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November 2009 
Today's the Day!
Posted on Oct 1st, 2008
by 
Gaia Team
Gaia Team
And.... voila! Your new Gaia navigation has arrived!
Let's run through some highlights! First off, please have a look at your beautiful new side bar.
Siona, doing her best flight-attendant impersonation, points to the left side of your screen.
The first tab is labeled "Gaia," and provides an easy means to get to any of the major areas of the site—it's meant to help you easily see what's new and to connect you with the rest of the community. (Up at the very top, too, you'll find our Guidelines and Mission, so that a reminder of what it is we're really about—and a burst of positivity—is always at the tip of your mouse. :) We've made, too, the Book Groups and Quotes more accessible (as we prepare for an update of both those sections over the next month or two), and made it generally simpler to get around the community.
The second tab is yours! When you're logged in, you'll find a neat list of 'your' content—from your Profile to your Groups to your Friends to your recent activity. From there you can also update your blog, send a message, or change your settings. (You'll note all this is still accessible from the top bar, too, just in case you prefer that version.)
When you visit someone else—be it a Friend or new member—you'll see yet a third tab open up. This one is ordered just like yours, but has their content instead (as well as simple links to invite them as a Friend or send them a message or visit their Grapevine).
Fun, right? I think you'll take to it like a duck to water (where did that expression come from, anyway?), and hopefully it'll lead to discover areas of the community you might not have explored before.
A few extra points that we're aware of, and that we'll be polishing in releases to come:
☼ When you visit pages such as Groups, Videos, Books, or Quotes, a certain portion of the navigation remains up top, in a slim purple strip below the main banner. We'll be bringing that down into the sidebar navigation presently; for now, hopefully it'll just serve as a reminder of where we once were.
☼ The Groups pages and layout will be getting their own special release later this Fall, so it won't be long before they too have a new design that's as pretty and user-friendly as the rest of the site. (The same goes for Videos and Quotes, but I, personally, am most excited about the Groups have the most to gain. Videos are great but discussions have that collaborative aspect... )
☼ Despite the new three-column set up and the left-hand navigation, the general layout for most interior pages hasn't changed much (one step at a time, as my father still reminds me), so you shouldn't have any trouble finding content within each 'section.' (Your Grapevine and Activity Feed and Friends Status widgets now live on the left-hand, rather than the right-hand, side of your Profile; just scroll down slightly.)
So that's it for now! Please please please join me in a HUGE thank you to our lovely developers (Chris and Ryan and Francois? Where are you? Please raise your hands or take a bow....) and Jackson, our designer, for all their incredible work in making this happen, and a round of applause for each of you for your wonderful support and patience.
Hugs as always, and a happy dance, too....
PS. If you've got any troubles—from a tweaked profile to a lost post—as a result of this rearrangement, or have any questions about the new navigation, please let us know. Buggies and glitches are best addressed in Support, while general questions can go to the How To area.
PPS. The homepage might look a little odd when you first log in, but if you do a 'hard refresh' with your browser you should be fine. :)
Access: Public
Hi team,
the new layout is narrowing the blog width with a little bit, hence cutting off pic's posted at max width, not to mention playing havoc with the formatting.. Is this perhaps just a temp problem or should I start tearing my hair out right about now?
love, laughter & lightness tara
I'm having the same problem as Tara…it's a nice, new layout with some cool features, but I'm finding the same issues with the width. The sides are definitely getting cut off, forcing me to do some vertical scrolling to move from left to right.
I am using a 17 inch monitor, with 1280x1024 resolution. I have tested both with FF and IE7, and it looks fine in my monitor
And…. I love this
An awesome step forward, and kudos to everyone involved !! So much effort, so much dedication. I am in grateful awe. I shall delightedly (weeelllll……) engage in the learning curve, haha. I love Liz's status comments:
Liz is stumbling around. Someone moved all the furniture!
(22 minutes ago) Liz is Gaia, my love, you've changed your hair, or something. Shaved? New glasses? What is it?
(25 minutes ago)
Ditto the above two comments about page width. I have to keep a narrow strip visible for an open document I use to “save” my longer writings several times during the creative process, before I post them, and that's nigh impossible now, without cutting off the left or right of my screen here.
Hey, could I have another piece of cake, please? This is a suggestion, not a glitch or how to question. Could the “Groups I belong to” list on the left be in order of my last access, instead of in order of size?????? Pretty please??? When you have time????
“Oliver Twist asked for 'more' ”
Blessings, OM Bastet
Tara & Star, I'll check it out…
Any issues that need immediate support, post em here:
http://pods.gaia.com/gaia_support/discussions/view/346463
Thanks!
/c
OM, sorry to affect your writing process… is it simply because the browser window needs to be a bit wider now?
And I'm adding a ticket for your request right now :)
Love,
/c
(Thank you, Chris. My hero…)
And hello to the rest of you wonderfuls! Thank you all for being so quick to jump in.
Let's see… from the top…
tara: We're working on sorting out what happens with earlier posts. No need to go buy a wig just yet. :)
MorningStar: It sounds to me as though your problem is a wee bit different than tara's; she's having trouble with the middle column, but you, it sounds, are using a smaller monitor or screen size than some of us… hence the scrolling. Can I ask was sort of screen you have?
Eli! ::hug:: Yay! Success! :)
OM: You're a gem. Thank you. And wait… you want us to change the whole screen so you can keep a document open? Sheesh. I think you should write to Microsoft and ask THEM to make a narrower word processor. ;) As to the Groups, oh, I cannot WAIT until we get to tackle that area. I daresay we should be able to play with some ordering options.
Hi, Siona. I think I've got a 13” screen on my MacBook. The problem is that I now have to continually scroll back and forth, left to right, every time I do anything. (It makes being on Gaia a lot more work.) Before, I didn't have to do that–just some up/down scrolling, which was fine. Also (and maybe this is just me), I sort of liked being about to see the vertical friends' list and grapevine at the same time (on opposite sides of the page.)
Meanwhile—and maybe this isn't the place to ask—but I'm curious as to whether there are any plans to offer blog features such as “female friends” only (or the opposite) or if we might eventually just choose 10 friends who see a blog. There are times when one wants just a little more privacy than “friends only.” I know a pod is an option, but that doesn't seem to work for these situations.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how the current glitches get resolved and to seeing new features in the future. Thanks!
Haha, Siona, and thanks for asking, Chris !! The only problem with writing to MS is: …………… (fill in the blank.)
Actually I only need an additional half inch, or less, to be able to access the document adequately now, I do narrow it way way down. All I would really need to gain is 1/4 inch. I see that possibly 1/8 inch could easily be shaved off both alleys between the columns here, or perhaps 3/32 of an inch, and then if the center column were 1/16 less wide…… But I wouldn't sacrifice any of the 6 margins involved…..
Anyway, I am glad you appreciate how important it is to be able to make sure that none of my extraordinary, valuable writings gets lost before posted, due to a possible computer failure. NOT. :))
Playing with options. You guys are GOOOOOOD at that !!
Love you all, Team,
OM Bastet
Lisa - it's just mostly empty space on the right, isn't it? And did you reduce the resolution on your Mac? 13” macbooks should have plenty of room to spare. Does it have a wide-screen or a square-screen?
Tara - the width hasn't shrunk by much - was it really close to the edges before? Is it a big job for you to adjust the widths on the wide pictures you've posted?
MorningStar: My 13” Mac is fine; is there any chance you might have chanced the resolution? (System Preferences; then go to Display, and make sure it's set at 1280x800!) We might want to take this issue to Support, though, just so as not to bug the earlier commenters. :)
And getting used to change always takes a day or two of adjustment. I think (I hope!) you'll soon find this layout just as logical as the last. I found myself flying around like a pro after just an hour or two, and I'm not exactly a whiz when it comes to these things…
I'll pop you a note about the filtering!
OM: Hehehee… You made me laugh. (And I like seeing that beautiful brain of yours at work! Way to go creativity!)
Chris & Siona, thank you for quick time response.. I'm back to breathing deeply & peacefully :) And, now that i've been out & about on the site, marvelling at the new layout, going click click & getting my brain reprogrammed, methinks this is marvelous!
grrreat job! deep bows (–_–)
Making you laugh made my day!!
To make it clear to any future readers: I would never dream of asking the dev team to make changes just for me. I am assuming the width might be a problem for others due to various factors, such as those indicated above, and would assume the dev team would await to see how many are affected before investing their VALUABLE time to do any tweaking.
But, it never hurts to be one of the askers….
And I now realize all talk of fractions of an inch are silly, because of differing screen sizes. I think mine is 15. Sorry I was egocentric on that matter !!!!
Gratefully off to my day now,
OM
I really love the new layout. I am estatic that the main posting parts have now been moved away from the left side of the screen, to the middle of it. I still have to scroll with my 17” monitor set on 800 x 600 in order to read the smaller print, but the main reading window is nicely visible now, and the scrolling to get to other parts is a small sacrifice for being able to read things easier.
~~~^v^~~~
Gem
Just decreased the type size in general (apple key and + sign) and now it's better. The problem, though, is my eyes….must get some reading glasses soon. Maybe I'll do it now that I need to.
Anyway, thanks…it seems pretty good now.
Glad you asked OM, keep letting us know if things come up because you're right, they might indeed be a problem for others. It helps us to get the feedback.
And, I just want to give a huge THANK YOU to our dev team. They really put their hearts into this and I think it's amazing. They are amazing.
I hope everyone is have a wonderful time surfing the new design ;)
Gem: The new layout loves you right back. :)
MorningStar: We'll be darkening the text shortly, too, so hopefully that'll help with the legibility. And you're so welcome!
Chris, it affects all pics that are posted with the former max width 480 pixels, not only on my blog.. just wrote Siona about this, could you read my mail to her? :)
Tara… maybe we could reduce the border around the pictures… will think more on it! Thanks!
Awww you Gaias,thank you for this.I just made some cookies would you like some :-)
B.B, ooh! cookies! Thank you so much. I was just thinking of cookies and how our amazing dev team and Jackson deserve them. I know I said that already, but the cookies brought it up again.
And, thank you for being here. I'm thrilled that this new layout can connect everyone here even more. I really believe it will. Cookies for all!
Congratulations team - the new layout is great. I love how fresh and accessible everything is for me. I personally have had zero problems with the transition… my photos are quite happily where they were before. I think you all deserve a giant hug and round of applause because the transition was just so smooth. There was not a single hiccup on my end - no pause no confusion and no interruption to my wandering through the site while it all happened.
Brilliant work!
much love,
Leigh-Anne
Ditto Quitelaughter's comment!! This is so streamlined and easy to navigate. Between yesterday you took my breath away and today you put it back. Ahhhhh!
Thanks team for being a team!Kathy
Loving it team, great creations…
Love
Ange..
quietlaugher, KES, ange… thank you so, so much. You're the reason we're here, and it's so wonderful to hear you happy. :)
I LOVE it… good job guys! I'm alredying finding stuff on the Gaia tab that I haven't see before.. Right on!!! You all are amazing
I really really like the new layout. I haven't yet played with the navigation because I was too busy signing up for Gaia Plus. Why did I do that? Because as much as I LOVE the new layout for some reason the ads seemed to stand out more. They were somehow more prominent. I had been meaning to sign up for Plus for awhile and just never got around to it. The new layout reminded me and motivated me to just finally do it!
Thank you!
Mimi
ch3shyr3_cat: Oh, I'm so glad! That's what I'd hoped–that the whole site would pop into clarity. Thank you. :)
And ooh… AlcheMystic: Our plan… it worked… get them all to sign up for Plus…. ;)
Kidding, kidding. :)
Really, I'm glad you found that option. We actually have fewer ads now–we swapped the six on the side for two more normally-sized pieces–but I completely understand wanting the ad-free version. Enjoy the spaciousness!
I think it's great and the transition is easy. The only glitch I found was the new layout cuts off many of my blog images. Going forward, I'll post them smaller.
Nice work team!!
Hi Siona…YES! I am on to you! LOLOL…..I think you hit the nail on the head for me. I did notice that there were fewer ads and it was the size of those ads that threw me off. Nonetheless it got me off my rear end about switching versions. It's ALL GOOD!
I have a lil request followed by the biggest pretty please you may ever hear: would it be possible to frame the blog all the way around with the thin dotted line that is up top? As it is now the blog is hangin in thin air with no borders & it is no good for the aesthetics.. pluueze?
tara: Ooh. That could be nice. Let me check with Jackson and see our options. (He's got a better eye for aesthetics than I could ever hope for and I hate making excutive beauty-decisions… ;)
Applauding
Bowing
Smiling
Thanking
I'd like to add a graphic designer's viewpoint (sorry for butting in). People often want borders around things that don't need them. Look at an amateur newsletter sometime–boxes everywhere, and very hard to read. Try to get used to the space for awhile before you start fencing everything in. You may find you like the “clean” look. It's actually easier on the eyes.
Oh, Meenakshi… Thank you, right back. :)
And Liz? I think you saved me a patient lecture from Jackson. ;) Thanks for the voice of experience. tara: Perhaps we can revisit in a week or two?
Oh, I do hope I saved someone from a lecture, that would be great. :)
That said, not everything is going to look pretty from every person's computer. It's just not possible to design websites like you can design things on paper.
Time was, (sounds of people getting comfortable for a lecture from an oldster) a person coded everything in HTML, and it looked pretty much the same everywhere. You have two browsers, Netscape and Exploder(Explorer) and two platforms to worry about, Mac and Windows, and you were done.
Now there are seemingly infinite plug-ins, rollovers, many competing formats and browsers, CSS, flash, xhtml…and there's just no way to make it all right, all the time.
Frankly, I haven't got the patience to do web design/development. It's worse than herding cats. Worse than anything. I don't know how people do it.
Please, everyone, try to remember this when you're perusing Gaia's FREE interface. It's FREE. Remember, it's FREE. and if there's a problem, please be polite. Remember, it's FREE.
And if you don't like the ads, it's ALMOST FREE to get rid of them. Just $30 for a whole year.
Did I mention that this incredible space, FAR superior to Facebook and My Space, is completely, 100% FREE?
Liz
Hi,
I was trying to look at our new sidebar from the point of view of a newbie. Perhaps the following two minor points could be considered, making it more explicit for new Gaians to understand :
1. Change the word “groups” to “My Groups” under the “Me” tab
2. Change the word “Photos” to “My photos” under the “Me” tab
Beautiful rearrangement…highly user-friendly…thank you for this, Gaia Team
Warmly, Jon x
he he.. interesting, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, says another graphic designer. The reason why i like there to be a fine dotted line around the blog as opposed to earlier, is because the blog is now in the middle column. it looks squeezed in between the adds, whereas it used to be 'supported' by the left side of the browser. There is also less free /blank space on the page now, which is essential to aesthetics as well. With no distinction between, the blog space becomes defined by the surrounding elements rather than being a space in its own right. As it is, there is a border around the images one uses on the blog which further emphases the impression that the words themselves are kinda hanging in thin air. In this case, I'm talking from the heart of a devoted blogger who likes her stuff to look easy on the eye & whose blogs pace is a sacred part of gaia. It seems to me that the adds now take optical precedence over our blog space & I find that a bit sad.
I am of course a gaia+ user myself, I have had more than my share of adds, whether designing them or trying to work around them when designing. If i was given the choice I would gladly pay a membership fee as an alternative way of income for gaia as well as to ensure add free space or at least a lesser amount.
I kinda liked the old way, where my horoscope and the daily question popped up when I logged in. The pictures seem fine, though.
well I'm still getting used to it, but I'm sure in no time I'll not even notice!
One thing I DID notice, was, SEEDS.. I've not been keeping up on things here so maybe there is a ton of discussion already, but I was just about to seed someone, and couldn't. But I notice that at the top of the page there is still a note about how many seeds sown…
funny, after all that discussion about them way back in ancient times (!) I miss them.
Hugs and hoping everyone is taking a break after all this hard work!
Sandra
Well I'm not at home right now but using someone else's beautiful brand new PC with great large screen and it all looks sooo very nice and neat, like it just comes out of the laundry (Lol), yeah really it just has such a fresh look! All that's missing is a heavenly smell evaporating from it, can do that too Magic Team?! I'm not sure how it will look on my poor old dated small screen at home and I am not sure why the changes have happened because I wasn't unhappy with the way it was, but so far so good and I am excited to find out while working with it. Only drawback is that now I'll be even more addicted to Gaia, umm…
Seeds, yes what about the seeds, have I missed something here as well..? I kind of liked sowing them, reminded me of our famous Vincent's painting …
Such a great gesture sowing seeds.
Anyway great job, team, oh how I lOVE THEE ALL!
Just tried to write a comment and I got an error. Sigh. So, quickly: I'm anti-box (but I'll go take another look, Tara) and anti-seeds. Weird waste of time, as far as I can see. But if people want 'em, that's cool.
Oh! I'm blind. There they are, (the seeds), they've just moved to the right.. sorry everyone. ak, this is how rumours get started…
S.
Shameslaya! You're so welcome, and thank you for taking the time to come by and leave a note. :)
Eli & tara & Liz… why don't the four of us mosey on over to the Think Tank to continue the conversations around updates and potential changes? And maybe pick up a sketch pad and cuppa something on the way?
Sandra: If I adapted, I'm sure you'll have no trouble, you Queen of transition of change! And it looks as though you sussed out the seeds yourself. Hugs right back…
Alluvja: Hehehee. What do you think it would spell like? Fresh laundry? Lavender? Violets? I'm having a fun time just imagining.
Thanks for the offer Siona.. alas, no need for me to get out the crayons, the profile page is a perfect example & as far as I recall, the former design also had a frame around the blog.. My observations are merely meant as feedback to the dev team on their new & fabulous design (yes, I'm already deeply in love with the new navigation), so i'll leave it up to yr designers whether to take it further or not.. have a wonderful weekend you gais <3
Alluvja, Siona I think it smells like a fresh garden of grapes and new leaves. That's what I'm picturing ;)
I am so happy that everyone is getting used to it and falling in love. (I'm in love with the new nav too tara ;) It does take a bit of time for the kinesthetic memory to retrain, but my experience is the new design is so intuitive and convenient thatit's a very quick adjustment.
I will read all the info about getting the text to fit on my 17” screen.
Sure, I am having a bit of fun with the new changes, complaining a bit about placement of ads, but with some constructive criticism too, I hope.
In the end, Gaia is alright/all right as is. If the worst thing we have to face today is the Big Towel Ad, then this is a pretty “darn good” day
(mimi gives a Sarah Palin wink to all Gaians out there ;>))
I am of the type that finds 99% of this entire site boring, irrelevant and superficial, but the remaining 1% is often more entertaining and provocative than either Polymeme or the Daily Galaxey. I thought I had gotten rid of some the waste with Firefox's Adblock, but now my screen is cluttered with that left hand side bar. Can your technicians put one of those handy little +/- toggles on the thing so we can make it disappear?
Nickeson: 99% boring, irrelevent, and superficial, but with a fascinating 1% that makes it all worthwhile? Hehe. I think you just described me on a good day.
And yep. Toggles are on the list. (Don't get too excited, though… I don't think we'll be able to get away with toggling out the ads. ;)
mimi: (in my best Alaskan accent) Durn tootin'!!
To “toggle out the ads” I spend 10 cents a day for Plus :)
Here is the PLUS link.
It is so worth the $30 a year and you get another email account on
gaia mail. Its a good thing to flow power back to the team. Thanks crouching tiger.
I have never regretted going PLUS!
It's really eased up the surfing experience here on Gaia and
it's such a bargain considering the time I spend on this network.
Hugs XOOX
hi ..i spent more time with friends everyday..
——————-
harris
<a href=http://www.legalx.net/>dui</a>
My first impression is that it's a very nice setup. It makes sense, and I like the maturity it exudes.
Small aesthetic notes that have nothing to do with functionality :)
Our profile image icons seem disproportionately small as its size has been reduced. The profile image icon now lists our Gaia name rather than the title of the image. The sidebar on the left could be un-bordered and left simply shaded.
It's a big job changing the look of a site, I know! But having worked with graphic designs, I couldn't restrain myself making a few notes :) My two cents worth.
Obviously a lot of hard work done. Way to go!
I'm just writing to ditto Crouching Tiger re: the profile image and title.
mc
so many comments, such good feedback.
mine is simply that i do indeed like the changes, now that i am gettign more familiar with them.
i dont mind the ads at all. in fact, its kinda nice seeing socially conscious businesses up and running.
thanks for ever growing this place, siona nd team,
mary
ps sure miss c4chaos 'round here…too damn bad about the lay-offs
Isn't it wonderful?
is this a statement or a question expecting YES as an answer ?
well since im not sure if u actually wonna hear my opinion i'll let u be the judge
(NOTE: screen shots from 17 inch but tested on both 20 inch and 15 inch)
1. blog cut
a) NEW cant read blog CLICK
dev's n friends only access link - keep scrolling
down the whole long blog is cut on the right
b) original size CLICK
yes this can be solved going forward by making smaller posts
but this and similar ones need to be re-done
2. forum overlap
a) 1st example
b) 2nd example
c) 3rd example
the same here this can be solved going forward by making smaller posts
but this and many more like these need to be re-done
NOTE: all screen shots r done while logged out as zaadz/gaia is my main blog and forum (as of the time of this writing) and ive been posting links to them all over net and its also on my auto reply so ppl check without logging
*side note: i still wish zPro is back. there is another well known company that makes money with customized non-ad community pages so gaia can offer spiritual micro communities as originally envisioned
~love~
Crouching Tiger, Kes, Ladybear, thank you for mentioning your experience with Plus. We really wanted to offer the ad-free option in case people weren't into ads. And, for those who don't want to sign-up for Plus, please know we are selective with our advertisers and you'll see a lot of good conscious companies up here, as Mother Mary said. I know they're companies, but they're trying to do good in the world too and change the face of business, just like us.
Harris12, Seth, Mary_C, I'm glad you're liking it :) Me too!
Princess, we're happy to hear your opinion and listen to any problems you might be having with the site. We do think it's wonderful and want you too also, but if you don't, we will always hear you out.
If you have bugs, problems or questions, please go to the Support pod. The dev team hangs out there too, so they'll see your comments and queries.
Hi Jessica,
Just a little PS :) Not having the ads is nice, but what prompted me to sign up for Plus was C4Chaos' departure. I thought if each of us contributed that $3/month, maybe we could keep another awesome team member from leaving!
Thanks!
E.
Nice upgrade, Jessica and the team. The page is well organized.
thx jessica… will post on support ^.^