Regarding the new site...

Brian on March 16th, 2009 at 3:49:34 PM

Hello everyone, and welcome to what I'm going to tentatively call a pre-beta. Most of you know it's been a long time since sv has seen any upgrades of any kind, so I forced myself to get this out. In my opinion, the system is much better than the old one, but at the same time it undoubtedly has a number of kinks we'll have to work out.



For the time being, please report any bugs you find in this thread, as it will be the first place I look for issues. Also, consider a lot of the font styling on the site to be very raw. We haven't done a full style-check yet, so some things are ugly (like the poor settings form). These will be addressed shortly, as well as the addition of a number of lesser features that I withheld during this initial launch to keep testable features manageable. Those will be coming soon.



After a week or two of good use and bug fixes, we'll make a formal announcement regarding the upgrades and see if we can get things a little more active.

Brian on March 16th, 2009 at 3:52:06 PM

You'll notice a "Share" box on the right side of image pages. This box contains a smart tag that, when pasted into any forum or comment box, will result in a thumbnail of the appropriate image. For instance...



Brian on March 16th, 2009 at 3:56:34 PM

Unlike the last version of the site, images can be uploaded in bulk. Also, images do not immediately publish to the community. Instead, they will appear in your management panel for editing and publishing (this is definitely not the final form of this panel, as I know it's a little raw).

Brian on March 16th, 2009 at 4:35:02 PM

- No feedback that settings saved

- Header links shouldn't skip initial image set

- Need more intuitive way to navigate to a user's gallery

- Bulk upload form isn't 100% cross-browser (ugly form is enabled by default for now until I can fix that)

- Ugly upload form's text is white, so it's not apparent that things are working right

- Double slashes appear in some URLs

Brian on March 17th, 2009 at 1:44:13 PM

- Browsing sets with multiple pages causes a no-images message on any page but the first

Brian on March 17th, 2009 at 1:47:08 PM

- Users not logged in should not be able to click image titles to see full views

Brian on March 17th, 2009 at 2:20:48 PM

- Toggling from full size back to regular returns to the front page

maiden-light on March 17th, 2009 at 5:22:23 PM

Umm... All of my images are gone.



I really don't know, it's quite odd... I mean, I can resubmit them again, but I would like to know what happened. My favourites are still there, so it's kind of weird.

maiden-light on March 17th, 2009 at 5:33:35 PM

Oh, and the whole idea of being able to change your username is freaking sweet... Just in case anyone wonders, I lost all my images BEFORE I changed my username (added a dash). I don't really care about the time it takes to upload them again, but adding descriptions could potentially take a long time. *grumbles*

Brian on March 18th, 2009 at 4:40:16 AM

I'm looking into that now. Just a heads up that nothing got deleted, so it's a matter of finding why they didn't bind to the new system. If you're experiencing it someone else may be too. I'll do some digging and see if I can fix that asap.



Sorry!

Brian on March 18th, 2009 at 2:51:45 PM

I think everything is fixed up now... I also think that the last thing you uploaded (and the last image by one other user) were overwritten. The problem seems to be that the removal of spaces and non-URL-friendly characters from names didn't go over too well with the ingestion script. Let me know if anything looks wrong and I'll see what I can do.

asonofashadow on March 20th, 2009 at 8:49:22 AM

First off thank you for the update. I have been looking forward to one for some time now. I really like this site.



That being said I would really enjoy having a horizontal "Account Menu" at the top rather than the side. Maybe replace the right side account menu with like a shout box or where your twitter posts post.



My second suggestion is to use Kontera http://www.kontera.com advertising. I was reading a book on making money with your blog last night and this site seems a great way to do so. This will I assume help to ensure future upgrades XD.



My last suggestion is to add more functions to the comment and forums posting boxes. It would be nice to have the same kind of functionality in the comment boxes as you would forum boxes.





maiden-light on March 20th, 2009 at 3:00:56 PM

Well, I got all my art back, but I guess all of my comments got deleted (or at least all of the ones I could find). Ah well.

Brian on March 20th, 2009 at 5:42:35 PM

I think all comments should be there (unless they were made after the migration and before that major fix). After recovering the images I had to re-ingest the comments, so anything in that timeframe may have been lost.

maiden-light on March 21st, 2009 at 5:30:20 PM

I also noticed that the profile settings seem to work in firefox but not internet explorer.

WildBill on March 21st, 2009 at 6:56:46 PM

Still think the share box should contain a social sharing widget. Use one of those that works with Facebook, Digg, Bebo, and the billions of others.

asonofashadow on March 22nd, 2009 at 1:48:46 PM

Though you know we should make sure everything stays focused on our art and sharing it. Those social networks would be a great way to boost the sites name and our work.

Brian on March 22nd, 2009 at 2:02:09 PM

Tomorrow night I'll add some social icons into the share box for the top sites.

asonofashadow on March 22nd, 2009 at 7:08:32 PM

Suggestions:



Full view:

Can you please put view full resolution back under submitted works.



Matte/Frame:

Could you please reinstate the frame/matte feature that the first version had.



Bug:

Under "Manage Your Art" the css seems to be messed up for the descriptions.



Brian on March 25th, 2009 at 3:14:06 AM

Alrighty, I'll take a look at those.



I also added the social icons in the sharing box, so if anyone notices any problems with any of them please let me know.

asonofashadow on March 25th, 2009 at 10:26:53 AM

I'm not sure if there is a list for your feedback or a widget for it. That would be appreciated though.

Brian on March 30th, 2009 at 7:48:55 AM

It should be noted that I just fixed the bug where sometimes the last image you uploaded doesn't appear in your management panel until another image is uploaded.

maiden-light on April 9th, 2009 at 1:24:08 PM

The most recent image I uploaded is MUCH brighter than the version I have on my computer and I was wondering why this is.

asonofashadow on April 12th, 2009 at 5:12:02 PM

Is it just me or did a post or two disappear from this thread.

asonofashadow on April 12th, 2009 at 5:12:14 PM

GraphicArtist2k5 on April 23rd, 2009 at 12:07:56 PM

MAN i'm glad this site finally got updated! i've been a member for a LONG time now, and every time i would visit, i would always see the same old layout, and wonder to myself, "is anyone even working on this site any more?" it's good to know that someone is working on this site!

maiden-light on April 24th, 2009 at 11:14:22 AM

Basically I am encountering the same problem again. Whenever I upload an image it is always much brighter than my original. When I have both images on different windows you can see very visibly a significant distortion with the lighting.

Keith on April 24th, 2009 at 3:42:40 PM

Yep. It's not just you.

Brian on April 25th, 2009 at 1:52:01 PM

I just narrowed down some of the lightening issues with Keith and applied a fix. Future uploads should look much closer to the source material.
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