We will be demoing Pipeline from 1pm-5pm on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011 at Georgia Tech as part of the GVU Fall Research Showcase. The location is Technology Square Research Building, 85 Fifth St NW, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Look for our setup on the third floor of the building.
More info: GVU Fall Research Showcase
Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Changelog for October 23
It's been about three weeks since we launched the latest version of Pipeline. We're extremely grateful to all the folks who have given Pipeline a try and especially those who have sent us feedback. Here is the latest round of enhancements, in addition to the usual bug fixes:
* Start a Project - previously you could only join a few projects we created, in order to focus feedback on member features. Now, we're opening up Pipeline to new projects created by you. Just click the "Start a Project" link in the header after you've logged in. You'll be asked to provide some basic info (title, description), some optional fields (e.g. deadline), and invite members. We're excited to see the projects our users come up with!
* Edit Attached Files - previously you could only add files to a new Task or Contribution, but we knew this was inconvenient if you wanted to add more files or delete them at a later date. Fret no more. Now, when you edit a Task or Contribution, you can add or delete attached files.
* Auto-linked URLs - Pipeline will now automatically create a hyperlink if you post a URL -- no need to do the HTML markup yourself. This includes URLs in Tasks, Contributions, Comments, the Pitch, and elsewhere.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Changelog for October 5
We launched our most recent version of Pipeline last week and the feedback is coming in. We've made more changes, some big, others not so big.
Bigger changes:
* Diff: Previously you could see edits in the Recent Activity, but just knowing something was edited wasn't that helpful. What exactly was changed? With Diff, now you can know. Just find an edit event in the Recent Activity and click the "diff" link below it. A dialog will pop up and show you the old and new versions. If it's a lot of text, like an edit to the Pitch, the old and new versions will be overlaid, similar to Wikipedia.
* Layout changes: We experimented with a wider 3-column liquid layout to take advantage of larger monitors. Unfortunately it didn't work so well on smaller windows, so we reverted to a 2-column static layout. We also moved uploads and comments to be within the Task and Update panels, to emphasize their relationship to each other. Finally, the home page has been modified to be a little cleaner.
* Protection for younger users: We are now hiding profile info for users younger than 18. This includes their name, age, location, and biography. As a result, Birth date is now a required field when you register.
* Last login: You can now see when a user last logged in on their profile.
Smaller changes:
* The adult consent form now has clearer language to explain that your name is optional.
* The box explaining your relationship to a project (e.g. "You are a member of this project") has been moved to the header bar.
* We fixed some bugs with special characters (e.g. quotation marks) and clarified which HTML tags were allowed, and where. This info is now in the Help page as well as located contextually around Pipeline.
* A minor bug where the bottom of icons were getting cropped is now fixed.
* Lists of discussions now properly show the latest post.
* Logging out of Pipeline now always takes you to the home page, instead of the page you came from. This prevents lots of inevitable Access Denied messages when you redirect to a page you no longer can access.
* Now when you create a new task, you are the default leader for that task.
* Contributors are now sorted alphabetically on the Task page. For each contributor, you can now see their total contributions, not just a link to their most recent.
Hope you enjoy the changes! Please contact us with any feedback.
Bigger changes:
* Diff: Previously you could see edits in the Recent Activity, but just knowing something was edited wasn't that helpful. What exactly was changed? With Diff, now you can know. Just find an edit event in the Recent Activity and click the "diff" link below it. A dialog will pop up and show you the old and new versions. If it's a lot of text, like an edit to the Pitch, the old and new versions will be overlaid, similar to Wikipedia.
* Layout changes: We experimented with a wider 3-column liquid layout to take advantage of larger monitors. Unfortunately it didn't work so well on smaller windows, so we reverted to a 2-column static layout. We also moved uploads and comments to be within the Task and Update panels, to emphasize their relationship to each other. Finally, the home page has been modified to be a little cleaner.
* Protection for younger users: We are now hiding profile info for users younger than 18. This includes their name, age, location, and biography. As a result, Birth date is now a required field when you register.
* Last login: You can now see when a user last logged in on their profile.
Smaller changes:
* The adult consent form now has clearer language to explain that your name is optional.
* The box explaining your relationship to a project (e.g. "You are a member of this project") has been moved to the header bar.
* We fixed some bugs with special characters (e.g. quotation marks) and clarified which HTML tags were allowed, and where. This info is now in the Help page as well as located contextually around Pipeline.
* A minor bug where the bottom of icons were getting cropped is now fixed.
* Lists of discussions now properly show the latest post.
* Logging out of Pipeline now always takes you to the home page, instead of the page you came from. This prevents lots of inevitable Access Denied messages when you redirect to a page you no longer can access.
* Now when you create a new task, you are the default leader for that task.
* Contributors are now sorted alphabetically on the Task page. For each contributor, you can now see their total contributions, not just a link to their most recent.
Hope you enjoy the changes! Please contact us with any feedback.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
New version of Pipeline
Fall is the season of change and Pipeline is no exception! It's been a busy couple of months. Our first round of beta testing on Newgrounds produced a huge batch of great ideas and feedback. Since July, we've been working on integrating that feedback into Pipeline. The new version is now available for testing and we believe it's the best one yet!
The new Pipeline is quite a bit different from the last version. Here are just a few of the biggest changes:
* Pipeline is now a platform, not just one website. Previously, Pipeline was a single website where people started and worked on projects. We broadened that idea, because different kinds of projects attract different communities with specialized needs. Now, anyone will be able to download the Pipeline source code and set up a customized instance on their own server. In other words, now anyone can have a Pipeline. We will still host a Pipeline instance for demo purposes (check it out here), and a few more for research/testing purposes.
* Pipeline has a brand new visual design. It's cleaner and makes better use of screen real estate, especially for folks with widescreen monitors, which are increasingly common.We've also moved color-based CSS out of the main stylesheet, which means it's really easy to customize the colors of each Pipeline. We now have two out-of-the-box styles, a dark version (default) and a light version.
* Pipeline has a new code base from the ground up. Pipeline evolved so much from its original conception that the old architecture just wasn't cutting it anymore. We took the opportunity this summer to rethink the basic site architecture in terms of our latest ideas and user feedback on what Pipeline should be. Most users won't notice these changes, though lots of bugs will be fixed, performance might be faster, and improvements should come more quickly. Developers, however, will appreciate how much more sense everything makes, and that's crucial for an open source project.
* Pipeline has a new workflow. The old Pipeline was based around concepts like "scenes", "submissions", and "versions", which were unfamiliar and confusing to many users. With this new version, we redefined the workflow around something more straightforward and familiar: tasks. Trusted users now create tasks, which any logged-in user can join. Once joined, users can post contributions (files, updates, etc.) and edit their status (in progress, seeking feedback, completed, etc.) Both tasks and contributions can receive feedback from anyone with an account.
* Pipeline has comprehensive support for multimedia files. Previously Pipeline had inconsistent support for media uploads: for example, you could stream video but you couldn't see thumbnails for uploaded images. The new version of Pipeline fills in these gaps and expands them. Now you can upload video, audio, images, or Flash animation. Pipeline will handle the rest: generating thumbnails (if applicable), rendering streaming versions, and providing in-browser playback support via the open source flowPlayer.
We hope you find these changes as exciting as we do!
The new Pipeline is quite a bit different from the last version. Here are just a few of the biggest changes:
* Pipeline is now a platform, not just one website. Previously, Pipeline was a single website where people started and worked on projects. We broadened that idea, because different kinds of projects attract different communities with specialized needs. Now, anyone will be able to download the Pipeline source code and set up a customized instance on their own server. In other words, now anyone can have a Pipeline. We will still host a Pipeline instance for demo purposes (check it out here), and a few more for research/testing purposes.
* Pipeline has a brand new visual design. It's cleaner and makes better use of screen real estate, especially for folks with widescreen monitors, which are increasingly common.We've also moved color-based CSS out of the main stylesheet, which means it's really easy to customize the colors of each Pipeline. We now have two out-of-the-box styles, a dark version (default) and a light version.
* Pipeline has a new code base from the ground up. Pipeline evolved so much from its original conception that the old architecture just wasn't cutting it anymore. We took the opportunity this summer to rethink the basic site architecture in terms of our latest ideas and user feedback on what Pipeline should be. Most users won't notice these changes, though lots of bugs will be fixed, performance might be faster, and improvements should come more quickly. Developers, however, will appreciate how much more sense everything makes, and that's crucial for an open source project.
* Pipeline has a new workflow. The old Pipeline was based around concepts like "scenes", "submissions", and "versions", which were unfamiliar and confusing to many users. With this new version, we redefined the workflow around something more straightforward and familiar: tasks. Trusted users now create tasks, which any logged-in user can join. Once joined, users can post contributions (files, updates, etc.) and edit their status (in progress, seeking feedback, completed, etc.) Both tasks and contributions can receive feedback from anyone with an account.
* Pipeline has comprehensive support for multimedia files. Previously Pipeline had inconsistent support for media uploads: for example, you could stream video but you couldn't see thumbnails for uploaded images. The new version of Pipeline fills in these gaps and expands them. Now you can upload video, audio, images, or Flash animation. Pipeline will handle the rest: generating thumbnails (if applicable), rendering streaming versions, and providing in-browser playback support via the open source flowPlayer.
We hope you find these changes as exciting as we do!
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Beta Testing on Newgrounds
In mid-June, we had a soft launch of Pipeline in the Newgrounds community, timed to coincide with their bi-monthly Game Jam contests. Lots of folks signed up and tried Pipeline, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Here is a sample of the feedback we received from our first batch of beta testers:
"This looks really nice and helpful."
"To be honest I thought this was just an ad for a generic site, but I'm pleasantly surprised."
"Very nice, Will definitely help lots of collabs... Looking forward to the collabs this will help and to a future of better, organized collabs."
"Wow, I'm impressed... It'll help me in the future and right now."
"Pipeline is truly awesome."
Obviously this kind of reaction has us really pumped. But even more importantly, these comments came with a lot of great ideas for how to make Pipeline even better. So we've decided to temporarily take Pipeline offline while we implement our next set of changes. We expect to have a new version up and running in July, along with a contest to entice our next round of beta testers.
Please note if you registered for Pipeline, your account information will be transferred to the next release. We will also try to notify those folks via email when they can log in again.
Thanks for your patience, your feedback, and your enthusiasm while we bring you the best platform for crowdsourcing movies out there.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Changelog for April 18
It's been a while since our last update... So here's what we've been up to:
The Big stuff:
* Private Messaging - Users can now send other users private messages.
* Revamped Dashboard - The new dashboard builds upon the old dashboard and adds several other pages. Users can now see their Inbox, Profile page and change Notification settings all from one place.
* Threaded comments & threaded discussions - Discussions and comments are now threaded. So users can now reply back on a particular comment or reply on a particular discussion thread.
* Submission status - Users can now change the status of each submission. They can indicate if they are looking for feedback on their submission and also claim a submission that they would like to work on.
* Revamped Dashboard - The new dashboard builds upon the old dashboard and adds several other pages. Users can now see their Inbox, Profile page and change Notification settings all from one place.
* Threaded comments & threaded discussions - Discussions and comments are now threaded. So users can now reply back on a particular comment or reply on a particular discussion thread.
* Submission status - Users can now change the status of each submission. They can indicate if they are looking for feedback on their submission and also claim a submission that they would like to work on.
Some Small stuff too:
* We've cleaned up the Log In widget a little and made it a little more intuitive.
* Bugfix to allow ASCII characters to be seen properly.
* Bugfix to prevent one user from kicking another user out of a collab.
* Minor code cleanup.
* Bugfix to allow ASCII characters to be seen properly.
* Bugfix to prevent one user from kicking another user out of a collab.
* Minor code cleanup.
So what's been keeping us busy lately?
* Autocomplete – Instead of having to remember the username of a particular user, the system will autofill the username in the form as you type.
* Adding support for web video linking – Users will soon be able to post submission video that have been hosted on youtube and vimeo.
* Enhanced Project status – Admins will soon be able to state if they are looking for members and what type of members.
* Adding support for web video linking – Users will soon be able to post submission video that have been hosted on youtube and vimeo.
* Enhanced Project status – Admins will soon be able to state if they are looking for members and what type of members.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Changelog for March 29
Spring break was last week, but that didn't stop us from getting some things done.
Big stuff:
* Email notifications: You can now choose to have Pipeline send you email notifications of your choice. To edit your notification preferences, go to your profile page and look for the Preferences panel. Current notification options include:
- notify when your application to join a collab is reviewed
- notify when you are invited to join a collab
- notify when someone comments on your submission
More notification types will be added over time.
* Buttons: when you click a button, it will only submit the first time, no matter how many times you click the button. This should eliminate a number of issues we saw with people accidentally posting a comment multiple times, uploading the same file multiple times, etc.
Small stuff:
* File uploads and new comments are now added via a popup dialog box, consistent with adding new scenes and submissions and uploading profile pictures.
* Fixed a bug where users could delete submissions from the Overview tab. This is disabled now; the Overview is geared towards viewing, not editing.
In the works:
* We're working on an overhaul of comments and discussions. The new system will make it easy to have conversations, i.e., reply to specific people and stay on topic.
Big stuff:
* Email notifications: You can now choose to have Pipeline send you email notifications of your choice. To edit your notification preferences, go to your profile page and look for the Preferences panel. Current notification options include:
- notify when your application to join a collab is reviewed
- notify when you are invited to join a collab
- notify when someone comments on your submission
More notification types will be added over time.
* Buttons: when you click a button, it will only submit the first time, no matter how many times you click the button. This should eliminate a number of issues we saw with people accidentally posting a comment multiple times, uploading the same file multiple times, etc.
Small stuff:
* File uploads and new comments are now added via a popup dialog box, consistent with adding new scenes and submissions and uploading profile pictures.
* Fixed a bug where users could delete submissions from the Overview tab. This is disabled now; the Overview is geared towards viewing, not editing.
In the works:
* We're working on an overhaul of comments and discussions. The new system will make it easy to have conversations, i.e., reply to specific people and stay on topic.
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