Sparky, we have received a lot of input regarding the need to delete photos so we are going to do a small update in a few weeks to make that easier.

Right now you can delete images from your post for as long as you can edit the post, which is up to 24 hours after posting it.

We are thinking of a management interface in the profile pages that will allow you to go in and delete them later on.

I love the new site. Navigation is simple and the photo posting feature is fantastic. What a wonderful treat for all of your fans!

I didn't realize how much I was going to love the photo upload feature until today. Brilliant!!!! Hmmm, will there be a new role coming related to photo or WIW/photo posts? That might encourage more pictures & help those of us who are more visual as well. Just dreaming some more...

Thank you all for your compliments and support. It's great to work for such an appreciative audience.

April, I agree about the white. As we worked to get all the major functionality in place we definitely neglected the poor old sidebar and as a result there are expanses of white further down the page. But we made it a lot wider in this design because we want to use it in interesting ways, and as we do it will fill up with blocks of color.

JewelryGirl, that's a fine idea.

Queenie, thanks for the store favorites idea. We've been thinking about a wishlist feature, but I didn't think about treating in a similar way to forum favorites. Hmmm.

Another thought, now that I've back to the new site several times. Biscuitsmom posted about the light gray text producing eyestrain; while I'm not having that difficulty with the color in and of itself, I am straining where the text is both light gray *and* teeny-tiny (Online Now; YLF Member Blogs; the tab names across the top of the screen.) I saw your reply about reducing the prominence of less important info, Greg -- maybe keeping it light but making the text larger would answer both issues?

Yes, "Online now" is too tiny. I will change that at some point soon.

Greg- a wish list would be just as great... just some way to keep track of things we want (and remind us to buy them from the store)
I can read the online now names fine as long as I am 5 feet away from the computer screen... LOL

Oh my!!! I tried SO HARD to stay up late last night to see the new site, but alas, my little eyes just wouldn't let me LOL

But, I have to say an enormous WOOHOO!!! It looks fantastic, seems to work fine from what I've done so far, and despite a little *sniff* at saying goodbye to the old format, I know I am already in love with this.

Well done Greg & Angie - your hard work and dedication has made this site somewhere that I call home, and you brighten my day everyday!

Now, off to upload a photo!!

Wow I am blown away with all the changes to the site. And everything is executed well. The only snag I saw, was an extra "of" on the backstage page in the first paragraph for "coming of age."

I was overwhelmed at first, the site is extremely different. However, it is comforting to see that navigation is as easy as ever, and there are many components that were left the same. This makes digesting all the new functions a LOT easier.

As I'm sure others have already said, I REALLY like the new photos upload feature. I'm sure I will like this option even MORE when I use it, the ability to immediately see the photos in a thread, is really neat.

Is this covered somewhere already, can you edit the photos after uploading or should one only upload photos in a ready to post form? Also is there a way to bring attention to clicking on a photo to see the full view? I did not realize at first that the thumbnail is not the full photo. (If this is a browser issue, I am using Firefox)

I think you both did an amazing job redesigning the site and I look forward to all the new features in action. Congrats and bravo!

Love the new ylf! But my favorite change has to be the possibility of uploading photos and preview the photos! It saves us so much time!

Beautiful redesign, and lots of new features!

As long as you are taking requests for upgrades to the photo upload feature, would it be possible to upload the photo from another website as well as from our hard drive? I have most of my photos stored on Flickr and they are a lot easier to find there than on my Apple hard drive. There are other sites where I can choose from where I want to pull my photo....just a thought!

Absolutely wonderful! I love the new look and am looking forward to all the new and exciting changes! CONGRATULATIONS! ^__~

Oops, I am having some photo upload glitches...
When I pick a file to upload it is telling me "This file is empty, so it probably isn't a valid photo".

I've had this error message a few times now. Tried logging out and logging back in but it didn't help...might try it again now.

Nope...still getting the message. Greg, the screenshot looks like this:
http://picasaweb.google.com/11.....0203646338

Thanks Tara. I will send you a private message to see whether I can get a hold of the offending photo(s) to diagnose the problem.

After a few days on the new site I have the following feedback:

I just noticed I'm not able to edit my replies to forum posts (the little "edit" link no longer appears)
Also, could you move the close "X" for photos to the top of the picture frame so I don't have to scroll down to close the picture and get back to the post?
And, one last request - this has bugged me for a while; can you make the default on links "open in a new window" so I don't have to browse back to the post when a site hijacks my "back" button?

Just a few minor feature tweak requests...these might just be my personal preferences, so I understand if they are taken with a grain of salt. (-:

No bugs to report, just that I am loving the site and enjoying exploring the new features. I can't wait for the girls naptime to play some more!

Edit to add...I just discovered that I can tab the pic to close, so the "X" move isn't really needed. (-:

Hi Jenava, thanks for the feedback.

The edit button is still there, but it moved to the top right of your post. As before, editing is only available for 24 hours after you submit the post.

I know this isn't obvious, but you can click anywhere outside the photo to close the window. No need to scroll down to the "X".

What sort of links would you like to open in a new window? All of them, or are there specific situations where a new window would be better.

Web usability "experts" are almost unanimous in saying that one should generally not open new windows on links. Lots of people don't like a proliferation of windows, and you take away their option of staying in the same window. But as a user you can choose to open all your links in new windows - just press shift while you click the link (this works in all browsers I've tried).

Site search blip!
After viewing a link from the search I use my browsers back button to go back to the search list it takes me back to the 1st page of the search not the page of the search list I came from. So say the article I followed the search link from was page 3 going back will take me to page 1. I'm assuming this is a google issue? as it was the same on the old site x

Louise, I never noticed that before. It isn't ideal, but you're right that Google is providing the search page and after a quick look I can't see anything I can do to change that behavior.

All I can suggest is opening the link on the search page in a new window (shift-click is the shortcut).

Greg

Aha good thinking web wizard that will totally solve my annoyance with this problem! x

I just saw the button moved...Ha! Thanks Greg.

I know pop-up proliferation is generally not desirable. Sometimes when I click through to a shopping page I can't click "back" to go back (it just re-loads the same page) or I browse around a bit and then want to jump back on the forum to where I was.

I suppose the right-click -> open in new page would work for me?

Love the new site! Great job, team!

My only issue so far is that the site takes sooo long to load on my iPhone. Considerably longer than the last site, probably due to the picture background. I wish there were a more streamlined mobile version of the site. Maybe something to explore in the future! But for now, I'll just enjoy as much as I can on my phone during my breaks at work.

That's strange Shell. The big picture actually isn't that big, relatively speaking, and the new site loads far fewer images than the old one. I've generally cut the amount transferred by half and there are fewer requests to the server.

On top of that, we have a much more powerful server that's costing us an arm and a leg.

Are you using an iPhone, or is it something else. The new site does use Javascript more (a programming language to make the site more interactive) and that could hurt browsers that aren't quite so modern.

Shell, that's funny because on my iPhone I had noticed the site loads a LOT faster than it used to! Are you on a 3G or iPhone4? I just switched to 4, because my previous iPhone couldn't handle the latest OS upgrade and it slowed everything down including page loads.

Greg, speaking of iPhone usage, the only issue I am having with it is being able to see/distinguish the words and buttons to move from Blog to Forum to Latest, etc. The Blog and Forum and Home links in the graphic are beautiful but tricky to click the right one with your finger, and it's impossible to see the tiny grey font for the Forum sections. But once I expand it I can usually get to what I need to. And the increased speed makes me very, very happy.

Kristen, I'm glad you see a performance improvement!

Yes, I know it isn't ideal on the iPhone. And I don't think it will be until we do an iPhone specific site or an app. 3.5" touchscreen experience and a 20" keyboard mouse experience are just too different. I did try to keep the main hit targets reasonable, but there are places its quite hard to use.

Hi Greg!

Just a thought as I was browsing some of the archived blog posts.

The blog posts that have pictures such as Angie's outfits, and other ones with pics - when you go into the Archive and it lists the posts, it would be *super duper handy* if a little thumbnail image appeared next to each entry with pics to spark my memory of what it was!

I was thinking something like in the image below as an example.

Only prob is it might make the pages super long. Still - is there any way to swing it?

Just a thought.

I've also seen a much faster response from the website on my mobile phone browser (LG smartphone with Opera Mini). The only problem I have had is the next page button at the bottom of the forum being so small and close to last page button. It doesn't bother me that much though.

Tara, that's a really nice idea.

Dawn, thanks for letting me know about the buttons on Opera mini. This will go on the list of things that I'll try to make more usable when on a smaller screen.