I left this as a comment on Tom's chat but thought that maybe if I posted it here, I'd get an answer.
Tom, Pam, Chuck, et. al.,
The old style myGather was the equivalent of a few specialized *content* feeds: articles, images, etc. People could pick an area of interest and scan that. Articles displayed a teaser that usually determined whether or not it was of interest to them and the visible comment count let them track where there might be interesting, or new, as in flit's case, discussions.
If I recall correctly, all of the data that is currently in the main feed was available off of a "my people" text link that most people probably never clicked on. I don't remember if pings were there or not, but the rest was, right? If you wanted the sort of 'over the shoulder' look at your friends activity, it was there. It's sort an auto-twitter feature, lots and lots of tiny blips of activity. Very twitter.
So now we show up one day and not only are our neat little groups of *content* gone from our own personal 'our gather, our way' page, and all of those handy bits of info (first 40 words, comment count, etc) is gone, reduced to titles and maybe a tiny image, but missing critical data. If that's not confusing enough, the twitter-stream is dumped into the aggregated content stream so people now see lots and lots of tiny blips of activity they don't care about in the middle of the, relatively few, things they do.
You know how sometimes people complain about the signal-to-noise ratio on the most discussed and most read lists? This upgrade created just that on our myGather pages.
The 500 item limit means that if people use the site as you have told them to (make lots of friends, post, share, etc) means that they have to show up once or more a day (not reasonable for many, perhaps most, people) or go through a frustrating process to attempt to find that which used to just sit there waiting for them. This is one of the great virtues of computers, they wait forever and nothing ever goes away, so the low limit of 500 items in the aggregated feed leaves me puzzled.
I am curious, were so many people using that 'my people's activity' feature to read their friend's status updates, new friends, and such that Gather thought it deserved to be included in the primary content feed?
|
|
|
More by kitchenMage (blog.kitchenMage.com) |
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 71
Check this:
If they are REALLY trying to court a younger demographic, why do they have Chuck Schwabb & POISE Pads as advertisers? Why not www.Iliveinmymomsbasement.com or or iTunes?
Because they're completely illogical and senseless MO-RONS!
This place is NOT getting a younger demographic. They're going to be lucky to hang onto those thirtysomethings they've got. And getting less lucky by the day.
Hawthorne is an odd beast because, while it seems to work exactly as designed, the design seems to be something that (almost) nobody wanted. Especially since, as you point out, Joy, the ads point to one demographic while Hawthorne points to another.
My question here is how they got from the list of requested upgrades - better editor, more privacy, no ratings, etc. - was discarded in favor of the gatherFeedBag.
I'm thinking there was a deadline involved and there were meetings about "What's the very minimum feature set we can get away with?" In plain English--"How little can we get away with and still call it an upgrade?"
1. "I can't find anything." That's the poor implementation of the feeds. If there were better filtering available and a larger size for whatever it is that's holding the feed content navigation wouldn't be such a problem. However, there's number 2 below.
2. "What about the content?" That's the problem with the feeds. The theme of the site is now social interaction. I'm eagerly following a budding romance that's scrolling along in my everybody feed. The happy couple spends most of their Gather time pinging each other. As long as Gather sticks with the feed idea it'll never be as easy to get to the content.
Sorry, kM. I'll unthreadjack now...
Whatever happened to Beta-testing?
If I'm understanding you correctly, you're basically asking "why?" - Why did Gather decide upon and roll out Hawthorne? It's a great question, and in fact, there is a great answer.
You're not going to like my answer to you today, however. I'd like to invite you, and everyone else reading this thread to the next Talk to Tom chat which will occur next Tuesday (4/22) at 12N ET. During that chat Tom will share Gather's company Vision, Mission, and Values.
Each upgrade and release at Gather supports our company's Vision, Mission, and Values. It is the foundation for Hawthorne.
I am in no position to sit here and try to convince you, or anyone else to embrace this new Gather experience. But you do deserve to know "why". I believe much of the "why" can and will be answered at the next Talk to Tom chat this coming Tuesday.
Also - many members continue to "demand answers from Gather" to their questions concerning the upgrade. I suggest you visit tom.gather.com and read the many articles and comments made by Gather CEO Tom Gerace on this issue. I think you will find that many (if not all) of your questions have been answered.
Email assurances that my concerns are being heard and taken seriously are all well and good.... but they stop there.
1. Why wait nearly a week? We've had nearly a week of Hawthorne and I think the response's one-sidedness would be of more urgency.
2. Why have so few questions solicited Monday night for Tom's chat been answered or addressed -- publicly, which is the manner in which they were asked? As Tom pointed out, there were repeaters of the same questions. It seems that no one would want to send out more personal emails than necessary when a public answer would do, and is, in fact, what we wanted.
OK, there's a great answer. Why can't we hear it now? I'm on the edge of my chair waiting for it and it cannot be revealed until NEXT TUESDAY? What's going to happen between now and then? Do you think we will quit complaining by Sunday night and embrace the error of our ways and pledge undying support to Hawthorne and the further "intuitive" changes that are coming?
I hope I am wrong and you will return here and prove me wrong.
Yeah - that sure takes care of everythig.
I think I need to make myself clear... the chat is NOT about Hawthorne (directly). The chat is about Gather as a company and Gather as a community. Specifically, the company's Vision, Mission, and Values and how they relate to the technology and features brought to the website.
It's a conversation... not an "answer".
Do you really think it will take that long?
And if it is not about Hawthorne, when can we expect answers to the many questions that have not been addressed yet?
'Gather as a company'......
could Gather be getting readied to go on the block?
And with that classic comment, I thought I should let you all know that I'm off for the day. My son starts little league tonight and I don't want to miss the first pitch!
It's a conversation... not an "answer".
Pam Johnston, Apr 17, 2008, 5:22pm EDT
why does this remind me of every boring 401k or "our company is losing money but we want you to think otherwise meeting" i've ever attended?
Could we skip the vision, mission, and values and talk about something substantive? It would make the discussion shorter and more productive.
I have no interest in 'listening' to any 'chat' that Mr Gerace deigns to offer me.
Never kid a kidder.
the so-called upgrade sucks.
Whaddaya think? Am I over thinking this one?
I'm keeping the Pee-Wee part of the analogy, though. Can you replace Gimli?
In Tom G's, "Talk to Tom: Improving the New Gather (Redux)" he said, "A number of you mentioned that you miss the "more personal experience" that you had pre-upgrade. I'm trying to understand what you mean by that and I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you could share with me what you mean by "more personal" - I'll come back and chat further about it."
Now we hear from Pam that we are going to be told about mission and values.
Business, clicks, revenue....and the Gather experience....two opposite ends of the stick.
nancy, sad but true...