Welcome to the NEW Cookie Connection! Q&A Forum!

**** CLIP ENLARGEMENT FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED ****

Good news, LeeLowe and Virago and anyone else who noticed that photos at the clip detail level were no longer enlarging when clicked! They now are! My site guys worked fast to restore this functionality.

So, now, when you click on any photo at the detail level (the original post), a pop-up will appear with the photo blown up to the original size AT WHICH IT WAS UPLOADED.

If a person uploaded a small image, then, of course, it will not enlarge any bigger than it was uploaded. But if a person uploaded an image that is bigger than the viewing pane on the site, you will see a larger image when you click.

Hope this clears up that issue!

Julia M. Usher posted:

**** CLIP ENLARGEMENT FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED ****

Good news, LeeLowe and Virago and anyone else who noticed that photos at the clip detail level were no longer enlarging when clicked! They now are! My site guys worked fast to restore this functionality.

So, now, when you click on any photo at the detail level (the original post), a pop-up will appear with the photo blown up to the original size AT WHICH IT WAS UPLOADED.

If a person uploaded a small image, then, of course, it will not enlarge any bigger than it was uploaded. But if a person uploaded an image that is bigger than the viewing pane on the site, you will see a larger image when you click.

Hope this clears up that issue!

Wow, that was fast! Clips look great!!!

That's awesome news! Thank you Julia! Thank you site guys!

Will we be able to comment on a photo without actually opening up the photo? 

Tina At Sugar Wishes posted:

Will we be able to comment on a photo without actually opening up the photo? 

I've asked for that enhancement, but I cannot afford to pay for any more site changes. So unless my site host's agree that it's important for all of their communities to have this feature and roll it out for free, then the answer is no for the foreseeable future. Though, as I think I mentioned somewhere else, if a photo already has comments on it, you can just click on the word "Comments" and you'll be taken directly to the area to comment, so this can be a shortcut for now.

Hi Julia! I want to add a tutorial to one of my clips. How can I do that? If I upload the picture can I add tutorial file? or where do you think can I add it? thanks you so much. 

You've got a bunch of options : You could just link off to it in the first comment under the photo if it is already on another site; you could add it as an attachment (in the first comment( to the photo if a document; you could upload it as a separate document and it will get filed in "documents"; if it's a YouTube video, you can just copy a link into the comment and it will embed automatically, or you can upload it as a separate video. Hope that helps!

The site looks so much cleaner! I've always used my phone to upload clips and was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole site was now easily navigable on my phone- something that did not work conveniently in the past. Yay! 

Fernwood Cookie posted:

The site looks so much cleaner! I've always used my phone to upload clips and was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole site was now easily navigable on my phone- something that did not work conveniently in the past. Yay! 

Yay! Congrats for that go to the Hoop.la guys, who did a great job on the responsive design (that's why the site views consistently on all platforms now). 

I love the new format, but I found not so friendly to let comments.   If I want to let a comment and return to the picute list, it returns again to the comment box, and then to the picture list.     I see a few pictures then a blue button  for loading more, if I left a comment,  I return to the first block of pictures, not to the pictures I was.   I do not know if I am explaing well this.   Hope you understand.

Mily posted:

I love the new format, but I found not so friendly to let comments.   If I want to let a comment and return to the picute list, it returns again to the comment box, and then to the picture list.     I see a few pictures then a blue button  for loading more, if I left a comment,  I return to the first block of pictures, not to the pictures I was.   I do not know if I am explaing well this.   Hope you understand.

I do; I believe you're saying that once you comment, you want to be returned to where you left off in the photo thumbnail viewing area, but instead you're bounced back to the very top of the photo page. That's the experience I have too, and I agree it is not ideal  - it has been reported. I have also suggested that they reinstate commenting at the thumbnail level (so you can comment without opening the image). 

So, all that said, hopefully my site guys will work to fix these two issues. But it may be a little while. I'll let you know when they do. Thanks for your patience.

**** UPDATE ON COMMENTING ON PHOTOS ****

FYI, all: Please know that I am aware that commenting on photos on the site is currently more difficult than it was before, and that I am actively working with Hoop.la to try to get the following two issues addressed:

• Not able to comment on clips at the clip thumbnail level (without opening the clip)
• Not able to easily return to jumping-off point on the clip thumbnail page (once you open and comment on a clip, if you click on the back arrow in your browser or the site's breadcrumb trail, you get bounced to the top of the clips page rather than back to the photo where you left off)

Since commenting and interacting on the site are so vital to this community, these two items are currently at the top of the list of site issues that I am addressing right now.

But, please be aware that, unless the issue is a bug (something not intentionally programmed by Hoop.la) or a substantial number of their communities also share the same concern, I have to pay, usually considerable amounts, to restore functionality. The latter isn't a possibility, so I am just waiting now to see how they respond to my trouble reports.

I'll let you know of any new developments as soon as I know, but, rest assured, I am working on this! Please be patient and carry on, commenting as best you can! 

**** SOME CHAT ROOM FORMATTING CHANGES ****

Hi, all, we just completed three significant changes to the chat rooms, all designed to make chatting easier for you and moderators!

First, the live chat viewing window has been moved to the top of all chat pages primarily to reduce the amount of scrolling needed to moderate the chats. To do this, the chat descriptions had to be diminished on the site - but they are still there and accessible to you! 

So now, for instance, when you click on a chat room, like this one for Tunde's upcoming chat, you will not immediately see the chat description. But to see it, all you have to do is click on the dark blue information, aka "i", icon at the end of the chat title and it will appear in a pop-up.

The pop-up will stay open as long as you don't move your cursor off of it. So to read the full description, you may need to use the down arrow on your keyboard to scroll down. 

Second, the length of the chat viewing pane has been enlarged considerably, so you can see more of the live chat without using the right hand scroll bar to move the chat up and down.

And lastly, the post box (question entry area) has also been expanded and will automatically scroll down and expand as you type, so you can see more of what you're writing as you write. Further, if you drag down on the double gray lines in the bottom right corner of the box, you can expand it even more.

I think these changes are a great improvement and will make our future chats flow more easily! Thanks again to the Hoop.la team for responding quickly to our suggestions here. Any questions, just let me know.

Julia M. Usher posted:

**** UPDATE ON COMMENTING ON PHOTOS ****

FYI, all: Please know that I am aware that commenting on photos on the site is currently more difficult than it was before, and that I am actively working with Hoop.la to try to get the following two issues addressed:

• Not able to comment on clips at the clip thumbnail level (without opening the clip)
• Not able to easily return to jumping-off point on the clip thumbnail page (once you open and comment on a clip, you get bounced to the top of the clips page rather than back to the photo where you left off)

Since commenting and interacting on the site are so vital to this community, these two items are currently at the top of the list of site issues that I am addressing right now.

But, please be aware that, unless the issue is a bug (something not intentionally programmed by Hoop.la) or a substantial number of their communities also share the same concern, I have to pay, usually considerable amounts, to restore functionality. The latter isn't a possibility, so I am just waiting now to see how they respond to my trouble reports.

I'll let you know of any new developments as soon as I know, but, rest assured, I am working on this! Please be patient and carry on, commenting as best you can! 

**** WORKAROUND ON THIS ISSUE ****

Hi, again! Just an FYI - while the site guys decide when and if they will address the above issues, there is a workaround that will reduce the amount of scrolling needed to comment on photos.

You can hover over the image you want to open, and issue a Command-click (Mac) or a Ctrl-click (PC) to open it in a new tab without closing the site. So when you're done commenting on the photo in the new tab, you can just return to the old tab and pick up viewing photos where you left off.

Please note that, depending on your browser, these commands may be different. For instance, in Chrome, I can also right-click on the photo and select "open link in new tab" and get the same result.

Hope this helps a bit. I am still pushing hard to get the above issues addressed.

I feel really dumb asking this question but I can't figure out how to search the site.  When I click the Home tab there are no other options at the top of the page. I can't find a Search box.  For instance, if I wanted to check to see what tutorials are available, where would I look for that content?

Thanks!

Barb Kelly posted:

I feel really dumb asking this question but I can't figure out how to search the site.  When I click the Home tab there are no other options at the top of the page. I can't find a Search box.  For instance, if I wanted to check to see what tutorials are available, where would I look for that content?

Thanks!

Hi, Barb. The home tab just takes you back to the home page. You'll find the search button in the main navigation line - it's a dark blue magnifying glass icon in the upper right.

When you click on it, a small box will pop up, where you can do a simple keyword search OR click on the "Advanced Search" option above the box to get much more specific in your search. Below is a view of the Advanced Search page:

The Advanced Search option is actually VERY powerful and VERY granular. If you click on the down arrow at the top near "Everything", you will be presented with all the different areas of the site that you can search - so, for instance, you can just search the member directory, or the blog, or the forums . . . and so on.

As for finding the site's tutorials, they can all be found on the blog under various "tutorial" blog categories, like "Beginner Project Tutorials", "Intermediate Project Tutorials" and so on . . . Alternatively, I have posted a quick link to all of the site's tutorials in the right hand column on every page under "Resources" in the main nav line, and on the "Contributors" page (since they contribute the tutorials). Here's a view of what that quick link looks like:

If you click on it, it will take you to this category of posts on the blog: http://cookieconnection.juliau...hnique-tutorials-all

Hope I've answered your questions! 

Barb Kelly posted:

I feel really dumb asking this question but I can't figure out how to search the site.  When I click the Home tab there are no other options at the top of the page. I can't find a Search box.  For instance, if I wanted to check to see what tutorials are available, where would I look for that content?

Thanks!

Oh, one more thing - the link I gave you above just goes to written tutorials on the blog. We routinely have people post video tutorials under the Clips section. For those, just go to "Clips" in the main nav line and then click on "Videos", and the following will reveal (all the videos ever posted to the site): http://cookieconnection.juliau...clips?fileType=VIDEO

Thanks Julia!! 

Hi, Julia! Happy New Year!!! But ... now I'm reading and reading the new rulls and want to find my clips, ... all my clips. And I can't ((((  I can't to find also other member's  clips! 

Help me, please! 

maro posted:

Hi, Julia! Happy New Year!!! But ... now I'm reading and reading the new rulls and want to find my clips, ... all my clips. And I can't ((((  I can't to find also other member's  clips! 

Help me, please! 

Hi, no worries - all of this information is still on the new site, and pretty much in the same place it used to be (with small layout changes only). 

(1) As for finding clips you already posted, here's a copy of the answer that I posted earlier/above:

"Good question! They are still there, just in a slightly different place. Go to your profile, click on "Activity" under your avatar and then on "Content". Any content you've posted to the site (clips, blog posts, etc.) should reveal in that one spot. See the screen shot for my profile; I post a lot of non-clip content to the site, so naturally I have blog posts and other things in that activity stream, but your stream is all clips and a forum post, as far as I can see."

2) If you're interested in viewing other people's clips, you can view them in all the same ways you used to be able to view them on the old site. Nothing has changed here.

a ) To view all clips, ordered from most to least recent, click on "Clips" and then "View All" in the main navigation line at the top of the site.

b) To view the day's "top 10" cookies, simply click on the link directly under the gallery/slide show at the top of the home page.

c) To see other "hot lists" (top cookies of the month, etc.), go to "Hot Spot" in the main navigation line.

d) To see all the clips that you have liked, then go to your member profile page and click on the "Likes" tab directly under your photo/avatar. The clips will reveal in the order of most recently liked to least recently liked.

I hope I've answered your question.

** UPDATE AS OF 1/7/2016 **

Hi, all, little progress was made over the holidays (as I sort of expected) on the key outstanding trouble tickets on the site, but I am continuing to press hard on my site guys to get some answers and fixes. As a reminder, these are the three primary issues. They are clearly on my screen, so there is no need to report them again to me:

1. Not able to back-arrow to clip previously viewed in Clips section (instead, one gets bumped to the top of the Clips thumbnail page)
2. Not able to comment on clips, as before, at the thumbnail level
3. Too few photos load at once to Clips thumbnail page, forcing too many "Load More" requests

I have also entered a few suggestions for new functionality, such as Pinterest-style photo viewing (meaning auto-loading of new images when one hits the bottom of the page, and the ability to view all clips in gallery mode, once one clicks on an image). 

That said, my priority is making sure the above three issues get addressed in some way before we take on more changes. And, again, it is a waiting game at this point, because I cannot afford to pay for custom or rush changes to the site, which typically run well into the thousands of dollars. 

I'll post another update as soon as I have news. Thanks.

Julia, thank you so much for answer!!! It is fantastic!  Allow me to thank you and your team for such work! My best wishes!

maro posted:

Julia, thank you so much for answer!!! It is fantastic!  Allow me to thank you and your team for such work! My best wishes!

You're very welcome. Thanks for the kind and encouraging words - the site upgrade continues to be an exhausting process . . .

I, for one, can't thank you enough for all you do for us!  I have learned so much from you!  You have made my journey into the cookie decorating world much easier than it would have been if I didn't have your website and videos to help me.  Thanks!!

Barb Kelly posted:

I, for one, can't thank you enough for all you do for us!  I have learned so much from you!  You have made my journey into the cookie decorating world much easier than it would have been if I didn't have your website and videos to help me.  Thanks!!

Ahh, thanks SO much! My spirits have lifted just reading this!

****** UPDATE ******
Clip Thumbnail Page Backtracking Issue Fixed - and More!

Yes, it's true! Our site software upgrade on Wednesday made two key changes to the clips thumbnail page(s) to allow for easier and quicker viewing of clips. First, 90 clips are now loaded to each page (as opposed to 20); this means substantially less hitting of the "Load More" button (which, BTW, has been replaced by a page scrolling function at the bottom of the page).

Additionally, if you click on an image to view the details and you want to return to where you were on the thumbnail page, you can! All you need to do is hit the back arrow in your browser. Yes, thankfully, peace and order have been restored! 

To read about the new member search functionality, also introduced in this upgrade, click here. You're going to love it too! 

Thanks Julia! 

Julia,  I love the website and all of the work you put into it. I have a comment though and I'm not sure if it can be done or not. I get notifications whenever a new cookie is posted. I review these on my iPad or iPhone. Now if I try to "like" the post it tells me to log in but when I log in I get the main page and not the page that I want to like and all that takes me too much time when I'm reviewing 20 or 30 emails a day. 

Is there a way for a "remember me feature" that automatically logs us in and is there a way to connect that to the individual notifications. I know that Pinterest does it but I have no idea how complicated it might be.

just a suggestion because it is already a great resource. Having this resource has done more to improve my skills than anything else I've participated in because as I'm decorating and run into a problem I can usually find my answer on this site.

thank you

cmunneke posted:

Julia,  I love the website and all of the work you put into it. I have a comment though and I'm not sure if it can be done or not. I get notifications whenever a new cookie is posted. I review these on my iPad or iPhone. Now if I try to "like" the post it tells me to log in but when I log in I get the main page and not the page that I want to like and all that takes me too much time when I'm reviewing 20 or 30 emails a day. 

Is there a way for a "remember me feature" that automatically logs us in and is there a way to connect that to the individual notifications. I know that Pinterest does it but I have no idea how complicated it might be.

just a suggestion because it is already a great resource. Having this resource has done more to improve my skills than anything else I've participated in because as I'm decorating and run into a problem I can usually find my answer on this site.

 

thank you

Sorry, I'm not really understanding the issue. If you've not logged out of the site , you shouldn't have to log back in. I am perpetually logged in on all of my devices. Also if you click on the button at the bottom of the email notification, you will be taken directly to the post. (If you are doing this, and get directed elsewhere, then I would need screen shots of the steps you are taking in order to diagnose the trouble, because there is no known issue with getting misdirected when clicking on email links.) If you find you have to log in again for some reason, then just go to Clips at the top of the site, and you'll see all the clips most recently posted. You can quickly scan through them there without having to open individual emails. This might be the faster way for you to review posts anyway.

Again, it's tough to help because I am not experiencing the same logging out issues as you are, nor am I aware of anyone else who is. So if you could send screen shots (to my email, sweetlife@juliausher.com), perhaps then I could help you more.

Julia M. Usher posted:

cmunneke posted:

Julia,  I love the website and all of the work you put into it. I have a comment though and I'm not sure if it can be done or not. I get notifications whenever a new cookie is posted. I review these on my iPad or iPhone. Now if I try to "like" the post it tells me to log in but when I log in I get the main page and not the page that I want to like and all that takes me too much time when I'm reviewing 20 or 30 emails a day. 

Is there a way for a "remember me feature" that automatically logs us in and is there a way to connect that to the individual notifications. I know that Pinterest does it but I have no idea how complicated it might be.

just a suggestion because it is already a great resource. Having this resource has done more to improve my skills than anything else I've participated in because as I'm decorating and run into a problem I can usually find my answer on this site.

 

thank you

Sorry, I'm not really understanding the issue. If you've not logged out of the site , you shouldn't have to log back in. I am perpetually logged in on all of my devices. Also if you click on the button at the bottom of the email notification, you will be taken directly to the post. (If you are doing this, and get directed elsewhere, then I would need screen shots of the steps you are taking in order to diagnose the trouble, because there is no known issue with getting misdirected when clicking on email links.) If you find you have to log in again for some reason, then just go to Clips at the top of the site, and you'll see all the clips most recently posted. You can quickly scan through them there without having to open individual emails. This might be the faster way for you to review posts anyway.

Again, it's tough to help because I am not experiencing the same logging out issues as you are, nor am I aware of anyone else who is. So if you could send screen shots (to my email, sweetlife@juliausher.com), perhaps then I could help you more.

UPDATE: I just tested the sign-in function on my iPhone and there is already a remember feature on all login pages on all devices (you have to click the "remember" box under the sign-in area). However, I have the remember button clicked, and I have to sign in each time I open the site anew. The site doesn't seem to remember my login on my iPhone (though it does on my laptop). So this does appear to be an issue, which I have reported. While this is getting looked into, you may want to view on a laptop (again, no sign-in issues there), or view clips from the "Clips" section as I suggested above.

Julia M. Usher posted:

Julia M. Usher posted:

cmunneke posted:

Julia,  I love the website and all of the work you put into it. I have a comment though and I'm not sure if it can be done or not. I get notifications whenever a new cookie is posted. I review these on my iPad or iPhone. Now if I try to "like" the post it tells me to log in but when I log in I get the main page and not the page that I want to like and all that takes me too much time when I'm reviewing 20 or 30 emails a day. 

Is there a way for a "remember me feature" that automatically logs us in and is there a way to connect that to the individual notifications. I know that Pinterest does it but I have no idea how complicated it might be.

just a suggestion because it is already a great resource. Having this resource has done more to improve my skills than anything else I've participated in because as I'm decorating and run into a problem I can usually find my answer on this site.

 

thank you

Sorry, I'm not really understanding the issue. If you've not logged out of the site , you shouldn't have to log back in. I am perpetually logged in on all of my devices. Also if you click on the button at the bottom of the email notification, you will be taken directly to the post. (If you are doing this, and get directed elsewhere, then I would need screen shots of the steps you are taking in order to diagnose the trouble, because there is no known issue with getting misdirected when clicking on email links.) If you find you have to log in again for some reason, then just go to Clips at the top of the site, and you'll see all the clips most recently posted. You can quickly scan through them there without having to open individual emails. This might be the faster way for you to review posts anyway.

Again, it's tough to help because I am not experiencing the same logging out issues as you are, nor am I aware of anyone else who is. So if you could send screen shots (to my email, sweetlife@juliausher.com), perhaps then I could help you more.

UPDATE: I just tested the sign-in function on my iPhone and there is already a remember feature on all login pages on all devices (you have to click the "remember" box under the sign-in area). However, I have the remember button clicked, and I have to sign in each time I open the site anew. The site doesn't seem to remember my login on my iPhone (though it does on my laptop). So this does appear to be an issue, which I have reported. While this is getting looked into, you may want to view on a laptop (again, no sign-in issues there), or view clips from the "Clips" section as I suggested above.

UPDATE #2: Ok, my "remember me" issue was resolved by doing the following, under "From site support". (Click on the link and follow the instructions there to turn off "Private Browsing" mode.) Please let me know if the issue is resolved for you once you do this. Since doing this, I have opened up the site repeatedly on my iPhone without having to login again.

From site support:

"One thing you'll want to make sure is that you aren't in Private Browsing Mode. If you are, that will prevent 'remember me' from working. That's the most common culprit of this issue that I've seen in the past.

Here's a help article from Apple on Private Browsing Mode that may help:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203036"