...and now Smugmug.

[dr croubie]

This just landed in my inbox:

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?

The reason I started with smugmug, and willingly pay good money for it (for that price I could get an extra box of 20 sheets of 4x5" Velvia 50 a year, even at the new prices), is that I like the customisability. I hate flickr with its white backgrounds, I wanted black.
I like smugmug's ability to change almost everything, make galleries look different from each other, all of my public ones (as empty as they are, I should upload more) look the same title-bar and all that, but some privately-shared ones look different, I've stripped all identification and links back to my public galleries.

Still, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until I see what they've got in store. If they change the way custom galleries work, they're going to lose a lot of customers, I hope they know that and aren't mucking with what works. So maybe they're just changing the home-pages and maybe shared/group pages, in which case it won't affect me (or maybe it'll be a good thing and encourage me to share more).

 

[faidwen]

This has me a bit worried as well...

So many sites have made the fatal error of "REVAMPING" and failing. I certainly hope this isn't one of those cases.

Time will tell.

*GULP*

 

[mbonocore]

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

 

[Hillsilly]

Have been a happy Smugmug user for over five years. I love it. And not once have they done anything to make me wary. All changes so far have been positive. I doubt they'll reverse the trend now.

But there are always small things that could be improved. It could possibly incorporate better slideshow creation options which could then be streamed via the internet (especially to devices such as blu-ray players, PS3s, phones etc...how about a Sony blu-ray player plug-in?). Embedding videos into websites, emails etc also seems more complicated than it needs to be (or impossible to do depending upon what you are trying to achieve). Most of my websites are wordpress based, and there seems to be little Wordpress / Smugmug interaction. Reorganising the gallery listing could be easier. I'd like to figure out how to have the galleries automatically listed so that the most recently created gallery is listed first (but not upset the current gallery listing). My site is password protected, but I'd like to have one public gallery (eg to show off my photos to fellow CR people), but it seems the only way to do this is to then have to individually make each private gallery password protected....anyways there are always things that can be done better. Looking forward to seeing what turns up!

 

[mbonocore]

Have been a happy Smugmug user for over five years. I love it. And not once have they done anything to make me wary. All changes so far have been positive. I doubt they'll reverse the trend now.

But there are always small things that could be improved. It could possibly incorporate better slideshow creation options which could then be streamed via the internet (especially to devices such as blu-ray players, PS3s, phones etc...how about a Sony blu-ray player plug-in?). Embedding videos into websites, emails etc also seems more complicated than it needs to be (or impossible to do depending upon what you are trying to achieve). Most of my websites are wordpress based, and there seems to be little Wordpress / Smugmug interaction. Reorganising the gallery listing could be easier. I'd like to figure out how to have the galleries automatically listed so that the most recently created gallery is listed first (but not upset the current gallery listing). My site is password protected, but I'd like to have one public gallery (eg to show off my photos to fellow CR people), but it seems the only way to do this is to then have to individually make each private gallery password protected....anyways there are always things that can be done better. Looking forward to seeing what turns up!

Awesome feedback! Let's reconnect next week after you see what we have in store, and we can go over each of your suggestions individually. Please feel free to PM me or just keep the conversation going in this thread. Thanks Hillsilly!

Michael

 

[scottkinfw]

A bit off topic perhaps, but if you were compelled to jump ship at this point, which service would you choose? I am considering a service now and don't know which one or even how to choose. I don't know what a reasonable price to pay, or what features to look for- thoughts?

Would you stay with Smugmug and why?

Thank you.

sek

 

[Old Sarge]

I don't come close to using all the capabilities of my SmugMug account but I have been very pleased with the service for several years now. I doubt that any changes they make will have a major effect on me since I am such a low level user. I will say that I have never had a company give me any better customer service. When I started the account I had some minor issues, all my fault, and their Support Heroes live up to their name with quick responses to issues and solutions anyone can understand. I don't need their service very badly, it is mainly off-site storage for me, but plan on keeping it as long as I can.

 

[John]

thus far, smugmug has been an excellent place for me to post my pictures and work with customers. smugmug folks are incredibly professional and super helpful. i like the customizability of the site and hope that the changes are gonna b ok. up to this point, i feel that i can trust the smugmug folks to make decisions that are good for photographers and the way in which they might like to present and market their products. i sure hope that the changes are ones that give me the flexibility to do the things that i want to do. in all sincerity, i thought that the changes MS made to the Win 8 interface were terrible considering the way that i like to work at my computer. as a result, i just go to the new start screen with all of the tiles and click on Desktop to get back to what works best for me. i hope that smugmug doesn't force things on me that i don't want and don't like.

 

[crasher8]

Are you telling me you are under the impression that the changes at SM may alter your page and force you to rewrite the code? I have a completely customized site and I cannot for one think they would alter the framework and make my site unusable until I worked with their new parameters and redid it.

 

[distant.star]

.
You can count me among the concerned/worried. I'm not sure whether to be glad or sad that I've been warned ahead of time. My greatest fear is they will Flickerize and tell me I have to use some horrific interface that defies the tenets of good design (what Flickr did).

Fortunately, I valued Flickr mostly for the groups and had few images there. It was easy to delete my images. I thought I would stay for the groups but I find I rarely look at the site anymore.

As someone else has mentioned I now have to wonder where I will go if Smug throws me overboard. I think I've got 50K images stored there with lots of galleries, sub-categories, public, non-public, locked. What kind of nightmare do I have transferring that somewhere else?

Also, these things usually are rolled out amid great fanfare -- and the bill comes later. Next quarter I get the notice of a price increase?

All I want, if you're listening Mr. Smug, is simplicity and reliability. I will resist being subjected to someone else's idea of grandeur. Do whatever you like with the place, just leave me a quiet corner where I can play alone in my sandbox with my toys.

 

[zim]

Surprised no SM users have even acknowledged mbonocore posts?

Imaging if Canon engaged like that!

 

[Harv]

SMUGMUG ROCKS !!!!!

I have used SmugMug for years and could not be happier. I wish every supplier I have ever dealt with was half as good.

Keep on trucking, SmugMug.

 

[ckwaller]

The reason I started with smugmug, and willingly pay good money for it (for that price I could get an extra box of 20 sheets of 4x5" Velvia 50 a year, even at the new prices), is that I like the customisability. I hate flickr with its white backgrounds, I wanted black.
I like smugmug's ability to change almost everything, make galleries look different from each other, all of my public ones (as empty as they are, I should upload more) look the same title-bar and all that, but some privately-shared ones look different, I've stripped all identification and links back to my public galleries.

This.

I left Flickr because of their horrible security (I'm well aware that no site online is 100% pirate-proof) and their horrid site "revamp." I paid for a Pro SmugMug account to sell my pictures as well as because of the great customization options. Taking that one step forward, I went so far as to have a custom template designed by one of the many SmugMug customization firms.

All in all, I LOVE SmugMug...the way it is.

As many have stated/alluded to, I'm concerned that the code utilized by my custom template may not jive with whatever SmugMug has up its sleeve. I don't want to access my site after July 30 and see that I've been essentially bricked and will have to either A) Pay the Customization people more $$$ to make my site compatible with the new SmugMug, or B) leave SmugMug altogether.

Now, if this update will not alter custom functionality as it is, but rather provide new (optional) enhancements, then I'm all for it, and I sincerely hope that's the case.

 

[Tabor Warren Photography]

Smugmug is such an awesome company to work with, but so was Adobe. Now I strongly dislike Adobe. I hope and assume that Smugmug will keep their ethicality about them, otherwise I'm out.

While they're shaking things up, if they choose to allow portfolio users to give coupons to their shopping guests, that would be okay too.

Cheers,
-Tabor

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I don't have a concern, I received the e-mail as well. Its time for a update to Smugmug, and I expect it to be a positive one.

Most likely we will see video support, that's a big area they are missing out on, more and more photographers are producing videos. Even though I don't produce many videos, It would be nice to have the feature, and to be able to embed links to the few clips I do make.

 

[Kevin B]

I'm hopeful it will all be positive but I'll reserve judgment until it's unveiled. I'm going to be VERY disappointed if they haven't added the ability to have more depth in galleries (currently you are limited to 3 deep). It is a highly requested feature that has been on their to-do list for years and they've said they are working on it.

 

[JPAZ]

Surprised no SM users have even acknowledged mbonocore posts?

Imaging if Canon engaged like that!

I suspect the reason that nobody acknowledged those posts is tha that is the type of thing we all are "used to" with Smugmug. I, for one, have been very pleased with their site and service. Unless something dramatically changes for eh worse, I will continue to use them. Let's wait and see. It is not the first time they have revamped things.

JP

 

[brett b]

I'm a little pissed. I've had a SmugMug Pro account for a few years and I haven't received and email regarding the update.
I have a customized site and recently gave my customizer a down payment to refresh my site. I've been too busy to add the galleries necessary to accomplish what I've asked him to do. But now I'll wait to see if this is going to have a negative impact.
It better be a positive roll out. They doubled the annual cost of a Pro account this year.

 

[mbonocore]

A bit off topic perhaps, but if you were compelled to jump ship at this point, which service would you choose? I am considering a service now and don't know which one or even how to choose. I don't know what a reasonable price to pay, or what features to look for- thoughts?

Would you stay with Smugmug and why?

Thank you.

sek

Well you know my answer to that! But yes, you are correct when you state "I don't even know how to choose". It's a tough question to analyze and determine an answer from. But I am more than happy to answer the question "What can SmugMug do for me?"

What are your primary goals when looking for a service? Mainly as a cloud photo backup? A place to sell prints and digital downloads? A place to make a great looking front facing websites for your clients to browse and be impressed? All of the above?

Tell me a little bit about your photography, your photography business, and what you hope to accomplish in the coming months and I would be more than happy to help you understand how SmugMug can help you.

Thanks!

Michael

 

[mbonocore]

I don't come close to using all the capabilities of my SmugMug account but I have been very pleased with the service for several years now. I doubt that any changes they make will have a major effect on me since I am such a low level user. I will say that I have never had a company give me any better customer service. When I started the account I had some minor issues, all my fault, and their Support Heroes live up to their name with quick responses to issues and solutions anyone can understand. I don't need their service very badly, it is mainly off-site storage for me, but plan on keeping it as long as I can.

Thanks Old Sarge! Speaking from inside of SmugMug, I can tell you our Support Heroes don't put on a show. They REALLY care about you, your photography, and your satisfaction. They also LOVE their jobs, and are excited for the future. It's easy to make your customers happy when you are happy.

Michael