Tuesday was supposed to see the down time that would end with new and wonderful things here at Renderosity.  I understand that things change... that there is a need to update, invigorate, procreate and generally shake things up.  Things got shook, all right... and I'm wondering if the community that I once considered 'home' will ever be welcoming again...

It's now the following Friday evening.  I cannot even find my homepage here without opting to view (on the sidebar) "Old Front Page".  That, in itself, does not bode well.  If the new and improved site is what it's supposed to be, why am I offered a step back in time?  And what in the world would new visitors make of that particular option?  What new visitor would want to view an "old" front page?

But, let's go with the flow for a moment.  I happen to know that the "Old Front Page" was a familiar sight and a friendly place to "get things done".  So I opt for the Old Front Page.  At least there I have some member options... and I opt to head over to my homepage.  And it takes me there... breathe a sigh of relief...

Not for long, though.  The three images that I have chosen to represent my gallery are blank... with red X's to indicate broken links.  Ah... but not to worry too much... there's the link to my entire gallery just below those empty, ugly squares.  I click on that and I'm immediately launched into the What's New images encompassing the entire Renderosity gallery.  There are Poser chicks with huge, bare breasts and little anime cartoons with skeletal hands and feet... there are photographs of flowers and dogs and cats... and Terragen landscapes...

They're all very interesting... but they're not mine. 

And the link that is supposed to appear at the bottom of my gallery or homepage that I can use to direct my family and friends to my stuff here?  It's not there...  there's nothing there... just a few of my favorite images... twelve of them, in fact... with no way to view the other 100 or so...

I've cleared my cache... I've tossed my cookies (double entendre intended)... I've been patient... I've noticed the drop in "surfers online" go down to less than 400 earlier today... scary, that...

Still... still... I'm hangin' in... I'm optimistic... one of these years I'll understand the reasoning behind clicking on a thumbnail and seeing a squished, pixellated, horribly ugly rendition of an image that someone has worked so hard to achieve ... spent so much time rendering and post processing until it's just perfect... seemingly for the sole reason that three clicks are better than one when trying to see the finished item.  It boggles the mind and deflates the spirit...

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto"... and I just wanna go "home"...

Not a rant... just an observation in disappointment... :-

Ditto...

I understand that this is a HUGE place, and that an overhaul of this nature will mean some disruption to the normal services... but... maybe a little more forward thinking would have been in order BEFORE attempting to implement said changes.

From the looks of things, we have not only had the software updates, but a change of hosting as well... with different subdomains, etc... messy to say the least.

Did anyone have a map of how everything linked together BEFORE the switch? Did they then forcast how they were going to implement the software changes as well as the linkages - and what the new linkages should be? Because to this untrained eye, this certainly seems to have been one step in the process that was sadly underestimated...

Hopefully the diligent and hardworking tech staff will sort out this current mess and we shall return to normal programming soon...

T.

Yeah Yeah Yeah all pretty annoying, isn't it?

Bet the bots and mods don't like it either

Maybe we should all like Andreas [abmlober] suggested return in a month or so

With this new situation, they can not make everyone happy

They must have told the mods to hold on too for above links aren't working either

They chose to have people getting annoyed and bothered with this new gallery, and they just have to endure the consequences, like we do,,,

Guess this is just a way to have people go away, for them it's too difficult

OTOH they don't wanna stay behind on new developments in the world wide web architecture, concurrent galleries where most of us are a member of have a similar layout peeps don't complain much about, because it was just there

R'sity [camelot or excalibur or whatever] has just an Extreme 'Home' Makeover

All i am saying is Hold Your Horses, everything will be fine in a week or so

smile

Have a wonderful weekend

Harmen

Hi Loco :-)

you are right with your observation of three clicks. At first I thought the larger views were the original sized posts. Only with a bad quality now for some reason. Then I clicked on one and got a new window with the image in its intended beauty. I found another one I'd liked to view in full bloom - no new window, but my first choice had disappeared, was replaced by the second one. So go back again, re-open the first one...

And again the only way to have a nicer layout for the gallery is to buy a CSS book on Amazon.de and learn the stuff or try out here some of the ideas for the forum and sometimes end up with black letters on an even blacker background.

I won't stay away for one month - I am already here the next day :-) But I no longer feel home.
Where are the short notes I gave the favourite images? Or artists? Gone? Where can I edit those texts?

Normally I can get used to new stuff easily - I got used to Google Desktop Search and all the gadgets. I even got used to having it all de-installed and live without this helpful search again.
I got used to the Yahoo Desktop Widgets and won't de-install them in the near future. I get used to the glassy look of the new Vista Icons. I got used to listen to MP3 instead of CDs. I got used to a new boss, a different way to work in the office.
But why don't I get used to this new gallery layout???????????????

no need for getting to amazon.com to get yerself a book about CSS, while most of the stuff is to be found on the biggest library in the world

so here ya go

Friendly Bit

Hey, i actually like the new galleries. CSS and PHP has really opened up some stuff for the average person to do. and besides, now the gallery is customizable! go to the gallery, then go to "my options" and try fiddling with the CSS and see what happens.

Locomouse said "Still... still... I'm hangin' in... I'm optimistic... one of these years I'll understand the reasoning behind clicking on a thumbnail and seeing a squished, pixellated, horribly ugly rendition of an image that someone has worked so hard to achieve ... spent so much time rendering and post processing until it's just perfect... seemingly for the sole reason that three clicks are better than one when trying to see the finished item.  It boggles the mind and deflates the spirit..."
as far as i'm concerned, the littler image hasn't decreased in quality at all...on the contrary, it's made a lot of things a lot easier, there's nothing worse than going into a page and having the image blow your browser up to the size of jupiter. "hey! where'd the dang text go?"
that's my input.

Something 'good' happened though, the :b_crying: Hot20 :b_crying: is gone

gets tissues to dry the watering eyes

But guess it's all 'Under Construction' :b_funny:

Have a great day y'all

Harmen

hey! you're right! i wondered where the vote button was.
maybe it'll come back, but then again, all the same people were on the fractal 20 over and over. as long as the window weekly stays, i'm good.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2652270

There's a thread in the commnunity center showing some examples of the problem (and a CSS fix for those who don't like clicking twice to see the whole image). Unfortunately it seems Renderosity's plan is to create a smaller file when you upload an image, instead of telling the browser to shrink it during display as they're doing now. While this would theoretically fix the jagged lines, it would also mean no way around the extra click.

I kind of agree that images that don't fit the screen are bad, in the sense that one is not viewing them properly either. However, given that everyone uses a different resolution and certain types of images need to be big to show details,  the best solution to me is to include an option to turn off the resizing.

if they do that, you'd have to reload the larger image. and i've found that some image size reductions make the quality go downhill considerably (i.e. photoshop) i like it now, but i'm open to change too.

Quote - one of these years I'll understand the reasoning behind clicking on a thumbnail and seeing a squished, pixellated, horribly ugly rendition of an image that someone has worked so hard to achieve ... spent so much time rendering and post processing until it's just perfect... seemingly for the sole reason that three clicks are better than one when trying to see the finished item.

 

I just came back from a trip, opened my mailbox and started viewing images that my fave artists had posted during my absence. After about 50 extra click-and-wait-for-the-bigger-image -to-loads (and, subsequently, also 50 extra window closing clicks) I can only second your opinion completely. Please, please, Rosity staff, when you have the time, make the new screen between the gallery thumbnail/bot message and the actual, full-size work of art optional!
 

the full-size view is now in the options. you can set it up so that you can always have it at full size. you can also set this on the upload page

Programmers are working on making evrything regarding image resizing, etc. optional. :-)
So everyone will be happy. I know I am!

Cheers
Barb

Cheers and hugs to you, Barb... :)   This has been a bit of a difficult transition for many of us... including (and perhaps most of all)  the mods and ops here.  But the light at the end of the tunnel is looking ever so much brighter... and you've been very supportive throughout all of it.  Thanks for everything, hon!  oxoxox

Thank you for the encouragement!
I know how difficult this all is. Just let's hang together until we get back to normal but with all the new great features.
Group hug :-)

Barb

Looks like things are getting fixed.
I just know that somehow this new format makes browsing the galleries much faster for me.
With dialup it previously took several hours for me to go to the galleries I wanted to look at.
Now I can accomplish this in much shorter time. Thanks for the changes.

Also, I am enjoying everyone's avatars.
Marion

Quote - Programmers are working on making evrything regarding image resizing, etc. optional. :-)
So everyone will be happy. I know I am!

Cheers
Barb

That is wonderful news, shows yet again how responsive the staff here is to the wishes of the community! I found myself wondering why I reacted so strongly and so quickly to the changes, and came to the conclusion that it's because I'm way more hooked to this place than I think I am :D Keep up your great work!

By the way, browsing has become much faster than it was before now that things are a bit more stabilized after the initial hassle. Congrats on that too!