Whats happening with Photopost - Page 3

Michael P · September 16th, 2010, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DefenceTalk.com

Now that kids are happy with their flash uploader, can we get some real development done and consider some of the features myself and others have been asking for?

Honestly, I don't break our customers apart by age group. Anyone who has paid for our product deserves to have their input considered.

Alfa1 · September 19th, 2010, 07:46 AM

IPB is releasing a complete overhaul of IP.Gallery this year. In their IP.gallery 4.0 Manifesto they generally describe that IP.Gallery 3 is outdated due to the development of the internet over the years and therefor a full overhaul was needed. Its a very similar situation to photopost.

I have no doubt that the announced vbulletin gallery also plays a factor in this release. If we look at the other software that IP.B has been ramping up in the last year, we see that they have mostly released things that vbulletin license owners wanted or vbulletin announced to release. IP.B then released it faster, better and sometimes free. So with the announcement of vbulletin that they are releasing a Gallery I would not be surprised if IP.Gallery will be a very good, modern release with full fledged gallery functionality that surpasses Photopost Pro.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt

Revolution
The "truth" of the application is very simple:

Upload some media into an album
View, discuss and share that media.

Our aim is to streamline those processes so that they are intuitive and modern. We're not content with basic static pages anymore. We want to interact with the site like we would a desktop application and the new Gallery delivers that experience.

IP.Gallery 4.0 is a huge upgrade; the single biggest upgrade it has ever seen. We're blasting out the cobwebs and introducing a slick new interface that never loses sight of what a Gallery should be. We're simplifying permissions and accessibility to remove the clutter and confusion.

We want you to fall in love with Gallery again.

When will you be able to post a similar announcement for Photopost Pro? I would love to see that happening.

Trews · October 12th, 2010, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfa1

IPB is releasing a complete overhaul of IP.Gallery Blah-blah-bla....

When will you be able to post a similar announcement for Photopost Pro? I would love to see that happening.

I left IPB because of their yearly overhauls and coding revolutions.
Better keep things steady .

Alfa1 · October 12th, 2010, 01:20 PM

Forums are falling out of grace. They need to keep up with the times. The same goes for image galleries. its a bit hard for a photopost gallery to compete with flickr and related modern functionality.

Sometimes its good to exaggerate a little to make a point more clear: Imagine how it would be to use ubb from 1999 nowadays and compete with boards running xenforo and IPB. Falling behind the times is a problem when you are in the race for attracting internet users and aiming for growth.

If a good system is outdated in regard to modern demand, then it needs to be updated. Why would anyone want to use a third party image gallery, if their forum software already provides an image gallery? I think the answer is: because the third party image gallery outperforms the default image gallery.
So if thats the reason for photopost pro customers to use it, then this relation to default image galleries needs to be kept a close eye on.

jkelley · October 16th, 2010, 10:48 PM

well i may sound like a total novice here (oh yeah i am) but i have some great and some really not so great things to say about PP.

My business partner and i just built (had it built) for us. we r using vb 3.6 (because has too many bugs) PP 7.02 and wordpress. my web designer did have issues with the WP part but got it worked out after about 3 days.

now i'm guessing our business is different from most who i've seen post here. we own a digital scrapbooking store. and i have to say in OUR business 98% of the galleries are PP and our customers like consistency. it does what we want and need from a gallery. So props.

what i would like to see improved is integration into the VB admin panel so i don't have to go back and forth.

also...someone needs to update the support info. while the info is great and i can follow anything it says it leaves a whole lot out. i currently have 5 issues i can't figure out and am having a nervous breakdown over it. the major one being we can't open the site up for business until the "gallery only avatars" quit showing the IP address under them. i am not getting sued that's for sure.

i don't know what support came with our purchase (we have had it about a month) but i'd sure like it to be more clear where i can get help.

Trews · October 17th, 2010, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Forums are falling out of grace. They need to keep up with the times. The same goes for image galleries. its a bit hard for a photopost gallery to compete with flickr and related modern functionality.

IMHO. Forums should stay as forums. What modern forums need is a good photo-gallery(Photo-Forum) and secure PM. Nothing more.

Michael P · October 19th, 2010, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkelley

the major one being we can't open the site up for business until the "gallery only avatars" quit showing the IP address under them. i am not getting sued that's for sure.

First off, the only people who can see IP addresses are Admins and mods; secondly, you cant be sued for displaying an IP address (on what basis?).

Regardless, you dont have to worry, only your trusted Admin/mods can see that info.

jalmz · October 28th, 2010, 02:12 AM

My Wishlist

1. Facebook Integration - Log in with Facebook, Facebook Like, Share

2. Twitter Button and other social media

3. STABLE Photo Upload using Flash. Like Wordpress and Coppermine.

4. Ajax Photo view, next and back shud be ajax.

5. SEO - image sitemap, seo header meta tags

6. CSS - table less

7. Advertisement Block - Like Vbulletin

8. Flash Slide Show

Ramses · October 28th, 2010, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jalmz

My Wishlist

1. Facebook Integration - Log in with Facebook, Facebook Like, Share

2. Twitter Button and other social media

3. STABLE Photo Upload using Flash. Like Wordpress and Coppermine.

4. Ajax Photo view, next and back shud be ajax.

5. SEO - image sitemap, seo header meta tags

6. CSS - table less

7. Advertisement Block - Like Vbulletin

8. Flash Slide Show

4-7 I can agree, but flash isn't really an advantage.

Chuck S · October 28th, 2010, 07:39 AM

yeah flash is slow look at places like facebook yuck

anyway now that vbGallery is out of beta we are going to work on PhotoPost Pro. Now there is no list of what we will or will not ad as stuff like above most of the stuff are minor except maybe a template redesign.

The one main core thing we are working on for sure and will take most of the time is going to be a UI redesign which was promised to customers before all this vb4 support stuff began. This will be a major undertaking.

Alfa1 · November 1st, 2010, 05:47 PM

Just general heads up regarding IP.Gallery 4: Please watch their latest videos (in their company blog) about the upcoming version and you will see that this upcoming version is a vast improvement over their existing gallery. Judging from the limited information available, it is possible that it could outperform Photopost Pro in terms of functionality and modern UI. It's some hard to say, but its obvious they are taking large steps forward and they will continue to do so.

Michael P · November 11th, 2010, 07:42 PM

He has posted some interesting items; I'm working on framework for PP4 already and social networking interaction is at the top of my list, as are potential redesigns to the way we do templates (and a redesign of the interface as well to bring a cleaner look), and exploring a mobile skin, too.

I find it interesting they are looking at pulling back functionality, like members albums; I get the whole "simpler may be better", but we're had allot of pushback when we try to take functionality away even if its to try and improve the overall product. Even changing the way we show members photos (into the search area) was a big deal for some users. I can't even imagine the pushback we'd get it we eliminated members albums (or something like that).

The challenge for PhotoPost is not in supporting one product, but in support all products/integrations. We currently have three template sets - PhotoPost, vB3 and vB4. Changing one potentially means changing all and thats 3x the work (easily).

I'm not saying it wont be done - it will, but the complexity for us is much greater when we have to support more than one product. It seems clear to me that IP.Gallery will offer some of the functionality of PRO, but won't have nearly the versatility of it and, of course, will only work with IP.Board.

Alfa1 · November 11th, 2010, 08:24 PM

Thanks for the answer Michael. its good to read that template redesign, UI redesign and mobile skin are at the top of your list.

When you mention social networking, then do you consider flickr?

DefenceTalk.com · November 11th, 2010, 08:32 PM

Michael,

Thanks for the update. Flash isn't really SEO friendly so I hope it isn't given priority as it was last time. I would like to see TAGS put into play along with proper img alt text for thumbnails.

Also, I would like to see the medium photo page move UP a little bit and move the clutter (2 bars) going across, to a sidebar. SOmething like youtube did with the videos, the title of the video is so close to the header and video underneath it while other junk like related videos (pictures in this case) are on sidebar to the right. However, I would like to see sidebar as a option for admins to have it on right or left side.

In addition to that, I think being able to show categories in COLUMNS would be a HUGE plus for many folks who have LONG list of categories and it doesn't do justice when you have to show them all on homepage.

Michael P · November 12th, 2010, 09:26 AM

With social networking - I'd like to update our profile area, embed sharing tools, TAGS, geo-mapping (reading IPTC tags, etc).

With SEO - sitemaps and a revisit of the RSS feeds.

With designs - I'm still working on how it might look, again, trying to please everyone but needing to achieve some balance. I'd like to add even more AJAX and I like the highslide.com javascript slideshows. On the main index page - we have the two formats - gallery and forum listing, maybe the gallery layout - do we need a third? Maybe. But, again, the more templates we build the harder it is to standardize them.

I would love to be able to start over with just one template design, but vB3 and vB4 support make that nearly impossible. The number of variations we allow through switches make this a daunting task.

Alfa1 · November 12th, 2010, 09:44 AM

Have you thought about using a format that is easily put into a vbCMS content type?
Vaultwiki is working on such an approach for their wiki software. This makes it easier for them to integrate with vbulletin, but also with IPB and XF.

I'd like to push for more jQuery, Motools, GWT and modern interfaces. Similar to Imagevuex and flickr. Highslide was cool many years ago. Please forget about it now.

The most important thing IMHO is more integration. Having two systems that function fully separate is really too confusing and in result members will just ignore the image gallery and post images in forum. I see this on my big board and on the boards of many other admins.

I dont want to have two profiles for my members.
I dont want two sets of member albums.
I dont want to have two functions for new content.
I dont want two search engines.

I want to use vbulletin profiles and have all photopost image gallery functions on there.
I want vb albums and PP albums to integrate or to have one replace the other. But albums need to be on profiles. Possibly they could be both on profiles as in the album listing.
I want the 'what's new' search to show new photos.
I want PP content to be searchable from the vb search engine.

I get millions of users on my boards and many view and post images. But still Photopost is not popular for the reasons above. This forces me and other webmasters to find solutions for this. That is exactly why a vbulletin image gallery is so high in demand.

Michael P · November 12th, 2010, 10:34 AM

For a more integrated vB gallery, you would need to go with vBGallery; that level of integration from PRO just isnt possible given the architecture and need to support as a stand-alone or within the dozen or more other forums we integrate with.

I agree that a flash based galleries looks nice for simple presentations, but when it comes to the complexity of a community gallery, I dont think they scale well and the user experience is lacking (such as the ability to comment on a photo or read photos or have contest categories).

Alfa1 · November 12th, 2010, 10:55 AM

What level of integration does vb gallery offer?

When I originally selected Photopost Pro as the best image gallery I could find, I found vb Gallery to be inferior to Photopost Pro in terms of functionality. That was back in 2006. Has vb Gallery changed much since then?

Michael P · November 12th, 2010, 10:57 AM

It has changed and is much more integrated with vBulletin than PRO will even be, but is an entirely different product with its own feature set. It was almost completely rewritten for vB4 as well. What it doesn't do that you were asking about is integrate albums and galleries into one place - I'm not sure how that would even work really. The pain is that the framework of vB4 changes even between dot releases these days, but we're keeping up.

Alfa1 · November 12th, 2010, 11:05 AM

I can understand that. Im not going to upgrade any large board to vb4, before their bug count becomes acceptable and it becomes somewhat stable in terms of functionality set and rewrite. Many large boards stick to vb 3.8 for the foreseeable future. It will likely be 4.2 before I consider it an upgrade from 3.8.

Is there a comparison between PP and vbG somewhere?