What's wrong with this picture? Chapter IV - The New Journals 0

[Get Marwood & I]

Hi all,

Some of you may have noticed that the long promised journals migration has finally taken place. Unless I have missed it, there has been no announcement to that effect - the onus has been on the user to discover the change.

The old journals are now locked.

The old journals were very easy to use and, crucially, to browse. From the main topics page you could see easily:

• The latest post
• The journal title, owner
• The number of replies and views

All very simple, being in the same format as regular posting. In addition:

• You could create as many journals as you liked

 

The new journals format is quite different. Firstly, they do not appear on the forums list, but have to be selected from the top menu:

 

The 'My Journal' option does indeed now take you to your own journal if you have one. Here's mine:

 

A key difference is that you can only have one journal now, under which 'entries' sit. We think of entries as posts, but in this case the 'entry' is the journal. It sits under an umbrella title which itself can be a journal. See that all my 'journals' (entries) sit under the overarching heading of 'Comic Shops I've Farted In'. People may have thought this was me mucking about but I was actually trying to draw out what I knew was coming from the first time I posted that the new and old journals were 'incompatible' and that people would not like the change if and when it ever happened.

Back to the menu, the two other options are 'Latest Entries' and 'By Author'. Both take you to the same thing - a list of entries in the order they were created:

'Latest Entries':

 

'By Author':

 

So, if no one else creates a journal, Jon Ivic, Paradox Tremors etc will be at the top every time - the creation of a new post / response does not drive the entry to the top of the list. So we have a scenario where we cannot see the latest responses anymore, as we could with the old journals from the topics page.

To be fair, we have the 'Recent Journal Entries & Replies' box:

 

My CSIFI journal was designed to show how I could fill that entire box on my own, which I did with 13 entries. 

So once this box is full, how do you know which journals have been responded to? If I just start scrolling and, say, come to Bazingas journal I click on it and it takes me to his opening page, not the latest entry:

 

So more scrolling.

However, we do have the 'dot' thing to click on - that friendly little dot that will take you to the latest unread post:

 

 

And if we go back to the overarching heading, we can see the, in this case, 13 entries under it but have to look at each to get a feel for whats going on:

 

In out, in out.

So in summary, the format is clumsy, it is less easy to navigate, you are limited to one overarching journal. And that is before we consider the sheer lunacy of locking decade running journals and then transferring only one post over. That's like glueing your kids 10 year diary shut and giving him a new one saying 'yes, but look how pretty it looks'.

I put a poll up a while ago and guess what - it got virtually zero traffic (and yet wasn't about pence books oddly). That is partly because the new journals are a dead zone. 

This to me looks like yet another change that no one asked for, no one wanted, to fix a problem that didn't exist. It will drive people away as once again the needs of available new functionality have trumped the users preferences. Well that's how I see it anyway. You may disagree.

But remember, the site is offered by CGC for free, so we have no right to complain do we.

 

If anything I have said here is technically incorrect, I'm sure someone in admin will drop by and correct it or perhaps clarify in the announcement that they have inexplicably failed to make.

Edited August 21, 2018 by Get Marwood & I
War is hell

[Get Marwood & I]

[Get Marwood & I]

What  do such a thing!

[Ditch Fahrenheit]

Hi @Architecht

I posted my displeasure regarding the New Journal Migration HERE.  There's probably no sense in repeating myself in this thread.

As soon as Scott got done with my new journal, there were 8 views on it.  Now, after over 24 hours have gone by, there are a total of 2 new views (probably mine) for a total of 10 views. 

I recently kept track of my old journal views because I wanted to make sure it was worth my time.  Here's the data:

8/6 - 165

8/7 - 220

8/8 - 176

8/9 - 185

8/10 through 8/11 - 273

8/12 - 130

Clearly, the new journals lack visibility.  This is just my opinion, but at 2 views or 10 views per day, it's just not worth my time to contribute.  Why have a journal if no one (or very, very few) will see it?

Question:  Would you consider unlocking the Old Journal forum and allow those of us who prefer it to continue to contribute there?

[miraclemet]

I used to love journaling. 

But not in this new format. 

Half of the fun of my Lady in White collection was the journaling about it, and enjoying everyone's responses. 

Now, *meh*. the nested nature of the new journals was confusing, and is generally hard to navigate. I keep trying to get into it, but it's clumsiness keeps making me give up.

[Get Marwood & I]

I start the thread. Ditch is next to post, so I like his post. Miraclemet is next to post, so Ditch likes his. Three posters, two likes - one each for the last two. 

Think once, think twice, think: don't start threads. No one will like you for it. 

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, Ditch Fahrenheit said:

Question:  Would you consider unlocking the Old Journal forum and allow those of us who prefer it to continue to contribute there?

 

13 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

I used to love journaling. 

But not in this new format. 

 

Don't worry guys. Tonight,  something wonderful is going to happen. For the first time since the year 2002, common sense will prevail, the decision will be reversed and the old journals will be restored. You see if I'm wrong.

Also, the CGC management team will acknowledge the concerns of the 128 people who voted in the Newton Ring poll, RMA will acknowledge the loss of an argument and likes abuse will be outlawed. 

Probably.

[Get Marwood & I]

And that concludes tonight's presentation folks. I've been Marwood & I, Sparky's been medicated and this has been a waste of time.  Thank you and goodnight!

[Duffman_Comics]

Well, here's another disappointed punter who shares your disdain for the new Journals arrangement. The complete obliteration of the (older) threads' history is just unfathomable.

At least when Photobucket decided to "change its model" I could understand that that was all about money.

This? Not so much. A fustercluck.

[Wall-Crawler]

The new format is bad and it is not conducive to have people follow or engage in dialogue, which was one of the really fun parts of having a journal in the first place.

WHY did they have to change the format???????????????????????????

Sad.

[Red84]

Moving the journals to a completely different area was a great idea...................if the intent was for no one to read the journals. Otherwise 

[jsilverjanet]

CGC your journals used to be OK, what happened to you?

[01TheDude]

you need to throw in some comment about media mail or ebay fraud to get this campaign moving - journaling is a snorefest

trick the public-- it is how things get done in 'Muracah

[porcupine48]

This journal changing stuff effing sucks and I'm mad about it.I really loved AJDs journal.And everyone elses too,before butthurt gets industrial.

Boooo!

[KPR Comics]

Aren’t diaries are meant to be kept private?

[jsilverjanet]

Dear Diary

I saw Greggy today. He looked adorable in his shorts. His backpack was full of romance books which created enough weight to bring out his pecs in his dark knight returns shirt. 

I think he had a sharpie in his pocket because something poked me when he hug me from behind

 

Edited August 22, 2018 by jsilverjanet

[telerites]

1 minute ago, jsilverjanet said:

Dear Diary

I saw Greggy today. He looked adorable in his shorts. His backpack was full of romance books which created enough weight to bring out his pecs in his dark knight returns shirt. 

I think he had a sharpie in his pocket because something poked me when he hug me from behind

 

Thanks a lot, Hector - I just had breakfast - now I just lost it.  

[porcupine48]

BOOOOOOO!forty eight times.BOOOOOO

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, porcupine48 said:

BOOOOOOO!forty eight times.BOOOOOO

Let's make it a round 50 Jim.

BOOOOOOO!

BOOOOOOO! 

[Get Marwood & I]

@Architecht

@Scott =)

@dena

Meesah call admin!

Any chance of a response to our concerns? And Ditch's request to turn the old ones back on? 

Come on guys, don't ignore us. It's really rude