Instagram is Dead, Long Live..

Considering I've found pics on the platform going back 5 or 6 years, the interface feels a little poorly thought out.
When you do a search, select a result and then swipe back (because not the result you wanted) you don't go back to search results.

Same on the home feed. Select a pic on the feed, swipe back, you don't go back to where you came from.

It also doesn't look like it has a large (or if large, active) userbase.

FYI: If you want to link to any of your plates on plate, the address is:
Code: 
https://platestheapp.com/[your name]/[plate name]
So the mobitog plate is
Code: 
https://platestheapp.com/rizole/mobitog
 
rizole said:
Considering I've found pics on the platform going back 5 or 6 years, the interface feels a little poorly thought out.
When you do a search, select a result and then swipe back (because not the result you wanted) you don't go back to search results.

Same on the home feed. Select a pic on the feed, swipe back, you don't go back to where you came from.

It also doesn't look like it has a large (or if large, active) userbase.

FYI: If you want to link to any of your plates on plate, the address is:
Code: 
https://platestheapp.com/[your name]/[plate name]
So the mobitog plate is
Code: 
https://platestheapp.com/rizole/mobitog
Click to expand...
No, it’s not really intuitive is it? I keep thinking that it’s me that’s messing up when I can’t go back. And I’d like to be able to scroll through all of the photos of the person I’m following, not one, close it and then choose the next. I haven’t figured out how to do that, if it’s possible.
 
JillyG said:
No, it’s not really intuitive is it? I keep thinking that it’s me that’s messing up when I can’t go back. And I’d like to be able to scroll through all of the photos of the person I’m following, not one, close it and then choose the next. I haven’t figured out how to do that, if it’s possible.
Click to expand...
I imagine it's that sort of poor user experience that leads to low users numbers and activity. (I've been using it less than 24 hours and am already so hubristically expert they should pay me to fix it for them :drool:)
 
I think one thing that confuses me is the feed. Are those individuals, plates, or both?
 
I cant find the way to log out either! It keeps losing my account when I move between devices. Its probably going to get a bug fix shortly
 
rizole said:
I imagine it's that sort of poor user experience that leads to low users numbers and activity.
Click to expand...
It's been around since at least 2016 and we're only just getting into it now, tells you something doesn't it.
Like Vero the user experience isn't great and whatever you say about Instagram's faults its seamlessly easy to use.
 
JillyG said:
No, it’s not really intuitive is it? I keep thinking that it’s me that’s messing up when I can’t go back. And I’d like to be able to scroll through all of the photos of the person I’m following, not one, close it and then choose the next. I haven’t figured out how to do that, if it’s possible.
Click to expand...
When you are in a plate ie North Norfolk, you go to the 3lines at the top of the page and you can scroll through all images in that plate.
 
Ok - I uploaded a couple of plates. Had a few likes/follows. Of course we all like “likes” - But I don’t think this platform is compelling or offering anything special - the Flickr interface is better for displaying albums/collections.
 
Under "Trending," Plates lists Bamboo Groove, a plate with 6 photos, all taken 3 years ago. Most of the plates I've seen so far have 20 photos or less. Even a b/w plate with a dozen or so curators only had 60-something photos.

On the positive side, the display of single images is good, with less wasted space than IG.

It'd be handy to have a list of common tags to navigate by. I tried impressionism and got 0 hits.
 
lkbside said:
Ok - I uploaded a couple of plates. Had a few likes/follows. Of course we all like “likes” - But I don’t think this platform is compelling or offering anything special - the Flickr interface is better for displaying albums/collections.
Click to expand...
I don’t know much about Flickr (although I do have it - and am off to investigate), but I think we’re thinking that, if we spread ourselves across these platforms, we might attract some new members. I don’t think it can do any harm to be more “out there”, can it?

Edit: I’ve been over to Flickr and opened an account, but I find it really annoying (probably because I don’t know what I’m doing). I’ve found the Mobi group, but don’t recognise any of the people/images there. I can’t seem to add any of my own to that Group (perhaps there’s only one person who can do that - who knows). I’ve mistakenly called all of the images in my Camera Roll “Hanging”, thinking that I could name each image independently. Ugh!:cautious:
 
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JillyG said:
I don’t know much about Flickr (although I do have it - and am off to investigate), but I think we’re thinking that, if we spread ourselves across these platforms, we might attract some new members. I don’t think it can do any harm to be more “out there”, can it?

Edit: I’ve been over to Flickr and opened an account, but I find it really annoying (probably because I don’t know what I’m doing). I’ve found the Mobi group, but don’t recognise any of the people/images there. I can’t seem to add any of my own to that Group (perhaps there’s only one person who can do that - who knows). I’ve mistakenly called all of the images in my Camera Roll “Hanging”, thinking that I could name each image independently. Ugh!:cautious:
Click to expand...
Flickr has upsides and down sides, too. I’ve batched named images before, too. :D Also, if you want to post to a group, you have to upload the image, select the image, select the “i” then select your group. PITA.
 
JillyG said:
but I think we’re thinking that, if we spread ourselves across these platforms, we might attract some new members. I don’t think it can do any harm to be more “out there”, can it?
Click to expand...
So our single day of activity on Plates has led to a comment from Plates itself in the mobitog plate:
Hey Guys! Glad to have you all on Plates. Do let us know if you have any feedback or need some help in getting started on Plates. You can reach out to us on [email protected]. Hope you like the app :)
Click to expand...
It also caused the largest signup of new members in quite a while. That's 7 new members. To be fair, 4 of them look like spammers and 2 haven't come back to verify their email address. One of the 7 has and is now a full member. No posts from them yet but that's fine.

I'll keep posting on plate for a bit myself. It will be interesting to see if and how it affects the number of visitors we get.
 
JillyG said:
but I think we’re thinking that, if we spread ourselves across these platforms, we might attract some new members. I don’t think it can do any harm to be more “out there”, can it?
Click to expand...
The wrinkle is that social media accounts need to stay active in order to be useful, so the more places there's a MobiTog presence, the more work there is to do to keep it alive (and make it worth doing). A moribund account is worse than no presence at all. (I think.)
 
So what are we planning to post to the Mobitog plate? A few of our best shots? Shots that have been selected as winners in color, BW, IOTM?
 
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