Coppermine crappiness

[Scapegoat]

Coppermine crappiness

Coppermine is great for those who wrote the program and know what to expect and how it functions. But Coppermine Photo Gallery is terrible for the average user. For example, when a guest or a user visits the Start Page of Coppermine, a bunch of ramdom files are shown--but the visitor isn't guided as how to access the different albums. In fact, when the Album list link is clicked, the page merely refreshes and doesn't offer any explanation. The visitor cannot magically know that the small heading "User galleries," in the box titled, Category, is a link that needs to be clicked. And even if the person figures out to click on the User galleries link, one or more thumbnails pop up without the explaination that the thumbnails lead to albums and also need to be clicked.

Furthermore, when a registered user decides to upload files, and logs in and clicks on the "Upload file" link, at that point an error message is given stating: Sorry there is no album where you are allowed to upload files. In other words, instead of saying Sorry, you must create an album before you can upload a file, the error message leaves the average user with the impression that he/she is not allowed to upload files. This is a glitch that ought to be corrected.

And Coppermine needs a start page not with a bunch of random photos, but merely with links to the actual albums available. Administrators should have the option to turn off anything but the display of albums on the start page.

Quite a few years ago I learned in Business Communication that if the average person doesn't understand a memo I've written or directions I've given, it's my fault as the communicator, not the fault of the message recipient. The basic principle for communications is "Keep it simple stupid!" In brief, the average user isn't a dumbass for misinterpreting or not comprehending communication/directions; the communicator is a dumbass for not being able to communicate on a level that the average user can clearly and easily understand.

http://www.familylovezone.com/coppermine/

The human is the most emotional animal on earth. Emotions counteract reason and logic.

[SaWey]

IMO, you could have choosen a more relevant title.
Until now, I hadn't heard of anybody who had problems navigating through coppermine.

The approach the devs took to create the interface is the one that was most obvious to most people. If you don't like it, then change the code to what ever you want.

The visitor cannot magically know that the small heading "User galleries," in the box titled, Category, is a link that needs to be clicked.

The web is a place common to have links to other pages, people who use the web will know that and try to look for those links if they are interested.

when a registered user decides to upload files, and logs in and clicks on the "Upload file" link, at that point an error message is given stating: Sorry there is no album where you are allowed to upload files.

You can change the error message in the language file if you want, maybe tell them they have to create an album first?
We might implement a check if users can create albums and there's no album they can upload in yet, give them another message telling the to create an album.

And Coppermine needs a start page not with a bunch of random photos, but merely with links to the actual albums available. Administrators should have the option to turn off anything but the display of albums on the start page.

If you read the docs, then you'll see this is possible.

Quite a few years ago I learned in Business Communication that if the average person doesn't understand a memo I've written or directions I've given, it's my fault as the communicator, not the fault of the message recipient. The basic principle for communications is "Keep it simple stupid!" In brief, the average user isn't a dumbass for misinterpreting or not comprehending communication/directions; the communicator is a dumbass for not being able to communicate on a level that the average user can clearly and easily understand.

We try to create an extensible piece of software, what I mean by this is that cpg administrators should be able to do as much as possible with a great backend.
They should be able to change whatever they want in as less edits as possible.
It is up to the administrators to create layout/navigation they think fits best to their users.



As this is no valid feature request and we have a strict 'one issue per thread' policy, I'm marking this as invalid.

[Scapegoat]

Check out my photo gallery at http://copperminesucks.com/

[Scapegoat]

Well I bought a new domain to set my Coppermine Gallery up on since I recieved such helpful consideration. Check it out:

http://www.copperminesucks.com/

[ds]

oh wow

Scapegoat didn't like free software because its a little bit too complicated (or he didn't take the time to read the manual) and thus starts a hate campaign.




The internet would be a better place without people like you.

[Tranz]

Scapegoat, I think you could have made some valid arguments and provided constructive feedback without the rudeness. It was ironic that you would go on a tirade on communication skills when the style that you used showed how your lack of courtesy can alienate your audience and reduce the effectiveness of your message.

It's also hard to take someone seriously whose own site isn't the model of uncrappiness: http://www.familylovezone.com/. I was listening to my music with headphones. When the gawdawful music from your site loaded, I had to quickly close the browser tab containing your site to make it go away.

You've said your piece and shared your site. Please move on.

[Abbas Ali]

I was compelled to write.

The main page of his site http://www.familylovezone.com/ mentions how internet is full of sites promoting hatred and he is against them. And look what he himself is doing by creating another 'hate site'. Well done.

[Joachim Müller]

As suggested above, M. Fowler (aka "Scapegoat") could have discussed his/her issues in a manner that makes sense. I wonder how bored you need to be to create a hate site. However, I wanted to post some clarifications. Here is the entire content of the hate site copperminesucks.com:

Coppermine Sucks!

Yes, in my opinion, Coppermine sucks. And I'll tell you why. (Bear in mind that software writers, like the ones who wrote the Coppermine program, should never assume the average user is an expert):

1. By default, Coppermine hides the user help icon.

2. When users register and try to upload photos, by default, Coppermine gives the error message that the user does not have permission to upload files. The error message should be that an album must be created before files can be uploaded.

3. Albums must be listed under catagories, even when no catagories are necessary. Thereby, albums are hidden because the user has no way of knowing that the catagory link must be clicked in order to reveal albums.

4. When the user finally figures out how to display the albums available, the user has only a 50% or less chance of being taken to an album, because what seems like a link to albums is only to the album owner profile.

5. When the Albums link at the top of the page is clicked, the user is not taken to the albums available.

6. By default, Coppermine makes comments available to spammers. And turning off comments, and notifying users as to why comments are unavailable, is no easy task

Click HERE to try Coppermine out for yourself. You'll probably find more reasons of your own as to why COPPERMINE SUCKS. And if you'd like me to add your comments to this list, send your email to comments (at) copperminesucks dot com (Note, change the (at) to an @ and change the word dot to a period symbol.)

Here are some details:

• "Bear in mind that software writers, like the ones who wrote the Coppermine program, should never assume the average user is an expert"
  we don't. However, there is a whole range of skill levels, from "complete newbie - never ran a website before" to "expert webmaster". We have to catter for all of them, with our main focus (target audience) being people who already have some background in running a (static) website. For those who don't know their way around, we provide documentation and a support forum. All of this (coppermine coding, documentation and support) comes totally free of charge. Did you expect to be spoon-fed, or are we suppossed to even pay you for using that app. You're free to use it - we can't and won't keep you from using it even though you don't like the app and even run a hate site against coppermine. You haven't understood the very basics of open source software - if you don't like it, don't use it.
• "1. By default, Coppermine hides the user help icon."
  That's true. This is the case because in versions prior to cpg1.4.x, there used to be no help icon. For users who performed an upgrade from cpg1.3.x to cpg1.4.x, we decided that all new features should be turned off by default so that their site would look the same way it did before the upgrade. It should be pretty easy to enable the help icons, so I have no idea why you're so upset.
• "2. When users register and try to upload photos, by default, Coppermine gives the error message that the user does not have permission to upload files. The error message should be that an album must be created before files can be uploaded."
  If this bothers you, you (as coppermine admin) can create an album where all uploads can go to in advance. There are mods as well that will create user galleries as soon as a user registers. For you it might be a bad thing. Other coppermine users prefer it that way, as they don't want their users to be able to upload in the first place. We have to catter for both types of coppermine users, and only one of those presets can be default. We picked one - sorry that it didn't meet your liking.
• "3. Albums must be listed under catagories, even when no catagories are necessary. Thereby, albums are hidden because the user has no way of knowing that the catagory link must be clicked in order to reveal albums."
  That's not the case. Albums can reside in the root as well ("no category"). You should have looked more carefully.
• "4. When the user finally figures out how to display the albums available, the user has only a 50% or less chance of being taken to an album, because what seems like a link to albums is only to the album owner profile."
  You're welcome to change that behaviour by coming up with a custom theme that doesn't display that link.
• "5. When the Albums link at the top of the page is clicked, the user is not taken to the albums available."
  The link "album list" sends you to the list of albums within the category that you're currently in. The link "home" sends you to the gallery's index page. You're welcome to change the wording of those links, remove them or add more links that send the user someplace else. What's so bad about this?
• "6. By default, Coppermine makes comments available to spammers. And turning off comments, and notifying users as to why comments are unavailable, is no easy task"
  That's not true - by default, anonymous comments are turned off. When cpg1.4.x was released, comment spam has not been an issue. The internet has changed since then. Spammer's attack patterns have changed since then. We have released several plugins and mods to counter/reflect those changes. Anyway, it should be pretty easy for you as coppermine admin to do something against comment spam. The next version (cpg1.5.x) will have even more tools to fight/prevent comment spam. If you fed up with comment spam, turn commenting off, but don't blame coppermine for the existence of those spammers.

Here is the whois information about copperminesucks.com:

• Fowler, M  scapegoat@facts4u.com
  2530 Lakeview St.
  Lakeland, Florida 33801
  United States
  (863) 665-0847

Admirers of Mr/Mrs Fowler are welcome to drop him/her a line that shows their appreciation.

Cheers

Joachim

[chickendippers]

The domain name is registered and the website hosted by GoDaddy. I'm sure they'd love to hear about this website, here's the link: http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/support_submit_question.asp

[Abbas Ali]

@chickendippers: Thanks for the link, but i think we won't be wasting our time complaining about that website. We are not concerned for such flaming sites.

[dojo]

There are some issues that make working with it a tad difficult, but I wouldn't call this crappy. I am VERY pleased with it so far and have learnt to mod it to my liking. And I am constantly working on making my own galleries work better for my users.

[Hein Traag]

Crappy thread. Not adding anything of value to cpg board at all. Closed.