Regarding Propeller 2.0

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Regarding Propeller 2.0 — Jul 30th 2008

By Tom Drapeau

Friends (and Idols),

I wanted to write to tell you how appreciative I and the Propeller staff are of all of the feedback we have received regarding the Propeller 2.0 launch. We have read all of the responses submitted so far. It's clear that in our quest to make the new Propeller easier, faster, and more fun, we have created a disconnected experience, where the social doesn't always coincide with the news.

Propeller members relish commenting on the day's top stories in a format that demands the utmost reliability and compact presentation. They also require the ability to edit comments (we all have second thoughts, not to mention slippery fingers). Propeller 2.0 has not yet achieved this level of reliability. We promise to do so.

Many have also commented on the new look. Some don't like the new mascot (don't worry, he's not listening in). Some have said that the homepage has too much white space and too few stories. Some just don't like the colors.

We are listening. And we are responding. We have already made a number of fixes, restoring the Friends' Submissions link on the profile page and upgrading the site mail. Here are some other things we are working on right now:

Comments: A tighter design, better paging, more reliability, ability to edit a comment after posting
Stories: Restoring the story submission bookmarklet
Member Profile: Add Member Recent Comments
Just In (Tracker): Allow filtering for stories, comments, props, etc
Avatars: We are fixing a known issue with avatar uploads, both for members and for groups
Groups: Add a Groups A-Z directory

Here is what we will be fixing soon after:

Homepage: Overall spacing, allowing for the mascot to be hidden/shrunk
Stories: A better story submission process that will allow for a "one stop shop" of sharing your story with your friends/groups

We are also discussing restoring some of the old Propeller categories, such as Religion and Health & Fitness, as well as some of the member stats that existed on the previous version of the site. Meanwhile, we are working on a new Propeller blog design, which should be completed soon. We hope will the blog will be another good place to congregate and talk about the health of Propeller.

Again, thank you to all of our great Propeller members for helping us to work through this rough patch, including ind06, AlphaGnosis, mozzer, Beau7890, and many other stalwarts. You have been invaluable to the Propeller effort.

Sincerely,
Tom Drapeau

Tags:

8 Comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dave — 3:35PM on Jul 30th 2008

1. I am glad you recognize that the new version looks terrible. The old version looked a lot better. It actually was great. Whether the new version works better or not it has to at least look as good as the old version so why not just do that. Make it look the same as the old version. Hopefully the new version works better. So you would then have the best of both worlds. A new version that looks as good as the old version and a new version that works better.

But again I am glad you recognize the problems and I am sure you have the brain power to fix them. Good luck.

rer — 10:28AM on Jul 31st 2008

2. Poor layout, silly coloring, complicated registration, restrictive voting tools and discussion/comment paths...
The last version was already not that great compared to older ones, but this is even worse.
... too bad.

richtech — 11:03AM on Jul 31st 2008

3. Hello,

In addition to everything discussed above, I happen to be one of those "old timers" who still uses Netscape v7.2 email. I have been using various versions of Netscape for over 10 years now, always finding it to be more stable, more reliable, and less prone to viruses, than its counterparts (Outlook, etc.).

Previously, Propeller v1.0 would display an introduction page with various links to Propeller articles when I started using my client based email. This gave me the incentive to visit those links and join into the discussion.

But this is what is always displayed now:
404: Page not Found
Sorry, but the page you are looking for has not been found. Try checking the URL for errors, then hit the refresh button on your browser.
PROPELLER

What happened to my introduction link on my Netscape email client? While I may be one of the few that still uses Netscape 7.2 browser, it happens to be one of the best combination all-in-one systems: browser, email client, spell check, and html webpage editor all wrapped into one. Most especially, the html webpage editor is far more advanced than any supposedly free ones I have found, and it's truly free.

My efforts to find a newer system (Firefox, Explorer, Opera, etc.), have been a failure to find such an all-in-one browser. With that said, I will refuse to upgrade until such a thing does finally exist.

This poses the problem of enduring continued announcements of this horrible 404 error, and the ugly cartoon man with the stupid propeller cap, when ever I use my email.

Prior to Propeller's existence, the introduction page on my email client directed me to Netscape's news website, which I used extensively. But Propeller came along (replacing Netscape's startup page), and it became part of my day to day life instead of the occasional visit to Netscape's news website.

Please, at the very least, fix this small problem. It's just a missing supported web link, and can be restored with little effort.

-richtech

richtech — 10:58AM on Jul 31st 2008

4. Hello,

In addition to everything discussed above, I happen to be one of those "old timers" who still uses Netscape v7.2 email. I have been using various versions of Netscape for over 10 years now, always finding it to be more stable, more reliable, and less prone to viruses, than its counterparts (Outlook, etc.).

Previously, Propeller v1.0 would display an introduction page with various links to Propeller articles when I started using my client based email. This gave me the incentive to visit those links and join into the discussion.

But this is what is always displayed now:
404: Page not Found
Sorry, but the page you are looking for has not been found. Try checking the URL for errors, then hit the refresh button on your browser.
PROPELLER

What happened to my introduction link on my Netscape email client? While I may be one of the few that still uses Netscape 7.2 browser, it happens to be one of the best combination all-in-one systems: browser, email client, spell check, and html webpage editor all wrapped into one. Most especially, the html webpage editor is far more advanced than any supposedly free ones I have found, and it's truly free.

My efforts to find a newer system (Firefox, Explorer, Opera, etc.), have been a failure to find such an all-in-one browser. With that said, I will refuse to upgrade until such a thing does finally exist.

This poses the problem of enduring continued announcements of this horrible 404 error, and the ugly cartoon man with the stupid propeller cap, when ever I use my email.

Prior to Propeller's existence, the introduction page on my email client directed me to Netscape's news website, which I used extensively. But Propeller came along (replacing Netscape's startup page), and it became part of my day to day life instead of the occasional visit to Netscape's news website.

Please, at the very least, fix this small problem. It's just a missing supported web link, and can be restored with little effort.

-richtech

richtech — 11:10AM on Jul 31st 2008

5. Sorry about the double post above.

sailorpj — 8:14AM on Aug 6th 2008

6. I also happen to be one of those "old timers" who still uses Netscape v7.2 email.

Getting into my mail page the following is always displayed:
404: Page not Found
Sorry, but the page you are looking for has not been found. Try checking the URL for errors, then hit the refresh button on your browser.
PROPELLER

How do I fix this error or change to another URL?

Gianluca — 5:34PM on Aug 4th 2008

7. It happens to me, too!
404 Page not found... and so on. Why?

Gianluca — 5:36PM on Aug 4th 2008

8. And lot of folders begin to vanish...
I lost such of mails...

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