ArtMetal

NOTE: The original message was posted on the ArtMetal Sandbox Mail List a few days ago and I asked Warren if I could have his permission to repost it here on the .com web site because I thought it would benefit the web site membership more and give you all an opportunity to discuss some of these issues and possibly other issues you may have with how the ArtMetal web site interface functions. Please take a moment to review Warrens comments. We're open to hear how the site functions for you and how we can make it better.

On a side note. The ArtMetal.com web site uses the Drupal CMS and even though I have considerable web authoring experience, I am not a php programmer. PHP is the language used to communicate with the MySQL database and build the complete interface that you experience when using the ArtMetal.com web site. I just want you all to know that I will do everything in my power to help make things as easy to use as possible.

QuiQue - webminster - aka enrique

Enrique,

Here is my top 10 list what I feel is wrong with the Artmetal.com site.
I am sending this list because as a regular user of the Artmetal.com site, which I love and appreciate very much, I find that these items are not the most user friendly. It has been mentioned many times by you that you want to promote the Artmetal.com site as a “social networking environment”.

1. You must log on to reply
1. Too many visitors reply to posts and you do not know if spam or not or just being a smart ass.
2. Too many times you see a person make a reply and then go back and say oops that was me, I forgot to log on•.
3. Maybe if you fix it so you have to log on you can change around how you filter the spam so I can log on form my work computer.
4. All of the buttons would work the same if logged on or not logged on.
2. You must fill out all of your personal information•.
1. Valid email address confirms if they are real•.
2. Link to their website on personal info if they have one•.
3. Nice to know where they live•.
4. Why do people use a funky user name, reminds me too much of the old days of CB radio handles and you did not want to know who you are. “Hey hillbilly”
3. Drop the buddy list thing
1. Seems more discriminating because you only want to have X as a buddy•.
2. Pain in the butt to update your buddy list every time a new person comes on board•.
3. What is the point of it, we should all be buddies
4. Drop the fact that you need to “subscribe” to blog or a group to reply to a blog•.
1. Nothing social about that•.
2. They should all be public•.
3. Again what does it prove, if you are logged in you should be able to read all and act to all.
5. Change the icon to down load pictures to say “Click here to down load a picture”•.
1. Not all of us can tell that the icon is a picture of a camera, way too many complaints on this one
6. Remove the images posted from the recent posts.•
1. Makes the list of recent posts way too long•
2. People reply to the image and not the post and ask questions.
1. Yet you have the information in the blog that has the image.
2. Lock out so you can not reply to just the image.
3. This way you do not have to repeat yourself over again
4. Your blog will flow in the order that you have created the pictures, great if you are trying to do a series of pictures or procedures.
7. Community Page (Same as News/Blog)
1. Hard to grasp why this says “Community”, seems like extra posts or something not sure how to deal with it when is it a community?•
2. Fonts are way too big and spacing on the community list (news/blog) making way too much scrolling•
3. Why the blue square on the first page is for Repousee and Chasing and not the rest of the Groups, gives the impression that these are in that Group.
4. Instead of having them all there listed, why not have them in the group they are meant to be in, recent posts would not be sorted by groups.•
5. Have to ask yourself should I click the news/blog or click on the groups Information is duplicated in too many other spots
6. Is this in order that they were created or order of last reply?
8. Galleries•
1. Should be a place to display your competed work pieces “A Show Case”•
2. All images go there now and makes way too many pages•.
3. Put more images on a page so you have less pages
4. Be able to sort by user name --- own gallery•.
5. Comments should stay with gallery image and notify the user they have a comment to their gallery image, not in the recent post list, like PM.•
6. Okay if the same image is in the blog entry as in the gallery entry but they should be separated so the gallery image the artist can make a different statement about the image
9. Resource tag under the archives is way outdated and should be part of the community.
1. Therefore resources can be updated and linked to in a blog and not have to add them over and over again.
2. Have a member list under the resource tag by category of their discipline, maybe there is a certain question and you can PM them.
10. What is the meaning and difference of the cloud tags and searching•
1. Need to have a definition of what the cloud tags do when you click on the cloud tag link
2. Good function but not sure all can remember how to use

--Warren Townsend

Trenton, MI 48183
http://www.metalrecipes.com