With the new updates out for Windows Live and Spaces I have got some feedback from you. They include some suggestions to improve the service and problems you might be facing with the services. They have been listed below>>
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The profile page does not have a meaningful URL
The Profile page while being useful in helping us integrate various Live services and keeping track of updates in our network of friends, lacks a meaningful URL. I think it was an error to have overlooked such a small but yet a significant aspect of the the WL launch which integrates many of Microsoft's online services and uses the Profile page as a hub to keep track of all the activity and updates.
If you notice all the profile pages have a random cid URL. Mine for example is, http://cid-73af9c0f050e35d9.profile.live.com/. Should it not be http://d3vmax.profile.live.com , so that it can be easily given to your friends and family and be easy on everyone's memory cells? I spoke to Dare about this and he said they will look into it.
Update: They have taken note of this issue and are trying to resolve it. I am not aware of any time frame at the moment though.
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Stats do not seem to be working for Live Spaces - Resolved
The statistics page for your Live Spaces, while being simple is quite handy. But it seems to be down at the moment for me and stands at 0. This has occurred many a times over the past years and can be quite frustrating for users who want to know where their incoming traffic comes from or companies using spaces as their blogging platform.
Update: Statistics will be up and running in a couple of days time. Word from a team member:
"The migration of the user stats database requires more time than the rest of the deployment. We're expecting the migration to be done in the next couple of days, and we're queuing up the incoming updates, so once the migration is done none of your traffic data will be lost."
Update 2: Stats are up and running
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Reduction in the number of Friends/People - A few isolated cases - Resolved
A few users have complained that after the update a few friends are missing from their Friends list on Live Spaces, while they are still on the Friend list of the person who is missing from their list. Although this problem might be affecting a very small number of people it is something that needs to be looked into.
Update: I think before the updates, deleting a non messaging contact from your MSN / Live Messenger did not affect the friends list on your Space. A few people, after adding contacts via their Space are deleting these contacts from their messenger to keep it 'clean'. As everything now is integrated and all your contacts are in one place, Iit is not wise to delete your non-messaging contacts from Live Messenger. You can easy hide these contacts by un-checking the 'Show all contacts' option which can be found by click on the up and down green arrows icon near the contact search bar. Your messenger stays 'clean' and your friends do not not go MIA.
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'Blog it' functionality reduced / malfunctioning
The 'Blog it' feature / link found under most Live Spaces blog posts was an easy way to quote interesting articles. For example an update on The Live Spaces team blog which informs the LS users about new updates could easily be published on my space with a click of a mouse button. This facilitates in getting the word out for useful or important posts in less time. When I clicked the' blog it 'link on one of the recent posts on The Space Craft ,only the title for the article got carried over and nothing else as the text field in my blog entry was blank. Perhaps this was intentional, if not this is an issue that needs to be fixed too.
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Spam still persistent - Resolved
Spam comments have still not stopped. Since the update I have already got 2. If by the end of the day I don't get 80+ spam comments, I can confirm that changes have been made. and they seem to work. But reporting spammers via the report abuse link is a time consuming process and users should be given instant control over blocking a specific user even if he/she has commented and not left leave behind his/her's URL via the hover menu that comes up when you hover a mouse over a display picture.
As you need to sign into your Live ID to comment and Microsoft has the info on the comment made by a LIVE ID usere, They can block the specific spammer on the spot from commenting on the victims's space once the victim has flagged the user as a spammer. If a spammer/user gets a lot of blocks from many users, Microsoft should look into the case and evaluate whether the complaints are part of a group organized effort, to bring down an individual (Gaming the system); Or from a genuine diverse set of users blocking a spammer. If it is the latter it should block the spammer's activity from all live services and block his space. They (alleged spammer) can of course file an appeal in case innocent users are ever marked as spammers by sheer bad luck or an unexplained reason
Update: The Spam has been reduced and is insignificant in terms of numbers when compared to a week ago. Great work LS Team :)
Problems with the Photo Album and Live Photos.
A few points commented by one Live Spaces user which sums up the problems well...
1) can't re-order my photo albums unless I choose to show only 20 of
them (but I got like 100 albums), frankly, the old drag-and-drop
version is much much more user-friendly
2) can no longer change the order of the photos in the album
3) can no longer rotate the photos before I upload them
4) can no longer change the captions in thumbnail view
5) can no longer del. several photos in one go
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This is all that I have for now. Please comment below if you are facing any problems with the new updates or have some suggestions to improve it. I will update the list accordingly. Over all it is a major update and it takes the service ahead in terms of integration and other things and I thank the Spaces team and the team behind Windows Live services that made this possible.
-Dev, Windows Live Spaces MVP
