Voice Your Feedback on Gather's Upgrade

Hi folks!  I'm just getting the posts ready for the release tonight.  We'd love to hear your feedback tomorrow.

Ok. Hope the update goes off without the dreaded ~glitches~   :)

How are we doing so far, Penni?

I haven't found any "dreaded's" yet, Tom, ha ha. The comment section has improved a Lot. thanks! I don't see much need for the point earnings e-mail, but am sure some will like it. The feeds are quite full of AP news rather than my connection's posts, but am sure we can get past that sooner or later. Now, if I could just get motivated to write about something we found off AP, lol, I could start getting the points again,lol. So far, overall, not bad, yay!

This sounds exciting!

 

I like the email notifications

I don't know what 'post by tag' modules for groups are.  I also don't know if I would want to know.

I like the AP news idea.

I also like that comments can be posted to comments

I don't think I use 'bookmarks' but I do copy them a lot for others to view articles I post.

 

All in all I'm quite pleased with the path that Gather is taking.

And I also thank you all for your effort that I see.

Ok, I looked at the overview and have to say ....  YIPEEE, something for the computer challenged!!!! (um, that's me).    I love the idea of being able to click a button and use bold or italics.  I'm just too computer challenged to remember the <whatever>.?/.  Haha.  Now I can do it too!!

I do love the fact that we will be able to easily share with Facebook and Twitter, and I know I will like the email notifications. These changes sound good.

I don't really think I'm going pay attention to the points email.  I mean there are those of us who really like to comment and participate in conversations, but not post a lot, so we get no points.  We really aren't valued memebers of gather I suppose.  Hope this upgrade, and I use that term lightly, is better than the last one.

Honest, I just wish the glitches that are already going on by some member, myself one, would get fixed before anything else is added.  Either that or I hope this fixes those problems. 

Renee,
We have focused on fixing some of the glitches. Please let me know how things are going for you today. I know you've been dealing with challenges sharing and commenting on Gather.

I tried to post when I got on nothing. So I am trying a little experiement here. I use Sprint Wireless and upgraded it as well. So I did a restore like I did before, deleted sprint and reinstalled it. Worked last time till I updated either it or windows. So I am going to try not to update my sprint and see what happens. Will let you know within a few days what happens.

it sounds like the upgrades are geared toward posters.  viewing, commenting, getting into discussions is no longer a priority.  so why view?  why write an exceptional article if no one from gather will view or comment.  just keep going to other sites to acquire viewers.  sounds like gather is trying to get back to being a readers site, not a social network.

so should those of us who view more than post leave now, or should we wait until gather officially kicks us out?

just wondering.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ncrochet/social_networking_sites.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ncrochet/&usg=__Z2fbTfpBTrB2Mn1leto2oNAZ7qQ=&h=300&w=400&sz=124&hl=en&start=1&sig2=nyms_0zgnASWhIVyyZ3mVQ&um=1&tbnid=A-3-5SeV3I8HEM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDg

Great point, Michelle!

Personally, writers need readers. Sometimes, I read more, but still others, I post more. I think both are needed.

Thanks! What changed about the comment boxes? I didn't notice. I am interested in hearing more about these Gather points statements!!

The news is a decent idea, but the execution is poor. If there were a homepage on the site, it would have worked a lot better. As it is, there is no central spot on Gather.

I'm glad to see the change to the comment boxes.

What I could just about do a dance of joy about, though, is that my browser's spell check is once again working.

I'm also glad that the bookmarking has been moved so that I no longer have to do battle with it in order to rate an article. This is a great improvement.

My wish is that there is more complete info, larger portions of a comment sent to email. For those of us who like to follow comments without being continually on Gather, it would help to have more than a single sentence.

Also, on long posts, the bookmarks will help if they go directly to the comment that is replied to. That may be too technical, but it would save a lot of time searching.

Thanks, I think.

My initial feedback:

• I'm glad that the former commenting feature was short-lived, and that Gather has now returned to a text entry editor for comments. The new text formatting buttons are also a great improvement for many members.
  
• The posts by tag module is useful in limited applications. However, having the ability to add more than one of these modules would significantly increase the benefit to group owners. The same applies to several of the available group modules (Inbound RSS, Custom HTML, etc.). Also, it would appear that Gather is increasing the focus of group tools towards written work, away from photos and videos. This minimizes the usefulness of groups for some members and applications.
  
• Information should be provided in the News Essential that identifies what tags are required for sharing (post?) content within the group. The "news categories" currently displayed do not match the tags required. Perhaps this information is available, but a cursory review of the group could not locate it.
  
• The addition of AP content to the News Essential group is competing with member content in other areas of the site (recent content listings, search results, etc.). This creates difficulties as many of these listings are limited to 500 items, forcing a significant amount of member content out of view even faster than it was previously.

 

I'm excited about the first, too. I know, I know, it sounds insanely silly, but being able to tab to the Submit button again makes my world so much quicker again. Love it!

I'm not seeing a problem with anything, in spite of the other negative help articles not written by gather staff. In fact, I didn't know where to look for the news feed, until I went to explore recent articles. They're not taking over most popular articles, so I don't see a problem there.

Heather, What I could just about do a dance of joy about, though, is that my browser's spell check is once again working.

Oh I do hope mine is working again also! I haven't noticed yet.

I like the new comment features... (and the fact that I can write html if I want to without the editor) NICE!

Oh mine is working too! The spell checker I had for IE still worked, but I don't use IE anymore for Gather, I use Firefox and my Firefox wasn't working.

I love, love, love that we no longer have to deal with an html box. Perfect!

I also am very pleased to see that the bookmarking features are no longer getting in the way! Thank you!

There is still one very simple improvement that still baffles me why Gather hasn't changed it. Page selection! Or at least a "last" button.

Say someone has 120 pages of posts. Why can't we have a little box where we can type "83" and go view what's on page 83?

It's so frustrating to look for an older post, or photo, or video, and have to click "next" 83 times.

I would love a select page button. Or a last button. That would be great.

Page selection! Or at least a "last" button.


That is a simple improvement. I hope the techies will include that suggestion in the next upgrade!

I am using Firefox... and lost most of my spell check ability. It would catch a word or two, but not all of the time.

People have been suggesting stuff like this since i joined last year.. Gather hasnt listened yet sadly

Bryan- Yeah, I've been begging for this on and off for years now also. I keep hoping that someday Gather will hear us.

We need to address pagination across the full site. It's a project that IS on the list of things to do. I'll reinforce the need for it with the Product Planning team.

Glad to see it hasn't been completely forgotten. As the site continues to grow even more, it really is something that should be dealt with to make things easier to navigate.

Pagination would be great - it takes forever to locate something.

My opinions (whatever they may be worth) are as follows: I really do like the comment box redo and being able to put html right in the box again (makes sharing a link that much easier.) I like the bookmarks/share links being moved away from the rate link (although I rarely rate anymore and don't really even see the need all that much for it.) I dislike the look and location of the bookmarks, they look off kilter and they just don't look like they should be there..... Especially since the little bar with the other links is just above it with it looking like its missing half its links.

As always - my opinion.

I like the upgrades. so far and this prompted me to join the Gather News Essentials Group, in that it'll be easier for me to find that way. The AP is a good choice, in my opinion, and once I saw the post where you did explain how to use this html, I get it now (didn't before, but am also used to writing my own).
So far? Nice job!

Marilyn

Thank you for adding spellcheck to comments and emails!

o Gather Points statement email notifications
Eh, I could care less. But the people who watch their points like they'll run away if left unattended every minute of the day will love this.

o Post by Tag module available for groups
I won't use this. People, for the most part, do not tag what they should anyway (like groups that require a tag. .. good luck with that, I tried it and only about 20% of submissions actually followed the rule).

o Associated Press stories in Gather News Essential
Not interested in the slightest. I though this site was for member created content?

o Changes to comment boxes
Thank you. I enjoy having my spell check back and being able to tab over to submit.

o Improvements to bookmarking functionality
I don't do this, so again don't care in the slightest :)

Oh. And I still have phantom content in my groups. Not too pleased with that.
Moog also sounds like a lesser Gaelic pre-Christian Diety. . or an unpleasant sound effect heh

I HAVE THE PHANTOM CONTENT ALSO~

Ditto... phantom content in my group, too!

I'm fine with the changes except for one thing... "recent photos" is now full of AP photographs crowding out member photos!
I think that is ridiculous, and so may are duplicates at that.... Is there any way to stop that? We only have 25 pages and who wants to look at the same news photos over and over anyway... not cool.

This sounds like a problem. I'll have this looked at. Thanks John.

Thanks MaryAnne, I appreciate it.

Thanks for your feedback everyone! It's greatly appreciated.

If Gather does not eliminate the flooding of Associated Press stuff, I'm otta' here!!!!!!

I thought this site was for members to share their work. Seems members sre slowly being edged out.

Exactly, Bryan!

It is ridiculous! There are about 4 posts submitted by AP for every article submitted by a gather member. It will be impossible to get the content we want.

GOOD BY GATHER, it was nice while it lasted.

This is NOT an upgrade. This is a takeover of Gather by Associated Press. I posted an article that appeared on my "interest" which is politics. It was up for one minute before being bumped by nine articles/photos by Associated Press. They have no interest in discussion and conversation which is what we're about on Gather. They are a machine or factory of news output. Get rid of it or lose members.

Just set your thing to friend's content and you'll see me there like I'm seeing you !!!

Peter, I shouldn't have to change my interest to avoid seeing AP feeds. They have taken over the politics interest feed and that shouldn't be allowed. I subscribe to that feed to be able to discuss topics with Gather members but it is nearly impossible to even catch articles by Gather members on politics the way it is now.

true -

Agreed, takeover by Associated Press.. It seems Gather wants to make it much more difficult to find member content.

And what's the point of having a Point Statement when Gather is in the process of weeding out its member content?

"Get rid of it or lose members."

That's exactly what will happen!

Anybody know any good networking sites we can move to, to get away from the Associated Press?

Also, I tried to add a link in a comment today and was unable to for some reason.

Hi Carla,

The comment box was changed. There were too many problems with the previous one. You can still add a link, but it's a bit different. When you comment you should be able to see 4 links in the bottom right corner of the comment box. Click on the "chain" to add a link. Give it a try and let me know if you're not able to add a link.

MaryAnne, I'm less concerned with this, but did try it again and it didn't work.

Please address the other concern about AP feeds.

I'm gone!

Don't go yet, Jerry. Be patient and give them a chance to respond and fix the problem. If they don't, then leave.

MaryAnne, as I told Kevin, Gather is a social networking site where members have discussions and conversations on topics and articles they have published. When you put a professional news service online and let it go hog wild with its publishing, then the little guys like us get drowned out and the site loses its apeal. I shouldn't have to change my choice from interest to friends or groups to get away from this problem.

Thanks for your feedback, Carla. The AP content is a trial for us. We'll see how things go.

I know you don't think you should have to adjust your viewing options, but that would do the trick for you. I purposely don't but news in my feeds so I see everything else that's going on. I visit the News Essential to see the news.

Going to News Essential--a group is different than having it all on my Interest page. But as someone else said, I came to Gather not to get the news from AP, but to have conversations and hear opinions by other Gather members. This is a social networking site and fosters friendships online and conversation. Soon it seems we will be seeing all the other news organizations feeding a constant stream of news in and flooding Gather. The Gather member who spends a half hour working on an article only to see it disappear off the interest page in one minute is losing out--in my opinion. If I wanted the news off wire services I would look there or on yahoo.

I agree Carla, I think I will stop sending submitted articles to News Essential since I can never compete over an AP news feed.

I write a few articles each day but, in no way can I compete with a professional organization like the AP News Wire.

Not possible to filter AP news content from the EXPLORE Gather pages, is it?

so far I like this up grade very much thanks you

RE: "Changes to comment boxes"

I am disappointed that the HTML function has been removed and the LINK function does not work.
Now I can not provide neither links to sources of info or photo evidence of my rebuttals.

Yes, Richard, I experienced this as well.

Another thing, if I input an AP photo within my article will AP now have more say so on how I use these photo's?
Here on Gather, will I be forced to NOT using any AP photo or news articles because they now have a monopoly here on Gather ?

Richard asked: "Another thing, if I input an AP photo within my article will AP now have more say so on how I use these photo's? Here on Gather, will I be forced to NOT using any AP photo or news articles..."

Aren't you supposed to stay without the bounds of copyright and fair use for your posts anyway?

Janna, are you suggesting that copyright law doesn't apply to Gather members? Oh, it doesn't, does it. Silly me. :)

Oops! My comment should have said:

Aren't you supposed to stay within the bounds of copyright and fair use for your posts anyway?

Nice catch, Katz.

Hmm...I didn't notice the within/without problem at all. I've just had a lot of discussions with members who don't believe copyright laws apply to their gather posts.

Definitely blind luck on my part.

no linking problem but i to feel members are being screwed by allowing corporate media into what was once our Gather

The Rise (and Fall) of Friendster

Friendster launched in 2002 as a social complement to Ryze. It was designed to compete with Match.com, a profitable online dating site (Cohen, 2003). While most dating sites focused on introducing people to strangers with similar interests, Friendster was designed to help friends-of-friends meet, based on the assumption that friends-of-friends would make better romantic partners than would strangers (J. Abrams, personal communication, March 27, 2003). Friendster gained traction among three groups of early adopters who shaped the site—bloggers, attendees of the Burning Man arts festival, and gay men (boyd, 2004)—and grew to 300,000 users through word of mouth before traditional press coverage began in May 2003 (O'Shea, 2003).

As Friendster's popularity surged, the site encountered technical and social difficulties (boyd, 2006b). Friendster's servers and databases were ill-equipped to handle its rapid growth, and the site faltered regularly, frustrating users who replaced email with Friendster. Because organic growth had been critical to creating a coherent community, the onslaught of new users who learned about the site from media coverage upset the cultural balance. Furthermore, exponential growth meant a collapse in social contexts: Users had to face their bosses and former classmates alongside their close friends. To complicate matters, Friendster began restricting the activities of its most passionate users.

The initial design of Friendster restricted users from viewing profiles of people who were more than four degrees away (friends-of-friends-of-friends-of-friends). In order to view additional profiles, users began adding acquaintances and interesting-looking strangers to expand their reach. Some began massively collecting Friends, an activity that was implicitly encouraged through a "most popular" feature. The ultimate collectors were fake profiles representing iconic fictional characters: celebrities, concepts, and other such entities. These "Fakesters" outraged the company, who banished fake profiles and eliminated the "most popular" feature (boyd, in press-b). While few people actually created Fakesters, many more enjoyed surfing Fakesters for entertainment or using functional Fakesters (e.g., "Brown University") to find people they knew.

The active deletion of Fakesters (and genuine users who chose non-realistic photos) signaled to some that the company did not share users' interests. Many early adopters left because of the combination of technical difficulties, social collisions, and a rupture of trust between users and the site (boyd, 2006b). However, at the same time that it was fading in the U.S., its popularity skyrocketed in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia (Goldberg, 2007).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ncrochet/social_networking_sites.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ncrochet/&usg=__Z2fbTfpBTrB2Mn1leto2oNAZ7qQ=&h=300&w=400&sz=124&hl=en&start=1&sig2=nyms_0zgnASWhIVyyZ3mVQ&um=1&tbnid=A-3-5SeV3I8HEM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ncrochet/social_networking_sites.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~ncrochet/&usg=__Z2fbTfpBTrB2Mn1leto2oNAZ7qQ=&h=300&w=400&sz=124&hl=en&start=1&sig2=nyms_0zgnASWhIVyyZ3mVQ&um=1&tbnid=A-3-5SeV3I8HEM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDg

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://making-money-blogging.com/blog/wp-content/images/social_network.jpg&imgrefurl=http://making-money-blogging.com/blog/using-social-networking-websites-to-promote-your-blog/&usg=__Mb-AaEo72ZF7YToY_xjdkZM9tMA=&h=350&w=450&sz=95&hl=en&start=2&sig2=XKTCZbKARnm1lFBbeB1yug&um=1&tbnid=1-6oQ41GU3qgkM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.watblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/socialnetworks.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.watblhttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://lnbooks.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/22/social_networking_timeline.jpg&imgrefurl=http://digital.leadnet.org/2008/02/index.html&usg=__kFfSVzc13oCBgAEqrEYO_O0a5wg=&h=543&w=412&sz=25&hl=en&start=6&sig2=UPmm-C9KFYTNB1K3y1xpuA&um=1&tbnid=8hxF4lcVE1HyuM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDgog.com/2007/11/30/social-networks-gaining-acceptance-from-corporate-but-gaining-resistance-from-government/&usg=__dl9cyWxXweN5Ak4qPlHXsC2JLcY=&h=475&w=861&sz=84&hl=en&start=5&sig2=KuhY2vlY32a9VbJJiSoQzQ&um=1&tbnid=RVhMYXtiGqBp-M:&tbnh=80&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDgDsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sahttp://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://making-money-blogging.com/blog/wp-content/images/social_network.jpg&imgrefurl=http://making-money-blogging.com/blog/using-social-networking-websites-to-promote-your-blog/&usg=__Mb-AaEo72ZF7YToY_xjdkZM9tMA=&h=350&w=450&sz=95&hl=en&start=2&sig2=XKTCZbKARnm1lFBbeB1yug&um=1&tbnid=1-6oQ41GU3qgkM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsocial%2Bnetworking%2Bsites%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1C1GPMD_enUS312US312%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDg%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=tWBfSoLaCNPflAf-l-yhDg

hope you enjoy my photos....not

test

well this sucks

what sucks?

i can't get a pck into the window ...oh well i'll get over it LOL

It might suck .... but on the other hand, it sure stops a lot of people from filling up posts with glitter graphics! That made it very difficult for some people to load a page they were interested in having conversations on.

well i agree about glitter in general i still think picks ad to context. as for slow loading ...ads are worse but like i said i'll get over it

Hmm.

Works for me.

Does it only work if the file is stored on gather?

The image I used is stored on photobucket.

It should work for other images as well. You have to add the html code (ie., do it the old way) yourself.

let me try photobucket's code.

[IMG]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r42/cranky54/beingnice.gif[/IMG]

I did it the old fashioned way with html, and it made a link. (unless I made a mistake) So I'll try that again in my comment.



As a matter of fact, I think I did make a mistake. ha!

yep. works.

Hmm...Here's currency suitable for the purchase of KatzBonds

It would be nice if the "disappearing submit" glitch was corrected. It's exasperating to try to post a comment that seems to submit but ends in limbo.

I wonder why some people have a problem with this and others don't. I've had problems submitting a comment but only once in a while, where it hangs for a few seconds, then posts. Sometimes (not every day) Gather seems to lag.

I definitely prefer not having to open up an entirely new window for linking, and the added ease of of the bolding, italics, and underlining.

No complaints from me MaryAnne. I especially like the new comment boxes.

This may have been covered, but it's a little annoying to go to EXPLORE posts and have so may Associated Press articles come up. Harder to find Gather members materials. Is this going to continue this way? After a couple of searches for 'recent' posts, the second page came up with almost ALL AP articles.

So, Gather gives their members new commenting capabilities... bold, italic, underline, however, what's the point with the AP flood?

I would like the choice of going to the AP news group, not having it FORCED down my throat at every angle. WRONG, Gather.

I hope this gets addressed and addressed soon.

Me too, MC. Maybe AP and UPI can start having discussions on Gather after the members drop out.

Thanks for the continued feedback everyone!

The majority of feedback is about content coming in from the AP. Some folks really like it. some don't. Many think it's overwhelming other content on the Explore pages in and the news group. This is all very helpful feedback. Please keep in mind that we are just starting with the AP and we need some time to see what's working and what isn't. Your feedback helps us understand this, so please keep it coming.

If you could limit the AP feeds to the one group News Essentials or whatever it's called that would help, MaryAnne. Then people could go directly to that group for news if they wanted it. Or the other option would be to create an interest called "news" and put it as a topic that people could put down in their "Interest" feed. By putting them in politics, it creates problems.

Thanks for these suggestions, Carla. Our intent is to have the AP content complement member content, not overwhelm it. We'll be discussing various options for how to present this content on Gather in team meetings tomorrow.

I navigate by friends, not interest, so the AP overload doesn't bother me. It might work to give the AP group their own essential, separate from Gather news group - seems like it might please everyone.

Highlights include:

o Gather Points statement email notifications - Fine:)

o Post by Tag module available for groups - Fine, but it needs more than one tag.

o Associated Press stories in Gather News Essential - Fine - as long as it does not take over and dominate the site. Ask me in a week.

o Changes to comment boxes - LOVE IT!

o Improvements to bookmarking functionality - Great.

Judging from some of the comments, this upgrade needs some more work?!

I'm hearing the AP feeds could be problematic. Will our posts get lost to the news?

Hi Nancy,
We've had the AP feed working for just under 11 hours and we have a few things to adjust.

The Commentary module of news.gather.com contains MEMBER content ONLY, so if that section is appropriate for you, tag your content with commentary.

I think the AP stories should go away unless Gather can't survive without them. I'm assuming there's a business relationship there.

I'm perfectly capable of looking at print media and news sites. I don't think Gather is serving my interest in Gather by providing, verbatim, content I can easily get elswhere. Of course it is a sort of preemptive strike against the Gather members who copy and paste AP content and present it as their own original work. :)

I would much rather read AP content submitted by AP than copied and pasted by Gather members who are trying to gain points for posting someone else's work. And I would much rather read AP posts than the repeats by people who still think Obama wasn't born in this country and/or Sarah Palin has a brain, so they post the same garbage every day.

I hate the Associated Press articles.

They are burying all other articles posted with their articles. I have to scroll down a long way before I can find another article that isn't by the AP and then I have to be quick before it is lost. This is not right.

Is Gather trying to close it's site and this is the only way it knows how to do it? Most of my friends only post day to day living and sometimes funny stuff, but it's getting buried under the AP articles. If I want news I'll go to a news site. Is Gather wanting to trun into a news site? I do not like the Associated Press addition to Gather it's dumb unless they are trying to turn it into a news site only and no longer a social networking site.

I wish a spell check button for our comments was included in the upgrade.

there ares several things wrong that need fixing.
1. the suggested friend feature, If I had denied a direct friend request, I now see that person come up somewhat often. IF I reject someone, I should never see them again.
2 spellcheck including for the writing of posts and for comments.
3. I am NOT sure if I can repost a newsletter that I have permission to repost.
4.if something that is posted, and that post is NOT earning points, for whatever reason, we should be told that the points were blocked and why.
I like gather for the most part, but since I would like to repost some things, some I get from organizations/group advancing their cause, and some funny things from the net.
I do NOT want to be kicked off of gather without knowing why.

send AP away yuck!!

Why is it posters were derided for posting C/P articles from the news but the whole site can now be taken over by constant AP posts and photos. It is intrusive and bothersome...............bad idea!

Well, I have been a gather member since 2005; so I have been here for several upgrades. The new improvements sound really good. I particularly like the gather points email.

I hope the glitches get fix. Michelle does make a good point.