Hello,
As you know, we're always working on improving the site for you. Today I'm proud to announce many new improvements to the Pictures section of the site!
The following changes have been made:
Redesigned Navigation
We have redesigned the navigation and structure of the PIctures section to provide a more traditional navigational approach, while retaining a more social approach for those who desire it. Global albums have been changed to "categories".
Redesign the navigation, structure and hierarchy. Terminology notwithstanding, many members find navigating the current release of the PIctures section to be confusing, and do not understand the relationship between "global" albums and "member" albums. Many changes in the previous iteration of the PIctures section were made to ensure the software could scale effectively. We have taken many of the concepts from previous versions to present an interface we think is easy to understand and navigate.
Interface updates. Much of the interface has undergone a complete overhaul as a part of the navigational restructuring of the software. In addition, some new functionality has been added to make navigating through images quicker and easier, and minor feature improvements or additions will be noticed.
Miscellaneous Features and Enhancements
pInterest integration; improved shared media image presentation; set as profile photo expanded
pInterest Integration For those of you not familiar with this new service, pInterest is a popular new image tagging website that allows users to "pin" images from across the web to a "pinboard". They can create multiple pinboards to classify their images. The PIctures sectionwill now show a pInterest sharing button with the rest of the social sharing options.
Shared Media Previously when you share an image via the shared media plugin, a small box with the image details is shown, linking the user to the full image page. Many members have requested that we instead simply embed the thumbnail directly and open the full image in a lightbox. We've updated the PIctures section to do just that.
Set as Profile Photo In recent past versions, members were required to create an album that they designate as a "Profile Photos Album", and then they are able to set an image within this special album as their profile photo. While functional, we have determined that the restrictions here are largely unnecessary. We have removed the "profile photo album" functionality within the software, and now members will be able to set any image they can view as their profile photo.
Navigational Changes
Image Navigation When you enter into a category or album that has a listing of images, you see each image and can click into them one by one to view the full-sized image and some further details. This is simple and intuitive enough, but a little...boring. With today's web, we can enhance this a bit, so we've done so. When you are viewing a listing of images and click onto an image, it will now open in a lightbox and most of the image details will be presented to the member. You can navigate through the images in the listing with next and previous buttons, easily allowing you to view all of the images on the page without ever leaving the page itself. Note that you can still access the full image details page by clicking the caption in the lightbox (or through any other normal browser means, such as opening the link in a new tab, or dragging the image itself to your address bar in your browser).
More Miscellaneous Improvements
RSS feed enhancements; notification improvements; homepage enhancements
RSS Feed Enhancements As of now, RSS feeds for the PIctures section have been updated to give members better options as to how they subscribe to feeds on our site. You will now have RSS feeds available for categories, albums, and a new global latest images feed has been added, allowing you to stay abreast of the latest images throughout the entire PIctures section. This global latest images feed is discoverable easily by browsers and other feed reader applications, and a link is available in the board footer amongst the other RSS feeds for the software.
Notification Enhancements The PIctures sectionallows you to follow any album or image to be notified of new images or comments already, however you must follow these areas manually. Often you will upload some images and forget to follow them afterwards, so when another user comes along and comments on your images you are not aware of this. We have added a checkbox on the review page (the secondary step after uploading your images where you specify the caption and other details) that allows you to follow the image(s) immediately upon submission. This checkbox is checked by default, so the default action is that members will be notified of comments on newly submitted media. A member can optionally deselect the checkbox if they don't wish to be notified of comments made against the submission. This small change will help you remain aware of comments on your images.
Main Page Changes Firstly, we have changed the recent images block to a stream of images, as you would see within a listing. The featured images block remains as a large slider at the top of the screen, however the recent images near the bottom of the page will now list many small thumbnails instead. Clicking one will open the image in the new navigational lightbox to allow you to see the larger version and the image details.
Additionally, the images on the homepage are presented in a manner that will better allow members to simply review the most updated content with less of a focus on the structure of the PIctures section.
