Gmc Update Options

[Kristofer Dahl]

Here is some news for those of you wondering what happens behind the curtains at GMC!

We have spent the last couple of months switching development agency - which has caused the development pace to slow down. However it seems we are at the end of the tunnel and I hope we will be able to create some strong improvements of the site's functionality in 2012.

Here are some small tweaks which (for most part) went live today:

* Bookmarks feature streamlined
Bookmarking is done now all within one menu by clicking on "Bookmarks" icon in the upper right corner. To bookmark a lesson: visit the lesson page and go to bookmarks>bookmark this lesson. Also, the lesson page does no longer reload when bookmarking (that used to cause the lesson video to start playing again).

* New Lesson Series categories
Now its possible to browse lesson series by categories and more easily navigate the page.

* Sound cloud embedding :
It is now possible to embed soundcloud files in the forum. Click here to read more about it.

* Forum PMs being cut off
It would happen sometimes when you receive a Private Message in the forum, that the pop-up window that informs you about it would be cut-off to the side and not show the full message. This is now fixed.

* Broken avatar in lesson feedback
Students who don't have a forum avatar set in the forum would have a broken image showing in Chrome and IE when they post lesson feedback : http://pix.thefarm.se/20110628003030/20111213205412/
This is now fixed by showing a generic avatar there.

* Old GMC background showing in forum
It was possible to see an old GMC background forum when realoading the pages in the forum. This could also have a slight impact on forum performance. This is now fixed.

* Lesson Playback
It is now possible to pause the video in the lessons by clicking on the screen. Get fullscreen by double clicking. (test it)

* Insert Special Item
It is possible to access Youtube, Soundcloud and Tab custom tags via "Insert Special Item" option when writing the posts : http://screencast.com/t/gzxRawrv

* Broken forum attachment icons
Some unknown file types had broken image when added as an attachment in the forum. This is now fixed.

* Keywords bug
Some keywords like power chords, arpeggios etc would "eat" the punctation signs that follow. This is fixed.

* Linkmembers feature for webmasters is now updated.

* Rate lesson button removed
We have have removed some elements on the lesson pages that were rarely used. This will allow for new stuff and cleaner pages.

If you find bugs or want to suggest new features or improvements - big or small - we would really appreciate it! Just shoot! GMC students know better than anyone else what the site really needs.

This post has been edited by Kristofer Dahl: Feb 15 2012, 01:28 PM

Reason for edit: Added info about linkmembers

[Dinaga]

Awesome!

The most frustrating bug out of these was the page reloading while bookmarking a lesson. So glad it's resolved now!
Love how you're paying attention to every little detail. Will submit if I find any more problematic stuff!

[maharzan]

Nice!!

I am not sure what font styles you are using but sometimes the fonts don't render on me. Arent you using Google Fonts ?

[FrontlineGuitar]

sounds awesome the only thing I would say is just the loading bar of a video/backing track is pretty hard to actually click on sometimes and drag around.. other than that sounds great

[Kristofer Dahl]

Nice!!

I am not sure what font styles you are using but sometimes the fonts don't render on me. Arent you using Google Fonts ?

For normal text we are using standard fonts, and for headers we are rendering a non standard font as an image (so that everybody can see it).

Please show us a screenshot when this happens next time!

sounds awesome the only thing I would say is just the loading bar of a video/backing track is pretty hard to actually click on sometimes and drag around.. other than that sounds great

Thanks - are you referring the actual handles/bar being too small? Or the fact that it won't obey your clicking?

[JaxN4]

Nice work! These are great updates.

One suggestion would be, when leaving feedback for a lesson (on the right hand side of the main page window) it would be great to be notified when the instructor replies to the feedback.

Cheers

[Kristofer Dahl]

One suggestion would be, when leaving feedback for a lesson (on the right hand side of the main page window) it would be great to be notified when the instructor replies to the feedback.

Thanks - this would of course rock!

We will need to think about how to do this in the best possible way. Adding it to the list

[JaxN4]

Thanks - this would of course rock!

We will need to think about how to do this in the best possible way. Adding it to the list

Email Perhaps? Just like Forum Topics.... And ppl who don't want it can access the options in the "MY Controls" section... also just like Forum subscribe topic.

[thefireball]

This is awesome, Kris!! I did notice the bookmark update a few weeks ago and was pleased about that as well.

[Dinaga]

This popped up in my mind a while ago, so I'll mention it:

Lesson responses in the "Workshops" page is a very good idea. I think that it would be even better to also have lesson responses listed in that particular lesson's page. That way when we browse lessons we can immediately see how other users handled that particular lesson.

This post has been edited by Dinaga: Feb 15 2012, 03:49 PM

[Todd Simpson]

Good to hear Always great when new features and fixes come online!

Todd

[JaxN4]

This popped up in my mind a while ago, so I'll mention it:

Lesson responses in the "Workshops" page is a very good idea. I think that it would be even better to also have lesson responses listed in that particular lesson's page. That way when we browse lessons we can immediately see how other users handled that particular lesson.

+1

I believe this used to be a feature that you could view on the stats page of the lesson, but has since been disbled

[Kristofer Dahl]

Lesson responses in the "Workshops" page is a very good idea. I think that it would be even better to also have lesson responses listed in that particular lesson's page. That way when we browse lessons we can immediately see how other users handled that particular lesson.

Very good point! We used to have it like that - but it was poorly integrated with another feature which made it hard to find. I will think some more about it!

+1

I believe this used to be a feature that you could view on the stats page of the lesson, but has since been disbled

It was actually under another tab called "community" - which we removed (because it sucked).

However your comment made me think that we could just add "amount of student video responses" or something like that on the stats page - and then just have that link to a page with the relevant youtube videos.

[Gabriel Leopardi]

Those are great improvements! Well done Kris!! I love to see the GP files attached without the broken icon!

[maharzan]

Heres what I got earlier...

[Alex Feather]

Here is some news for those of you wondering what happens behind the curtains at GMC!

We have spent the last couple of months switching development agency - which has caused the development pace to slow down. However it seems we are at the end of the tunnel and I hope we will be able to create some strong improvements of the site's functionality in 2012.

Here are some small tweaks which (for most part) went live today:

* Bookmarks feature streamlined
Bookmarking is done now all within one menu by clicking on "Bookmarks" icon in the upper right corner. To bookmark a lesson: visit the lesson page and go to bookmarks>bookmark this lesson. Also, the lesson page does no longer reload when bookmarking (that used to cause the lesson video to start playing again).

* New Lesson Series categories
Now its possible to browse lesson series by categories and more easily navigate the page.

* Sound cloud embedding :
It is now possible to embed soundcloud files in the forum. Click here to read more about it.

* Forum PMs being cut off
It would happen sometimes when you receive a Private Message in the forum, that the pop-up window that informs you about it would be cut-off to the side and not show the full message. This is now fixed.

* Broken avatar in lesson feedback
Students who don't have a forum avatar set in the forum would have a broken image showing in Chrome and IE when they post lesson feedback : http://pix.thefarm.se/20110628003030/20111213205412/
This is now fixed by showing a generic avatar there.

* Old GMC background showing in forum
It was possible to see an old GMC background forum when realoading the pages in the forum. This could also have a slight impact on forum performance. This is now fixed.

* Lesson Playback
It is now possible to pause the video in the lessons by clicking on the screen. Get fullscreen by double clicking. (test it)

* Insert Special Item
It is possible to access Youtube, Soundcloud and Tab custom tags via "Insert Special Item" option when writing the posts : http://screencast.com/t/gzxRawrv

* Broken forum attachment icons
Some unknown file types had broken image when added as an attachment in the forum. This is now fixed.

* Keywords bug
Some keywords like power chords, arpeggios etc would "eat" the punctation signs that follow. This is fixed.

* Linkmembers feature for webmasters is now updated.

* Rate lesson button removed
We have have removed some elements on the lesson pages that were rarely used. This will allow for new stuff and cleaner pages.

If you find bugs or want to suggest new features or improvements - big or small - we would really appreciate it! Just shoot! GMC students know better than anyone else what the site really needs.

Awesome! Wow man you guys have a lot of great plans! I am looking forward to see updated GMC!!!!!

[Kristofer Dahl]

Heres what I got earlier...

Thanks. So this has happened several times? Do you have any special settings or add-ons in chrome? (since the font is displayed as images it could be a cache problem). Did you test with another browser when this happened?

I will forward this to an engineer - any additional info you can give is helpful.

[Jeff Lynd]

Awesome updates, Kristofer!

Bookmarks feature and new Lesson series categories will be my favorite!

There's something that my be a bug, do not know. I'd subscribe a few instructor's but the upper right button still says I can subscribe. Is a bug?

all the best
Jeff

[Kristofer Dahl]

Awesome updates, Kristofer!

Bookmarks feature and new Lesson series categories will be my favorite!

There's something that my be a bug, do not know. I'd subscribe a few instructor's but the upper right button still says I can subscribe. Is a bug?

all the best
Jeff

Yes! Excellent feedback, adding it right away!

[Cosmin Lupu]

Uh oh, that's a big row of improvements right there I must confess that popup with the messages is a bit annoying