Sorry but I'm going to blog about the site's proposed new site again - see PREPARE FOR PASSION, PASSION AND PURGATORY, THE NEW SITE IS A DOG'S DINNER and SITE FEEDBACK for my previous blog posts. I know I keep banging this drum but I have news to impart.
After submitting three separate lists of feedback, each list containing about ten bits of feedback, and after not receiving any meaningful feedback from the site's owner on my feedback, I decided to re-submit my feedback as singular items of feedback. Below are the 27 items of feedback I posted on the new site.
When logging onto the new site, I cannot easily find my blog. I can find it by looking at my profile or by searching for myself, but I'm assuming there's an easier way to access my blog. If so, how do I easily access my blog?
Having looked at the Community 'Blogs & Channels' page, I can't see my alerts. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place - if so, where should I be looking? And perhaps alerts are called something else - if so, what are they called? Alerts are the way in which bloggers navigate themselves around blogland. Without alerts, it's impossible to find out what's going on with new posts from followed bloggers and groups, comments to my blog posts, replies to my comments on other people's blog posts, etc. If there are no alerts on the new site, then I very much do hope alerts will be reinstated. The introduction of alerts on the Community side of the 'old' site was a big plus - the alerts page was a vital one-stop shop to make sense of what was going on. 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'!
In compiling a blog post, will the # key still be used to denote a blog post title header? Will double asterisks surrounding text denote bolded text, and single asterisks surrounding text denote italicised text? Will [ image1] , [ image2 ], etc, continue to denote where images are to appear on a blog post? And will ten images per blog post still be allowed for gold members? Will there be an edit function for submitted blog posts, comments to blog posts and replies to comments on blog posts? Does the site have any plans to issue guidance on, say, how to blog, etc, on the new site?
Will tags (eg @Site Support) and links (q; links) remain remain as a feature on the new site. I very much hope so.
Will polls still be able to be set up on the new site. I hope so. And if so, will up to 20 poll options be allowed, and will the pollster still be allowed to choose between a single or multiple responses to a poll?
Can the site stop the practice of having to simultaneously press 'Ctrl' and 'Enter' for a line space? This isn't normal everyday practice. 'Enter' denotes a line-space and not a command to submit. Just as members have no doubt learnt this unusual practice of line-spacing, I'm sure members can soon unlearn this unusual practice.
Will emojis be allowed to be posted? If so, will the site publish a list of permissible emojis that can be used?
Having looked at my blog, I can see a list of my recent blog posts at the end. Is this a list of my recent blog posts only or all my blog posts (including blog posts written before the Community side was launched a few years ago)? Is it a list of just my saved blog posts? Linked to this, I don't see a 'Saved Posts' feature. Has this gone with the new site?
Can you assure members that everything posted on the 'old' AFF site (eg my blog posts (both text and images), comments/replies on my blog posts) will be migrated to the new 'Passion' site. This is what concerns me the most as I remember that not everything was migrated successfully when the Community side was launched. I'm presuming and certainly hoping that all blog posts (plus comments and replies to comments) will be migrated to the new site.
Will gold members still be allowed to make a blog post (eg a mailbox) private?
Will members, or at least gold members, be allowed to create sticky blog posts, that is blog posts pinned to the top of their list of blog posts?
Will bloggers be allowed to schedule a release date for their blog posts?
I can't see a feed for my followed bloggers. Is there one?
I can't see a feed for new blog posts. Is there one?
When clicking on a member's thumbnail, will their location and number of blog posts be shown? I hope so.
Regarding trending bloggers or blogs, which I cannot find though I'd be amazed if there isn't such feeds, may I suggest that you prioritise number of comments received over the number of likes received. A comment is proof of far more engagement than a like. I'm presuming likes will still be allowed in the new site. May I suggest that a member can only like a blog post after they've opened the blog post? On the 'old' site you've allowed someone to like a post without opening the post. This isn't engagement, this is just encouragement for bloggers to post an image of a naked woman, especially a naked woman having sex, without any accompanying text. This isn't blogging; it's members presenting copyrighted porn images taken from the internet. On the launch of the Community side, you promised an adult social media site. I don't feel you delivered on that front. You've allowed blogland to become a place where porn is peddled and entitled men post 'hook-me-up' messages with customary dick pics. You've dumbed down blogland. Though I realise you need to make money, and the new site seems to be a very pale imitation of OnlyFans, I think you are missing a trick with blogland. I think you need to be proactive and not reactive. Blogland on this site is a very special place, not because of the site itself but because of its members. When I was banned, I started blogging elsewhere but there's no other blogging platform that has the same sense of community as this site. You are or were onto something but I suspect you are throwing all that out of the window. This site for quite some time has an uncanny habit of being behind the times. You've repeatedly allowed other sites, like Match, Tinder, Grindr, FetLife and now OnlyFans, to overtake you.
I can't see a list of the groups I'm a member of. Is this list the same as hangouts? I haven't got a clue what hangouts mean. Why are you inventing a new term that didn't exist before? You're not making things easy for existing members used to a certain set of terms (like 'My Groups' and 'Alerts' ).
Will the Club 7 group still exist in the new site? And if so, will it continue to be monitored by Site Support. This group has proved to be very useful in highlighting glitches and communicating with Site Support, arguably more useful that Site Support's own blog.
May I suggest Site Support's blog is turned into a group? If there's a list of groups that members follow, then a Site Support group will be much easier to find than their blog? Also may I suggest that every member is automatically a member of Site Support's group? This will allow closer relationship between members and the site. The fact that all Level 7+ members are automatic members of Club 7 sets a precedent for this suggestion.
I'm unable to find a list on the new site of members I've blocked. I'm hoping that there is such a list. Also I'm hoping that to block a member on the 'new' site, one block will work site-wide. At the moment on the 'old' site, two blocks are needed, one for the Dating side and another for the Community side. Also, I'm presuming that my list of blocked members (mainly abusive MAGA trolls) will be carried forward to the new site. I'm not sure I want to be called a liberal dipshit, a retard and Eurotrash all over again, though I wear the Eurotrash badge with pride!
My understanding is that the proposed new site is currently being tested, and a few members are involved in such testing. I'm presuming or at least hoping that the proposed new site will only be launched when it is functionally ready. If not, I think that will be a recipe for disaster.
Though the new site is being tested, I'm aware that a few members are already using the new site as part of the testing process or to familiarise themselves with the new site. I have a few questions for the site to answer hopefully before the new site is launched and the old site is 'killed off'. If someone posts a blog post on the new site, will it trigger an alert on the old site? And, if so, will that alert take the member to the new or old site (or both) to read the post? The questions also pertain to replies to comments. I'm hoping that the two sites, the new and the old site, are joined-up, otherwise there will be a hybrid system with some members on the new site and some on the old site.
Does the site have a target date or an approximate date for when the new site will be launched? If, so what is the date? Linked to this question, I'm hoping that the site can inform members when the new site is to be launched before its launch.
Once the new site is officially launched, will members still have access to the old site? This is particularly pertinent if not all stuff has been successfully migrated over to the new site. Bloggers, including myself, are rightly quite precious about their content. It would seem prudent to allow members to access the old site for a limited period of time before being shut down. This was the case when the Community side was launched. I notice there's a 'Classic Site' feature to click if need be. How long will this feature be up-and-running? And if classic, why are you moving away from the classic design? It's reminiscent of Coca-Cola launching its new brand only to resort to its classic recipe.
Clearly a lot of time, and maybe even AI time, has been spent on developing the new site, perhaps so much so that the site's development team aren't fixing basic glitches on the old site. It may be a coincidence but the number of glitches and unfixed glitches (eg emojis not working, mangled apostrophes, an influx of alerts from 'phantom' followers) have increased significantly since the proposed new site was unveiled. A balance is needed to keep the old site functional and developing the new site. I'm not sure the correct balance has been struck.
This is generic feedback. I realise it's new so I'm not used to it. No doubt I will get the hang of it. As things stand, the new site is thoroughly confusing. I appreciate that new code is needed, particularly for the Dating side of the old site. But the new site is far more than new code. It's a new site with a new layout and new terms. As things stand, the new site makes it unnecessarily difficult for existing members to use. I strongly recommend that you simplify things and that you put yourself in the shoes of members (whether daters, bloggers, or cammers) when designing the site. I've tried to be as positive as I can be while realising something new often meets resistance from those familiar to the old. But the more often I frequent the new site, the more confused I get. That shouldn't be the case.
Now a new site is being launched, I'm hoping that this is an opportune time for the site to reflect on its abuse policy. Women routinely get abused by men, not all but some entitled men, on this site. I'm wondering whether the site's marketing slogan, 'join today and get laid tonight' (or words to that effect), is partly to blame. If the site is using women as bait for men to join the site, then it follows that the site should take care of women. I'm wondering whether a zero-tolerance policy may be more effective in countering such abuse. I realise the latter may initially lose money for the site but surely you want the site to be a safe place for women and indeed all members. Profiting from abuse isn't a good look.
None of my feedback is abusive. All of the feedback is constructive, though I accept the site's owner may not enjoy reading feedback #16, #25, #26 and #27. Most of my feedback involves questions, quite simple questions to answer.
Until very recently, only two items of feedback were responded to by Andrew Conru the site's owner and architect of the new site.
On my feedback #1, Andrew Conru responded: "Hi spunkycumfun, Thanks for the note — you're right that the blog link isn't as obvious on the new home page as it used to be. Here are the quickest ways to get to your blog: 1. Click Community in the top navigation bar. 2. In the menu that opens, find the Posts row. 3. Click Mine on the right side of that row — that goes straight to your blog. You can also open your profile (click your avatar ? View profile) and use the Blog tab, which you may already be doing. To write a new post, use the Post button in the header and choose your blog as the destination. We're looking at making blog access easier to spot from the home sidebar. If anything above doesn't match what you see, reply here and we'll dig in. Site Support: Andrew responded to your feedback. You can always find this in your avatar menu under My Feedback (#/my-feedback)."
And on my feedback #17, he responded: "Your groups are all there: open Hangouts from the menu and pick Mine, or go straight to adultfriendfinder.com/beta/passion/#/hangouts/mine. All the old My Groups links redirect to that page too, so nothing was lost. And point taken on the word Hangouts. You are not the only one who has flagged the new name, and I am keeping an eye on whether it earns its place or goes back to plain Groups."
For all the other bits of feedback, 25 of them, the feedback was: "Fixed ... This report is closed."
As you can imagine, I wasn't at all impressed. But I wasn't disappointed because my expectations of this site are set so low so as to avoid disappointment. But the words of Chris Sutton, a former footballer and now football pundit, came to mind to address Andrew Conru: "You're better than that!"
On checking the new site today, and much to my pleasant surprise, a new wad of feedback from the site's owner appeared. It read:
"Hi, Thank you for taking the time to work through the beta this carefully, and for filing so many thoughtful notes. I read the whole bundle. You are one of our most invested bloggers, and a lot of what you wrote is exactly the kind of feedback we need. Let me answer the heart of it in one place. Alerts and navigation. You are not wrong that this is confusing right now, and I am sorry for that. Alerts did not disappear. On the new site they live under Connections (especially Timeline) and under Community for blog and group activity. That is a bad rename on our part, not a feature removal. We are working on clearer labels and better wayfinding so bloggers do not need a decoder ring. On the classic site, you should not be getting kicked off Alerts or fighting phantom followers. That is a real regression and we need to fix it, not ask you to use pen and paper. Hangouts, groups, and feeds. Hangouts is our new name for the groups and spaces you already know. Your groups, including Club 7, carry forward, and Site Support is still part of that world. Feeds for followed bloggers and newest posts do exist on the new site; if you could not find them easily, that is on us, not you. A proper guide for bloggers is a fair ask and we are taking it seriously. Your content and migration. Here is the straight answer: you are not going to lose anything. Your posts, images, comments, and replies come with you. In fact, the new site and the classic site largely run on one shared database, so most of what you do on one side already lives on the other. Some newer features will not be rebuilt backward onto classic, because they are less useful there, and I want to be honest about that. But your content is your content, and it is coming with you. Launch timing. There is no big-bang launch date, because we are not doing a big-bang launch. The new site is already open to paid members, and we keep rolling out improvements steadily as they are ready. Classic stays up alongside it, my estimate is at least six months. So there is no cliff, no cutover surprise, and plenty of time to verify your stuff. Blog tools. We are moving fast on parity. Mentions, links, polls, private posts for Gold, formatting, editing, images, sticky posts, scheduling, saved posts, all of it is on the list, and I expect to bring almost all of it over within the next few weeks. The Ctrl+Enter line break is a fair complaint. Enter should behave the way people expect. Blocking. One block that works everywhere, with your existing list carried forward, is exactly what we want too. You should not have to re-block the same people on two sides of the site. Blogland and the bigger picture. I want to reassure you on this one directly. Dating and blogland are two distinct groupings in the system, and the aim is for the site to be dynamic and shift toward whoever you are. If you are a blogger, the site should feel like a blogger's site. Blogland is not being thrown away, and it is not being turned into a pale imitation of anything. You are right that it is special because of the people in it. Comments matter more than empty likes, and requiring someone to open a post before liking it is a sensible idea. We are listening on trending and quality, not just on layout. Your safety note. Your feedback about abuse and how we market the site is being handled separately, and it is being taken seriously. It deserves a careful answer, not a quick one folded into a long reply, so I am not going to shortchange it here. One personal note. I am coding as fast as I can and rolling things out as they are ready. I am doing my best to get it all out. Your eleven questions deserved more than silence, and this is me starting the answer. If something above is wrong or incomplete, tell me which item and I will follow up on that specific point. Thank you again for sticking with us. Andrew"
Though I've not yet tallied his responses to my feedback, I suspect all or nearly all of my feedback has been responded to. I'm not expecting a positive response in some cases; it's just good to get a response.
Despite the post's length, I just thought I'd share the site's owner's feedback to my feedback on the new site. Hopefully I won't have to bang this drum again!
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19 comments
Nothing wrong with you writing about your concerns for the new site. I appreciate what you have shared with us in this post.
I just hope alerts are resurrected at the very least.
It might take time, but Andrew does respond to the feedback given in the rewrite, especially ones that are based on logic and reason.
Also, when the feedback says "fixed,", test out the fix to make sure it's fixed. A lot of times, it might looked fixed on their end but it's not actually fixed, so they need to dig deeper to find the issue.
I don't know whether I have the patience to check if everything is fixed. My bottom line are alerts which, as Andrew has admitted, need further work.
@spunkycumfun
I'm glad that Andrew is taking our feedback seriously and putting in fixes and implementations stemming from our feedback.
@JN63JPN I really hope Andrew Conru is taking feedback seriously.
honestly, I'd rather have the old 2006 site back. Splitting the community from the main never made sense to me, and it still doesn't.
At least the proposed new site does away with that split.
@spunkycumfun that will be an improvement. Let's see if they can get their groove back.
I am not surprised at what you didn't find on the new site. And the emoji's don't work here either just saying. I am glad he finally responded to you and lets see if what he says comes to fruition.
I hope you enjoy a very happy hump day my friend..
Time will tell whether Andrew Conru takes on board member feedback.
Ah! He did read you after all! You may even become his favorite child. Well, maybe not, but at the very least, you did give him a good impression. And rightfully so. I did go into it and played with it a bit and submitted a few notes. I may go later and go through some more. It's not great but it's not horrific either. Like everything regarding change (especially, inevitable change), it may just take some getting used to. Well, I hope.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the owner's favourite child, more of a thorn in his side!
@spunkycumfun LOL! Well, you did offer a lot of significant, valuable feedback. Im sure thats worth something to his eyes
@spunkycumfun And BTW, I was granted the month-long gold membership. Wotwoooot! I may have been the last one bc i submitted my notes yesterday and apparently, by this morning, the link was gone. At least I can say the new site did give me something
@ManniOfTheIsle It's good you got a month-long gold membership. I think the site's owner has been overwhelmed with feedback. At least it shows him that members care here.
You're still putting in a lot of effort to help improve the new site, and I hope they take your ideas seriously because they're relevant. I have a natural wariness about radical changes in software, because experience has shown me that they tend to be "problematic and frustrating," to put it mildly, but we'll see.
There's one idea in the new version that I like, and that's integrating the dating site and Blogland (when I made this comment on another post, I think it was yours, another user went ballistic and insulted me... (?) and I had to block her), because currently, in the dating section, many users send me IMs with questions, and when I tell them to take a look at my blog and my group, they don't even know it exists, or how to find it, so I have to guide them.
Anyway, thanks for the effort you're putting in.
Merging the Dating and Community sides will have benefits.
I won't rest until alerts are resurrected!
Thank for head up
Mon plaisir.
Thanks for sharing all that @spunkycumfun
Glad your persistence has paid off at last.
It's sometimes difficult with this site. The powers-that-be are quite sensitive even though they allow MAGA trolls to abuse with impunity non-MAGA members!
@spunkycumfun I'm still waiting on the maga twats biting...
@stonnerking The MAGA trolls have gone quiet as Trump is messing things up.
@rdy2try4 I( know you don't like talking about politics, which is your prerogative. But I do like a political discussion, which is my prerogative.
MAGA trolls have been very abusive towards me and others in the past, not so much now. The site did very little about the abuse.
I know women get a lot of abuse, and far more abuse, from entitled men. But the site should clamp down on abuse generally.
@rdy2try4 Given that I've been routinely abused by MAGA trolls I think I have every right to mention them. Just as you have every right to talk about the abuse you've experienced.
We're not going to agree on politics. I'm a political animal - it's what I studied, taught and researched since I went to university. It's who I am.
@rdy2try4 You have misunderstood what I'm saying. By saying, I'm not saying all LAGA supporters are MAGA trolls, or for that matter all trolls are MAGA supporters. I am saying that there is a subset (probably a small subset) of MAGA supports who troll by being abusive.
And I readily admit that are non-MAGA trolls but it's the MAGA trolls who have abused me (plus others) because of my liberal, red and green politics. They make no attempt at a reasoned and evidenced argument. They go straight to abuse. I've had a couple wishing me dead. They aren't tolerant of people holding different beliefs.
That's all I'm saying.
@rdy2try4 I don't quite know why you are continually locking horns with me. My reply was to someone else and it didn't breach the site's terms of use.
The point I was trying to make was that MAGA trolls are less abusive because Trump's record now contains a lot of messes. That's just my opinion. You may have a different opinion.
@rdy2try4 I've tried to clearly explain myself to you. I was attacking MAGA trolls only in my reply to someone else.
I suggest we draw a line as we're just going round in circles.
@rdy2try4 My wording is very clear. MAGA trolls are trolls who support MAGA, not all MAGA supporters. I made myself clear ages ago. Please let's a draw a line.
@SiteSupport I'm unclear why this blog post hasn't been approved (or not). Though quite long, it was submitted hours ago, well before several other approved blog posts submitted after this blog post.
The blog post doesn't breach the site's terms of use.
@SiteSupport This is so frustraing. I know my post has been sent to purgatory, neither approved nor denied and awaiting Tier 2's decision.
I feel this post is doing some of the dirty work of the site by informing what the site's owner is thinking. Just what is the site's CEO is doing? From where I'm standing, it seems absolutely nothing.
My question here is that does a submitted blog post mentioning the site's owner or Andrew Conru get routinely referred to Tier 2 for approval (or not)? It seems so.
If so, it doesn't say much for the site's free speech credentials.