Followup on AOL Pictures Albums Embedded in Journals

Hi folks -- here's an update on where we are with AOL Pictures albums embedded in Journals:

The Issue
****************
As you've seen, in the Journals R11b release that launched this week, the behavior of AOL Pictures albums embedded in entries changed to a WooHoo Flash slideshow.

Now, I didn't realize that this would be the new default behavior, nor did I make the connection that it would affect your albums that had previously been published. So I apologize -- as I said yesterday, if I had made the connection, I probably would have pushed back on this, or at least raised some warning flags.

Some of the problems people had with the new slideshows include:

* We changed the behavior, as well as previously published content, without warning people (which I will take most of the blame on this).
* Photo captions were no longer visible.
* Some people with dialup or slower connections had problems with the page not loading properly.

OK, So How Are We Going to Fix This?
***********************************************
I talked with Malika and the team on the West Coast, and here's what's going to happen:

* They're going to add the "Classic" embedded AOL Pictures viewer (from before the R11b install) back in the next build, which they'll be working on over the weekend.

* The Classic picture viewer will be the default picture viewer, and all previously-published galleries will go back to the Classic, non-Flash version.

* People who want to use the Woohoo pictures albums will have it as an option in a drop down menu.

The team will be building and testing it over the next few days, so we'll be looking at getting it installed to production early next week. I will keep you updated.

In the meantime, for you folks who don't like the default "Ken Burns" style (named for the documentary filmmaker, whose signature style from his Civil War miniseries was a slow pan across a photograph), here's how you change the style of the woohoo galleries:

Edit your entry; you'll see a drop down menu that lets you choose from six styles (as well as buttons to "Add/Edit Pictures" and "Remove All Pictures"):

Here are the 6 styles (in their current order in the drop-down menu):

If you choose the Ken Burns or Photo Album styles, clicking on a picture will take you to that picture's page in AOL Pictures.

Since the picture picker user interface design is going to change a little bit when the team pushes out the new build, I will hold off on doing a full tutorial until next week.

Again, sorry for changing things without telling anyone.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, r11b, woohoo, aol pictures

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This entry has 17 comments: (Add your own)

#17 Comment from lpleas3333
5/21/07 11:37 AM | Permalink

Thanks Joe! Being on a slow dial-up connection (two juice cans and a string) via another service provider and then going through them to connect to AOL makes things doubly tough in our neck of the woods. We've got no other options out here in the boondocks, no satellite, no cable...nothing. With the new format, it makes it impossible to get the pages to load properly, if they load at all. Going back and making the old albums set as a default certainly makes sense as it still gives the more advanced options to those who are able to use them.
I suppose it's a relatively small price to pay to live in an area with clean air, no crime and the peace and quiet that's so hard to find nowadays.
Just as a suggestion. I think it would be a good idea to notify AOL's tech support when changes are made and they in turn can notify members that work is being done and refer people to this page. My fault, but I didn't know this blog was here until I went digging for it when I experienced problems that tech support couldn't solve...but, this was after tech support had me go through a myriad of changes in my computer's settings. They kept insisting, "This is NOT an AOL problem."
We appreciate the hard work you and your team are putting into this and look forward to going back to the good old days. ;-)
All the best!
Laura
LPleas3333@aol.com

http://journals.aol.com/lpleas3333/AdensAdventures/
#16 Comment from schoolgal040
5/20/07 9:11 AM | Permalink

Hi Joe,
Great job!!! Thank you so much for your hard work, and of course every one elses on the team. YOu all did a super job and I appreciate it.

Now that it's Sunday RELAX!!!

Huggers,
Gayla
#15 Comment from jimsulliv3
5/19/07 11:59 AM | Permalink

Yaaaaayyyyyyyy ! Way to go, Joe. Couldn't have come up with better solutions because the fixes you are establishing are exactly what needed to be done ! By the way, since I read (no retention), re-read (still no retention) carefully read (Aha !), I will no longer use blogplugs daily. Sorry 'bout that, I thought I was supposed to do it very day. Thanks again

Jimmy
#14 Comment from ally123130585918
5/19/07 9:59 AM | Permalink

Thanks Joe glad we are reverting back that will make a lot of people happy ~ Ally
#13 Comment from kasee267
5/19/07 1:24 AM | Permalink

Thanks for the update,Joe.
You are one of the reasons I stick with my AOL journal, because of your assistance and your responsiveness to the Journals community.
Kathi

(P.S. I'm kind of getting to like the Woo Hoo thing, at least on some of the pics.)

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Followup on AOL Pictures Albums Embedded in Journals