Your thoughts on the new design...

[LifeIsGreatImages]

OK I've held my tounge ... fingers for a while.

I prefer the old site and would vote for scrapping this and going back and then slightly improving the old. But that's probably not an option.

The new site seems comparitively dsyfunctional. All trees and no forest. Not intuitive. Yes search features are coming. But that's kind of like saying a newly purchased, brand new car will get tires as soon as they arrive.

The M C site has a much simpler more intuitive design while containing most needed features. Of course it lacks the volume / traffic of GG/G1 and the loyalty of a group of interested helpful photographers and models. O... P has huge volume / listings but is not as clean or as current and has not as many features and not the participation on the boards.

So... the challenge it seems to me ... is to concentrate on getting the basics functioning and highlighted and easy to use. Then start a contest (yes good move just made) or something to stimulate posting and get old timers to post to the new site. Recapture the spirit of the old site and add bells and whistles later.

You asked for thoughts so those are mine, as a perhaps one year member.

Steve

[grsphoto]

I don't know how easy it would be, but can we get a next button to scroll through photographers portfolios..... or if there is one can someone point it out to me.

Glenn

[rolandogomez]

Will add it to the list...thanks, rg.

[rolandogomez]

Thanks, more coming...thanks, rg.

[InfraRedAgency]

I like it, I'm just sad to lose my fave threads from the old GG. Otherwise, Its all good!

[DWilson]

My biggest complaint is that things are not intuitive. I sat here reading people's comments and most of them comment on having to figure this out or trying to find that or being confused about this, that or the other thing. To have one or two people not be able to find their way around is one thing but to have almost everyone comment on it is something else.

Granted, intuitive design may not be that easy for some things, especially if you're trying to adapt an existing web package to specific needs. I could be wrong but the new GG site seems to be based on some package like Invision Powerboard or phpBB or vBulletin. These are great packages but serve such a general purpose that starting from scratch is often a more productive option.

As far as I'm concerned, any site should have it's various page options as readily available as the mouse to the right of my keyboard. To have to back out of a posting and click through hoops to get the URL for an image I want to post or to have to open another window to find the link to the image I want just doesn't make sense to me on a site that is devoted to photography. Image posting should have been one of the FIRST things to get working before going live. Posting an image should be as easy as hitting reply to the post you want to comment on.

So, to sum up, while I'm all for new things, this new site just isn't the leap forward I was hoping for.

[moscato_images]

I think everything about the website is awesome except the fact that there are three rows of links and for each you click on there are endless row after row of links to choose from. It's very ...disorderly? I have directed two people to this site and both of them were becoming incredibly impatient on how to navagate. I was the same way at first, but I'm used to learning new systems and layouts so I just delt with it.
I still find some things pretty off-base and confusing, but I know things are being worked on everyday.

Anyhow, this reply is intended for encouragment -Keep up the hard work Rolando and everyone on the web team.

-Joshua

[rolandogomez]

Dave,
Thanks for your feedback, we encourage it. I also want to comment on your thoughts. Out of over 16,000 registered users, less than 100 have complained and we get about 50 to 65 new registrations per day. I don't find that as a sign of bad design. Not to mention, I see forum traffic increasing everyday, and as you stated, this is a Vbulletin system, used by many, many top sites--it's not old technology and it's certainly not new to the Internet. It's a proven system with better security than we had before.

What I have discovered are two main things:
1. People are not clicking or reading, how hard is it to click a link? What I mean by that, I've had people email me things like, "How do I login in?" Now that link is plain as day on the upper left of the site. I've had people email me how do I post? That is plain as day, "New Thread" or "Quick Reply" or "Go Advanced." I look at that as the typical societal trait found today, folks want it fast and easy, but with fast and easy on a photography related site, you get less. Our point was to give more.

A good example is the "related threads" found below. That is cool, but regardless of everything we've given more of, someone will not like it. Most of the "someone's" don't realize the "extras" and the "extra links" for more are "options" and we're not force-feeding anything. When folks complain about options, my theory is if you don't like the option, don't click the link.
In any forum/web site, you will have those that don't like something and those that complain if you take that "something" away. You cannot please everyone, though we do our best to do so.

On the portfolio system we originally gave categories, many complained it was too much. The idea was to give you more room to showcase your images, I thought it was cool. So now, we're reverting back to less. We're looking at improving that system, we always do, things just take time.

2. People who are loyal and patient are clicking every link to find what this place has to offer. Those people realize that the only thing we changed on this site, besides our name, is the forum and portfolio software. There are new additions, like the book store section, and soon more photo tips, but the entire GG site is still here expect the two noted changes. Sure, they are the biggest part of GG, and they will continue to grow.

With that said, on posting images, make sure you post a new thread in the WYSIWG mode, you can find this editor option in "My Home" under "Edit Options" so you can see the smily box on the right, right underneath it is the "My Pics" link so you can post from your portfolio here into a post without opening a new page to find your image URL. By default, everyone should be in the WYSIWG mode for the editor/posting box. If you are replying to a message and using the "Quick Reply" method, you have to hit the "Go Advanced" link.
Thanks, rg sends!

[BryanJWeitzel]

I like the design. But I still wish it was named "Garage Glamour". What can I say, I'm an old sentimental softy. I think I found your site not long after you started it.

[David Knight]

Hello, and thank you for soliciting comments on the design of the new site.

I'll be honest, it had been a while since I had last visited GG, so my memory may not be the greatest, but I'll try my best.

I've been using this new site for about a week now, and to be brutally honest, I have never been so frustrated by any forum. To start with the positive, any board ultimately lives or dies by the caliber and participation of its contributors, and this board has (in my opinion) attracted some great photographers. I can't speak to the models because, well, I can't seem to find them (I'll address that later).

Specifically, here are the things I don't like about the board. I think they are all things that could be improved. If anyone wants to jump in and discuss (either for or against), that would be great.

1. Clutter. This board is cluttered. The average human can keep about 5-9 things active in the mind at a time. I seem to recall that the old site had a section with cool tutorials, a section for posting messages, and a section for searching for models/photographers, etc. It was very simple and I could intuitively tell where I needed to go to find what I needed. Now, from the main page, there are 28 menu options. And many of them have drop down menus with even more options. Typically the tradeoff for adding such clutter would be that I could access anything I needed from those 28 options. But that's not the case. For instance, how do I edit my control panel options? For some reason I was not getting email notification to some of the messages in which I subscribed, so I wanted to take a look at that option. I still can't find it. It's not under "My Profile" or "My Topics" or "My" anything (as far as I can tell).

2. The software isn't working properly. Whenever I open a thread in a new window, I sit for at least 5 seconds before the javascript will draw the page. Sometimes it's closer to 10 seconds. When I hit the "Preview Post" button, I get a preview of the message, but then when I hit the "Submit Reply" button, the message is submitted looking *different* than it did in the preview. I don't get notifications to all messages in which I've subscribed.

3. Even in "linear mode", new replies to threads are interspersed throughout the thread. So once a thread has a full page or two of replies, it can be hard to find all of the new replies. There should be at least one mode that allows you to view all messages in a thread temporally. I know that some people like the threaded view, and that's fine. But when we're all talking about the same general thing, I still would like to know if there's a new message even if the response wasn't directed at me in particular. In fact, some replies address issues presented by two or more people. In that case, it doesn't even make sense to try to group the response with one "thread" instead of another.

4. Model search. When I search the state of California, I get a total of 8 models listed. Zip code search is not going to help me because I don't know which zip codes are 100 miles away from me. I have read that participation is way up, but either model participation is way down, or something is seriously wrong with the way this things is setup. There was way more model participation in the GG search. Also, it would be nice to be able to search all models within a certain radius of my zip code. I think you could do that in the GG site.

Thankfully, these are all things that can be fixed. Maybe it would help in assessing this site to have one question answered:

What is it about GG that you have tried to fix or improve? If you can answer that, then we will probably be able to tell you if you have achieved it or not.

Once again, you have attracted a great community, and that will ultimately make this site a success. Personally, I have been very frustrated, but I hope that gets better over time.

Thanks again, and I wish you and this site the best of luck!
-David