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Dissapointed

Robert Wermuth >

June 04, 2011 13:45

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Back in Feb I was told about nimbus from my rep, he said it would be out in March and included with the pro membership. I had been looking for a new website company so that I could do a html5 site, this was the answer, so I upgraded back to pro which I had used for some time but downgraded because I was not using the space.

Since then I have started to utilize shootq since it was included as well and would be integrated with nimbus, I have spent maybe a total of 150 hours setting up and tweaking shootq and I can see how usefull it can be as a contact manager and booking agent, BUT where is nimbus? 

I have patiently waited now till June hoping i was in the first wave of testers but apparently I am not. I need to know if I should find someone else to do my site or will I be able to use/ setup a nimbus site soon?

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29 comments

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  Justin Lund > June 20, 2011 16:05

  Hi Robert,

  We had some unforeseen delays in Nimbus and have had to push back the release later than we originally expected.  I understand you're disappointed, but know that we're absolutely gutted.  Our team is still working very hard on Nimbus and we're very excited to be nearing the initial release.  We are working on an early alpha release this week and starting beta testing within the next few weeks.  You'll receive an email with information on the beta access once it's available.  Hang in there and know that we're working hard to have it ready.

  Justin

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  Permanently deleted user > June 30, 2011 14:45

  What qualifies as next few weeks for beta testing?

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  Justin Lund > June 30, 2011 16:01

  Hi Troy,

  Still working on having Beta available in mid-July!  The date is still tentative as we're putting on the final touches.

  Justin

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  Kylie Pilsworth > July 01, 2011 15:01

  Hey Justin... how do you become a beta tester.....

  Cheers

  Mike

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  Katie Van Buren > July 01, 2011 15:40

  Hello Mike,

  We had the ability to sign up for Beta through www.whatisnimbus.com.  We had it open for Beta testers to sign up for three months.  We have closed Beta tester sign ups for now.  Stay tuned for when Nimbus goes live after Beta testing.

  Katie

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  Permanently deleted user > July 15, 2011 18:06

  Justin I would consider this mid July.... any update on release?  Eagerly awaiting being able to change the 1980 outdated look of Pictage so it can be presentable to clients.

  Or just a place to add my own CSS file would be nice.

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  Justin Lund > July 15, 2011 19:26

  Hi Troy,

  Beta started earlier this week and we've got about 20 people using Nimbus.  We're working to get the kinks out.  The timeline depends on how many problems crop up and how difficult they are to resolve.  As of now, we're targeting a general release for sometime in September.

  You can check out a demo site running on Nimbus here - http://my-portrait-company.photosit.es/

  And here is a walkthrough video of the administrative side of Nimbus - http://www.vimeo.com/26355607

  -Justin

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  Noelle Brockhoff > August 31, 2011 22:00

  Does the mid-september have a hard release date or does it at least still stand? I *really* don't want to renew my external website hosting tomorrow if I will be able to convert to nimbus with only a few weeks of downed time.  Beyond that, is there some opt-in notification for the release?

  Thanks!

  -Noelle

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  Steven Boyle > October 03, 2011 04:56

  Hi, I've been following Nimbus for a while, it seems great and like some people here I've been delaying upgrading my website in the hope that Nimbus will be out soon. Is there anyway we can get an updated ETA as we've obviously missed the September release date.

  Regards,

  Steven

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  Justin Lund > October 05, 2011 14:19

  You're right, September has come and gone.  We decided to hold off to polish a few more features.  The current schedule has the release planned for two weeks from now.  We'll email everyone once Nimbus is released.

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  Snap Cubby San Luis Obispo > October 25, 2011 17:59

  Has anyone been playing with Nimbus? After months and months of silent delays, my first impression is terrible.  Has anyone had a good experience and created a webpage that they are proud of with it? The template "Stratus" is barely like the LaCour example they give, and the navigation within is practically nonexistent.   There are so many bugs it seems like a complete waste of time.  I'd love to be able to see a working website made with Nimbus that I could click through, not just screen shots. And one that uses what they offer, not something that has been overly customized with HTML code, as I may as well make a much more streamlined, customizable, and expandable Wordpress site that I would own outright.  I love ShootQ, but Pictage and especially now Nimbus have been overwhelmed with disappointments. Any good feedback would be great.

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  Andrew Niesen > October 27, 2011 20:13

  Hi Snap Cubby,

  I'm guessing that you don't like the themes. We're working hard on getting lots more by January!

  Andrew

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  Snap Cubby San Luis Obispo > October 27, 2011 20:42

  The themes are just the tip of the iceberg.  Lots of bugs, horrible navigation, poor integration with your own Pictage site, and frustrating interface with limited customization that doesn't entail coding it all myself.  There's plenty of other options out there, so I'm struggling to understand how such a poor product could be released.  And it is honestly hard to take anything you say seriously at this point after months and months of delays and missed launch dates.  I'd love to hear what you've done to improve your project management before hearing more of the same "we're working on it" or "expect more in the future" bs.

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  Andrew Niesen > October 27, 2011 20:52

  Ah. Well that makes sense. Thanks for the great feedback :)

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  Andrew Davis > November 11, 2011 17:55

  I don't even see any options for hand coding things. As far as I can tell, there are very few customization options beyond changing colors and fonts. Four themes to choose from, supposedly more with the developer network, but given that the release date for Nimbus itself was rolled back at least 3 times just in this thread, I'm not expecting to see that anytime soon. I really like the idea of Nimbus, and would even consider giving Pictage another try if it would work as advertised, but in its current state it is pretty much useless to me.

  I realize you don't want to copy any other company, but I would love to see customization options along the lines of SmugMug, which offers an easy customizer for the drag and drop folks, as well as the option to custom code HTML headers and footers, and control just about every element of the site with CSS stylesheets.

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  Permanently deleted user > November 14, 2011 15:31

  I have played with Nimbus and I am disappointed.  It looks to me like they just customized Wordpress to REMOVE lots of the functionality that makes it so wildly successful like plugins, template editing, and ability to do custom stylesheets.  My recommendation would be to open up the ability for custom CSS \ coding for the actual users to start editing.  Even if they themselves cannot do it they can hire other HTML \ CSS professionals to do the coding.  This would lead to a flood of user examples on how to push what Nimbus can do and give you great fodder for things to add back into Nimbus from the community.  Given the history of Nimbus and the obvious need for help on the project I cannot understand why something along those lines isn't done. 

  Just before Nimbus was released I went through my Wordpress blog and incorporated the new Facebook Social commenting plugin and like \ share for Facebook.  This is something that has changed just this year and that I was able to implement.  If there isn't a method for users to custom code \ style their sites then this really isn't a viable option.  No offense, but come on you guys took Wordpress and Galleria and put them together.  Nothing magical there except you removed the awesome functionality in Wordpress.

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  Permanently deleted user > November 14, 2011 15:39

  @Cubby  I totally agree on the ShootQ front.  ShootQ is awesome and wonderful and I cannot see how I ever lived without it.  But Pictage looks like 1980 HTML and Nimbus offers very little customizations.  In this modern era for any site that is offering you the ability to build your own website should at a minimum offer you the ability to edit CSS.  I would also say they need to include the ability to edit jQuery to add customizations there as well.  This is akin to them launching Starbucks with the only options being black coffee with either 100% cream or sugar.  No toffee nut, no frap, no foam, no half and half, no options.  Think how fast Starbucks would be gone without options.  Or anything business for that matter.  People today want customizations to their own needs.  If you don't meet those needs people cannot use it.  I have been searching the net trying to find someone who has even PUBLISHED a Nimbus site.  Look at those statistics.  Number of ShootQ users who have a Nimbus account, have logged in, but have not published.  That should be your metric for counting how unsuccessful this Nimbus has been.  It is a wonderful idea and concept, but so far poorly brought to market.

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  Andrew Davis > November 14, 2011 15:40

  Troy-I was thinking it looked like it was based on Wordpress. If this is true, than if they opened it up to take advantage of the gigantic user base, support, plugins and all the wonderful features of Wordpress, that would be amazing. I am not sure why they would want to reinvent the wheel if starting from a base of such a robust, widely supported, widely used product. 

  I agree that at this point there is absolutely nothing groundbreaking about Nimbus, and I will probably be sticking with my Wordpress site, which is based on a GraphPaper Press theme with Galleria slideshows, has a full screen slideshow to open, and a great deal of customized features. Most likely I will just work on integrating my blog into that theme, rather than taking the time to setup Nimbus.

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  Andrew Niesen > November 14, 2011 16:06

  Hey Guys,

  Thanks for all this feedback. It's actually very helpful.

  We considered basing Nimbus on Wordpress in the early planning stages, but decided to write Nimbus from scratch because Wordpress is fundementally a blogging tool; the problem that Nimbus is trying to solve is bigger than that. Because we have a custom-written tool we can build upon it for the unique and specific needs of photographers.

  Any product takes some time to mature, and needs to start at the "minimum feature set" which is where we are with Nimbus now. When ShootQ 1.0 was out, it was pretty basic too, and you see where we've taken that over the course of a couple of years. Just to jog your memory:

  

   

  So even if you decide to keep using wordpress for now (which is cool) please continue to give us feedback as to why you're using Wordpress. We're building this software for you and will continue to work on it through maturity.

  Just for fun, let's look at where Mac and Photoshop were at 1.0:

  

  

  Fortunately, I don't think it's going to take 25 years to get from 1.0 to awesome :)

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  Andrew Davis > November 14, 2011 16:29

  I can understand the desire to build something from scratch, but I'm kind of wishing you guys had gone with Wordpress as a platform. There are thousands of developers out there who have customized Wordpress to run a huge variety of sites. My brother is web editor for one of the largest newspapers in Maine, which is entirely run on Wordpress, and I have built a large variety of sites on the Wordpress platform as well. If not Wordpress, I'm curious why Drupal wasn't chosen as a starting point? While I admire the idea behind building a platform from the ground up, there is definitely something to be said for getting a running start with a platform that is already mature and highly customizable. 

  I will continue to keep an eye on Nimbus and hopefully it will mature as quickly if not more so than ShootQ, but it's certainly not ready for the primetime, in my opinion.

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  Permanently deleted user > November 14, 2011 16:39

  Okay.  Reasons why I use Wordpress right now versus Nimbus. 

   

  1. Customization of the styling.  Both via ability to add unlimited custom CSS files and unlimited custom JS files
  2. Ability to add plugins whenever necessary or develop new should I need that functionality.
  3. Plugin integration for my Slideshow Pro so I can display a gallery (grouping of albums) since I am primarily a wedding photography for client proofing.
  4. SEO and ability to customize this deeply.  I have edited the slugs for the categories and tags to have more relevant links and pretty looking names.
  5. Security of a large user base using the product and regular timely updates being released.  I can choose WHEN to implement these updates to make sure everything plays nice when I do.
  6. Installed on my own servers.  If my site goes down it is between my server host and me.  No one else responsible or outside of my control.
  7. I haven't installed any Facebook plugin to Wordpress I simply edited my template files to include it and published those changes.
  8. Ability to apply customizations to handle better display and view ability that I choose for my mobile users.
  9. New features can be added as fast I can add them or hire someone to.  I don't have to wait for them to be "released."
  10. Wordpress has a roadmap, and public bug tracker which they keep up to date for me to follow both issues and new features that are going to be released.
  11. I can choose to install the beta version(s) of Wordpress and to rollback as I wish.  Likewise I can install a total new site on the next version and put my files in there to test the functionality and make sure it works before going "live".
  12. I use Wordpress because I see it more than a blogging platform and more as a website framework. 
  13. Ability to integrate whatever the next great social network is whenever I need to (thinking Google Plus).
  14. Using plugin that updates my sitemap for Google to crawl better.
  15. Installed and customized Google Analytics for my site needs.

  A big thing is social networking and integration into sites just became big.  In building a framework from the ground up I don't see any social networking features included at all.  You are building a supposed framework to integrate a photographers digital life, but left out the social networking. That really doesn't connect my online life in the cloud. 

  And really I think in multiple posts on ShootQ invoicing \ it's customer portal, Nimbus, Pictage all product lines there has been a call out from the users for the ability to do custom CSS.  Just give us a place to put CSS code to manipulate all the classed and ID'ed elements.  I think that would be a HUGE step in Pictage, ShootQ, and Nimbus. 

   

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  Andrew Niesen > November 14, 2011 17:10

  Andrew, thanks. If you think about it, a newspaper behaves a lot like a blog, so that makes a lot of sense to use Wordpress for a newspaper. Additionally, that's only one deployment of Wordpress; we're building a framework for deploying potentially thousands of sites. 

  @Troy - thanks for this feedback. It's awesome. Most of this stuff is on point; a few things are a bit off-base (i.e. you can't really control when your hosting provider goes down, and I don't see us as being much different than a hosting provider in this context. We have a whole TechOps team that keeps servers online).

  As for CSS, we will be providing a context for CSS customization in due time. We are still contemplating how that is going to work.

  Finally - security - Wordpress has always had security issues because its entire codebase is publicly available. Those wishing to do harm can look for "chinks in the armor" of wordpress by reading the source code. That isn't possible with Nimbus. 

  We'll be throwing this great list into the pot of suggestions.

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  Andrew Davis > November 14, 2011 21:28

  Not to completely hijack the thread, but I have to take an exception to the stated security issues of Wordpress, and by extension open source software. It is true that there have been problems with security holes in Wordpress and other open source softwares, but there is no evidence those problems are any more pervasive than in a closed source environment. Additionally, the open source nature of Wordpress means that these security problems are typically very quickly found and addressed. The concept of 'security through obscurity' has been widely debunked. If closed source code was more secure, then the majority of web servers in the world would be running Windows, not Linux.

  It is definitely unfair to expect Nimbus to approach the flexibility and feature base of WordPress, and the two are definitely very different beasts. The concept of a platform customized for photographers with less of the headaches of setting up and maintaining a custom site on my own does appeal to me, but I would like to be able to change things that are a little bit less superficial than my logo and colors. 

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  Andrew Niesen > November 14, 2011 21:43

  Hey Andrew, 

  I'm certainly not trying to open a closed vs. open source debate; I'm no expert in Wordpress security and it very well may be that they have tidyed up some of the previous security issues. I also agree that security by obscurity is really no security at all, and there is very little about ShootQ that utilizes security by obscurity (only things like inbound email addresses) and those can be changed very easily in the case that an issue arises. However, it certainly can't hurt (from a security standpoint) that nobody but our developers has seen our code. 

  I agree that photographers should be able to customize some of the functionality within Nimbus. This will gradually evolve into the platform as we make it more open to custom theming. Furthermore, we've got a release coming out before the end of the year which will introduce widgets, which can be installed in various places in the site. These widgets will allow you to drop in functionality in different places throughout your Nimbus site.

  I hope you will send us a list of things you'd like to see "droppable" into Nimbus. Twitter feed? Last 25 images uploaded to NImbus? A "fresh from the blog" widget? What have you put into your Wordpress site that had to be custom coded?

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  Andrew Niesen > November 14, 2011 21:47

  One other thing to note - ShootQ and NImbus are almost entirely built on open-source technologies; we have very little software that involves paid licensing. Most of our developers actively contribute to open source projects like http://pecanpy.org/ and http://turbogears.org/ ... so no open source bashing here.

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  Andrew Davis > November 14, 2011 23:50

  I will be looking forward to seeing the custom themes, it is definitely a bit of a balancing act to provide access to develop themes and widgets for the Nimbus platform while at the same time ensuring the system continues to work as expected. By and large, Wordpress plugins are good, but there are definitely some out there that don't play well with others and can cause a whole host of problems.

  I like the concept of widgets, I like having a full screen slideshow to open my site, but a page with a blog widget, slideshow, maybe a twitter feed could be very engaging as well. My wedding photography site doesn't have a whole lot of custom coding, I created a client proofing page that redirects to my SmugMug account, and I did a little custom coding to get a flip book plugin working.

  I really do think SmugMug has one of the best customization tools around, they have an easy customizer that is graphical, or the option to upload custom CSS, header & footer code, as well as a network of designers who can customize your site for you.

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  Rob Witzel > November 16, 2011 18:07

  Although I have been vocally disappointment in Nimbus, I don't feel like I can take it out on anyone but myself. Like many others, I took the messages going out earlier this year to mean I would be able to have a very usable and in someways revolutionary website by mid summer at worst. Its now November and Nimbus for me is not usable and I am put off by those on Pictage selling their customization services without a pot to piss in as far as examples. However, I was the one who made the judgement error.

  New products get pushed back all the time. The Nimbus team was selling a grand idea with little more than mustard seed in their hands. You cannot forsee how many sunny days it takes to grow a seed based on a time table. I am currently looking at a SmugMug site to at least bridge the gap between my outdated Bludomain site and they day Nimbus is fully baked and usable.

  I support the team behind this. They have given frank and honest updates along the way and have taken the criticism on the chin. While I am disappointed that me brand is many months behind because I went "all in" waiting for this, its still my bad judgement.

  My hope, my true hope, is that they have a theme coming soon that will blow me away. A design that they themselves would want to switch to. Pretty sure they know this is the expectation.

   

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  Matthew Wagner > January 19, 2012 22:03

  It's been pretty quiet here.  Any updates?  I can't seem to add any assets/photos from Pictage today.

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  Katie Van Buren > January 19, 2012 22:21

  Hi Matthew-

  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  It appears there is a issue that is only effecting some photographers.  We are aware of the issue and are working toward a resolution.  We will post as soon as it is fixed.

  Katie