Feedback for new India Images section

Agreed. There are some changes coming that will be more aesthecially please.

A little off topic here ... but comments like this fascinate me. What do they really mean? Stay with what works until it doesn't? Or, if you have a good thing going, leave it as is? In the web world, where new sites popup by the second (or micro second) and innovation is the key to survival, staying the same is a death sentence. As an example, I suggest reading up on the tale of My Space vs Facebook.

Sounds like something that would be useful. I'll take a look to see what it would take to get this done.

Thanks Nadreg. I look forward to the random images!

did you ever see the feature on the old page? it was a strip of approx 5x3 thumbnails (others please correct me), automatically generated at the bottom of the photo's homepage. there was a simple text button which said Refresh images.
I imagine it is a feature built in somewhere, or else the coding should be straightforward.

Also, just in the spirit of giving feedback - I think the "Image" section should be called "Photos".

"Images" suggests something not exciting, or site-generated, whereas photo's are what we take when we travel, and want to look at. It's more inviting.

cheerio

There are images of carriage layout diagrams and things like that in the images section, but generally not. I do know what you mean and when you consider the latest forum of Travel Photologues, it would never have been called Travel Imagelogues.

"images" for the old fogies, more inclusive. For the young and trendy, more, err... young and trendy. For the Pedants ...not wrong!

Gallery might be a good alternative.
Well, it certainly means if you have a good thing, stick with it. But that doesn't exclude building on it and improving it. But I don't need to tell you that: the IM of today is a far cry from that which ran from a server under Mike's bed, but it still has exactly the same essence, terminology and, for the most part, mechanics. Forums have not become "walls" (or whatever Facebook does*, I don't use it); workspaces have not become "lenses" (or whatever is the current Shuttleworth [Ubuntu Linux] madness) and we have not had to struggle with the imposition of a "unity" or "metro" [Ballmer's Unity] interface. Change is not good --- unless it is a good change**.


*But where does that leave us when the whole internet has come to regard Facebook as the norm, the standard way of interacting?
So, what you need to survive is not change but building on good.

**But choice is almost always good

That's what I also found difficult to navigate. And i also stand by the points mentioned about the visibility of comments.

thanks for the effort.

I'm not sure if this post should be in Feedback for the New Images Section or Feedback for the New Search Engine
Anyway, here goes.

I have now done some experimenting and it appears, sadly, that the search engine does not search photo comments and nor, it appears, does google .

I had a hazy recollection of a photo by snonymous which I had found interesting and had commented on so I set myself the challenge of finding it. All I could recall was that it was terrace farming in Tamil Nadu.

I looked at snonymous's photo gallery but couldn't see how to search it by keyword. The same when I looked at the Tamil Nadu photos. I tried the general search engine with author snonymous and keyword terrace but that brought up photos of birds and flowers taken from her terrace in Mumbai . Finally I struck lucky with this search with the keyword tea and this is the photo which I remembered:
Garlic - The New Green Gold!

So far so good.

BUT, when I try to search IM for the word monocrop which I had used in my comment it brings up nothing
http://www.indiamike.com/india-searc...=&qry=monocrop

Snonymous had also said this interesting sentence in a comment but a search of IM for Eupatorium does not bring it up
http://www.indiamike.com/india-search?qry=Eupatorium

So it seems that our search engine doesn't cover photo comments. I tried google using this sentence (complete with spelling mistake ) from my comment: "Good for biodiversity anyway, I wouln't want to see monocrop garlic any more than monocrop tea."

It brought up one result only - a cached page of comments from IM.
This is the page.

But it didn't find snonymous's photo here in the new Images Section. Bizarre! Does google not 'read' the text in photo comments?



I did another experiment using Darklord's Funky Bird which RWHFY had named (with a now-broken link) as a Paradise Flycatcher.
A search of IM for photos of Paradise Flycatcher gives 2 results only and doesn't include Darklord's.
http://www.indiamike.com/india-searc...sort=relevance

I wondered if it might be because of RWHFY's formatting of the name as P a r a d i s e .. F l y c a t c h e r. But a search for that brought up one photo, by Lou Wilson, of a Black-Capped Kingfisher
http://www.indiamike.com/india-searc...sort=relevance




So my request, nadreg, is to please make the links in comments work and to make the comments searchable. There is a wealth of information there and it is a real shame if people using the site cannot find it.

And I repeat my request for there to be a way to quickly scan recent comments. It wouldn't have to be on the main page of the Images Section - I can handle a couple of clicks to get to it - but I think it would make those of us who used to be viewers and commenters as opposed to uploaders more likely to start interacting in the photo section again.

Agree with much mentioned above, particularly regarding comments - I really miss being able to see the latest comments left.

Another thing I miss - being able to view and sort people's galleries - especially one's own - by 'date added'/'number of views'/'latest or most comments', etc.

And of course, the random image generator would be welcome.

On reading the comments it doesn't seem on the face of it that there's too many things missing from the images section.

• Indexing image comments - doesn't seem this would be too hard to implement (but hey what do I know!?).
• Nadreg has already said he'll look into a random image generator.
• A few extra sort options with galleries maybe?
• A quick view to see recent comments?

I would tend to agree with you, OT. That's why I'd still like to see Mach's list of user suggested changes where 95% still remain as pending.

In the meantime, I will take a look at implementing the set you've compiled above.

• Restore the links in comments which became broken when transferred to the new Images section. Also formatting - paragraphs, quotes and smilies etc
• Give us the ability to put in links, formatting etc in new comments, as for posts.

As I told you in private, I will try and do that, and in my own good time (so little lame to suggest here after I wrote that to you that I'd somehow be stalling on it). That could be tomorrow, or next week, or in several months. It is no mean task as I'm sure you will be aware, and it technically isn't my business. You can of course run over it yourself again, and see what has or hasn't been really fixed. That is of course the job you've taken on, it isn't mine. If you then invite user comments but don't act on them, that of course doesn't leave a good impression, nor a good feeling with many. Or tell us what just can't be fixed, or isn't desirable to. That would then be clear, and I suppose indeed fair enough. I mean it is of course after all your site, and must cause you plenty of headaches in many a field, you can do what you want with it, and have every right to. And you will always be looking at the much broader picture, and so on. I've been in not dissimilar positions myself, and indeed with users always giving you a hassle about their impossible and utopian wishes and having not a clue about what's really going on there. I don't envy any site owner, let alone running a forum like this. I would however and meanwhile rather turn that question around: Why hasn't a lot of stuff been fixed yet, indeed months after the new galleries' implementation, and members and avid users of the galleries saying in black and white and no uncertain terms what they would like?

Any sum-up of mine and going over this thread, as indeed you have before, would tap into some of the complaints that have been brought up again just above, and that now seem to be kind of getting poo-pooed away.

I haven't been adding to those, since indeed I'd rather feed you the full list in private; but I have some serious complaints there, myself.

Put your money where your considerable mouth is, Mach. Produce the evidence that I have poo poohed or ignored 95% of comments that users have submitted in black and white. Either that, or stop making blanket statements to the contrary.

So I will. And like I said: In my very own good time.

(When I renewedly dare to voice a word of critique just above, and others and not the least of members immediately chime in to say they're not so happy, either, don't you think that should be telling you something? Dang.)

Can I suggest that compiling this list isn't down to Mach to have to do and that we can all help to do it.

Why not keep the list that Julia and I have noted a few things down on and keep it going, bearing in mind that this list is about improving what we have currently, so suggestions like 'go back to the old images sections' won't be useful.

So here's the list as I see it at the moment. If you have something to add to it, copy the whole list into a new post and add your requirement on. Let's see if this works.

Note, I know we've got bulleted lists available to us but it doesn't seem to be easy to copy one and add to it. So let's do this as a normal set of paragraphs.


List of Issues With the Current Images Section
Searching: Indexing image comments - doesn't seem this would be too hard to implement (but hey what do I know!?). (JuliaF)
Random image generator. (IndyBoy)
Sorting: extra sort options with galleries maybe? (ShiverMeTimbers)
Comments: A quick view to see recent comments? (JuliaF)
Restore the links in comments which became broken when transferred to the new Images section. Also formatting - paragraphs, quotes and smilies etc (JuliaF)
Links/Formatting: give us the ability to put in links, formatting etc in new comments, as for posts. (JuliaF)