A HUGE Problem for Many UrStyle Users
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Lack of Patience
I’ve been known to get a little impatient with computers at times. That’s a lie. If a webpage doesn’t fill in quickly enough for my liking, I click on the “Refresh” symbol hoping to make it load faster. If that doesn’t work, I close the browser, reopen it, and try the website again. In that time, I could have just waited for it to load! I’ve been known to be impatient with UrStyle at times too, and I want to share a perspective that you fellow impatient artists might consider.
UrStyle is doing a TREMENDOUS job working to meet all of our needs, to provide the features we want so as to make this site more User Friendly, and to not duplicate Polyvore, but do it better. All of that takes more time and effort than most of us realize. The coding for the website alone is a precise, tedious, and a very time-consuming task and as changes are made to the website, changes must be made to the code. We cannot expect this website to run perfectly. No website can function perfectly all the time. And we certainly should be understanding about this one, as UrStyle is very new; in its infancy really, and is constantly upgrading and improving itself. And as they do this, things will stop working for a short while. So why get impatient when things go a little wacky and there's a temporary glitch?
Had UrStyle waited until everything was "just right" before opening their virtual doors to us, we'd be going crazy with no place to express ourselves artistically, to share our creativity, to admire the art of others, to find and develop fashion trends, to connect with others who love the kind of Sets we’re most interested in. Yet, now that we have it, we want it to be exactly right, all of the time, KNOWING that the site is still under development and that UrStyle is working to make it the best it can be – but again; that takes time.
Sometimes, the site is going to go down when UrStyle’s servers are being tweaked… for better security, to provide more speed, to expand the room/amount of data and graphics it can store, to improve overall storage and memory, to accommodate more users without overloading the website, to add more bandwidth, to load more usable graphics, to add more features, to enhance existing features, to revise the design of the website itself in response to our requests, to handle more traffic without sacrificing speed… the list goes on. And many of these improvements require, or often cause, a temporary disruption of some services/features or even of the website itself. We should EXPECT this. If it were not happening, this would indicate that those behind UrStyle are letting the website go stagnant.
Remember how Polyvore just upped and left us? No warning? No kiss Good-Bye? Poof! They were gone, showing its members no respect. What I find extraordinary about UrStyle is that they ENCOURAGE our feedback. They want to know how they can make this a fabulous, more satisfying experience for all users, and in the short time I've been here, I've seen so much improvement in response to Users’ requests, all done at an impressive pace. Maybe it doesn’t seem that way to you, but being a techno/computer geek, believe me, they are on top of it.
Recently, I had a problem creating Sets. I’ve been republishing former Polyvore Sets so I can enter them in contests here. Suddenly, I was unable to create a Set. I waited three days before contacting [email protected] thinking that the problem would clear up on its own, which has been my experience. (Not the three-day time period, but issues resolving themselves if ya just give it a little time.) In those three days, I posted in the Forum again and again. I cleared my cache. I logged in and out of my account several times. I updated anything and everything that had to do with both my browser and my computer. I checked my Firewall. I turned it off. I turned it back on. I switched browsers. I switched computers/devices. After three days with no success, how many of you would have said “Screw this!” and left?
I’d posted in the Community Help Forum and hadn’t found solutions there, until @vn1ta (who has the patience of a saint
) suggested I contact UrStyle and provided me with an e-mail address. I wrote to [email protected] and was very surprised to not only get a personal (not automated) response directly addressing my issue, but to be given an idea of when the problem would be fixed. And what do ya know… It was fixed exactly as and when promised. It turns out, there was something glitchy in one of my Collections. How could I ever know this? I couldn’t. What would have happened had I not contacted UrStyle directly? I’d eventually grow impatient unable to make Sets and I’d leave…I suspect this is why we’re still waiting for many of our Polyvore friends to join us here. Some did at first, and then they left. You know the reasons… “Too slow/hard/time consuming/limited...”, etc. In this technological world where we've become used to instant gratification, we should keep in mind that this is not possible on a young website still working out the kinks, introducing new features, researching trends, working to establish advertising accounts, as well as asking for our input, feedback, requests, and suggestions AND responding to them.
The fact that we even have a place to make sets is wonderful. We didn't have to wait long for UrStyle to step up and fill a tremendous need. But they can't do everything at once. And there will be interruptions in service as they work behind the scenes to improve the experience for everyone. Yeah, it sucks when things don’t work right, but why get panicky? UrStyle doesn’t want their site glitchy or 'down' either.
Of course, I’ll continue to post about site issues I’m experiencing to see if anyone else is having them. If not, I’ll go to work clearing my cache, updating my browser if needed, logging out of UrStyle, restarting my computer. You know the drill. And if the issue persists, I’ll give UrStyle a little time to correct whatever’s ‘off’. Like I said, it usually clears up on its own.
Often, @vn1ta contacts me regarding an issue I’d posted about and lets me know that she’s aware of it, informing me that UrStyle is doing something (to make the website even better for us!) and that the problem will soon be resolved. I cannot imagine what it must be like for @vn1ta and @admin to have so many site User queries to respond to!
I’m not suggesting that anyone should refrain from inquiring about an issue they’re experiencing. I’m simply considering how frantic many users get when UrStyle is not running smoothly, myself included. 
In time, the website hiccups will happen less and less. In the meantime, if something isn’t working, I’ll chill… until I can’t take it anymore, ha ha ha!
I sincerely thank everyone behind the scenes at UrStyle for your excellent attention to detail, your loyalty to your Users, and your endless patience!
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@funkyjunkygypsy Very well said sweetie, we got displaced a mere nine months ago and urstyle accepted us with open arms and made leaps in a few short months. I get impatient too, even to heat something up in the microwave tries my patience, then I remember the old days that took hours for the same results. We have been blessed with a new home for sure. Hugs!
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This is so well said. The fact that you are in the tech world & have given us an insight into the "behind the scenes" at URStyle & all their hard work really carries some weight. At times I get impatient when things do not load quickly or there's a glitch & like you, I remind myself that w/o URStyle I'd be without a creative outlet. Thanks a million for taking the time to write this & I completely concur with you that URStyle's customer service is top notch & I've also been very impressed when it's 2 a.m. PST & I receive a personal message back within minutes from admin. URStyle is doing a phenomenal job & when I look back at the improvements from last April when I joined it is just amazing. Thanks again!
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@romaboots Yeah, like you, if you compare UrStyle features now and then (when we first started with it), it's like two completely different websites. In time, I expect it to be just mind blowing. And I DO realize that most people have no concept of how much work and time it takes to create, add, and perfect features on a large website such as UrStyle. It's not something most of us think about or even know about. We just expect things to run perfectly -- and eventually, they will, but my goodness, if UrStyle had waited until most of their website was "perfected" it would be our loss. Firstly, we'd be going nuts trying to connect with one another AND find a creative community, and secondly; our opinions, desires, requests, and feedback would not have been taken into account. We can literally help UrStyle develop this website into what Users want it to be, which will bring MORE Users, which means more business for UrStyle and more fun for us. Win-Win!!!
SO glad you found my wordy post worth reading. Thank you!
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I agree with all of you!
Thank you so much URStyle! 
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Very well said.... I may have mentioned the same thing early on....because, like you, I KNOW the time it takes to computer code....basic math/accounting functions...cannot EVEN begin to imagine trying to code something as massive as what UrStyle undertook....
Not to MENTION THE HUGE COST they are incurring doing this.... for us who probably don't generate them income in return... (well I might, but I'm a shopaholic, LOL...so if if buy something I like here...I try to go to the site from the links from here).
But, ultimately, the problems here are temporary, and we have a site to create again. PV took that away from us permanently. And that was more earth shattering than probably most of us would want to say. PV was 10+ years old when they did that...this site is not even 1 year old.
Yes, like you, I get way too impatient hitting refresh, etc., and given that my time here is limited to evenings after stressful days at work... so I can "unwind" here, it makes it even more frustrating if the site is having problems. But...I cannot imagine what to do, if I didn't have this site to come to at all.
Thank you for pointing out the obvious. We all need to be thankful to @URSTYLE and @admin and @vn1ta who as a former PV user stepped in to help make the transition easier for all of us!!! Thank you @FunkyJunkyGypsy for saying what needed to be said!!
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