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EMPLOYEE
Exciting things took place across the StudyBlue website with new features making their way into your Backpack. In preparation for this new website release, StudyBlue was inaccessible, affecting both the website and mobile apps early Wednesday morning, March 7 at 4AM EST. The outage was planned to provide site performance updates and lasted approximately 2 hours. Once these updates were completed, StudyBlue launched a great deal of new site functionality.
Changes to the website were made to improve editing capabilities, flashcard creation, flashcard multimedia insertion, and more. Possible intermittent slowdowns may have occurred as changes were made between the hours of 6AM-6PM EST but the site remained accessible. If you encountered anything particularly strange during this time, please feel free to reach out to us with details.
UPDATE: Performance Updates Complete, New Features Released
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i have a major test on the 9th, and i would like to share my notes...but, i don't want people to edit them...will that be possible tomorrow?
rob -
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I’m
frustrated
Why do you ALWAYS do these updates during Finals week??? Cant you guys pick better times? This is getting frustrating... This will be the 2nd time you guys will be updating the site on finals week. And since i live on the West coast, this update interrupts studying time in the morning.
For the future, please try to pick better times and dates to update and be aware of finals week!- view 4 more comments
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I can NOT believe this is happening I have 5 exams next week and can NOT have any issues!!!! I payed a lot of money and spent hundreds of hours getting my cards on here!!!
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Everyone's "Finals Week" is different, so quit complaining! Just do your work.
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I have two exams tomorrow and have isolated the majority of my notes into my backpack. I don't see how you guys couldn't have warned me sooner with an email. Now I'll have to go find my book.-
Hi Timothy,
Have you tried exporting your material so you could have your study materials in some form before they become inaccessible? Click on a note or flashcard deck in your Backpack and you should see 'Download as PDF'/'Export' options along the right hand side of the page.
Apologies for any inconvenience caused. We hope the new look and functionality of the site after these updates will improve upon your current StudyBlue experience.
Katie -
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I AGREEEEEEE
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Apologies for the inconvenience, Rabia. The site should be accessible again within the next hour. I will provide an update when more information is available.
Katie -
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I have a midterm coming up and all my notes are on here as well!!! please DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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We apologize for the frustration this is causing you, jwpark05. As I mentioned to Rabia above, the site should be accessible again within the next half hour or so. You will then be able to go through your notes and flashcards and look forward to the new site features coming your way.
Unfortunately we are unable to send you your notes and flashcards via email due to the current updates we are performing and inability to access your materials. More information to come.
Katie -
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OMG THIS IS RIDICULOUS
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I’m
Flustered
Well, I'm glad I decided to wake up early to study instead of staying up all night.
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Hi all,
Performance updates have been completed and the site is accessible. Intermittent slow downs may be noticed for the next couple of hours as we begin to release new site features and functionality. Get ready for some exciting changes and let us know if you run into any major issues.
Best,
Katie-
I want to apologize for all these crybabies. People need to just deal with it!!!!
Do your work as best you can, and DEAL!!!
StudBlue--Keep Up the Good Work, I LOVE your site, and recommend it to everyone. Love You Guys! -
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The update was supposed to improve flashcard creation? You're kidding! As a teacher, I'd send my dyslexic students notes that they would paste into their own individual Study Blue accounts. The new system with futuristic font won't allow them to do that anymore. I used to be able to see the entire deck of cards at once in edit mode-a wonderful feature that disappeared overnight. I used to be able to see the entire card all at once in edit mode, but now I have a scroll bar on the bottom of my flashcard in edit mode-not nice! The futuristic font is a "nightmare" of enormous proportion, complicated by the loss of the numbers that used to keep track of how much space I had left on my card. Now, I'm essentially writing blind, with no idea how much space I have to work with, and font that changes sizes only complicates the situation. My immediate reaction is to inform Study Blue that the tool I've come to think of as a life saving device capable of academic miracles, has made flashcard creation and editing an impossible nightmare. Please remove the futuristic font, as it prevents pasting which dyslexic students need. Please restore the numerical tracking that says how much space I have on the card.
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In the definition box, a scroll bar appears now after you have typed a certain amount, and you can't even see the first part of the definition while you're typing the second part of the definition as it scrolls out of view. It disrupts my train of thought to have words disappear out of sight when I'm typing. I believe that if a vote were taken, 90% or more of the current Study Blue users would say that they hate the adjustable font. It's NOT a necessary feature. It's NOT a convenient feature. It's NOT a positive feature. It's simply discombobulating, discomforting, and stressful. A scroll bar appearing in your definition box is also unsettling. I love Study Blue enough though, to live with all of the new features except the font changing sizes while I type. It forces your vision to make constant adjustments, every few seconds. There is no way your users are happy with this feature. Imagine trying to read an online textbook when the words kept changing sizes every few seconds from super large, to med., to tiny, and then back again. It would give you a headache, and make you slightly nauseated in a short while.
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I have to totally agree with the negatives here. I would love to have the old system back!! I had an exam yesterday and because of the changes could not get out of the computer in time. Agree with Maestra Ramsey above.
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I’m
frustrated
I agree whole heartedly! As a college student Studyblue was a miracle, and it was helping me get A's in Japanese and I was going to buy study blue plus
Now it's horrid! I can't even select how many notes to study at a time!! I have over 60 terms to study, I don't want to study all 60 at once! The human brain can only cluster 3-5 pieces of new information at once!!! IT's why phone numbers are split up!!!!
Please switch it back, I can't use it like this - I can't reccomend it, and I wouldn't buy study blue plus.
If it gets switched back I'll keep reccomending it to all my friends studying Japanese at North Texas (there's even a sub section of Genki cards FROM OUR SCHOOL - seriously look it up) and I promise I will buy study blue plus!
Just please switch it back!!!- view 3 more comments
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You stole the words out of my mouth. Wonderfully written and exact.
If you both know of any other sites that are similar, please do share! Because I just tried making new flashcards and got so frustrated with it, that i want a different site. -
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I am finding ways to get around the obstacles. I pinned a blank Microsoft Word Document to my task bar at the bottom of my screen. I create my flash card in Word, with the review tab highlighted above so that I can click on "word count" if I feel the need. This means that all of my letters stay the same size while I'm writing. When I'm done, I just paste the things one by one into the flashcards. It will look too big for one second, but look perfectly sensible / sane the moment that you hit your space bar. If the freaky futuristic font gets too frustrating, I recommend opening up Microsoft Word, and creating all of your flash cards there in one document, and then, after you're finished cutting, pasting and moving things around in Word, then cut and paste the info onto the flashcards in Study Blue after you're done. P.S. Updating your computer's java program solves some other issues.
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I’m
POed
Katie-
she is trying to explain that the edit mode sucks. it's messy and it needs to be changed back to the original look. I enjoy the formatting and font, but the editing mode is horrible and when you scroll through all of the flashcards in the edit mode, it is impossible to navigate through them. also, when I upload photos, the image is askew and cut off from the view. NOT GOOD. I am so frustrated with study blue right now that I almost want to delete my account. -
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I can't make flashcards! I have a test monday and it will not let me scroll ! i cant even see where im supposed to type my definition! this is very frustrating and I strongly dislike all the new changes. I hope they don't affect any of my grades...
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Hi Leaundre,
Internet Explorer is not always a browser, which plays nicely with StudyBlue. Can you try using a different one such as Firefox or Google Chrome to see if the problem is alleviated at all? Both are free to download either here or here?
We have been making new adjustments to the layout over the past couple days and released them to the site. We intend to keep building upon and adjusting certain things as time progresses. The larger the issue, the longer it may take to mitigate due to our limited resources. We appreciate your patience.
Please let me know if you notice changes switching to a different browser.
Katie -
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i have three browser options, including Firefox and Google Chrome, plus I keep my java program totally updated. This means that I can use everything as you seem to have meant it to be used. Guess what, I'm still far from happy. Yes, I can make a flash card. I can edit a flashcard. It just takes me 10 hours now to create the same number of cards that I used to create in one hour. So even though the system does function for me, the fact that it takes me 10 times as many hours to do the same amount of work, negates the fact that it does function. The only reason that I haven't given up, is there's a test next Thursday. I'm not exaggerating about the time. My computer has browsers and java, and I can work the set-up, but the cost in time to operate the current set up makes it not worth the effort, even when it's doing what you designed it to do.
It's scary to know it's doing for what it was designed to do, and I now need 10 hours rather than one to do my work. -
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I agree, everthing about this update is horrible. I'm not considering a different website....
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Hi jwpark05,
If you would care to expand more about what is 'horrible', we would be interested in the feedback. Please post a separate 'Idea' in the community about what needs to be improved upon.
Thank you,
Katie -
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I’m
not okay!!!
Hi Katie,
Here are some things that could be work on to make the site more desirable than it is now. You and the Studyblue team need to either get rid of these "updates" or need to change some formatting around before you lose hundreds of unhappy customers.
1. When editing flashcards, the layout to the left featuring all of the cards made, is hard to manage and to scroll through. I had a difficult time finding the right card to edit because each flashcard was so alike in aesthetics. It would be nice to have the original editing layout back.
2. When creating a new flashcard, when scrolling up and down through the particular card, a black bar comes up and down, while the card stays still... is this supposed to happen?
3. When editing my flashcards, its nice to be able to edit them while being in the review 'look'. I enjoy being able to see the entire layout of the card like that, instead of as one sheet of paper.
4. Uploading photos: they are cropped in the middle of the photograph and are no longer presented as the full image (like how it used to). I enjoy the dragging and dropping upload option (very awesome!!) but when the image loads, its does not show the entire image!! How am i supposed to study for Art History??
5. When pasting a chunk of information that is too long for the card, it would be nice if the information was still pasted onto the card after the notification appears. Its very annoying to have to go through the selection and try to narrow it down to a decent size, especially when there isnt a character count! how am i supposed to know whats too big when the character count isnt there. That needs to be added for sure.
These would be a good start to help the site pick itself back up again. It would be in your best interest to fix your site before people go haywire (not saying we havent already).
Sincerely,
Upset Studyblue Customer-
Hi Jessica,
You make some good points - let me address them according to how you've numbered each.
1. We made some alterations yesterday afternoon to make separate cards in the deck more distinct. Does this look any better to you? Do you think it is difficult to distinguish which card in the deck is selected by just the thin blue line along its left hand side?
2. Does this black bar appear when you are scrolling through search results that appear underneath the card? Have you tried hiding these results (scroll over number of results listed and a 'hide' option will appear)?
3. I may be a little confused on this comment. Do you prefer how editing is done now over how it used to be?
4. We made a fix to this as well so that the whole image appears and is not cut off. I think there a still a few things we have to address with regards to this but we are looking into it.
5. I understand where you are coming from with this and it is definitely a work in progress.
Hopefully most of the ways we are addressing certain issues are 'positive' from your perspective. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Katie -
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I’m
angry and freaking out
NONE of the key board short cuts are working. I paid $80 because I like the format of study blue when I signed up. I tried out all the others and did not like their layouts. Now study blue looks just like all the one I didn't want. Yea, there were some glitches before, but I can't even use this now.
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OMG! i just realized that i cant move the bullet points to different areas by pressing tab! WTF!
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Hi Jessica,
Indentation options are located underneath the '123' option for bulleting. Indenting to the right is indicated as '>' and to the left as ''.
Katie -
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All,
Please know that none of your comments and opinions are going unnoticed. We realize there is a fair deal of work yet to be done on what has just been released and will be taking much of what you have all had to say into account as we decide how to move forward. Unfortunately switching back to how things used to be is not something that can be done by just flipping a switch, which means it will take a little time to get to a place where people feel comfortable, whether on the 'old' site or not.
Thank you all for the time you have taken to make yourselves heard. It is the only way we can truly know how features are being perceived. If any other questions come up about how certain things work, please feel free to ask. I will be happy to help as best I can.
Katie -
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I’m
frustrated
I can't believe you StudyBlue. This is the worst upgrade ever.
I have been meticulously uploading to StudyBlue as I have been studying for my USMLE Step1 medical exam, a test that covers the entire material from the first 2 years of medical school. My biggest value in studyblue was being able to use "edit mode" to see all flashcards at once and to be able to search them using my browser. I'm so frustrated by the new Studyblue. the value of the old "edit mode" was so that users could make an outline of material over several cards in the same deck. This is no longer possible. The search in StudyBlue has always been bad, but at least I used to be able to use my browsers search to search within any given deck to jump through my deck. In the process I'd learn not only about the term I was searching but the cards around it.
I am incredibly frustrated and disappointed in StudyBlue and echo the sentiments of others here.
Please bring back the old edit mode!-
I agree. I also desire the ability to see several cards at one. Often the material that I am putting into Study Blue is of "complex" nature rather than just a list of simple definitions. When creating cards for a complex topic such as the impairments associated with brain disorders, there will be a list of nine or more impairments, all of which are interrelated in some way, but distinct and different in other ways, and being able to view all of them at once by scrolling up or down slightly, allows the creator to make sure that he or she is wording the information in a corresponding manner that places emphasis on those specific similarities or differences so that they are more easily distinguished from one another. This was previous possible, and is no longer possible. Like you, the data that I am placing on cards is "complex" material. I noticed several other users saying that their college professors had also supplied power point slides (which often contain as many as 10 facts related to one topic) which we would transfer to Study Blue as an inter-related group, often times maintaining a specific subtitle or formatting style on a series of cards making the term more immediately recognizable as belonging to that particular topic. It can't be done unless you can see several full cards all at once in front of you at the same time in order to compare them. I would truly find the site far more useful for "college" level material (which often involves complex and interconnected data) if the site allowed visual comparison between multiple cards at the same time. As it is, the site is more appropriate for elementary school kids who want to put their 20 loosely related vocabulary words on, that perhaps are theme related, but not interconnected like a college professor's data that would be found in a powerpoint. If the site managers consider the average age of their typical user, I believe that they will have far more college students studying complex material, than younger pre-teens. While the preteens could easily use the format that worked so well for our complex data, we cannot easily use a system that was designed to prevent any option to compare and contrast multiple cards at the same time.
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So are you going to switch it back to the way that it was, or at least make the "improvements" practically a mirrored image of your previously successful service?
You had an excellent model going, and you improved it without need, and consequentially have dis-railed your strongest customer/client base. Those customers who frequent the site, and are so committed to its use not only to show interest in paying for it, but are willing to create profiles on this help site, just to comment - rather than just abandon the service in favor of a supplementary product.
If your goal is increasing your profit, I'd say you're going in the exact opposite direction. Instead of incremental changes based on suggestions of customers that were frequent and loyal users of the product: you randomly overhauled the entire service.
INSTEAD, why not get it as close to the original product as you can (if you can't just switch it completely back- with a back up) and make changes incrementally with the input of your most loyal customers, those who use the product the most?
Also if your concern is increasing profit (I'm assuming that's what your reinvention was aimed at) why not simply use a better marketing strategy? The old system had nearly limitless uses for college students - of which there are over 12 million in america. Your facebook integration is a great idea - why not take it a step further? 25-30 second ads on websites that air television programming whose target audiences are that demographic?
Anyways the point here is - the improvements really seem to have flopped. Rather than committing to them and driving away your customer base why not just go back to what worked, and try to expand your business in other ways?-
Hi Jane,
As of right now, no final decisions have been made. We will be heavily discussing these concerns brought up by all of you early next week. Related to my previous comments above, these kinds of changes requested require further development and reworking on behalf of our small team so regardless of our decision, unfortunately nothing will be instant.
Most of these changes were integrated based on previous customer requests we had received over a number of months through this forum, email, Facebook, Twitter, surveys, etc. Users made requests (to name a few) for improved editing capabilities, a better search function, and the ability to better connect to materials made by other users.
We appreciate the customers who have turned to this forum as a means of expressing their concerns for the site. Like you said, it shows a level of commitment to our product rather than just deciding to hit the road for something else. Please do not believe all of your efforts are going unnoticed.
Katie -
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I don't know, Jane, I'm seeing great profit potential. They just leave the crappy new version for free, and offer the old version for pay, and they should be instant millionaires. I think that the largest majority of people would be willing to pay a substancial fee to get back what we had, and lost. I want the old style editing back bad enough to pay a significant amount. I've heard others make the same offer.
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Im amazed at how Katie is answering all of these! Thanks so much for caring about your users. Now... please fix the picture thing. I really liked it before how the picture wasn't cut off by the writing. All of my old cards have their picture cut in half by the writing that USED TO BE on the bottom of the card. Please fix this. I can learn to deal with new updates and features... But I cannot go back and edit all of my cards. Please please please fix the old cards so that we can see the whole picture again.
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I’m
PO'ed
For the love of god this new edit system is clunky and miserable. Please re enable colors editing on the text. It helps coordinate terms.
I'm not trying to sound like a spoiled college kid - but your old system was SO good and this new one is seriously not worth using at all.
Again - in return for just going back to the old edit system I'll buy a lifetime subscription. I'm dead serious - but I will *never* pay for the current system.- view 1 more comment
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Woah woah woah, is the option to study the wrongs gone??
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Hi Jane,
The option to 'Study the Wrongs' is still available. Read more about where you can find it in this FAQ.
Katie -
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For every person who has taken the time to find this forum and put in there 'two cents' I can only imagine the users who are thinking the same thing, since most of the views are shared here by all.
My two cents:
1. BRING BACK THE OLD EDITING VIEW / CAPABILITIES
2. PROVIDE THE WORD COUNT!
Simpler is always better. StudyBlue is. . or rather was. . . amazing because of the ability to have shareable flash cards online. Flash cards in their common form are small approx 6 by 4 pieces of paper where you can write on both sides. Deviating from that basic functionality has made the user experience miserable.- view 2 more comments
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Thanks Sandra - but I'm using Chrome. Also - to the StudyBlue folks - the font resizing as you type is driving me insane.
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I work with two on line school systems, so I have the latest in software and multiple browsers and I share Aaron's sentiments entirely:
1. Old editing/view capabilities allowed work to get done MUCH FASTER - I don't care how they do it, but I need to see at least a minimum of four cards at a time in edit mode when I want to compare/contrast what I'm setting up, without playing peek-a-boo by clicking on one, then trying to memorize it while I'm creating the cards, then clicking on another to create something similar or different. Seriously, you're supposed to memorize the cards AFTER you create them, not while you're creating them. LOL Heaven's sakes, it takes so long now that I practically have them memorized by the time I've got them created.
2. Old style had word count (I use all 250 characters so I need it )
3. Old style was miraculously free of the adjustable font -
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Just to add my voice here...
I'm not opposed to change, and I like seeing a service that I use often get shiny new features and layouts. Perhaps above all, I like seeing improved stability and usability of existing features. So, I'm all for updates!
However, one change has made it very difficult for me to add new content: that is, in the "retype as flashcards" view, the flashcard in progress at the top no longer stays at the top of the screen ("overlaid" on the Evernote note) -- it scrolls out of view. This means that if I have more than a few paragraphs of text that I'm wanting to convert to flashcards, I can no longer do so because the deck scrolls out of view as I scroll the note up.
Also, I have to agree that the oversized front and back view of the edited card, is far less usable that its predecessor. The auto-resizing font adds no value for me. -
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Before the latest update, I was able to export vocab cards into excel perfectly. Today, when I attempted to do this on several computers, the export would not recognize the German symbols, ü ö ä ß. I never had an issue with this before, except when I would enter a sound file, which would then save the card with gibberish instead of the symbols. That makes for a real problem. As a teacher, time is precious, and to have to go through and re-edit everything so that I can create tests etc from my list. Any suggestions to work around this?
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I’m
disappointed that SB didn't do more research before changing.
Perhaps before the next "upgrade" (downgrade?) SB should consider, you, know, testing everything with real street-level users? Just a thought.....
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I’m
frustrated and angry
I have been using this website to create flashcards to study for the bar. I need to be studying my flashcards and I have not received any notice that the site would be down. The explanation given is not recent and does not explain what is currently wrong with the site and when it will be back online. I am seriously reconsidering using this site any further.
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Apologies, We just updated the announcement. Our site is down due to the wide spread power outages on the east coast. We are working as fast as we can to get everything up and working.
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You should not run into any issues with people editing your notes. Do you plan on uploading them to the site and then sharing? Be aware that note-creation will no longer be a feature of our site after the new release today. Click here to read more on why.
People will have the ability to edit flashcards made by others but not uploaded documents or previously created notes.
Best,
Katie