StumbleUpon | frenchtwist's blog posts

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/37304039/

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:26:11 -0700

I'll choose the mask to suit my mood
Radiant, lovely, mysterious, lewd,
And dance by the light of a midnight moon
With a pleasing exactitude.

~ frenchtwist ~

Happy Halloween

Photos by Kristamas Klousch.

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/37278363/

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:37:40 -0700

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/37277105/

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:34:36 -0700

Planning for Halloween can tie one up in the most stressful knots,
but bobbing for apples? So worth it, darling.

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/37134099/

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:52:33 -0700

��I planted some birdseed.
��A bird came up.
��Now I don't know what to feed it.

��~ Steven Wright ~

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/37133315/

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:11:11 -0700

Joanne Arnold, Playboy 1954

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/36984999/

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:34:08 -0700

V3/V4

The problem is not so much like/dislike or complain vs praise. The problem, I think, is panic.

The new interface that SU has designed is only one of many and I'm sure there will be more new versions in the future. Stumblers went through a sometimes nasty free-for-all last year when everyone was switched to the current V3 design and many didn't like it, but have now become accustomed to and familiar with using this interface.

I can't agree with those who say that these are the same circumstances happening again. It isn't the same. What makes this instance different (if you're not a member of our very small Beta Group) is the shock the majority of stumblers felt waking up one day to find themselves in a completely alien environment. The look is totally different, terminology on the page has been changed, and until one found out about being able to switch back it was its own mini nightmare.

A stumbler's pages are very personal whether one chooses to strictly review websites, write original blog posts or do a combination of the two. For many many stumblers this is the only creative outlet they have and it's a good one; it's truly a journal of one's thoughts and interests. When we were switched over to V3 last year, we were prepared for it even if we didn't like the idea of change. We still had color choices, a visual editor, and even if one didn't like "the look" of V3, our pages still basically looked the same, as we'd designed them, and we could still post as we'd done before.

The panic for many is suddenly seeing the creative effort of months and years stripped away or altered without warning. A lot of stumblers don't know how to code their posts without an editor to help them; they see photography resized, text realigned or garbled, and don't know what to do. Consider coming home from work one day to find that someone has repainted your walls with a color you don't care for and then turns to you and says "Here's a couple of pictures, but so sorry you'll have to hang them without a hammer or nails." Consider having spent a year writing a well-crafted novella or a gut-wrenching poem only to have someone tell you to finish without pen and paper.

As has been rightly said, SU is a business designed to make money from this marvelous and innovative website. A good business takes into account their current clientele, striving to keep them even while they reach out for new customers. Whether you like V4 or don't, it has seemed both hurried and indifferent. Would it have been so difficult to make a formal announcement in advance or to wait until they had their color backgrounds and editing capabilities in place? It would have saved a lot of grief and a lot of the impotent anger that abounds whenever change is made.

I personally don't much care either way; there are annoyances and problems with V4 but nothing that is too major for me. I knew it was going to happen and have adjusted accordingly. But I feel great sympathy for those who don't understand about HTML/CSS, who see creative work that matters to them completely altered. If SU had handled this situation in a more forthright manner and given stumblers the tools they've always had, the design change might still have caused anger but the panic and frustration wouldn't be there.

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/36947088/

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:57:11 -0700

At night, when the objective world has slunk back into its cavern and left dreamers to their own,
there come inspirations and capabilities impossible at any less magical and quiet hour.

~ H.P. Lovecraft ~

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/36946133/

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:18:29 -0700

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/36421598/

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:54:52 -0700

http://frenchtwist.stumbleupon.com/review/36327679/

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:44:22 -0700

***

***

The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands
but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to
behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is . . .

~ Marcel Proust ~

***