What the hell is Smugmug up to now

Updated Post (July 30): My hats off to Smugmug, and my apologies to them. The changes they made are in no way negative and have proven to be 100% geared toward the photographers.

Thanks.

Original Post: I've used them for years and I just got this email. If they start using ads and crap like that, or try to game us with a bunch of tricky fees I'll split and just hard drive stuff.

Anyone know what to make of this?





It's Happening On Tuesday, July 30th!
Live streaming begins at 10:30 a.m. PDT



Dear Michael Fairbanks,

In seven days, on Tuesday, July 30th at 10:30 a.m. PDT, we're unveiling the new SmugMug. We will be streaming our announcement live and direct from our headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Join us for a 30-minute webcast with our CEO and Chief Geek, Don MacAskill. See the new look, catch a live demo, and be a part of the biggest launch since SmugMug started in 2002.

We’re so grateful you found us. Thank you for entrusting us through the years with your priceless photos. We consider you part of our family and can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on. We think you’re gonna love it.

Chris & Don MacAskill
Founders, photographers, regular guys


Ready to be amazed?

Get The Details Here


Photo Credit: Michael Bonocore
View Online
© SmugMug Inc. 2013
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Was wondering the same thing.

Hi guys,

I stumbled upon this, but I sure am happy I did! I am the Community Manager at SmugMug, and I would love to get your feedback after our live streaming event next week. Please send me a PM if you wish to give me your feedback (or just in this thread). I don't want to send you a PM if you don't want to get one

Thanks!

Michael

Mike F, Why don't you just wait and see?

Your title implies you're getting all angry about it before the actual event. In my experience, Smugmug is purely based around providing a decent place for those of us whom are just hobbyists to upload our photos, right up to full on photographers whom have businesses and rely on a good business portal to work from.

To be honest, I don't see why Smug would need to use ads etc. given that we pay annual fees, (although I would be exceptionally disappointed if they did) but perhaps it's a whole bunch of new features or a new site layout (which in some respects is kinda becoming a little dated compared to others out there such as 1x.com and the new Flickr).

Lets wait and see and once it's announced then get angry if it's warranted

I dumped Smugmug after their last price increase. There are enough options out there on the web I wouldn't go back even if the prices dropped back to what they used to be.

IanClark wrote in post #16149114
Your title implies you're getting all angry about it before the actual event.


Lets wait and see and once it's announced then get angry if it's warranted

My Smugmug experience has been good (for the past several years). I'm excited to see what they're up to. My guess is that it'll be positive changes. Let's wait and see before we get tied in a knot over nothing.

Thanks for the kind words Ian and Eric! I would love to touch base and get your feedback next week as well. Thorrulz, if you watch and feel like writing up some feedback or hopping on the phone for 5 minutes and chat with me afterwards, I would much appreciate it!

I still haven't been able to get the login page (new design) to save my login, and since my membership is coming up for renewal... I am actually debating with myself if it's worth keeping my membership since I constantly have to manually login each time I visit. If that was one of the new functions, no thanks.

plumgoo wrote in post #16150067
I still haven't been able to get the login page (new design) to save my login, and since my membership is coming up for renewal... I am actually debating with myself if it's worth keeping my membership since I constantly have to manually login each time I visit. If that was one of the new functions, no thanks.

Really you'd switch because it doesn't save a password? A bit extreme for the 6 seconds it takes to enter it.

I'm not angry about the annoucement, but a bit wary. I've got a lot of photos uploaded to SM, and just recently I finally got them organized properly. If the "new SmugMug" forces me to re-do all that I will be an unhappy camper.

But my guess is that all will be copacetic.

mbonocore wrote in post #16149896
Thanks for the kind words Ian and Eric! I would love to touch base and get your feedback next week as well. Thorrulz, if you watch and feel like writing up some feedback or hopping on the phone for 5 minutes and chat with me afterwards, I would much appreciate it!

I could and may but for the record I already have a new site and do my own ordering of prints both for myself and the customers through WHCC. After I received notice that my prior Smugmug membership was about to expire in a few weeks I notified the company that I would not be renewing at the higher cost. As soon as I clicked send the website went down even though in the notification I still had about two weeks before the expiration date. Nothing motivates me more than getting that type of treatment as a customer.

In the long run though it was for the best as it made me rethink my business model and how to trim as much fat from the selling process as possible. My profits have easily quadrupled by dealing with the customer directly and not through a site I post photos on.

Sorry if the original post seemed angry. It wasn't that angry (needed more emoticons, I suppose).

I've been with Smugmug for years and I doubt I'd leave (unless ads show up. That'll do it...even if they offer free accounts with ads and no ads for paying).

I absolutely love that they don't offer free accounts backed by ads. The internet already has enough of that crap.

I guess what I was really saying is that I don't want my stuff messed up either (pretty much what Mpix345 said).

I was horrible years ago and just uploaded to whatever. Then a couple months ago I spent a couple days organizing (literally a couple days outside of eating, sleeping, etc.).

Now my pics are organized in categories and galleries. For example, I have a general category called Family, and then when you open that category there are very specific galleries, including a separate gallery for each family member, pairs, all four, etc. I worked hard.

I hope it doesn't go to some strange flash-based or other type of format in which things get glitchy.

Also, I'm really not fond of this recent trend by software makers of going retro/simple. Pixels showing up, jagged lines, etc., like the 1980s video games. and big icons instead of little ones.

I am still using an older version of Photoshop specifically because the newer ones feel dumbed down.

plumgoo wrote in post #16150067
I still haven't been able to get the login page (new design) to save my login, and since my membership is coming up for renewal... I am actually debating with myself if it's worth keeping my membership since I constantly have to manually login each time I visit. If that was one of the new functions, no thanks.

That is not one of the new functions. This is actively being investigated, and you should look for a fix soon.

Michael

Thorrulz wrote in post #16150904
I could and may but for the record I already have a new site and do my own ordering of prints both for myself and the customers through WHCC. After I received notice that my prior Smugmug membership was about to expire in a few weeks I notified the company that I would not be renewing at the higher cost. As soon as I clicked send the website went down even though in the notification I still had about two weeks before the expiration date. Nothing motivates me more than getting that type of treatment as a customer.

In the long run though it was for the best as it made me rethink my business model and how to trim as much fat from the selling process as possible. My profits have easily quadrupled by dealing with the customer directly and not through a site I post photos on.

No worries. I won't be trying to sell you on anything. Just like to hear feedback about what we did both wrong and right, so we hopefully can improve in the future.

Michael

MikeFairbanks wrote in post #16151263
Sorry if the original post seemed angry. It wasn't that angry (needed more emoticons, I suppose).

I've been with Smugmug for years and I doubt I'd leave (unless ads show up. That'll do it...even if they offer free accounts with ads and no ads for paying).

I absolutely love that they don't offer free accounts backed by ads. The internet already has enough of that crap.

I guess what I was really saying is that I don't want my stuff messed up either (pretty much what Mpix345 said).

I was horrible years ago and just uploaded to whatever. Then a couple months ago I spent a couple days organizing (literally a couple days outside of eating, sleeping, etc.).

Now my pics are organized in categories and galleries. For example, I have a general category called Family, and then when you open that category there are very specific galleries, including a separate gallery for each family member, pairs, all four, etc. I worked hard.

I hope it doesn't go to some strange flash-based or other type of format in which things get glitchy.

Also, I'm really not fond of this recent trend by software makers of going retro/simple. Pixels showing up, jagged lines, etc., like the 1980s video games. and big icons instead of little ones.

I am still using an older version of Photoshop specifically because the newer ones feel dumbed down.

Great feedback Mike! Thanks! Let me share a post that Baldy, AKA Chris MacAskill, AKA SmugMug President shared on the Dgrin forum earlier tonight. Maybe this will help ease your mind a bit

Sorry, in the crush of things I haven't been able to wade into the forums, but Bonocore tells me people are legitimately concerned about us blowing away their customizations when we go live.

Somewhere in this thread and in the customization forum I've said that I understand the concern because SquareSpace six green-fielded their users and made them start over and Flickr just sprung the new design on their customers. But we're not doing either of those. It's been a whole lot more engineering and we could have shipped a year ago if we made SquareSpace and Flickr's decisions, but we didn't. You'll get a preview button and lots of time to play before you make changes that your customers will see, and we're preserving things like photos, stats, comments, sales reports, etc.

We all know how forums are and those answers get buried fast so please someone who reads this answer the next time the questions come up, because we're working all hours in prep for Tuesday.
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