| [ 07/31/2005 ] Change to Animated GIF Handling |
We've changed the way we're handling animated GIF files now. Hopefully everyone will be pleased.
If you upload an animated GIF file that is larger than 1 MB, we will de-animate the thumbnail and stick a little graphic on the bottom right of the thumbnail indicating that people can click it to see it animated. When they do, the full-size image at Glowfoto will be animated as uploaded.
We did this for two reasons: first, many of the animated GIFs we receive don't survive the resizing process (they end up all garbled and ugly). This is because of the way the GIF file is prepared, and there is nothing we can do about it. Second, the most popular animated GIFs are simply huge (the most popular one checks in at 1.73 MB a day, and is one of the most commonly posted comment images at MySpace).
Since we've altered the way we're handling animated GIFs, you can still post those 5-10 megabyte files, only people will have to click through to view them. So far, we've only seen one garbled GIF in all of our tests, so we're pretty convinced this is a good solution.
But as always, your comments are welcome. |
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| [ 07/25/2005 ] Photo Blogging on Glowfoto |
All registered users can now create Photo Blogs from their accounts.
Simply log in to your account, and click the My Blog link in your gallery. To add an entry, click the Add New Blog Entry link and you're off. Photo blogs can contain an image and text.
We'll be refining the system over the next few days, but feel free to start adding entries now.
To see a sample photo blog, click here |
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| [ 07/11/2005 ] Glowfoto Message Boards |
New feature for this week, the Glowfoto Message Boards.
Feel free to post messages and start communicating with the over 10,000 Glowfoto users (can you believe we have that many members?)
Just use the Forums link at the top of the site to get started. |
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| [ 06/15/2005 ] Server Performance Update |
Hopefully everyone noticed Glowfoto is running a lot faster than ever before. We've tweaked a few things, rearranged a few pages, updated the servers and brought in some new ones... basically we did everything possible to get us up to a good running speed, and it seems like it worked!
Glowfoto has been receiving a massive amount of hits, due to a surge in popularity. Currently, our number one referring site is myspace.com -- thanks to all the myspacers out there for choosing Glowfoto.
As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome. Just use the contact link at the top of every page. |
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| [ 04/24/2005 ] Next/Previous |
Only one new feature today, as most of the day was spent optimizing the database queries to make everything run faster.
Now, when viewing an image from within your gallery, the viewer can click Next or Previous above the image to move through the album, so you don't have to go back to the album page to see another image.
We'll have more good stuff tomorrow. |
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| [ 04/22/2005 ] Post Comments, and the Slowness Problem |
New update for April 21: Image comments. Visitors can now leave comments on your images, and your images will now show up in the gallery, rather than on the old image page.
In case some of you have noticed any slowness on the site, we've been getting hit hard with tons of new images -- and I mean tons. We're going to add another server to help out with this in a few days. |
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| [ 04/20/2005 ] New Albums Page and Other Changes |
You may have noticed that your gallery page looks a little different.
We've modified the layout a little to display your albums on a separate page, which makes navigation a lot easier (and which will make navigation a WHOLE lot easier when we roll out the folders feature).
You can also now choose a thumbnail to represent your albums. Just go into any of your albums, and select Highlight Image from the menu underneath one of your images. This image will become the thumbnail image for that album. Note: because your browser doesn't reload images if it already has a copy stored, you might not see the change right away. Trust us, it worked. Just return to your gallery and refresh your albums list (hit the F5 key).
Also, you'll notice that you have a General folder in your list that looks different from the rest. If you don't upload your images to one of your custom albums, they will go here. Only you can see this folder, so you can store images here while you figure out which album to store them in.
We hope everyone is enjoying the new features as much as we're enjoying creating them. Have fun, and feel free to use the contact form if you have any questions....
And a huge thank you to our new premium members! |
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| [ 04/19/2005 ] Add to favorites |
Now members can link their galleries together using the add to favorites link at the top of every gallery.
Just click the link, and that member's gallery will be added to your favorites list. You can remove favorites in the edit profile section of the site.
Your favorites will appear on the new About page, which also lists some basic info about you. You can edit all of this basic information from the edit profile page.
And don't forget to upload an avatar! Get rid of that generic G and personalize your identity on Glowfoto with an avatar - also done in edit profile.
More new stuff on the way.... |
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| [ 04/16/2005 ] Guestbooks and Albums |
All registered users now have guestbooks which their visitors can sign, and more importantly, you can now create and delete albums, and organize your images into albums.
Also note that when you edit your profile, you have the option of uploading an image to use as an avatar while on the site. Its a simple way of customizing your gallery page... upload any image, and we'll resize it and post it next to your name when you leave messages for other users, or comment on images.
And speaking of comments, you'll soon be able to leave and receive comments on images... that's the next update, hopefully available before the end of the weekend.
If you don't have an account, you can sign up for one, free, right here. |
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| [ 04/13/2005 ] Glowfoto Premium Accounts |
We haven't even announced the Glowfoto paid accounts yet, and already were getting swamped with new signups.
We started these accounts to allow us to develop a feature rich user account for Glowfoto users, and that is still our plan. Unfortunately, because of the unanticipated demand, we will have to monitor the servers for at least the rest of today before we can roll out the new features to our premium members.
We are, of course, very happy with the response, and we are doing everything we can to meet it, including increasing the amount of traffic we allow in to the site until this crush passes.
Remember, there will be a limited number of accounts allowed before we lock down for the feature rollouts, so if you want to be one of the first members with an account, now is the time.
We will have an announcement on the first feature rollout (organize your photos into albums!) sometime tomorrow. |
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| [ 04/04/2005 ] Server Performance Tweak |
The increased traffic to glowfoto over the last two weeks was overwhelming.
We've compensated by tweaking our servers over the last couple days, and it looks like we've gotten things under control. Sorry about all the timeouts. Shouldn't be a problem any more.
We'll be keeping an eye on things over the next few days to make sure all problems are fixed. |
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| [ 12/30/2004 ] Rotate and Remove Images |
Now registered users can remove images from their collections, and rotate images before sharing them. These are but two of many features we will be adding to Glowfoto over the next month.
Next up:
- Organize your photos into folders and albums.
- Resize images
- Network your image gallery with other users
- Comment on images
- Customize your gallery page with HTML and text
As always your suggestions are most welcome. Just contact us and let us know what features you want to see on Glowfoto! |
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| [ 12/29/2004 ] User Accounts Now Available! |
Now you can sign up for an account on Glowfoto.
At the moment, having an account will allow you to keep a record of the files you've uploaded and share them in a group with others.
The user accounts are in a BETA phase, so we expect things to go wrong, especially as we build options and features into the system. If you encounter an error, please contact us to let us know. |
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| [ 12/28/2004 ] Coming Soon: User Accounts |
By popular demand, we are creating a user system that will allow you to register an account and manage your uploads. Eventually, you'll even be able to sort your images into albums and share them with others.
We are just a few days away from rolling out the new system, so stay tuned.
As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions, suggestions or other concerns. |
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