GPA Issues 8 8

[BlowUpTheMoon]

51 minutes ago, pmWolf said:

Out of curiosity, why were the changes even made? Was anyone actually clamoring for an interface that took a bunch of extra clicks and had less on-screen info?

And, fine...I get that you can't completely go back to the old site. But, can you make the new site look nearly identical to the old one? Or, at least give me all of this info on screen at the same time?

Because, see below. If the new design can't display all the info I see there, then it will always be an inferior product. 

I had to reduce my screen to 30% of its original size to screen cap this.

Edited December 8, 2019 by BlowUpTheMoon
greggy is a dork

[BronzeBruce13]

I know this isn't going to go well for me, but I'm having a lot of trouble seeing a dear friend of mine, who with the best of intentions and a genuine desire to provide the comic community with the best tools possible for conducting business... is being raked through the coals mercilessly here on the boards (not everywhere else... like direct feedback from the large base of months long beta testers which include CGC & Heritage and many large dealers). Don't get me wrong... I'm open minded and I've read every post carefully, making sure I'm not missing anything, as I truly care how others see things... and in business what the client wants is ultimately of paramount concern... within reason.

Being straight, I have been completely surprised and blindsided by the overwhelmingly negative commentary and reception to the new GPA here on the boards. I was positive as someone who tested this new site for months that this roll out was going to be met with overwhelming gratitude and compliments. Seriously, I'm almost at a loss in processing this. After reading all the complaints and constructive input (thanks to those of you who managed to complain with tact)... some of which are clearly legitimate, I had to re-evaluate and try and look at this in as best of an unbiased POV as I can muster. And let's be clear... I am biased but doing my best to be objective.

George Pantela is one of the most decent and good-hearted human beings I've been fortunate enough to know in my life. Salt of the earth type of guy for many reasons... some I can't even talk about without it sounding over the top sappy. Always helpful, well-intentioned, and as generous a person as you could ever expect. Not only that... GPA is a labor of love for him to a large extent. Many don't realize, but this is a passion project for him. He is a comic fan at heart and a major contributor to the certified comic hobby/business we all enjoy and for some... prosper in. He's one of the biggest Frank Miller DD fans out there... owning several original art pages from the series. I remember back in the day both of us desperately wanting to own the first daredevil 168 9.8 and bonding over our appreciation of Miller DDs. Without sounding like I'm saying all of this affords George a pass on some of the missteps that have occurred here in his attempt to bring us all a vastly improved product... I do feel he should have received a little more slack and understanding here instead of the mob-mentality bashing that once rolling down hill gathers unstoppable momentum. And, there are technical issues at play that have nothing to do with George, or GPA that involve DNS issues beyond anyone's control, user error or ignorance (myself included. I didn't think to flush my cookies and restart), and frankly theft and "sharing" of his service. A decent proportion of the complaints/problems encountered can be attributed to the aforementioned. But not all... there are certainly some legit issues, some of which I and other beta testers brought to George's attention. Some we utterly failed him on apparently.

With that said, here's a few facts to consider (disclaimer: I am not suggesting any of the following forgives any problems George and his beta testing network are responsible for)

• Some of the initial login problems were the result of users not being aware they needed to flush cookies and reboot. In all fairness, I discussed this with George last night and he see's that it would have been much wiser to send out emails prior to the new site's launch informing users of some simple first step fixes to problems that could be expected. I have to agree with some of Bob Storms comments on the topic. This was an oversight and a mistake. This is not an excuse and will seem laughable to some no doubt... but after nearly a year of working on a complete rebuild of GPA, George was a little too enthusiastic about launching the new GPA before the holidays that he overlooked these potential problems and alerting his clientele.

• George wouldn't say this publicly, but I will... Many of the "login problems" were the result of people "sharing" accounts/passwords... you know stealing GPA, because its so expensive. How? Well, how about all those people "borrowing" their buddy's password for so long (instead of paying for it) that they forget they were stealing it and contacted GPA complaining that they couldn't log on BECAUSE they didn't receive the "Reset Password Email" from GPA. Ya think? Yeah, that email only went to the legit GPA subscriber (who willingly shared their password). Some of the stories George relayed of the email complaintants (GPA thieves) being confused, then exposed when the email ownership issue became obvious... and then their awkward exit from the communication is priceless. You know who you are. Shame. Shame. Shame. You can complain when you pay... but you sure as #$#@ can't if you're stealing. 'nuff said.

• I'm no tech savant (which will be evident to those of you who are), but here's my understanding of DNS as it relates to the new launch. The pathways back to the new GPA are unpredictable and out of George/GPA's control (or anybody's). Essentially, new connections/pathways need to be made everywhere. This is in part why there are some lags for some users and also issues where you can successfully log in from your home desktop computer, but not on your phone when your in a location that the DNS has not been asked to find the new IP address yet. In time, all the connections will be made and the speed will be comparable or better (overall) than the previous GPA. This is not anyone's fault. Its the nature of the internet. With growth often comes some short term growing pains.

• I hesitate to say this with the tone of this thread but I think its important to know... As mentioned this is a passion project for George, not a money making venture for a man of his skill set. He is a comic and comic art collector who invested all the profit he ever made on GPA into this new version instead of leaving things as is. Obviously many of you wish he had. But, intentions do matter to some degree and there are some other matters of relevance. The old programming/coding (whatev) was becoming vulnerable and not only was the GPA site at risk, but to some degree so were its users as I understand it. Additionally, the old coding did not allow for new expansion and the many new features not yet released but are planned in the future. What a #@!% George is I tell ya. These are my words, not his.

• Believe it or not... Not one of the many (including CGC, Heritage, and several larger dealers who participated) beta testers had anything substantially negative to say about the new GPA. There was an overwhelming consensus of approval. Keep in mind they had no log in problems or speed issues, much of which is not George/GPA's fault. There was a lot of input. Much of it the same as mine and several here in this thread: Make the filtering choice a default that you can change when desired. Locate the graph lower or make it collapsable. Interestingly, there was no major commentary about the "live" vs "Universal" issue. In that, we beta testers failed George as I totally agree with the idea put forth that universal listings should have a blue bar. No one's perfect and that's a great idea. In my conversation with George, we discussed that and the likelihood is that will be instituted and maybe there will be a "L" to the left of the bar indicating there is a "live listing in that grade" and you can further investigate in the "live listings tab". The idea of moving or eliminating the live listings themselves from the data segment is being considered too. That said... would you believe one of the biggest requests George has received over the years regarding the old site was from buyers who wanted to see alternative listings for what they were considering buying? Imagine that... way more people wanting what people in this thread don't. Kind of makes it difficult to decide on what to offer.

Anyway, I could say way more and put you all to sleep I'm sure, so maybe its best I wrap this up for now. Please know this... George takes this all very seriously and I could tell he was a bit down about it all when we talked on the phone. He, like me, anticipated a smooth transition and an overwhelming showing of support and positive feedback. There's few things worse than working hard to please people only to find the opposite... and it has affected him. He cares. There are some very legit issues raised in this thread and also some that have nothing to do with GPA negligence. Although George isn't ready to comment here yet as he is busy doing all he can to help his subscribers, I wanted to at least give some perspective on what's going on. I decided to post this on my own. Hopefully I have got everything correct based on our conversations.

Please know that all the valuable constructive input offered is being considered. Some can't be changed... for instance having multiple issues open at once can't happen now. I personally never considered this a big feature, nor did any of the beta testers it seems. That said, many are passionate about that feature in this thread and unfortunately it won't come back. But... you do have advanced filtering which I think is freaking awesome and time-saving. Making your selection a default is being considered. Being able to jump to another issue is clearly quicker. Once the DNS pathways are updated, the overall experience will be comparable or quicker. And yes, George is hard at work with his coders trying to find a way to eliminate the extra clicking to get to the individual sales data... and possibly auto expand some fields. Another feature being considered due to input from this thread is making the graphs an option within the filtering feature... and saveable.

So, please consider giving George and GPA a littler bit of a break here. He's not perfect, but he's been providing us with an invaluable service and only had the best of intentions in trying to give us more.

Lastly, those of you who sent him horrific, nasty, personal emails... you are POS's. One guy said he'd run George over in the road if he saw him. Some emails were so beyond nasty his team wouldn't let him see them. What a world we live in.

Edited December 8, 2019 by BronzeBruce13
Typo

[ADAMANTIUM]

"Bunch of Savage's in this town!"

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by ADAMANTIUM

[ADAMANTIUM]

I can say it was an adjustment, but I don't have the need to crunch numbers as if my life depends on it either.

I'm sure as with anything, there are good and bad. Gpanalysis saying that it was an old vulnerable system software, speaks to the need for change, and with that kind of information, it needs protection.... ? Or the data becomes faulty?

Sounds like changes could or perhaps should have come sooner.... so that it wasn't such a jolt, but hindsight being 20/20, I do believe it was beta tested.

Do we fault GPA specifically or do we look at the dealers  who had nice things to say....

I have yet to see any changes made by a company, which is inevitable, come to the boards and be met with open arms, except perhaps mycomicshop.....

[frank_newman]

7 minutes ago, BronzeBruce13 said:

So, please consider giving George and GPA a littler bit of a break here. He's not perfect, but he's been providing us with an invaluable service and only had the best of intentions in trying to give us more.

Lastly, those of you who sent him horrific, nasty, personal emails... you are POS's. One guy said he'd run George over in the road if he saw him. Some emails were so beyond nasty his team wouldn't let him see them. What a world we live in.

I said I was giving up but I want to give my response to this one:

1) This is not a personal issue for me. I have nothing against George, this is about a product and my dissatisfaction with the replacement. This goes exactly to my earlier post. We need to divorce the personal from the commercial. Just as those personal attacks are completely unacceptable, George should not take attacks on the product as personal attacks, and should react to them as valid customer dissatisfaction issues.

2) If this is a "labor of love" I think the whole community should reassess. For better or worse, GPA's accuracy and usability affects my pocketbook. If it is not a profitable and commercial enterprise that will be reliable for the long term, it is going to affect my approach to my investments. Everyone with a significant financial stake in comics should think about this situation. It is bad for everyone to have key man/key site risk significantly impacting the value of their holdings.

[Logan510]

12 minutes ago, frank_newman said:

I said I was giving up but I want to give my response to this one:

1) This is not a personal issue for me. I have nothing against George, this is about a product and my dissatisfaction with the replacement. This goes exactly to my earlier post. We need to divorce the personal from the commercial. Just as those personal attacks are completely unacceptable, George should not take attacks on the product as personal attacks, and should react to them as valid customer dissatisfaction issues.

2) If this is a "labor of love" I think the whole community should reassess. For better or worse, GPA's accuracy and usability affects my pocketbook. If it is not a profitable and commercial enterprise that will be reliable for the long term, it is going to affect my approach to my investments. Everyone with a significant financial stake in comics should think about this situation. It is bad for everyone to have key man/key site risk significantly impacting the value of their holdings.

I have to wonder who the beta testers were that didn't mind all the extra clicks to get data or any of the other time extending features that have been added.

Maybe he should've chosen some dispassionate, technical people instead of dear personal friends to be testers 

Either way, I don't care if it's a passion project or that he's a terrific guy...I pay for a service and have for years, it's perfectly OK to speak up when you're dissatisfied with a service you pay for as long as you don't cross the line and make it personal.

[ADAMANTIUM]

5 minutes ago, Logan510 said:

I have to wonder who the beta testers were that didn't mind all the extra clicks to get data or any of the other time extending features that have been added.

Maybe he should've chosen some dispassionate, technical people instead of dear personal friends to be testers 

Either way, I don't care if it's a passion project or that he's a terrific guy...I pay for a service and have for years, it's perfectly OK to speak up when you're dissatisfied with a service you pay for as long as you don't cross the line and make it personal.

This.

And imo, It makes more sense now that there is a list of who gave feedback... whether personal friends or not, it was beta tested and approved somehow. Didn't happen overnight. Maybe those in the beta test were so happy to be chosen they didn't feel to be too critical.

I would be, personal flaws and all, Dave and Adams just gave me a coupon from regularly buying, so what did I do? Used the coupon and gave glowing reviews

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by ADAMANTIUM

[NewWorldOrder]

2 hours ago, gpanalysis said:

I'm not sure if your saw my earlier post in this thread:

"Appreciate the feedback, good and bad and assure you we will continue to work on the service, including the look and feel. Some things are easy fixes/changes, some will need to take into consideration the wide variety of use cases (mobile, visually challenged, etc) and some, like "will you go back to the old site" won't be happening."

We are not ignoring the feedback, far from it. As DavidTeDavid notes, changing things will not be trivial and immediate, although some elements can be adjusted sooner than later.

At the moment, I don't have a lot of time to come and address every post, which would be to the detriment of helping some users who have had login issues, and with getting on with implementing further changes.

Login issues obviously are normal for a new launch, so I am not concerned with that.

What I do care about is more work for the same information and how universal blue data feels lost in translation.  Nothing personal just business, George.  Most of us here are long time paid subscribers.  I am assuming and have faith you will make the right changes going forward!  Happy Holidays

Edited December 8, 2019 by NewWorldOrder

[BronzeBruce13]

3 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

This.

And imo, It makes more sense now that there is a list of who gave feedback... whether personal friends or not, it was beta tested and approved somehow. Didn't happen overnight. Maybe those in the beta test were so happy to be chosen they didn't feel to be too critical.

I would be, personal flaws and all, Dave and Adams just gave me a coupon from regularly but g, so what did I do? Used the coupon and gave glowing reviews

 

 

No, I took the job very seriously. I found several bugs in the process and made many recommendations. A few implemented, some not. Most of the beta testers were not "dear friends". A lot of feedback was divided.

I also didn't experience much of a lag if any. I didn't love the placement of the individual data and had some suggestions, but I did not find the extra click so horrible. Instead I was intrigued by the filter feature and the ease in which I could jump to a different issue in a title. But, that's just me.

Edited December 8, 2019 by BronzeBruce13
clarification

[ADAMANTIUM]

Just now, BronzeBruce13 said:

No, I took the job very seriously. I found several bugs in the process and made many recommendations. A few implemented, some not. Most of the beta testers were not "dear friends". A lot of feedback was divided.

That makes sense. I figured they were honest to be worth their salt, but I wonder how much "they" correlate to those users here. Is there anywhere to read these reviews? Is a thing like that even possible?

My only insight is I've prescreened movies and am asked for my opinion afterward.....

[BronzeBruce13]

Just now, ADAMANTIUM said:

That makes sense. I figured they were honest to be worth their salt, but I wonder how much "they" correlate to those users here. Is there anywhere to read these reviews? Is a thing like that even possible?

My only insight is I've prescreened movies and am asked for my opinion afterward.....

If you doubt what I said, doubt it. I'm sure George is not going to publish all the feedback to prove it... he has more important things to do. Believe what you wish. I took the beta testing to heart and offered everything I saw or could think of that would improve it.

[ADAMANTIUM]

3 minutes ago, BronzeBruce13 said:

If you doubt what I said, doubt it. I'm sure George is not going to publish all the feedback to prove it... he has more important things to do. Believe what you wish. I took the beta testing to heart and offered everything I saw or could think of that would improve it.

I don't doubt it

You seem candid and I was just curious. No worries

 

[Logan510]

1 minute ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

I don't doubt it

You seem candid and I was just curious. No worries

 

Don’t get your pants caught in the chain 

[BronzeBruce13]

13 minutes ago, Logan510 said:

Don’t get your pants caught in the chain 

Not sure what that' supposed to mean.

Addressing your previous post... of course its perfectly ok to offer constructive criticism for a product you pay for. I didn't suggest otherwise. I just asked for a little slack mostly relating to the harsher toned comments and also criticisms that were not even GPA's fault. One friend complained he didn't get his password change email and no contacts after several contacts... only to find out he changed his email and forgot, so yeah... he didn't get the email. I just helped him get in touch with George and it was fixed immediately. Also, some people got very nasty and he's my friend. So, I don't like it. Much of the good feedback here is going to be either implemented or considered. That shows some dedication to what the customer wants I think.

Edit: I did indeed suggest the people stealing it should STFU.

Edited December 8, 2019 by BronzeBruce13
I did suggest the people stealing it should STFU.

[NewWorldOrder]

 This does make me happy and it seems to be staying saved so I do not have to keep clicking on it to filter out what I don't want to see.  At least on my end this was not available till literally tonight for me.  Again the only thing I would add is blue color next to each of the Universal grades and get rid of or minimize the "red live" icon next to the grade as per my example below in the FF 23 CGC 9.6.  That was make it perfect IMO!

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by NewWorldOrder

[NewWorldOrder]

Can we Beta test Greggy off the boards for his constant "confusion" button new hobby? 

[Logan510]

24 minutes ago, BronzeBruce13 said:

Not sure what that' supposed to mean.

Addressing your previous post... of course its perfectly ok to offer constructive criticism for a product you pay for. I didn't suggest otherwise. I just asked for a little slack mostly relating to the harsher toned comments and also criticisms that were not even GPA's fault. One friend complained he didn't get his password change email and no contacts after several contacts... only to find out he changed his email and forgot, so yeah... he didn't get the email. I just helped him get in touch with George and it was fixed immediately. Also, some people got very nasty and he's my friend. So, I don't like it. Much of the good feedback here is going to be either implemented or considered. That shows some dedication to what the customer wants I think.

Edit: I did indeed suggest the people stealing it should STFU.

I understand you wanting to help a friend out here, not the way I would've done it but I understand it.

It's also OK to listen to the customer and not all change is for the better. My two favorite examples are New Coke and Microsoft removing the start button from Windows.

[ADAMANTIUM]

1 minute ago, NewWorldOrder said:

Can we Beta test Greggy off the boards for his constant "confusion" button new hobby? 

Maybe greggy deserves his own button

 

[Logan510]

Just curious what others think about Go Collect? I was looking at the site and it looks kind of interesting and the mobile site seems pretty easy to navigate.

[ADAMANTIUM]

4 minutes ago, Logan510 said:

Just curious what others think about Go Collect? I was looking at the site and it looks kind of interesting and the mobile site seems pretty easy to navigate.

To be honest, it's what I use, again not a paid account though. I like it better than GPA at the moment because GPA limits the books to 3 that you can look up with a free account. 

Although, If you look up x-men #99 30 center, it doesn't calculate the 8.5 that I bought recently despite it being recalculated since then, so I take the info with a grain of salt