New year, new look, improvements throughout

hahaha! and my first thought was YIKES - my computer's gone completely wonky! but it does look fabulous - so pristine! thanks for all your hard work in keeping the site going :)

Absolutely love it! Great logo, great new look. Thanks, Ross!

I love it, Ross! Thank you! :)

I have no photos on the page until I click the title quite confusing when commenting Great Logo @scrivna I now have them on my tablet and phone but not on my desktop

Great job, Ross!

👍

Love it all. the new Logo, the arrows on the photos, the cleaner look, and your dedication to us!

Looks great!

looks nice, not sure about having the next arrows on the photos as when they change orientation or size from one to the next it involves moving the pointer to click the next... not a big deal but if you want/ need to go back through several at a time, it s a thing! view on black mode is good, works whether you have your browser zoomed or not. i like the logo.
THANKYOU for all the effort you put in, its reassuring that the site is in good health and we can continue to enjoy it , as we all do immensely.

Thank you Ross. It looks really good and I'm excited to see all the new changes.

The new look is great. It is always nice to change things around once in a while and the New Year is the best time of all!
One request, if I may.
I find that challenges get buried very quickly when there is a lot of activity under your 'Latest Discussions' section.
Also, there is a lot of duplication of Latest Discussions under the Hot Topics.
Would it be possible to give Themes and Challenges its' own section, and move the rest to your Hot Topics? Members would find it much to keep current with their challenges that way.
On another note, I began a Weekly So Happy It's Thursday (SH*T) list that compiles all challenges in one place to make it easy for members to see what is happening. It has been well received.
Would it be possible to put this weekly feature in your blog? That would make it really easy for the members to find rather than going back many pages in the Latest Discussions to find it.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to give our feedback.
Have a Happy New Year and all the best in 2019!

I did an update on my phone and thought that was what changed 'things' at first but then my laptop was the same .. now I am trying to think as to how it was before .. lol.. Love the new logo..

i miss the red notifications folder already, it was my drug lol the blue bell will take a bit of getting used to!

quick observation on my mobile display... on my laptop there's a bit of white space to the left of where the "white" page starts... so if i'm in the "feed", there's space between the left edge of my screen and the "365"... and there's space between the left edge of the screen and the edge of the image... it isn't there on my iPad mini nor on my iPhone and it makes things feel a little squished, if you know what i mean... as if there's a bit cut off on the left hand side (i don't think the image is cut off - it's just that it's right up against the edge of the screen so it feels like it might be)...

if this isn't making any sense let me know and i will post a couple screen clips to show you what i mean...

@northy Yes, you're right, it goes all the way to the edge on mobile & tablet now, to make the best use of the screen space.

@farmreporter I really want to make some changes to competitions to help make the experience better, I'll be in touch!

Very noticeable changes with a positive impact! Love the logo, too.

Thank you Ross, for all this work. The new looks is very elegant and clean, I like it very much, as well as the new logo.

Thanks Ross, looks great on my iPad. Will check out PC later today.

@farmreporter great idea

Thanks for the update Ross, I really like the clean new look and the logo looks great too. I've viewed images on my laptop and mobile phone and both look so much better, a very positive impact. I missed the red notification alert when I logged on but it's no big deal, I'll get used to the blue bell instead :)

ah ross thank you for the time you take for us all on 365! i also had the experience of thinking my screen had gone mad when i logged on this morning ... but i love the new design and logo and it does look clean and cool and ready for 2019 :) i also observed the lack of red alert, but will give myself a talking-to and look for the blue bell!

Something that I would like to see is a way to browse photos by tag such that I can see the full-sized image and easily move on to the next full-sized image. If I browse by tag, I get a page of thumbnails. If I click on one to see a larger image, I go to that photographer's page. Clicking on the right or left arrow gets me to the next or previous image by that photographer. I'd like a control that gets me to a full-sized image of the next photo from that tag.

Back after a rest and excited to see the changes

I'd like to see an easier way to find a particular theme and competition. For example, if I want to find what the latest B&W challenge is, I have to go to the "Themes and Competitions" discussions and keep hitting the next button until I find it. I can search for "B&W" or "Abstracts" or "Landscapes" or "Street", but the search results do not necessarily come up with the latest discussions of that theme. It would be nice if the discussions of the particular "Theme and Competitions" were kept together.

@Scrivna hey - I get it and it’s great to be able to max out the size! I wonder if you might want to consider moving the “365” button in by a hair? Right now it looks like it’s falling of the screen on my tablet... not on the phone - just the tablet... I’m sure I’ll get used to it regardless... and really - I’m loving the clean fresh look!

If i view 365 in portrait mode on my android phone it crops the top off my pics !!! If I flip to landscape it is ok.
I see this as a fault / bug .
My mother only likes viewing in portrait mode (she's 86 ) and many other people only do that too.

Can you fix this issue. Many Thanks

It's beautiful :)
I do miss the red notification thingie as others have mentioned... but apart from that it's fantastic - thanks Ross!

I noticed that the image I uploaded yesterday looks a bit blurred / un-sharp today, was wondering if it was related to the upgrade. I uploaded it again, the new version also looks blurred compared to the original. I checked some of my older images, and see the same issue. They seem to look OK on my phone... Could that be something with "upping the resolution", mentioned above? I've been scaling my images to 1024 px on the long side, they've always looked good before.

THANKS

- - - -
Update: I opened my page in Chrome (rather than Explorer, and it looks fine.

Also seems to address the issue that images weren't showing up on the main page.

I feel much better now....

Not crazy about the new format. I prefer the old site over this new format but I see I am very much in the minority on this. However, there are one thing I would ask you to fix on the new site. Please bring back the red notifications.

Thanks Ross! I haven't really had a chance to 'play' with it yet, but it looks much crisper!

I thought at first my eyes were improving and then I realized things were bigger and crisper and clearer. It works for me.

i've already commented above, ross, but i just wanted to say i am a bit of a font geek and i absolutely love this new one the more i see it :)

Great new logo. Not been on much recently but just retired so hope to get back into it.

I miss my red speech bubble too @kali66 can the blue bell turn colour to notify messages and comments please Ross???

Like new look, love the logo, at first couldn't see why you'd pug a wagon wheel there, but my phone screen is teeny!!! Hope Rachael didn't mind you working on this too long during the Christmas break?!

I like the redesign a lot Ross - thank you for all you hard work. One request: I nearly always prefer viewing my own images on black - would it be possible for that to be an upload option so that it happens automatically?

It was a surprise when it rolled out a I was using it last evening, but everything looks really good. I really appreciate all the hard work you put into this site.

@30pics4jackiesdiamond I think it turns from black to blue to notify you... it is a bit hard to *see* though...

Good clean and crisp re-design. Ross thank you and I truly appreciate all of your hard work. I second Richard's request.

I waited a few days to get used to the new design. I love it. I agree with comments on the notifications bell (the blue is very elegant but it required some time to understand it lol) and the black background upload (making white an option for the viewer). Also, I would like to add that I can’t switch to the black background on my iPhone. Thank you for the initiative!

I have no photos on my page as I scroll down just titles and comments does anyone else have this problem. @scrivna HELP

looks really good Ross @scrivna. Love the pristine white! would be good to have the bell change colour if you can ;-)

I'm really enjoying the new look. Thank you for all the hard work in getting this together. Id just like to echo the comments regarding notifications - I'm missing some comments and feedback due to not having a tally of unseen ones - which was an easy way for me to know what I had and hadn't already seen.

Ha! I was actually on when you did the upgrade! I had put my mac down for a second to grab my tea, came back and voila! Good to keep things fresh. Looking forward to future changes and yes, it's quite different on my phone now!

I thought I had the wrong site at first, then was worried that you had been taken over by another entity. Love the new look and so glad you are still here!

I really like the new clean presentation...looks great on my iMac. Thank you for the update!

The new resolution is great. I like to clean, look also.The only thing I would change is the color of the notification bell to red. Just a suggestion.

I love the new logo, but I'm not in love with the other changes... I realize this may still be in testing - but there are some problems/issues:

Photos look blurry when uploaded:
Why does photos that I have uploaded look blurry - it's like the resolution or something is changed during upload making the photos look crappy instead of neat and sharp :-(.. I have a screendump showing the look of an image layered over the 365-webpage, and the difference is significant. Why is this happening?
I would have uploaded the screendump here, but there's no option of doing it - I'd be happy to email it or otherwise show you. The difference really is significant... and as a photographer it makes me a bit frustrated when the photos look this crappy after upload :-(.

ETA: All my photos uploaded here suffer from this awfull blurry disease - not just the ones uploaded after the update... I always grab a screenshot after uploading, and flipping back through the screendumps tells me that this happened along with the update.

The arrows:
I'm not a big fan (nor a small one :-)) of the arrows either that are now placed within the photos - they steal too much attention now - I'd rather be enjoying the photos and not have these large arrows steal my attention :-( ... please consider removing them.

The attention bell:
The new blue colour of the bell is too subtle, and it's easy to overlook that it's "active". It would be great if it could be a more noticeable colour - red would be great.

The photos on the main page have disappeared:
I've also noticed that when I'm on my computer all the photos on the main page/my main photo feed are gone - there are only links posted to the photos along with the description. On my ipad I see them though, so they must be there...

Other than that I love this site :-)

@atchoo I have the the same problem as you with no photos on my main page on my desktop but have them on my phone and tablet It makes commenting confusing and spoils my enjoyment of seeing everyones photos. I have messaged Ross for help but have no reply.

love the new logo and the fresh new look - took me a day or so to get used to the notification bell but now know when it's blue there's something there hahaha
@wendyfrost I mostly use a laptop and have photos loading fine on the main page - have a feeling I may have had problems at first - can't remember - must be all the festivities :)

@atchoo moving the pointer off the image removes the arrows - but of course you then have to move it back to press an arrow to go to the next image

I absolutely love everything about the new look. Photos look noticeably better and the layout is minimal and elegant. In my opinion you couldn’t have made it better. Thanks for all the work

Thank you so much - for the most part I'm loving the upgrade!
A couple of my observations if I may.

I use a laptop and find that in the newsfeed the images are huge, and they display smaller a lot of the time when I click on them. I prefer it the other way - a smaller image in the feed, then large if I click to view.

I also don't like the arrows being on the image. I don't know how many times I have gone to click to display on black, but instead it has caused me to move back or forwards through photos. Seems a little point, but it has happened so often it is irksome.

Lastly, the attention bell is definitely too subtle - it is a real ego thing to see that red show up to let you know there has been activity, so maybe instead of turning blue it could turn red?

Thanks again, the upgrade is great, and the logo is stunning :)

Has anyone heard if the owner of this site is reading these messages - I haven't seen a response from him since the 2nd... I'm really sad about the photos being blurry, when I look at them from an internet explorer browser :-(... I'm sad to say it, but this is killing my joy of being here, I mainly use IE and I'm not interested in solely being able to view the gorgeous photos here from only ipad or chrome, so it would be great to know whether the internet explorer issue will be fixed...
And also the arrows on the photo is a big turnoff.... sigh... sorry for the rant... I'm just a bit frustrated about this...

I'd be happier if the arrows were off the photos, as has been mentioned above.

@atchoo Ann -- I use Internet Explorer as well and the photos are now blurry since the format change. I don't mind the new changes however the photos being blurry are also taking my joy away as well. I hope that you and I will get an answer soon. Gloria

I like the new changes however the photos are blurry. I use Internet Explorer. Also, when I view a photo on black it does not pop as used with the old format. After viewing on black, I press the upper left arrow to go back to the original photo but instead I go back to the beginning where I need to click on the title to get back to the photo. Thanks for taking my feedback into consideration. I want to keep using 365 but blurred photos are a bummer.

I forgot to mention in my previous comment all photos are super large and don't fit within the black border. I use a dell desktop and Internet Explorer if that helps in figuring why the new design does not seem compatible with my computer. I reduced the zoom, however, I cannot read the comments because the print is too small. I'm sorry for being a problem child :). Thanks.

Thanks ROSS as always for all the effort you put into this wonderful site and for this update and all the work that must have taken. I’m with Richard Sayer re wishing there were a way when I upload to have it go onto black. I don’t find the photos blurry so I wonder why some do.

@atchoo I use my laptop with firefox - I haven't used IE for years as I found it irksome lol - images are fine on firefox - no blur - your images look fine on my laptop :)

@jgpittenger I haven't had a problem with blurry photos either - I use firefox on my laptop not IE - I loathe IE and haven't used it for years as it always caused problems - what do you use Jane?

@phil_howcroft what browser do you use Phil?
I use firefox on my android phone and don't have that problem :)

@farmreporter Your list is amazing and must be a chore to keep up! I do hope that @Scrivna can make some changes so the way to keep up is so much easier! I proposed an idea a few years ago that I still think would be great. I emailed you. :)

Hi guys, thanks for your feedback, I'll look in to the internet explorer issues some of you have mentioned.

Hi @atchoo - sorry about the problems you've been having, it's my fault for not correctly testing in IE11, sorry! Hopefully your photos will look better now. If you have a retina screen in your computer I'd really recommend using a more modern browser that supports retina images, like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge.

@northy Thanks for your comments about iPad, I've added some spacing aorund the logo! I'll make some more tablet improvements soon too.

Thanks for your comments on the notification icon, I went with the blue, maybe it is too subtle, I'll experiment, see if I can make improvements!

Thank you Ross @scrivna I have photos back on my homepage again and can once again enjoy your wonderful site. Thank you for all the hard work you have put into this over the years and I love the new look you have given us.

@kali66 @Scrivna the bell goes blue!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you xxxx

@Scrivna Thank you so much Ross... the images are now nice and sharp again - what a relief and once again I can now once again fully enjoy the photos here on this awesome site. Thank you...
And the images are back again on the main page too - I'm really happy about that too.
Thank you so much for fixing this :-) :-) :-).

@darylo
It really isn't that big a chore - just copy and paste to a word doc, delete the challenges that are finished, add the new ones, and then copy / paste to a new thread.
It only takes about 20 minutes a week. It would be great if the list was in an easier place for members to find so it did not get buried so quickly ... like Ross's Weekly Blog? (hint, hint, Ross - LOL!) @Scrivna

@Scrivna thanks for making it a “fill in” blue rather than just the outline... much easier for the eye to grasp!

@Scrivna and yes - I did notice that the 365 didn’t look quite so much like it was falling off the screen... tx! Makes it a bit more relaxing to look at (weird how crowding the edge can create tension in the viewer... or maybe that’s just me 🙃)

Ross...Just to let you know that the photos now display when I open 365 which eliminates the extra step of clicking on a photo's title to get to the posted photo. The blurriness has disappeared...I use IE11. On my end, I think I need to reduce the size of my photo before posting...I am experimenting with that. Thanks for your response and hard work. I know from experience that reformatting/reworking a website is a lot of work and part of it is collecting feedback. Great job!

thumbs up to the solid blue bell :)

can I second one of Frogger's comments, which was probably my first query after I joined 365 in 2016. When I am looking at photos by tag or looking at all entries for a competition, I would like to be able to click from one to another, rather than go in and back out and then into the next one, etc, etc. Here's hoping!

Just noticed the filled in blue bell! So much easier for us old fogies to tell when we have new comments! Thanks again for you patience with all the changes and complaints! ♥

Hi @seattlite - you shouldn't need to reduce the photo size when uploading, that limits us to being able to show your image at the image you've uploaded, which isn't so future-proof.
If you're using IE11 and you have a retina screen, the images will appear blurrier because older browsers do not have support for retina images. I'd suggest trying it in Chrome, to see if they look better.

Thanks for your comment @anniesue - yes I agree, improvements to competitions & tagging would be great.

@Scrivna Ross, thanks for the response. Things are sort of falling into place. Here's what's back to normal: 1. photos now display instead of me having to click on the title to see a photo, 2. If I view a photo on black, I can now arrow back to the photo instead of it going to the screen that only has the title which meant I had to click on the title to get back to the photo, 3. Most photos are not blurry. Here's what is out of the norm compared with the old site: 1. Photos do not pop on black like they use to, 2. Photos are too large so the full black border does not display. I am the user using IE11 and have dell desktop. I'm sorry to bother you with this. Thanks, for helping me out. Gloria

@Scrivna Ross...Don't hate me :) but here's what's going on now: I took your advice and signed onto 365 in Google...what a difference...everything is perfect. I don't like leaving IE but I will do it because I need to view the photos properly in order to make honest comments. Thanks ever so much for helping this little senior citizen from Seattle :).

I've been away for the holidays and then recovering from them and popped on once while I was away. I liked the new format and love the new logo. As have so many others, I just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work you do here. I truly believe this is THE BEST on line photo community Ross! It's been a while since I could view photos on black so I'm hoping my laptop will like the changes and let me view on black now following your instructions. Great job!

I'm liking most of the changes (though I do miss the red comments notification0 and I'm especially pleased to report that a problem I had with not being able to read some discussion threads in Firefox seems to have been resolved by the changes. No more browser-hopping for me! Yay!

The new look is fabulous and surprised many of us seeing it for the first time. Thanks for making this site as awesome as it is. Very professional and good on the eye. If only we could still get an edit button for our comments :-)

After a few away I did notice a few changes. All great, I specially like the new logo.

Looks great! Thanks for taking the time to make some improvements. :)

Hello once again, Ross
Since the 365 Project is a photo site, I thought that the Weekly SH*T list should have a photo gracing the top of the page. And I thought it would be a good idea to resurrect a great challenge that has fallen by the wayside at the same time. The winning photo of this challenge would be the header for the Weekly So Happy It's Thursday (SH*T) List feature.
However, I ran into a problem when I attempted this. The links I put in the body of the text did not work when I inserted a photo at the top. This is so weird!
Any idea what I did wrong or what I can do to correct it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
All the best,
Wendy

Ross - any idea what I am doing wrong or how I can get a photo on top of the Weekly SH*T list? Is it possible or am I beating a dead horse?
Please reply.

Ross --- Please do help me. I really like the idea of putting more emphasis on the weekly SH*T list to give it more prominence for the members.
Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Wendy