Gather's New Look and Features – Post Your Feedback and Suggestions Here

looking forward to seeing the changes

The Support Team is available to help you with any questions you have about getting around the site or using the features. Please feel free to ask your "how to?" or "where do I find?" questions at the Help Desk and we'll do our best to get you comfortable with the changes.

Thanks MaryAnne.

I just got on this morning, I need to play around with it a bit.

I just loged in. Interesting log in page though

How do you publish?

I think gather has forgotten that sites should be user friendly.

Not so much. Previous notice to allow comments BEFORE this new thing went live would have been handy.
At least I figured out how to publish (Click 'My Gather' and then 'Share' and then 'Publish') although I haven't done it yet.

So I type a comment and it doesn't appear.. another new reason to dislike gather.

Like I was trying to say before it lost my post somewhere in this craziness..
I don't want to have to, so to speak, "read a manual" to figure out how to use gather.. That's just ridiculous.

Angela is so right. Whatever happened to user friendly? And does Gather ever consider human factors when designing or redesigning? That's doubtful. You have isolated us. Instead of being able to roam the house, now if we're members we're supposed to just go to our own rooms and never allowed to see the parlor or living room where non-members gather.

I keep finding myself "scooching" my chair to the right, as if doing so might also get me away from the left side of the page. The writing is way too close to the side of the page.

"Normal" web sites have indexes and menus at the left side of the page. Not having them is so uncomfortable. Once again, I'm sitting here longing for pre-hawthorne days.

Someone said that the ads are flashing. I wouldn't know. I've been here over an hour now and have not seen one single ad. My computer doesn't allow flashy/flashing ads, so I see white space instead. The pages look like they're in the midst of being designed and not finished.

And it is taking sooooooooooooooooo long to load a page. It's not my computer. Every other web site I've visited today has been fine for speed in loading.

Gather logo top left should go back to Gather's main page ... or SOMEPLACE, consistantly.

If things WORKED, I would not be as cranky about this upgrade as I was about Hawthorne ...but having just lost an hour's worth of work on a day that I couldn't afford to give Gather an hour - especially on a writing essentials hour (y'all need a new name for Essentials, since our placement clearly indicates that they are SO not Essential any more), I am most assuredly cranky.

And they broke our workaround back to the Articles for Me link .... WHY IN CHARLES' NAME is it SO important that we not be allowed to access our Articles the way we WANT to...with comment count indicators and so on?

I don't get it.... someone is a total control freak, apparently.

At least with previous changes one could figure things out. Or get back to the home page to try to find answers. Today, I spent 45 minutes trying to figure out how to post an article. I finally foung Berf's article and there Kevin (bless his heart) had responded with some links.

re: logo ... meant it should have a link

These changes just support the notion that we're not important. Instead of having articles, we have posts. That's certainly putting us in our place.

You're right, flit. I've never been on a single web site that didn't have a link back to the REAL home page.

I like the look of the articles, reminds me of a news article now.

Homepage - first. Mail - second. After logging in, I want to see at once how many mails and other requests I have. Subscriptions - third. It would be great to be able to reach my most beloved people's homepages right from my own, as it once was - especially because I've already noticed that I'm not always notified via my regular E-mail when they post something. Feed - fourth. If I commented on an article or an image, I'd like to be able to see it on my homepage so that others could read it and join the discussion, if they want to. And, fifth, where's 'settings'...?

In short, the new upgrade is even more disappointing than the latest one... hope that the Gather team would take all this into attention before undertaking any further 'improvements'...

Blessings - S.

I think the new look is great. The only thing I don't care about is how you have to get to publishing an article or image. Took me a bit to find it. I don't know how a newbie will ever locate it.

AND I don't know how to get to the home page. :(

i think it looks messy.. i miss the Gather home page where you could find the top news, travel, etc articles.. that was where I first went when i logged on! bring it back!!!!

Me too, DiAnA. I miss that.

I am having a heck of a time finding things. I know change takes time to adjust to but I havent had much sucess even getting to the front page of Gather. Can we bring it back that when you click on the word Gather you go back to the home page?

Priscilla - They're not articles any more, they're POSTS. :-)

Oh,oh...I just got on and read this thread, so haven't cruised around as of yet..BUT..if there is not some way of enlarging type and or clickable reas, then some who can not see well are just flutterfacked....AIEEEE!!!

So far so good for me - I even published an artucle - I mean, I "shared".

I don't find the new site intuitive at all. It feels very clunky to me in my attempts to find what I'm looking for. Haven't even tried to publish anything - that obvious link is gone now, and I don't have the patience to figure it out. And why did all the terminology have to change? This was originally a site aimed at writers who wrote interesting articles, now I think the focus has changed to people who just want to post quick items. I'd still like to go back to the pre-Hawthorne days when I could see days worth of articles from my connections, friends, or whatever they're called now and not have the space cluttered up with pings and the like. After Hawthorne I spent much less time on the site and it looks like this confusion will limit my time even further.

ooh, this new upgrade is very difficult to get used to. i think i'll give it a few days rest and then come back. thanks for always trying for us, though.

In reading these comments, they are all bunched at the left side of the page and the right side is all blank. I have a couple ads up at the top on the right and the related articles but the rest is just white space. Is it going to be that way? It's kind of strange to see everything pushed to the left with nothing on the right.

I just got up and have e-mailed a friend on how to publish (share). Hope she can figure it out. I think having to hold the mouse over the words to find it is making it more difficult for a lot of people to locate.

Flit mentioned losing our "backdoor" to the articles for me and photos/images for me. I already miss that. I had used it every day since Hawthorne.

And I agree that calling poetry and major articles a "post" devalues them.

I honestly do not like the look of the articles at all.

Amy, publishing hasn't changed much ... it's under Explore, then Share .... might want to do it in Word first though.... it's very glitchy and inclined to disappear into the ether right now :(

Wilma, the right side is being used for the ads ... if you are using a browser that doesn't show the ads, it just doesn't look right, I've heard

I dislike this "upgrade" very much. Marilyn hit on many good points. Why, also, does it keep booting me out? Why so slow? Why so difficult to post a comment? Why the "left-leaning" presentation? Why the ugly "article" look?

Why???

Pushing everything to the left is visually uncomfortable - it makes me want to navigate away from the site. Guess I'll come back later and see if I still have such a strong reaction.

When I sign in, I want a drink and a full meal served to the right of my mouse pad, my ashtray emptied, and good light on my screen. Can you arrange that in the next upgrade?

I like the new two-column page. For me, beginning to read on the left column feels natural, like a book. I like the new refine search features. I like that we can now embed video in art. . . umm shared posts. I like that you have limited tags and groups to one visible line, and I like going to My Gather Page when I sign on.

I still wish you would separate content into categories (articles/stories/poetry/recipes/games/etc.) and not focus on the "most" lists which I believe feature what a few people manage to put on the list instead of what "most" people really care about.

My two main issues:

1.) Mail. The gathermail system is all messed up now. If I want to reply to an email, I'd like to be able to see the email I'm replying to without having to copy and paste it into my response. In addition, I hate having to go back to "My Feeds" page in order to see if there is a new green envelope. The little green envelope at the top of the page was very convenient.

2.) When trying to "Submit" a comment, I have to tab twice - bypassing "Send a private message instead." It seems like that doesn't make much sense. If I spend 10 minutes typing out a comment, why would my first tabbed to option be "Send a private message instead"?

3.) It took me 20 minutes to figure out where to go to publish something. That is scary.

And along with Sandy I would also request World Peace.

Seriously I cant figure out how to publish or share or whatever its called now.

I threw in a bonus issue. It's your lucky day! : )

Thanks Flit. I was used to the big obvious "Publish" tab that I could click on before without having to go look for it. Some features should be left easily accessible, like being able to publish/post.

I'm getting annoyed. More often than not I am getting a "page not found" error when I click on an article (I know, it's a post, but I don't like that term). And when I try to post a comment (or join the conversation) I keep getting kicked out and have to log back in again and retype my comment and I have luck the second time around. I've learned to copy everything I type so I can just paste it back in.

And I agree with everyone else. Way too much wasted space on the right with everything smooshed to the left. Not a good design at all.

Tried to back out of this article and I got booted out. Logged back in and it brought me here. How do I get back to my home page, list of articles, or whatever it's called now? I'm stuck in an endless loop. Help me.....

I am really going to get myself in trouble. I'm kinda hoping the extra step to the publish button will encourage some people to leave their comments as comments instead of publishing them as articles (or sharing them as posts).

So far, I'm not having any problems navigating. (probably because I read the intros to the upcoming upgrade explaining the changes)

The only real problem I'm having is the slow download of page views and submitting a comment.

Hey folks,
Thanks for your continued feedback on this article.

The Support Team is available to help you with any questions you have about getting around the site or using the features. Please feel free to ask your “how to?” or “where do I find?” questions at the Help Desk and we’ll do our best to get you comfortable with the changes.

Embedded video doesn't work on my pc.

Outbound E-mails disappear because the super-secret, eye-spy, secret agent word was typed in wrong. Actually, there's no box to type it in so if you just . . . umm . . . you know . . . retype the entire message again you can use the box to put in the super-secret, eye-spy, secret agent word then and no problem. For now, you need to copy it before you hit send, then paste it, then use the super-secret, eye-spy, secret agent word, then re-send it. :)

Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~

The stickiness of the loads is the worst part. Chuck McGuire has assured me that they're working on this, but until it's fixed, it will take someone with a lot more patience than I have to wait until these pages load. They often time out before they can. Can't even get past page 2 of my recent comments to check on articles on which I've left my input. The links just hang.

I have issue with having to "submit" every time I want to post a comment. Do you think there could be an option to "dominate" instead of submit for us more outgoing types.

And now I must click "submit" again just to post this stupid comment. This is really damaging to my psyche, you know? sigh.....

Ok I'm lazy and don't want to spend hours figuring it out but - where is a link to see the articles!!! I know what I'm doing so I don't need to be in my page only - I want to see the articles. And not just the "most viewed" ones!

Haven't done much here today but so far I really don't like it!!!

MaryAnne,

With most gather upgrades there are new features I like, some I don't like and some just need getting used to.

The connection times are so slow and screwed up at the moment (not surprising given porgramming bugs and probably lots of traffic) I will play with it all tomorrow.

I can see a few things I don't care for.

I wouldn't say you have decluttered the homepage — you have eliminated it. I guess this is a marketing decision for what non-members view but I think we all liked it.

I don't like that when I reply to an email that their message does not appear on my reply. Helps me answer them point by point and helps keep the thread of an ongoing email clear. This is standard with all email systems. I'd like this back.

The email-connection request-group request little green icons always at the top of any page were elegantly simple, small and very useful. I would lead a protest march to get those back.

Ah, the joys of making changes.

MaryAnne, I'd normally say "Have a great day" but I think it's more appropriate to end with "Have the best day you can, considering..."

(Oh, I think repeated submission will be a personal growth experience for Jamie. :)

To me, this is no upgrade. It's more of a downgrade. It's less user-friendly than the previous interface. Whatever happened to "if it isn't broken, don't fix it"?

I'm with flit still, why can't we have the "articles for me" anymore?? It's the first thing I used every time I would come here... Why not allow it???

So far, one comment would be to allow the default on posts/articles as "recent" instead of most popular, etc.

there are too many things that look like they should be links but aren't... since when does something that SAY My Gather on my page not take me back to My Gather if/when I click on it?

or a Mail tab not take me back to mail if I click on it?

and they broke the Articles for Me page... I could cry. I honestly think that will be the deciding factor for me :(

Hmmmmmm....

Thanks for the first Gather-related smile I've had today, Jaimie C. :)

I'll echo John's sentiment above. The site no longer has a home page... no marquee groups, no featured content. I'm sure I could find it if I looked hard enough for it, but that's really not the point.

Basically, these changes look like another step away from promoting content and another step towards social networking. As I stated during the Hawthorne fiasco, I already have a Facebook account that I ignore, I really don't need two.

Interesting gamble on whether people will remain loyal to the brand when they do not know what is going on. I was confused when I logged in and there was no home page. I kept trying to find www.gather.com and it took me right back to confusion, then I figured that is where I am supposed to go I guess.

Looks like Gather is trying to make the site more dependent on the user's community, going inward which is another risk. Keep peeling that onion and you knowe what happens.

I do think the home page allowed those of us that wanted to get on our soapboxes to find where to do it ... which is maybe what Gather wanted to avoid - flaming controversy for new users coming to look at the content.

Gather looks like a 12 year old threw it together in 20 minutes on Geocities Page Builder. I don't consider this "clean" or "uncluttered".

But I don't even know why I am typing this, any complaint made is just reworded into "put on a happy face" language.

MaryAnne, there are some things I like and some I don't...

One of my main concerns is that Gather Essentials are not considered essential any longer by Gather and are relegated to a mere footnote at the bottom of the pages. Most people (at least, I don't) don't even go down that far to find content. As I have stated before in other comments, it is a major disappointment to me as a Gather Correspondent as I take great pride in my efforts (testing recipes, researching information, taking photos and such) to publish/share my articles/posts as a food correspondent.

I liked going to the Gather Home Page and miss that option.

Also, as I mentioned yesterday during the viewing, I could care less who pinged a member and who is now friends with another member. I know I can choose the option for my feeds, but what happens when I want to read not only posts by friends but also view their images/photos since I can choose only one of those options?

.........and I want Chuck to know that the feed option keeps reverting to 'all activities' this morning. I will give it a little while to adjust, but it is quite annoying to have it change on its own.

Overall, I approve and like many of the changes, but feel that more importance needs to be placed on other issues instead of mostly cosmetics....

Love Jamie's comment. I think she should set up an alter ego so she can consult a doctor here about her issues with submitting.

As far as ads being on the right hand side, my browser doesn't block them, in fact I think it promotes advertising but the side is still blank. WAY BACK UP at the top by the "other articles by..." there are a couple ads but that is all. And why do you get nice ads like a car and I get POISE PADS? What's up with that?

Someone else said the default on posts should go to recent and I agree. I don't care who has the most comments as it is undoubtedly a game.

I just replied to an e-mail and was surprised the previous one disappeared. I've seen several people mention that. Was that in the design or just a temporary glitch?

I don't like the design. It's bland and for a site where the main concern is sharing content, most of it being creative content, it's a turn off. It reminds me too much of many news sites that have unattractive pages that sometimes even break the principles of web design. The ads before appeared to be attractively placed because they did not disrupt the content but now they do. Too much white space for my taste.

It takes awhile to get to certain things. I would have rather seen the recent posts come up as the default because I rarely look at the most popular ones anyhow because alot of games just end up at the top of the list. I use the recent posts every time I log in because I will go through each article back to where I left off when I last logged in. I don't know how to describe how the actual site looks...it looks very retro to something I would have seen in kindergarten in the mid 1970's. Don't like it at all - both in design and functionality. Keep the site simple - It's not rocket science. People have very short attention spans and if they come here and see alot of "bells and whistles" going on, they won't hang around.

Registering my two cents. Like Jamie, I loathe the Submit button. I'm not submitting anything to anywhere, I'm posting a comment. Made much more sense. And changing from article to post? Yes, it definately devalues the worth of our work. Then again, I expect us to turn into Twitter any day now, with comments limited to 142 characters. And I hate the left-centric columns. ICK! Put the thing back in the center. This is almost painful to read. And like others, I keep getting some kind of time-out, booted off thing.

You people suck. The time we get used to one set up you change it to something else. I liked the one you just took down far better than this one. I hate it, and I think personally I am about done with this place. Pick something that works and frickin leave it why don't ya. My Grand Father used to always say, "It is ain't broke, don't fix it."

Here's what I don't understand. .. Why is it that friends/family of your staff can understand that the older membership won't like these changes. .. . but your staff seems to be completely inconsiderate to that fact. To quote a friend/family of one of your staff, via pings:
"The old timers are going to HATE it."

Yeah we do.

They are only doing this because people have actually started to make money from them and dig into their pockets. They don't like it so they have screwed everyone now with this bullcrap, I am so done.

Every time I try to comment or ping or whatever, I get booted off. (Including this comment.)

Still trying to give it a chance....

I wish you would bring back the "next" button when I am looking at someones pictures. It's very inconvenient to keep having to press "back" each time I look at one.

Here's my comment on this "upgrade".

I just "submitted" a "post", and instead of going to the finished "post", I got a blank page. That is just wonderful. Now, not only do we have to contend with no preview option on the article editor (sorry "post" editor), we cannot even edit after the fact without searching for our "post"?

Next time you upgrade, dear Gather, Fix The Editor!

You don't get points for confusing me, it's too easily done! But you've succeeded. The missing Gather home page is a tragic loss. The page that come up with all the colored circles is rather non descriptive. It took me a while to even find where one signs in.

Then, after signing in, I found myself looking at a lit of my own articles. Why on earth do I want to be delivered there each time?

I tried to comment on an article and when I posted the comment, it disappeared and so did all the other comments on that article.

I like the basic looks of the page for an article and comments but that is not sufficient payment for what we have given up. I'll look at it a bit, but if I cannot find a way to easily locate all my recent comments, I'll probably move on to another forum. But I will give it a try. I've written enough programs to know that pleasing everyone is impossible so many programmers give up and just please themselves!

FEEDBACK: BAD NEWS

SUGGESTION: UNDO IT

it took me a while

I think post's should center of page, and articles should be published and not shared. Pictures added to articles should be proportionate and not stamp size . . . . .

I suggest you change 'submit' for 'Suffer'

After reviewing some of the comments here I have to agree with Amy B. and Marilyn M.
Homepage? What homepage?
Looks like "Essentials" weren't so essential after all.
Articles" become "posts" (as in fence-?), and "publishing" becomes "sharing"--the better to not intimidate those who are too timid to believe that they can be real "writers", presumably.
"Upgrades" are in the eye of the upgraders.

I don't care for the "new" look. Not very user friendly and can't see near as many articles or photos as before. Seems places just can't leave well enough alone.

Hi MaryAnne, I like you and I like all the Gather staff but the staff does not seem blessed with common sense.

We are not happy with these changes because they are so counter-intuitive to the experience we members have every single day.

Gather staff experiences Gather in a very different way, because you all are different people with a different agenda. Even though you all are on your computers at least as much if not more than many of us.

We have a different purpose in being here than you all.

Please ask a number of us to sit in your offices for extended periods of time, next time around to see how we actually like the proposed changes. Or not.

Btw, The Boston Media will do a 'vegematic' on Lisa's press release.

Just to let you know in advance. From a former major daily newspaper reporter.

I am uncomfortable with this left-sided format. I keep wanting to adjust the screen. I clicked on MY GATHER and got Cheryl's page. Some of the links haven't worked, but I can reach the articles by clicking on the author.
Overall, I am not so pleased with it. If you only change one thing, please move the format over - even an inch!

Well, I am happy to discover that I am not the only one lost, displeased, disillusioned, and uncomfortable with the new ch ch ch changes on Gather. I must confess, I am not here often, I am not trying for the all illusive 3000 points in one month. But I really enjoyed the Homepage where I got to see a little bit of everything. I liked the articles published in the middle (gave an aire of importance to it all) along with the comments. I do like the list (short as it is) of other articles that might interest me, but that is about it.

I wish these ch ch ch changes could be undone!

sorry
peace,

MaryAnne - could you please explain for us why gather is dumbing itself down?

Lisa wrote in her press release:
>"Every change, from layout to colors to photo selection to simplified site navigation, is based specifically on research Gather conducted on how adults want to use a social network, as well as feedback from prominent brands seeking to reach a more adult and affluent audience."

Then please tell us who gather conducted this research with. You certainly didn't mention any research to any of your correspondents.

This so-called upgrade is actually a dumbing-down of gather. Why is gather so determined to dumb itself down? I don't get it.

• When I go to http://www.gather.com now the page defaults to my personal gather page. Why have you eliminated our front page? I thought gather was for writers to feature their work?
  
• There's no front page, which means you are lessening the sense of community which you say you want to foster. I use the front page as a way to see what's currently happening on gather. Now you've completely taken that away, meaning you've deleted our community.
  
• Without a front page please tell me exactly what is the point of writing anything on gather now since no one will be notified that's it's been featured meaning few people will know an article is about something they want to read?
  
• you've dumbed down gather terminology. Now, instead of publishing my weekly column I'm suddenly "posting" it. Wake Up you guys! You aren't even clear on net terminology! One posts to a listserve or a forum. A writer publishes their work to their blog. A post is an off-the-cuff comment. A published article is a well thought-out and well-researched article.
  
• Dumbing down...just like what CBS did with their news anchors. CBS went from an intelligent Dan Rather to an idiot who doesn't understand what a follow-up questions is: Katie Couric, and their rating have steadily declined ever since.
  
• Ever since the last "upgrade" (downgrade in my book) PMing is a big pain in the neck. I can't address a PM to myself anymore. I must click on each and every name in my addressbook to send out a PM rather than simply highlighting everyone I wanted to PM and then bcc'ing them eliminating all those hundreds of email addys in the addressbar.
  
• pages are taking much too long to load now.
  

Laura cited this on another comment trail and it bears repeating here (I'm going to highligt the salient points that gather should really reconsider:

Once upon a time.....Gather had a dream:

Old Highlights of Gather's Early Conception
From TMCnet September 21, 2005

Gather.com Launches Website for 30 Million Public Radio Listeners to Interact and Share Diverse Perspectives; Earnings-based Model to Supplant One-sided Blogging
BOSTON --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 19, 2005 -- Gather(TM), the unique online site where public radio listeners and other informed, engaged people share diverse perspectives, announced today its public beta launch at www.gather.com(TM). Gather is the first online outlet to encourage global perspectives to emerge across a wide variety of topics and be heard above today's media noise. In contrast to other media and single-sourced individual blogs, which are hard to find and difficult to compare across a single topic, Gather provides a high-visibility environment where writers, bloggers and other individual contributors can come together to provide a 360-degree global view into shared areas of interest - and get paid for it. ……
Today, public radio listeners enjoy diverse radio programming that spans local and national news and political commentary, business and economics, food and wine, spirituality, music and comedy. Listeners to a single program share a common passion, yet have varying perspectives on a single subject. The one-way radio medium fails, however, to capture this collective knowledge and does not allow people to interact together in a broader forum.

"The 30 million people listening to public radio every day have a depth of knowledge and perspective to share. They often have more in common with the people hearing the programs they love than they do with their neighbors or family," said Gather Chairman Bill Kling, who is also Chairman and CEO of the American Public Media Group, the nation's second largest public radio organization. "Gather allows this audience to dynamically interact and form friendships with people who add value to their passions through shared experiences and perspectives. That may lead to conversations or to adventures with similarly interesting people."

"Gather is creating a unique place online for me to interact with smart, engaged people. It's a place where I can be rewarded for contributing my perspective through thought, art, or commentary," said Verie Sandborg of Deerfield, Illinois, a Gather member and frequent contributor.

So please tell us gather PTB: why are you deviating so far away from your original mission? Why is gather lying in their press releases? Gather conducted no "research" that made sense for this "upgrade." Why the lies? Why are you trying to shut down our sense of community on gather while lying and saying you are fostering it?

I would appreciate direct answers to my many questions. Though I highly doubt I will see any.

I think the bottom line is that Gather members tend to be serious adults who use Gather for communication of ideas and meaningful content. Sure we post photos and play games, but if your business plan is to turn Gather into MySpace, would you please let us know now?

If not, leave it alone. These constant changes are a waste of everyone;s time, they do not improve things, they often make them worse (like this one).

Perhaps it would be useful if Gather let its members know what the site really is thinking it wants to be. Is your goal to attract people who would rather "share" "posts" than publish articles? In other words are you trying to go young? Or stupid? Or what?

I noticed that you can no longer tell if you are "friends" with an author when clicking on an article. I found that useful with so many similar/same names and icons constantly changing by many; it gets confusing. I tried to give friends more attention.
I notice that the community "comments" tab is gone(?) and used to enjoy that as well.
I also received an email today, but there was no icon showing it. It wasn't until I went back to My Gather that I saw a message icon on the left hand side showing it. Is this the norm now? I found those little icons on the upper right hand corner of pages very helpful.
Finally for the moment, when answering that email today, I could not see thier (the senders) message at all. Is that new as well? If so, I don't like that at all... hard to recall all they asked and said in replying.
Well, off to explore some more....

don't like it at all

I actually like the layout so far. I never looked at the Gather homepage before, so that doesn't really effect me. I'm glad I was here for the change though, otherwise I would have no idea about how to post an article. I also liked the old format for the article listings, where the title was enlarged, but I suppose I can get used to the smaller text.

I haven't tried to post anything yet, so I'll have to criticize that later, but overall I like the new Gather.

Where is the PUBLISH BUTTON!!! I'm going nuts looking for it.

I wish Gather stopped screwing with this. :O/

"The Support Team is available to help you with any questions you have about getting around the site or using the features. Please feel free to ask your "how to?" or "where do I find?" questions at the Help Desk and we'll do our best to get you comfortable with the changes." ~ MaryAnne Flynn,

The problem is the help desk page isn't responding as this site is overloaded. No one likes to spend time trying to get to a help desk much less waste the time once it's found.

There's better things to do with what "free time" we have available.

Dan -- 'publish' has been replaced by 'share'. Hope that remedies that specific problem.

Hi there... I like what I see despite a few things that are just plain WEIRD which I'm sure have already been addressed in the many complaint articles and comments all over Gather today.

I came here to talk about two very specific issues, and actually posted a comment here about them... then read the comments already posted and realized that Lainie already brought up the exact issues I have the most problems with. So thanks Lainie, I second everything you just said!

OK, I'm going now... I hope everything gets straightened out. :o)

Perhaps I don't try to do as much on Gather as the above critics, but I haven't had any problems that couldn't be filed under the category of "working the bugs out." I have found the new design to be very intuitive--to the point of being obvious, which I like! I also like the new style, I think that it looks nice and crisp.

And personally, I find it hilarious that people are getting all offended at terminology. What is so demeaning about a post? It's more inclusive of all the types of "articles" we see on Gather. This way, the things that in no way qualify as articles are not being called articles. I would think that writers would be happier that games and jokes and such are NOT being called articles, that they are not being elevated to that status. A post could be anything. I think that that was probably the idea.

DON'T discount my opinions just because I am related to a Gather staff member! While I do support my daughter in whatever she does, I DO NOT say that I like something unless I do. She can tell you that I do not hesitate to let her know if there is something that I do not like. Anyone who knows me, knows that this is true.

I got up at 6 am this morning all by myself, thinking yippee I have the entire day to play with my friends on gather. It took 7 hours of really hard work just to submit one comment. Finally with two other peoples help that were at the conference. I did get an article posted. But still having trouble getting the gather email from my yahoo box to let me into other peoples articles to repay their comments, or look at their images.
I didnt work this hard on a job.
Maybe I liked gather just a little to much.

I just logged in and so far I don't like it. This site has really gone from user-friendly to user-UNfriendly recently. Yet another change we have to get used to. And just when we get used to it, I'm sure you'll "upgrade" us to another unfriendly format we'll all have to re-learn. Sigh!

I am so confused! I liked it okay the way it was.. at least I could find stuff... it will take some getting used to.

I really think the first change shoud have been get rid of the pings. They are not private. Dont come as a comment, I can see no purpose for them. Everyone still sees them on the feeds.
I wish it was user friendly like it was in July last year when I joined.