New Site Update After Opening

[John A.]

Here are some updates and answers to questions that have come up.

1. I am totally surprised by the comments of people having trouble seeing the shows. That is one area we did NOT CHANGE!!??? We will try to work with people to find the problems, but nothing changed on the shows EXCEPT:
2. IF YOU WATCH IN A CHROME BROWSER: The older shows can be seen but there is a glitch. You must click on the artist's picture and not the Show Name. We have no idea why yet. Every other browser works just fine. So you Chrome users, go the show list and pick an older show, then click on the artist's picture. You should be able to see any show this way.
3. The "Favorite" system we purchased, did not work. We are working to find a new system.
4. The forum and the Community area are new and have great powers that we are trying to learn. I am bringing in a moderator to field questions and help us learn how these features can improve the community. We have talked with experts on "groups" to find out what features they want. We think groups are going to be a big deal. We will see how to enable these features. However, be patient. This area will be addressed next month.
5. Thank you for your comments on how the different areas are set up. We can tailor many of them. We love that the blogs are easier to read, but there is a change that we couldn't fix that has affected how we post our blogs. We used to have the blogs tied to the newsletter but you could see one's that had not appeared on the Daily Blog. We then brought them out over the next several days. The new system will not allow you to see unpublished blogs. So all of the blogs that we tie to the newsletter on Friday morning have to be published on Thursday afternoon and Friday night.
6. Because of the problem in number 5 we are thinking about making the newsletters shorter and sending them out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We are developing an "Artist's Wednesday" where we feature a quilt teacher each Wednesday. We will see what is new, what is their latest quilt, or just have Alex or Ricky call them for an update. What are your thoughts about 3 short newsletters rather than 2 long ones??
8. Now to Member Blogs. The Member Blogs were highly cherished, but not highly used. We looked into a new system we want to try. It is on the site now, but we haven't opened for use yet. As for past blogs, we still have them, but don't know how to bring them over yet. So Member Blogs are coming soon.
7. We have some great plans to make the site more fun, more interactive, and easier to navigate as we get a handle on all the new features. Hang in there.

This is a long post so I will stop now and keep in touch more often. I will admit that things would have gone faster but we had two major blow ups. One was that Gift Certificates did not redeem correctly (all the Houston people!!!) and a lot of people decided to create a second account and the system got confused. We have our entire team working full time to resolve these problems. That is why other areas are coming soon.

[Renata L.]

John, thanks for the update--it is very useful, especially since there are no release notes to help guide us through the new features and there are a lot of questions, both regarding things we don't know how to do and things that we try to do and they end up not working.

The messaging system seems not to work--we used to have the ability to send either a message or private message to another member. Sending .a message is a feature that those of us who are quite active on the Forum used frequently under the old system. I can't seem to find that here. Am I missing it or is it not here? The Private Message feature is clearly here and can be accessed from a number of points; however, it does not work. In particular, the icon for inserting a recipient does not respond. Have you identified a timeline for fixing that and will we be able to send a message or only a private message?

Also, for those of us who use the Show and Tell feature frequently, there is no icon to insert a new picture as there is in the Quilt Show and Tell. Was that an oversight or is there another way to post our Show and Tell items? I'm sure, by now you've seen that other members miss the ability to describe their Show and Tell items--is that a feature that is gone forever?

Glad to see you provided this update--since there are growing pains on both sides, yours and ours, with this new system, it is important and reassuring to see you pipe up with updates and explanations so that we're not left hanging when something does not seem to work or when we don't understand something (like, what was the intent of having a Karma meter, how does that help you or us? Knowing your intent there, for example, would be helpful for us in using the feature appropriately). Thanks again and best wishes in this journey of transition. Now back to quilting!

[Lois B.]

Appreciate all the work being done to improve our experience here. I have two concerns. One about the Blogs. and the other about some quality tutorial information that did not get carried over in necessary detail from the Forum.

1. I wish the Member Blogs were used more and maybe they will be with a more user friendly system. It was so easy to loose everything in process and that may have discouraged those of us who are technoligically challenged to use it at all. I am one who cherishs it because I think quilting is about recording stories/history. This whole cyber quilting community is a very new thing and those blogs are an important part of the history of that phenomena. Enough said about that. I know you will do what you can

2. I wish someone would look at BOM 2014 I/2 Sized thread. There is amazing tutorial work done there that apparently has not come through in detail on the new site. I believe it deserves Class room status so it 1) dosen't get lost and 2) more members would know it's available.

Thanks again for all your hard work. TQS is the best.

[Robin G.]

Capt'n John, Thank you for the update! I know they take a while to compose, but it does so help us to see them from you and knowing what is being worked on and what is having problems. This morning, I realized that my renewal hadn't taken affect, and I sent an email. You can ignore that now that I see your message, and next time I have a question, I'll check this Forum thread first!

[Janet K.]

Thanks capt john for all the info. Could you also address the issue of iPad problems with the new system. I use my iPad almost exclusively to connect to the show. I cannot add photos to the forum with my iPad. I can do it on my desk top.

Thanks again. Janet

[John A.]

I'm going to try to upload a picture from my iPhone 6+ (do you detect a smug Apple sense of superiority??? B)

[John A.]

Show and tell is currently hidden but coming soon. I will check on private messaging. You will also be able to private message in the community area soon.

[Renata L.]

John, under the old system you could either send an email or private message. If the member receiving the email did not mind sharing their email address, all they had to do was respond to that email. Will that still be available? It is very useful. Thanks!

[John A.]

[video width=425 height=344 type=youtube]http://youtu.be/4BwjohHiI1Y[/video]I'm going to try to insert a YouTube video. Ihttp://youtu.be/4BwjohHiI1Y

[Jo H.]

John, I don't see a video and am viewing the site from my desktop computer.

[Renata L.]

John, while on the FORUM, I just asked a question about the role of the moderator under the topic of where are the blogs. Because I found your response, I deleted my question. However, when I went over to TQS COMMUNITY, my question was still there! That's not right.. a DELETE should be a DELETE! Looks like a glitch to me...

Also, my settings are set up to MEMBERS ONLY, yet anyone can see anything I write on the FORUM even though I've intended it for members, not the general public. Even if you don't have a membership (even a free one), anyone can read the FORUM entries. Is there somewhere in the Terms and Conditions that says that's okay? Why have privacy settings if they can't be used? I love to share information and be free with my words with other members; this is a great place to do it. But if the Forum is completely available to non-members, I just as soon participate a whole lot less. I'm sure I am not the only one who feels this way. A simple google search brings up EVERYTHING we say on the FORUM. BTW, after I write something on the FORUM, when I switch over to TQS COMMUNITY, I noticed that, despite my settings, everything attributed to me is "public" not "members only" as I have my preferences set to...

I'd appreciate it, if at some time, when convenient, you could address some of these issues with your members. I understand how busy everyone must be in trying to address the various issues you might not have anticipated in the transition. They can wait, but they are important underlying issues.

[Renata L.]

John, I don't see a video and am viewing the site from my desktop computer.

Me, too. I don't see a video from my desktop computer.

[John A.]

I checked online and uploading pictures with an iPad is an issue. I will have our new moderator help with this.

[Janet K.]

I did see the video just now on my iPad.

Thanks for checking on uploading photos with iPad! Janet

[Janet K.]

Also it looks like your photo uploaded. How did you do it. Janet