CMS2 critique

[pullanisimo]

Hi,

Not wanting to piss on anyone's parade, or anything, but I have to say that I much prefer CMS1 to CMS2. Mostly, its because I prefer the simpler formatting in CMS1, and the fact that it takes you half as many clicks to get a full sized image in front of you, so you can decide if you like what you're seeing or not - the new system of going through a model's inventory, then thumbnails, then small image, then decent sized image, and then full sized image (if you want it) is really clunky. I'm also getting lots of issues with thumbnails not loading up, small image (once you've clicked on a thumbnail) not loading up, and error messages if you click on a small image before its fully downloaded.

My overall impression of the new site is that its trying to do a lot of things, but the structure is getting in the way of what I come on the site to do, and that's to get quick access to full-sized images of beautiful girls - I will rarely want to use most of the new features, and the way the new site is set up is putting me off...

[garionhall]

pullanisimo, Our goal with CMS2 was the same number of clicks or less (than CMS1), however, by default it's set to the most number of clicks (there are options in preferences, under My Account)). I am thinking we should change it, but the reason we haven't is because it can be confusing the other way, and most people are not pro users. So, we're going to collect some more data and feedback, then make the decision in a month or so.

Please have a go of the preferences, and let us know if it's not to your liking.

[IslanderRobert]

I see this morning, half the main page will not display. I also tried to download the Anneke and Sylvanna Girl/Girl...continual server errors...reporting the file cannot be found...(try again later)....sigh....this just keeps happening...with no end in sight...I think the archive shoots are in the worse shape....really slow to download and half the time you have to right click 2-3 times, until the server error no longer reports...very problematic and just plain tiring...
Robert

[Frans]

The US content-server problems have been reported to HQ. Seems to be fine now though.

[wolfgangbuster29]

I notice some of the text in some of the pages, like a shoot page, tends to cut off. Have a look at Cathrin's shoot page for example and see what I mean how the text looks in the video description box.

[Stonefly]

Here are a few quick comments on the new site.
1. Make a "Comments on the new site" sticky or otherwise prominent so we can post little things like this on it.
2. The cascading menus below the "Community" drop down operate in contrast to good design. When you hit the drop down, your first mouse choice should be the most heavily used topic (which is probably the Discussion Board choice. In your present set up the cascade drops down then you have to mouse all the way to the left to hit the Discussion Board topic. It LOOKS correct because moving from left to right they seem logical. But the mouse should go to the most used place first.
3. The small thumbnail images shown of the shoots don't open big enough to be of much value. Maybe I'm wrong but they seem smaller than the old site's thumbs. But more annoying is the way the mouse-over pops up on the thumb just below the button you click to open the shoot. Move the thumbs down or separate them from the "click here to open shoot" link.
4. The various video formats available for each shoot are thrown in haphazard order. Sometime the mp4 item is on the left, sometimes on the right. You might want to standardize the positions.

There are still little mechanical glitches like this here and there. These are tiny and will be easy to clean up. Overall the new site is sleek, fast, attractive, and very usable. Kudos to all concerned.

[Stonefly]

I'm with Pullanisimo on the "number of clicks" issue. Would prefer to reduce clicks to get an image (of a user-settable perhaps?) desired size on screen. New site needs more clicks.

[Leprechaun]

But more annoying is the way the mouse-over pops up on the thumb just below the button you click to open the shoot. Move the thumbs down or separate them from the "click here to open shoot" link.

Hi Stonefly

Those flying thumbnails are also "click here to open shoot" links, even when popped up, so you can just click them. Think of it as playing Whack-a-pop-up. (I'd say "Whack-a-thumb", but that better describes me trying to hang a picture.)

[Frans]

I'm with Pullanisimo on the "number of clicks" issue. Would prefer to reduce clicks to get an image (of a user-settable perhaps?) desired size on screen. New site needs more clicks.

You can set preferences under 'My Account' to show pic fullsize immediately.

[Stonefly]

Frans, just looked in there and didn't see how to do this. As my French intern used to say, "Explain me please?"

[Frans]

Frans, just looked in there and didn't see how to do this. As my French intern used to say, "Explain me please?"

Go to 'My Account -> Preferences' ( http://www.abbywinters.com/myaccount/preferences ) , you want the box labeled 'Image display mode' prolly set to 'Original Size' (default is auto-resize).

[Stonefly]

OK, I tried that (and will post here later whether it worked..) but I find another question. When I make changes on the My Account -> Preferences page I see only a single button at the bottom saying "Reset to Defaults" rather than anything that says, "Save Changes." Is this my error or yet another little glitch?

[Stonefly]

Yes, the clicking on a thumb now goes to the "original size" view which is great. I would suggest you alter the Preferences page to better explain this. Also, I still think that the "Community" tab should let you drop the mouse directly down to the "Bulletin Boards" menu choice (everyone will use this every day) rather than requiring you to move the mouse over to the left past two much less-used menu choices. I have to say the new site is really slick and works extraordinarily well.

[Frans]

OK, I tried that (and will post here later whether it worked..) but I find another question. When I make changes on the My Account -> Preferences page I see only a single button at the bottom saying "Reset to Defaults" rather than anything that says, "Save Changes." Is this my error or yet another little glitch?

Changes are saved instantly.

[bookmanz]

I still think that the "Community" tab should let you drop the mouse directly down to the "Bulletin Boards" menu choice (everyone will use this every day) rather than requiring you to move the mouse over to the left past two much less-used menu choices. I have to say the new site is really slick and works extraordinarily well.

That's a good idea about making the bulletin boards choice easier.

AW has really done well with the conversion to CMS2, it looks great.

[wolfgangbuster29]

Originally Posted by Stonefly
I still think that the "Community" tab should let you drop the mouse directly down to the "Bulletin Boards" menu choice (everyone will use this every day) rather than requiring you to move the mouse over to the left past two much less-used menu choices. I have to say the new site is really slick and works extraordinarily well.

That's a good idea about making the bulletin boards choice easier.

AW has really done well with the conversion to CMS2, it looks great.

Agreed. I find the current configuration with having to slide the mouse around the dropdown a bit cumbersome.

[toeluvr]

Agreed. I find the current configuration with having to slide the mouse around the dropdown a bit cumbersome.

I don't use that link. I just moved one of the discussion board widgets up to the top of the page and now I just click on its link.

[laktor]

Is there any way you can view the pic numbers in a photo set, so that you can refer to a particular pic in a discussion on the boards? In the old format, the pic numbers were directly below each pic.

[mrpinkeyes]

Question.... and not overly important but why is Caitlyn Y show up as the first model in the oldest to newest sort???
Does that just happen to me?? As I said not overly important.

Thanks

Pinky

[Frans]

Is there any way you can view the pic numbers in a photo set, so that you can refer to a particular pic in a discussion on the boards? In the old format, the pic numbers were directly below each pic.

Just copy/paste the url as shown above the page when viewing the single image. Like this: http://www.abbywinters.com/shoot/lil...stills/lily003

If all you want is the image number, just hoover over the picture and it will show up.

[JacksonP49]

I don't know whether this is a question or a critique, but it is that when I click on a tag, half the time I get no results. In fact I would say it's more than half the time. It doesn't seem to matter where I find the tag, whether it's in the random tags box or the recent tags box or whether I press "see more tags" and select one that looks interesting. What is the use of having a tag that's not connected to anything?

[Frans]

That's indeed not very useful and not how it's supposed to work. Could you copy/paste some of the links/url's to tags page you get here (and how you ended up there would be helpful as well) ?

[hippoid]

I had this problem with tags, but have realised that the default setting means that what comes up first is SHOOTS that carry that tag; if you click IMAGES in the left column, you will (slowly) get something.
But I agree it is confusing, and - frankly - a pretty clunky system as it is now set up.

[JacksonP49]

Frans, what I did was click on tags in the "recent tags" and "random tags" boxes on the members' home page. Below are the URLs of the pages I was taken to, both of which informed me that my search yielded no results.

http://www.abbywinters.com/browse/most+beautiful+of+AB

http://www.abbywinters.com/browse/floral+print

I also tried keying the tags into the search box, but got the same result, ie, nothing.

I read what Hippoid wrote, but I can't find a way to search for images. The results I get are always shoots. It would be far better if I could choose whether I wanted to see images or shoots when I search.

[garionhall]

We're aware of this bug, and we're working on fixing it. A painful workaround is to select different filters from the left (models, images, shoots, etc).

[BigSpud]

Changes are saved instantly.

I would appreciate a SAVE button too. Instantly saving the changes is great, but it gives the user NO feedback and as we all know not every web transaction goes through.

[BigSpud]

Hi,

Not wanting to piss on anyone's parade, or anything, but I have to say that I much prefer CMS1 to CMS2. Mostly, its because I prefer the simpler formatting in CMS1, and the fact that it takes you half as many clicks to get a full sized image in front of you, ....... and the way the new site is set up is putting me off...

I TOTALLY agree. I am finding the new arrangement much more difficult to navigate. And Tags compared to lists falls WAY short. With Lists you had a description of the intent of the list with tags there is only the tag line and that is very inconsistent. Also there doesn't seem to be the site maintained tags where there were strict criteria for inclusion in a tag. With lists there were site sponsored lists and user lists. Puffy Nipples for example. The tags for puffy include models who (IMHO) are not puffy.

Another thing I am struggling with the multiple selection. With the old system you clicked on the little box and it was checked or unchecked. With the multiselect if you click (and forget the ctrl key) you lose what you had previously selected. Also when I let go of the lasso sometimes the save image dialog pops up and then everything is wonkey because when I cancel that the mouse is way off from the image I intended to include and lots more stuff gets greyed out and some of the images I had previously selected are toggled out of the selection. I found the reason for this is that releasing the mouse button over the image causes the save dialog, but if I am very careful and release over a non-image spot it is OK.

Maybe I am just too old a dog to learn new tricks, but I am not liking my AW experience (sitewise -- the girls are still great).

BigSpud

One more thing I just thought of as I was preparing to select some images --

When downloading the resultant selection there is not a good name for it. Lists used to include the list name as the default. Also I found myself redownloading the previous selection over and over until I remembered to click the clear button. I would suggest an option to clear the selection upon download. I understand about allowing selection across models, but why keep it after a download?

[Frans]

I would appreciate a SAVE button too. Instantly saving the changes is great, but it gives the user NO feedback and as we all know not every web transaction goes through.

Look in the upper-right corner of the setting you just clicked on, you will see a green check-mark appearing. You can guess what it means I'm sure

I've filed a feature-request for your clear-selection-after-saving-zip idea, good one.

I can't reproduce the multi-select save-dialog bug you mention. What page does it occur on, thumbnail page of a shoot? Which browser does it occur in?

If you think a model/shoot/pic should NOT have a certain tag, vote against it. Hoover over tag and click on the thumb down icon. That way the tags are sort of member-supported so to speak. If tag doesn't fit, vote it down.

[bulldogm3]

Please bring back pre-selected photo topic lists, i.e. "standing in the nude". This was a wonderful way to select from a list, or to download topics, like models interacting with trees, or redheads, etc, that were interesting.

[BigSpud]

Look in the upper-right corner of the setting you just clicked on, you will see a green check-mark appearing. You can guess what it means I'm sure

I've filed a feature-request for your clear-selection-after-saving-zip idea, good one.

Thank you.

I can't reproduce the multi-select save-dialog bug you mention. What page does it occur on, thumbnail page of a shoot? Which browser does it occur in?

Opera, all pages of thumbs.

I have a 'sort of' work around since it involves less clicking. I put 100 images on the screen at once, reduce the window to 50% and I can actually see every thumbnail. I can then lasso the images I want. Things were really bad when I had big thumbs (always a problem) and I had to try to scroll the page as well as select images. I just have to be careful to make sure that the number of the image doesn't pop up before I let go of the mouse.

Lassoing is faster than checking about 5 or more pics in a row.

If you think a model/shoot/pic should NOT have a certain tag, vote against it. Hoover over tag and click on the thumb down icon. That way the tags are sort of member-supported so to speak. If tag doesn't fit, vote it down.

Maybe, but I have satellite internet and the more interactions I have with a website the longer it takes. I am looking at probably 15 to 30 seconds per vote. Not inspiring.

BS