HubTool and Floated Capsule Update
- Christy Kirwanposted 7 years ago
0Looks good to me
We are not retiring image galleries. They will still work normally. They will just need to be full width.
They do for me
Understood. But if I'm doing something that's really working well right now you can understand why I wouldn't want to change that without data right?
GREAT IDEA, Lobo. Why didn't I think of that?
That would let me "enlarge" floated images that become too grainy when full-width. Here's an Atta-Boy!
Once the 90-day grace period is up, all floated capsules will automatically become full width. No need to do anything if you don't want to.
This is sad
One of the things I always loved about HubPages was the ability to make our Hubs look visually attractive, and the floated capsules were a big part of that. I know most people are now looking at our Hubs on a mobile, BUT a percentage are still using desktop or tablet, and I'd have liked those people to have the advantage of an attractive layout. And it's SO simple to set up the floated capsules so they look good both ways. But I have been expecting this.Switching to a single column layout might seem like its a good choice to fit mobile readers, which it will, and I do think that a lot of the uproar is users picked Hubpages over other writing sites or there own sites because of the creative stylistic choices it offered in a quick and easy to understand package. While I agree that the wrong elements put together can result in spammy elements, you yourself say a major issue is "Leaving large blocks of blank space" which a single column now does with many of Hubpages capsules.
This could be a great switch and help Hubpages a lot, but in order for that to happen the current tools have to be edited. Even simple options to give more freedoms to make current Hubs look good could in turn both excite and motivate us Hubbers instead of aggravate the ones who are used to using your platform in a particular way.
Some ideas most people would like are:
-Being able to use an Image comment on the Left or Right of it instead of just Bottom. This could replace the loss of the first paragraph while appealing to Mobile users.
-Making a single "Duo" capsule that allows similar functions to the float right, but only on capsules that have large amounts of white space, like poll.
-Allow the format for Polls and other content to be centered OR reformat them to fit a wide column.
Add the ability to have multi-column polls like the "table" capsule.
Allow the centering with an option of smaller less space required capsules like poll or "ratings"
Sure, centering stuff doesn't fix everything but having the option to would help greatly.
Example of a Poll Duo cell. This would work AMAZINGLY with callouts as well.Thank you for that explanation thran. If what you are saying is correct, then the suggestion is that the real purpose of this change is nothing much to do with the increasing use of smartphones, but rather to do with writers who fail to use the floated capsule options in an attractive way.
But it really isn't difficult to use those floated capsules - if it was, then I wouldn't be writing here! I'm sure you agree that all it takes is time, and I've given a lot of that to the organisation of my hubs. Hundreds of hours. It is distressing that all that seems now to have been wasted, and I do feel there must be some other, less ruthless way around this issue, other than to administer what seems like a huge slap in the face. Would it not be possible for Hubpages to begin the new policy with new articles, and just draw a line under the already published hubs, leaving them in the old format - featured or unfeatured according to their quality?
On a lighter note, I smiled at your reference to those 'Indian aunts'. Though I haven't personally seen any Indian aunt hubs, I do know what you mean. Having said that, I had to do some Google Analytics research for my last but one article and found out that - next to Google.com and Google.UK - Google.India was the biggest regional market for my hubs. I hope not to lose them!
Will, you are trying to suggest a solution to one particular aspect (large photos) as if that solves the whole problem with layout. I do have limited ability to edit images as in the example below from a hub called 'The Elephant Parade', which gave me a full width image. In that particular instance it worked better that way, particularly as the two images were of the same model elephant. However in many other instances it just does not work so well.
But in any case, photo editing still will not allow one to put text next to photos, or supplementary text in a side panel, or do any of the other things previously mentioned to improve the layout. In other words, our creative flexibility to make best use of the design area is being drastically reduced.
What's more I have 160 hubs. Many of those have 20, 30 or more images (for which thumb nails would not be appropriate). Many of those hubs will also have polls, references, subsidiary text etc which look best in a side capsule. Can you imagine the huge amount of work involved in trying to reorganise these in such a way that the sequencing of main text capsules and everything else remains coherent? In fact with many of my articles it simply could not be done without deleting some capsules, thus making the hub less complete. And then text would also have to be adjusted both to take account of the deleted capsules and to make it relevant to the new sequencing of the remaining capsules. Other hub members of course have many more hubs than me - a thousand or more.
You say 'hanging on to a format that has fewer and fewer users every year is not a strategy'. No one is suggesting that hub format should not be adapted for smartphones, which have no substantial width. HubPages for some time has accommodated that, with both formats coexisting. But is it really so impractical to continue to give desktop users (still a very substantial number, and very likely to remain so) the benefit of enjoying a much better layout? Or even if this new policy is employed for future hubs, at least to save hubbers the enormous task of rearranging all their old work?
Sigh, Hubpages has changed so much in 9 years. The last thing I thought i'd ever lose is the float right option for capsules. I can already see putting rating and quiz capsules in the middle of text so everyone has to stop reading and deal with the capsule. I was always a fan of the floating an image to right at the start of an article.
I will miss it so.
I take it this is a student speaking. I'm pretty sure it's somebody who was still at school when I first started using the internet i.e. yours is the voice of youth (and your teacher) and mine is the voice of some considerable experience.
1. Speaking as the owner of a blog which is 11 years old with over 11 million page views and the capacity to review DATA about screen sizes any number of ways (in terms of time periods) I can tell you that there is a VAST DIFFERENCE between
* what is theoretically possible in terms of screen size and
* what people actually own and use to view sites like this.
2. As an artist who has had to deal with theft of images I can tell you that every artist - or graphic design student - needs to know the very simple and no cost ways of stopping people ripping off your images. One of them is don't post big images without a watermark! (If you need further help you might want to take a look at my Art Business Information for Artists website).
PS Nobody goes to court unless your design has been ripped off by one of the major merchandisers (happens all the time) - and even then there's no need to go to court. Outing them on the internet via a site which has a big readership - and sending them an invoice - works much better.
3. I'm not just of the mindset that people read - I know they do. There are two types of information posted online - "nothingness" which comes with pretty pictures and serious stuff which comes with words as well as pics. Have you looked at the length of any of the major articles on the premier broadsheets recently? There's also a very good 1,600+ words article in the New Yorker at present! It went viral and got quoted around the world!
4. Bully for you having 4G Internet. Are you aware that a lot of readers of HubPages do not live in the USA and even those that do are not all operating on 4G? More than a few are still on dial up.
5. I was quoting for images (and I checked a few) as viewed on a 27" screen on an iMac. I assume that's not what you're using "in the woods at a lake in Maine". (PS I remember trying to get internet reception at a lake in Maine a while ago and got precisely zero!)
Do try reading properly and not skim reading. I'm NOT UPSET and I'm NOT ANNOYED. I do however feel that more thought might have been given to issues for both hubbers and consumers.
I've no intention of changing the size of my images. The only action I'm employing at the moment is moving content to new sites elsewhere which tackle the question of image sizes and design much better.
The only place I use 1000px images is for the banner images for my new websites - where they look fabulous! On my iPad the text sits next to the images because I run with two columns - and as a result nobody has to wear out their finger while scrolling through my pages (which focus on very precise topics and contain lots of information - and get lots of traffic!)
Finally - trying to find a one size fits all solution is very difficult - and I do sympathise with the HubPages designers.
if your content is limited to a few fabulous images and even fewer words than 1000px images are for you!
However, if you like to write a few more words and use smaller images and/or like having your pics next to your text (eg in a recipe) then it's worth remembering that other approaches to displaying your content are available.
I mean, reading properly and not skim reading? I am pretty sure I researched everything I typed to be a fact about the internet? I mean, your in London. Your countries internet is faster then the standard US. As for "a lot of people are still using dial-up? Umm...3% of the US is using dialup. Thats 9.4 million people - 2.1 million are on AOL dialup. Thats a very small few. I also stated that 3G is fast enough for Hubpages using 1000x500 px images...I thought I did might not have. I made a video myself that shows the image being 1000px wide then scaling for different platforms. Hubpages scales too!
I only refer to increasing screen sizes. Its a fact more and more people are buying 4k+ monitors, its the next technology. In theory, your data probably includes some old CRT monitors too - that doesn't mean you optimize for older tech purposefully.
All artist face this but watermarks protect photos mostly, not all vectors or clean artwork like logos. Its easy enough for anyone to use photoshop to Fill->content aware and remove a watermark. If the design is simple, like a logo, anyone can just redraw the lines over the watermark. I see you like creating fine art, and your really good too!
Your right, Im a student - an older one, but still a student. I get my BFA in Graphic Design at the end of December. One of the field trips I took was to an older students studio. What she does is make "fan art" shirts and products. She made the business a corporation and pushes all copyright laws on major things such as Han Solo from starwars. She had her work DMCA'ed before, almost one out of every 5 designs in fact. What we were taught from our teacher is push the limits and just do what you need to do. If a legal person comes knocking, take it down and try other things. People do this all the time and the most famous designers are the ones stuck in legal battles over products. Theres a reason why we learned about corporations rather then llc's - specifically its because if you piss off the wrong company they can freeze your personal banking accounts etc and make life a living hell. With a corporation, legally a person, your personal accounts are safe during these debacles. Is it wrong to cater to the fanbase of a show you didn't create but a design you made yourself based on it? That up to lawyers and individuals to decide.
3. Yes, I read some long articles about M.2 storage drives and other computer technology. I based my assessment on the "internet average" for time spent on a website. I do not devalue your personal blog experience, but most blogs have "fan bases" that fluently enjoy the similar content. I am just stating any random individual reading any random page. You might have collected great readers and have solid content, but that doesn't mean your not preforming better then the average.
5. I have a 25 inch ultra-wide LG ips monitor I use as my daily driver, a Macbook Pro 2015 $2400 laptop with the radeon 2gb graphics option, a 50 inch 4k television I often game on from my computer, a HTC-Vive for Virtual Reality, a 1920 x 1080 windows tablet, and a samsung note 3 for a cellphone. I live in Massachusetts, and have a family owned cottage in Maine I go to every other week or two during the summer. Your statement would be a correct assumption *if* I wasn't also an avid gamer and content creator.
The 1000x500 images start that size to be resize-able for both the mobile phone in your pocket and the 25 inch ultra wide I use. As a graphic designer who focuses on creating website graphics, book graphics, and marketing materials I understand how the new HTML standard for "responsive" layouts work. You can restrain pixels and keep your blog from shrinking or expanding past a point, thats your option, but it isn't what modern companies are using. In graphic design using even larger then 1000x500 pixel images only improve image quality once shrunken. Determining your niche's and contents general audience is what should drive your design choices. If you write specifically for dial-up users in an article say "Your still on Dial-up in 2017? Reasons to upgrade!" you should probably optimize it for dial-up...and IE 5 standards...
