Updates: Pinterest

So, good news/bad news on the Pinterest front. Good news is they changed their Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy and their Privacy Policy. I haven't read them through yet. My reading happens in 20 minutes increments approximately every 3 hours otherwise known as Cupcake's nursing schedule. Here is what was included in the email:

We'd encourage you to read these changes in their entirety, but we thought there were a few changes worth noting.

• Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.

• We updated our Acceptable Use Policy and we will not allow pins that explicitly encourage self-harm or self-abuse.

• We released simpler tools for anyone to report alleged copyright or trademark infringements.

• Finally, we added language that will pave the way for new features such as a Pinterest API and Private Pinboards.

Very promising! Looks like they took the users' concerns seriously! Yay Pinterest! Also on the good news front, I did get my boards cleaned up with things that I believe are safe to pin. I went from 12 boards with 110 pins to 13 boards with 75 pins.

Bad news... Pinterest changed their layout. Ugh! Bad Pinterest! I really don't like it. It seems so very businessy and unpretty. It's been so ugly to go visit that I think I have only pinned one thing since the new change because frankly, I can't stand to go look at my boards anymore. They give me a headache. Here is a snapshot for those of you who want to see what it looks like: (averting my eyes)

What were they thinking? It looks like a jumbled up mess! Only the top 1/3 of your most recent pin shows in the "featured" spot which as you can see in some cases, cuts off the thing you were pinning and just leaves the background visible, not the actual Cupcake Liner Wreath at all! The least they could do right now to make it better if they refuse to go back to the old layout is to allow you to choose which image was the top image for each board.

People over at the Pinterest blog have commented about the increased stress and anxiety this new layout has induced. Not wanting to pin something for fear that it will knock a better picture out of top place or pinning things simply because they will make an attractive visual impression instead whether the item pinned is of interest or relevance. A commenter made me laugh with her take on it:

Also, the boards are so close to each other that they melt into one single collaged image. Though the boards might be as different as food and bugs… now you have a fly in your soup.

Ewwwww!

Why did they not consult an artist or at least someone with more visual sense before making this change? Their layout was darn near perfect the way it was before. The nine top pins featured evenly for each board helped create an instant visual impression of that board. The nine pictures were arranged in an orderly fashion but still oddly numbered as most things in nature are. Our eyes like odd numbers ordered neatly! God made us that way to recognize the beauty in his natural creations (most of which happen to be oddly numbered, go figure)! All of the boards together gave you a snapshot of the pinner's style. The white spacing in between the equal sized thumbnails provided a natural break and rest for the eyes. It was practically perfect! If they wanted to add more of a profile section, then fine, add it to the sidebar where it was but they should have left the rest alone. Mr. Silbermann, believe it or not, you hit the nail right on the head on your first swing and now you've gone and banged your thumb. This revamp leaves my head aching and throbbing.

Maybe it would have been best just to drop it in the first place.