Sorry, but Humble Voice is Too Damn Buggy

9/9/2007 at 6:57 PM

Man, I really wanted to like HumbleVoice.com. I really did. But I haven't been here since February and I had to ask myself why that was. Mainly, it's because I can't customize the site for crap. In theory, it's easy. Just drag and drop the elements and you're good to go. However, in practice, the elements don't drop where I drag them. They drop into incorrect places and often knock other elements out of the way to do it. Flash or DHTML or layers or whatever the hell this is is all well and good, but it doesn't always work well or consistently and the fact that there are no alternative ways to edit the layout of one's HV page (after spending an hour trying to get it the way I like it) has made me decide to abandon this page and HumbleVoice. I'm sad to go, but when you can't master something basic like "layout" what's the point? Just take a look at my HV page. Seriously. It's a mess--do you think I made it that way on purpose? I'm not a fool, I know how to drag and drop.

One thing this site and quite a few others just don't get is that there's such a thing as too many options. I suppose this site tries to do too much and doesn't concentrate on doing things well. Unlike MySpace which concentrates on nothing but finding new ways to put ads in front of people and gives no thought to freedom of choice.

I admire the heart and purpose behind HV--I truly do. But when I can't get it to work in Feb of 2007 and come back in Sept of 2007 and STILL can't get it to work it means you guys aren't improving. If there was some way to just order everything into a single fat column and a single thin one with a push of the button or the click of a box, I'd stay. But it's just too much effort to make things look bad and an absurd amount of effort to make them look fine--not to mention how much/long it would take to make things look great.

I have an easier time laying stuff out in basic HTML. But that doesn't appear to be an option here, does it?

Oh well. Take care HVers! I wish you all luck--seriously, I do. I hope this site gets better and knocks MySpace off it's perch!

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Decided to Blog About This Site on My Site

2/12/2007 at 10:53 AM

Hey, I thought I'd try to get some of my friends to stop by this place by blogging on my website, ThePete.Com. Here's what I said in that post:

Wow, I really wanted to blog more this weekend, but I got distracted by all sorts of stuff. Actually have an agent who wanted to see some of my latest novel, so I had to whip the first 35 pages of it into shape, do all sorts of chores around the apartment (laundry, dishes straighted up a bit of the living room, blew off Quicken--not good) and then tried to keep up with the news. Did manage to squeeze in some time with friends Jen and Britt, which was great since I never spend enough time just having fun these days. Oh yeah--I also managed to spend about an hour playing Lego Star Wars for Nintendo DS. That game is buggy as hell, but it's still a lot of fun. I've worked out where many of the bugs are, so I just avoid them. I still can't finish the first Endor level.

Another thing I managed to sneak in time on is discovering a nice little alternative to MySpace.Com. One of the thing I despise about MySpace.Com is just how sucky MySpace.Com is. It's almost as buggy as Lego Star Wars for the DS and it's REALLY poorly laid out. I mean, it looks like a website someone with no design sense put together with coding from 1998. Add one large picture to your layout and BOOM suddenly you're sidescrolling all around trying to figure out what the picture even is or what a commenter said because the text isn't wrapping. Well, enter HumbleVoice.Com.

Just at glance HumbleVoice.Com more pleasing to the eye than MySpace.Com. The next thing you notice is how the site is divided into interests--music, video, photograpy, art and word. It seems fairly easy for the user to make submissions into each category, unlike MySpace. This is where it's like DeviantArt.Com, a little, too. From what I can tell, your posts to each section end up in some central viewing area that I haven't found just yet (hey, I'm still exploring!). I managed to piss someone off by posting a musing about how using a "featured text section" was over a blog section (HV offer both) and got a slightly snobby anti-newbie post from a fellow HumbleVoicer. I guess newbs get no respect where ever they are on the 'net (she must be a Mac User).

So, if you hate MySpace as much as I do (or just want to find an alternative that plays home to a varying group of artist-types) check out HumbleVoice. So far so good, I say regarding my experience there. It's only been a couple of days, but I think I'll stick around and see how things go. It seems like a smaller group of people than MySpace which I think can have it's advantages.

OH yeah--I almost forgot. It looks like every time you post to HV (whether it be a picture, work of art, blog entry or anything else) you get points which you can eventually redeem for actual physical items like electronics or even a Vespa. Pretty cool huh? So, check out my HV page at:

http://HumbleVoice.Com/ThePete

HV's slogan: "It's not just your space."

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Tired of MySpace So I Google for an Alternative

2/10/2007 at 10:40 PM

Hey there--so, I have a blog site (ThePete.Com) and a MySpace page, and a Blogger blog and an LJ. The thing is, the only one that I mind having is the MySpace page--it's ugly and the site is buggy and really poorly designed. I hope I can convince my friends to try out HV. The only thing is most of them use MySpace for networking and until they've actually, you know, HEARD of this place, they probably won't go for it...

Well, I'll link here in the next day or so.

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