can not get further than this page
http://www.gather.com/login.jsp?beamBack=https://earnings.gather.com/

is everyone ignoring me?

I see that I can track my comments on articles to which I've posted as always. That's the only good thing I can note, but that wasn't changed. You aren't planning on changing that too, I hope.

I agree change it back. You should have changed on thing at a time at least. You don't change your whole house over night. And you guys just changed our hole house around overnight. You do it in tiny steps not in leaps and bounds.
Change can be a good thing if done in the right way! But I think you guys went overboard.
Can we at least have baby steps?
Did I mention I don't like it?

unless & until I can make friendsets (without the necessity of three page loads for each friend I want to add) I want people to STOP suggesting that friendsets are the answer to everything.

Jason said, "With this release you can see what is most important to you. I'm sure that once we've all had a chance to get to know he new features we will all realize the benefits. "

And once I stopped laughing...........

I realized that pretty much answers the "will you consider changing it back" type questions.

The answer was a resounding NO.

I don't care who's pinging...I don't care who's adding friends...and now that I've figured out spotlighting, I don't care about it either.

Congratulations, Team Gather, mission accomplished.

Your site is now FUBAR'd, and if you don't know what that means go ask a military man or woman.

Hi Sue,

There is no new notifications that tell you when someone has commented on something that you commented on, nor was there any before. The only way to keep track of comments on content you commented on is however you chose to do it before.

Pam, for me, it has a lot to do with the look of my homepage. It's like going home to find that someone has remodeled my bedroom with their taste. It's not comfortable or inviting to me anymore. I want my old bedroom back. whaaaaaaaaa

Marilyn M. -

1) Do you have anyone on staff that majored in Human Factors?
2) Do you ever use beta testers before dumping something like this on the entire site? If so, are your beta testers all under age 25?

We have conducted a series of focus groups, surveys, and research on human factors. And none of those involved were under 25.

Oh, and Lainie got to it before me, but I'll second her respectful B.S. application.

Simply Ashley - I'm beginning to wonder whether Gather help really exists... Gather doesn't answer ANY of my emails.

I've just searched the previous two months of email communications for support@gather.com... you've written in four times, and we've responded each time.

Adam says, "We have conducted a series of focus groups, surveys, and research on human factors. And none of those involved were under 25. "

All due respect, but you've got to be kidding.

Pam Johnston said in the previous feed: " Bill's Spirit - We understand your frustration about having to republish content in order to "spotlight" it. But please understand, this is really a one time thing. Once you begin sharing new content on the site you'll be able to spotlight it on the fly."


Thanks for the attention, Pam.

But what I WANT to do is to be able to spotlight anything I've published, without reposting it, so that the original comment thread can be seen.

BTW - I think I get the new upgrade...

I get that Gather wants to be about active timely and topical conversation; and the new layout caters right to that concept. It places the "namespace" focus more on the person, their connections, their interests and their most recent activity: all the information needed for active social networking.

This, sadly, acerbates all the problems, pitfalls, dangers and annoyances of near-time, extremely active and broadly expansive public discourse; like stalking, excessive pinging, drive-by ratings and spamming.

My biggest problem with this change (which I hear others echoing), swing around the reasons I originally came to, and stayed at, Gather; because it was billed as a web site for serious wanna be writers, industry writers and accomplished artists to share their stuff, learn how to better their craft, promote themselves and start making (or expand) a name for themselves.

The site used to be arranged around showcasing member's content, then it made a change to showcase more about the individual, and now this new layout focuses even more on the person and their minute by minute activities.

I have to do some re-thinking about how I can best use this site for what I want to achieve. I did not come here, nor do I stay here because I like to be chatty.

Regardless of all that, please know that I appreciate all your efforts at making Gather a better place. I know that you all work hard, and I have loved this place for more than two years.

Best of Luck

Hi C.A.!

If you don't want to see who's pinging you don't have to. Isn't that great!

And to be clear about seeing what is most important to you, you can go to the "feed me" tab to the right and put in your favorite topics. Over time that will populate with content based on what you like instead of having to search around for it! Give it a try!

Sandy Knauer -

It is unfortunate that each improvement appears to say that those who do care about quality content need to sink father into a corner where they will never be found or find people with like interests.

Quite the opposite! Have you checked out the "Feed Me" feature? It allows you to enter any words to want, and receive a feed of the most recent content about those topics. This is one of the ways we're giving members the tools to explore and connect with new people.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'm with Elsie. I'll be emailing my connections today for a weekend boycott of gather. This is absolutely TERRIBE!

I didn't want to say anything publicly, but a week or so ago I was asked to take part in a gather "survey" regarding how things could be organized. The "survey" was so idiotic that I tried 3 times and couldn't for the life of me figure out what the heck they were asking me to do.

I've got a 136 IQ and have used computers and designed websites. This new set up is NOT WHAT WE WANT. Do I need to come up with a computer simulation of that, Gather or are you LISTENING???????????

Bobbie K. Please consider taking a poll on your front page daily survey asking if Gather members like the old or new version better.

You could also do another with options listed that we like or dislike.

Compile the results and THEN please consider changing some things back if that is what the majority of the community would like.

Bobbie K. thanks for your suggestion on the Gather Upgrade poll - I'll share that with our editorial team.

ATTENTION GATHER TEAM -

Why are you screwing with all this cosmetic stuff on Gather do you get your jollies confusing old ladies? There are REAL organizational issues that need to be addressed here?

Where is the organization in our GROUPS Why don't you give us some folders to organize articles so they don't get lost or appear out of context?

Why don't you give us a RESOURCES AREA in our Groups, and what about a decent CHAT area so we don't have to fill up these ridiculous comments areas with irrelevant crap...

I get the changes and they are acceptable, nothing to complex or overtly idiotic but what benefit is there in changing what people are already happy with and KNOW how to use ... ???? *Shakes Head*

Your priorities suck Gather Team, get with the program; BTW, THE PROGRAM is what we want NOT what you think we want...

Adam .... are you being deliberately obtuse or is it possible that you REALLY don't understand? .......... First of all, NO ... I do not care for pings .... HOWEVER, when you folks first put this feature on Gather ... I did not have to deal with pings unless I WANTED TO .... and I did that by going to the separate area where they were stored ..... this worked FINE ..... I did not have to do anything special or extra to avoid seeing the blasted things and could ignore them if I chose to do so ....... BUT, this is not the entire point .....

In my opinion, what you folks have done to Gather IS creating a "soap opera" effect and it IS "juvenile" ............ I do not need an overload of information to be presented to me on my "one-stop" page ....... if I want this information, I am a capable ADULT who can ferret it out at my own convenience ........ I do not need this glop spoon-fed to me in an amazingly cluttered, unorganized-looking, unprofessional manner .....

What it appears you have done .... is make everything so VISIBLE that I can see the PANTY LINES of the virtual person next to me ......... and I REALLY DON'T NEED that much visibility, if you catch my drift .......... or, maybe you don't .....

I don't care if you have given me the tools to make my EXPERIENCE what I want it to be ...... it ALREADY WAS what I wanted it to be ....... I DO NOT want to learn NEW TOOLS and NEW WAYS to use these tools .... when these tools were NOT NECESSARY before you made a shambles of the site ......

I am posting my displeasure often and staying online ...... on YOUR site ... because this site is certainly NOT MINE any more ....... when I should be working and earning a living ...... WHY? .... because there is the off-chance that you people MIGHT actually take steps to rectify this horror you have foisted off on us ........ because there is a CHANCE that SOMEONE might actually give a damn about what the majority of us have to SAY and take some action ......... DO SOMETHING to FIX IT ..... if they REALIZE that we are complaining ...... not JUST to complain .... but because we FEEL WRONGED by your GRAND DISASTER .......

The simple truth of the matter is this ..... if the site is not easy for me to use and navigate ...... WITHOUT me having to constantly changes things for a TEMPORARY fix .... to suit my tastes and needs ......... then I will no longer stay on the site and I will let my friends and family members know WHY I am leaving ......

If enough people leave this site, they take their advertising dollars with them ..... that is a simple fact ...... then revenues go down .... content changes ..... the site might continue, but DEFINITELY NOT as what it ONCE WAS .... and that is the real pity of all of this .......

As for your HELP ...... it is NO HELP at all ....... suggesting that I not look at "MY Gather" page is not being helpful ........ and I feel that you really do not have a grasp of what I and others have been talking about all morning ....... The upgrade is NOT an upgrade ... it is a DOWNGRADE .... and this comment does not have to do with not liking pings ........ I'm heading over to BoomerTowne and ArtBistro ..... they may not be what Gather WAS ....... but, then again ..... neither is Gather NOW ....

I have a glitch in cashing out

Jason I do see you are trying to help and I understand that you guys are having tons of questions thrown at you at once I also understand that you guys hav been working on this behind the scene and are excited about it but I don't think you see it from the standpoint of the people who are on the site everyday. I don't see it as an improvmentwhen I have to click on the article, picture whatever everytime i go back to the feed page. Yesterday I could go to my gather page and everythin was there all i had to do was click on the see all button. I can't do that anymore. This is not an improvment to me.

Also I could see how many posts were on an article from my gather page before. I did not have to click on the article or go to someones page to do that like i do now.

Chuck, I've never seen a one of them except the last one sent to me regarding my flagged article from Carolyn Richards I believe. I just read that one after my comment posted. I am going to try to send an email again with my current image problem if that's alright.

i got a survey, it didn't ask me if i wanted this feed thing or about any of the changes that were implimented.

nor did it ask me if i was a computer programmer or a person with rudimentary computer knowledge.

nor did it ask how my eyesite was (still can't read what the feed says or images on it look like no matter how much refreshing i do, so please don't suggest that again)

i understand that you won't go back to the way things were, but can you atleast make it so it's legible? and i too use the classic view of the myspace (for which i was grateful to have that option) as their upgrades looked like this and i had the same problem there where the severely nearsighted can't see!

No, Jason, it's not great that I now have to drop down to see articles only, then change the drop down to see photos, then change the drop down again... just to see the types of content I'm interested in, and not pings and who-connected-to-who cluttering up the joint.

Thanks for the feedback Robin! Sorry that you have such a dismal view of us but we are constantly trying to build the best Gather possible. So I do not shake my head at you or enjoy confusing anybody but rather thank you for your valuable feedback!

I'm reserving judgment on the changes but I do know that the Gather UI was easy to operate and was close enough to being intuitive that I was able to use it effectively within 5 minutes of signing up. From my second day on the site I had control over what I saw. There were flaws, e.g. content indexing and search capability was primitive.

I'm hoping to find that what I see as change for the sake of change will allow me to operate as efficiently as I did before the new software was installed.

BTW, I do programming for a living. I've been designing interactive software since the 80s. I work directly with end users and have a quite a bit of experience in rolling out new systems and making substantial changes to older ones. One thing I've found disturbing in this discussion is that there doesn't seem to be an effort to make users feel like they're in partnership with the developers. Unless you can do that, you'll never get people to look at change with an open mind.

Of course, Ashley. You know you can also send me a private message, if you think your emails haven't gotten through. The emails we've sent you are dated 2/28, 3/12, 3/13, and 4/9.

If you don't want to see who's pinging you don't have to. Isn't that great!
Jason Keaveny, Apr 11, 2008, 1:19pm EDT

Oooh! Tell me how! The only way I could get rid of all the ping notices was to delete the person doing the pinging.

Let me guess:

Organize people into 'friend sets' so that you can find the content that you want to find?