# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Saturday, December 10, 2005 10:45 AM

Personally I liked the previous version better. In version 2 everything is much harder to do like finding out who has recently blogged, I know that there is a feature that we be sent an email if somebody has a new blogged.

I liked the old one better.

payat

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Saturday, December 10, 2005 9:17 PM

Regarding the EMail feature, be forewarned! Sign up for this ONLY if you know how to turn on rules for messages, so that all of the zillions of "Harry has a new post on his blog" messages can go somewhere other than your InBox.

Mr_I

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Saturday, December 10, 2005 9:44 PM

I think we should have a help page on theSpoke to explain each of theSpoke features clearer and also how to navigate around the site. Another intuitive way to help people understand the differences between each option (eg the email subscription) is have a tooltip attached to them.

I also feel that we should allow more customisation on each account because everyone is unique and it will give a livelier vibe to this community. Also I would like to see more RSS news, information or articles integration into this site. I still feel for that there are many blogs here that exists like scattered island waiting for visitors to discover them. More can be done to integrate the community and get more active technical or community contributions.

Bernard

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Sunday, December 11, 2005 1:31 AM

@Bernard
Converning the help page, I totally agree with you. I had a hard time doing stuff the first time I used thespoke v2. There are still friends of mine that used to blog, and now they don't, becuase they have trouble in using the new site features.

payat

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Sunday, December 11, 2005 10:53 AM

I just miss the old sidebar. But the html feature in adding posts are nice

Aids

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Sunday, December 11, 2005 6:56 PM

I disagree about the help page. The user interface should be designed well enough to eliminate the need for additional help - the use should be self-explanatory! Sure theSpoke v2 has a lot of new features, but I think it is a huge step backwards in terms of usability. The design is cluttered and I agree that I makes the community seem more scattered. I think the html-feature might be good in some cases, but removing the Word-like editing possibilities (select font, insert pictures etc.) that we had in v1 was a huge mistake. Writing a post now is as painful as creating a html-page - easy text-editing and formatting is in my opinion one of the reasons to use a ready-made blog engine. And why did they remove the previous picture uploading/inserting to post possibilities. The new gallery is sooooo cumbersome to use.

As you can see I am deeply disappointed in theSpoke v2... I hardly ever visit the page anymore. I do read all the posts of the bloggers I have subscribed to though, but only through e-mail.

prismejon

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Monday, December 12, 2005 10:00 AM

I have to agree with payat. I much prefer version 1. To the previous complaints, I must add that there are certain usability issues that I don't like. When I add a post, I'm taken to my admin page. Once I've posted, I'm still on my admin page. I don't automatically see my posting. I have to click on View. This is counter-intuitive for me.

If I want to get to the admin page, I don't know how to do so without posting something or going to my gallery. Does that say something about me or theSpoke? Have I just not looked enough?

My major complaint about version 2, though, is that it is so slow! OK, I admit, my computer is almost two years old, but this version has a very palpable waiting time--is it because of the Who-Bar?--that didn't exist in version 1.

Still, I'm sticking with it because all my friends are here!

Didith

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Monday, December 12, 2005 4:11 PM

Sorry, but I much preferred the old version too, particularly the "who has recently blogged" thing. And it seems that the only way I can subscribe to blogs now involves me being sent emails that I don't want. I've cut right back on the blogs that I subscribe to because of this.

The old Spoke had the balance just right in terms of keeping track of other people, and encouraged you to find out more about what they liked. I used to love bouncing from member to member, you found some really interesting content that way.

The new design just seems more clunky, as if the changes have been made for reasons other than to improve the user experience. And some features (for example the Who-Bar) seem to have no rhyme or reason. It is as if someone had "upgraded" my car by taking out the steering wheel but adding a really nice jacuzzi. With no instructions.

I'm sticking with the Spoke because the company is the best, but I'm here in spite of the technology at the moment, not because of it.

RobMiles

# re: Rate Your Overall Experience of theSpoke 2.0 @ Monday, December 12, 2005 9:26 PM

theSpoke V1 is still preferable. Sorry to say this but I think theSpoke V2 for me is one of the best not because of the site by itself but because of the the Imagine Cup and the people. I hope they could make this site more convenient for us to use. And I'm also hoping they could bring back the "Blogs I read" feature.

mjpanes

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