Manfred

Serious about feedback? ...

This is a problem that is wasting new and/or potential members' time ... and I gaurantee, either preventing some people from joining or turning away people who have just joined.

Here's the "wild goose chase" I have had so far ...
I joined so I could view the full size of photos. I went thru the registration process, returned to the galleries, did a search for a celebrity (Lisa Ling) ... but in the resulting photos I couldn't see the full version - but did see the mouseover message that said I need to "upgrade" my account .... So, I spent the next 10 minutes reading and clicking all over the place to see where I missed the information and disclosure that would have stated that registering did not entitle me to seeing full size photos ... nothing in FAQ's ... nothing in any threads I opened ... finally, I notice that the photos I found by 'search' were in the "Paid Members area .... OK I say, that explains that well enough.

So I go to the "Unsafe" pics area and find a thread I wanted to see (Helen Mirren)... AGAIN, not able to see full size ... WTF. More clicking around at FAQ and looking at sticky-noted posts ... finally I see that again there is a restriction against non-paying/non-upgraded members seeing full photos older than 3 months. ... but it does not just apply to the "Unsafe Celebrity Picture VIP /Paid Archive" area THAT THE RULE APPEARS TO BE CAPTIONED TO, but applies the the whole archive of ALL "Unsafe" photos ...

OK , so now I know ... BUT this whole frustrating experience, from finding the site to reaching any conclusion about viewing photos, resulted in 40 minutes of my time spent ... and I STILL was not able to see the photos which interested me.

If this forum is going to have comparatively "picky" and convoluted rules about who can see what based on time and posts and uploads ... ESPECIALLY IF YOU INCLUDE SOLICITATIONS OF MONEY AS PART OF THE "REQUIREMENTS" ... then out of respect for those individuals and their time you OWE it to new or prospective members to make obvious and all in one place the requirements they will be up against.

ALL FORUM VIEWING RESTRICTIONS could be placed in one place in a thread titled "New Member/Registration READ-ME" (or similar)bold and in all-caps, in the "Critical Information" section above the thread titled "latest news"... or at least in the FAQ section (which currently just explains the levels but NOT how viewing restrictions work).

NOTE that this is a problem which makes no differerence to people who have joined and already figured out the rules - but take it from me, this is VERY noteworthy to those who either have just joined or are considering joining

My impression of my visit to this website is that it has been an unintended, frustrating and irritating waste of time ... mainly because of a lack of properly posted explanation of the requirements.

Now before anyone flames me for this post ... either you want feedback or not ... and either you are serious about making this website a user friendly experience or not. Per the timestamp on my registration email, I am now at 1hour and 31 minutes - partly due to my decision to leave this feedback ... and feedback that, though I suspect will be neither welcome nor valued, I have taken the time to submit anyway.

I'm not sure if I will be back - especially considering the further hoops I have to jump through to get reasonable viewing rights (I'll keep my views on those individual requirements, numbers etc to myself) ... For what it's worth.
Manfred

babelicious

Heh I'm not frustrated like Manfred is, but I agree with him that more stickied rules & faq are needed. I think a lot of questions in the Troubleshooting section should all be compiled into one thread and stickied for members to read. Also, all the VIP-related info should also be in the same sticky. After all, all of them are equally important right? Either that, or have 2 stickies, one for all Forum rules, another for all VIP requirements.

If we are expected to use the 'search' to learn more about the forum, or go all over the place to different forums to read different stickies, we don't even know where to start and whether we read everything that we need to know!