Bleeping Typepad - I Hate You! (updated)

UPDATE January 21, 2010

The story continues...

Typepad staff explained that the difference in image quality is due to how Firefox (mac version) handles pictures. That's why supposedly my blogs look so awful when viewed in Firefox, and half way decent in Safari.

That's all fine and dandy, except one thing - such a drastic loss of image quality does not happen with many other blogs hosted on Blogger or on Wordpress.org.

For example, take a look at this link:

It's the same image viewed in Firefox on the left and in Safari on the right. They look almost the same, right?

And now an image from my blog viewed in Firefox on the left and in Safari on the right - link here.

Something is very seriously not right here.

I've compared dozens of red and pink (the loss of quality is the most obvious with these colors) and yes, they do look different in Firefox and in Safari when using a Mac. That much I know.

The thing is that Wordpress.org somehow manages to make those images appear almost the same in both browsers on a Mac. And Typepad does not.

I am really at a loss here and don't know what I should do next. Stay with Typepad and tell Mac people to view my blogs using Safari only? Or move elsewhere?

UPDATE January 20, 2010

PS. To give credit where credit is due - Typepad staff contacted me and they are looking into this issue. Let's hope they can sort it out, because frankly, I am lazy and setting up a new blog elsewhere is a lot of work, and I might just as well stop blogging altogether and starting to write a book instead.

PS2. If you use Safari as your browser, the image quality is affected only a tiny little bit. Firefox seems to be the loser here.

PS3. I uploaded the most drastic examples to flickr and you can see the images and screenshots of how they appear on my blogs side by side here. Use Safari, if you can.

Recently I've moved my photoblog from Wordpress to Typepad, because I already have this blog at Typepad, so I thought "why not? Let's give it a shot". After all, since I'm already paying those asshats, I might as well get something out of it.

Unfortunately, during the last two years, Typepad has gone terribly downhill. While it wasn't as visible with this mostly written blog, it's become painfully obvious with a photoblog. (And with the photos I post on this blog.)

The loss of quality of posted images on Typepad is so significant, that it basically renders the whole process useless.

A photo looks great in a Preview or Photoshop, but then when compressed and mangled by Typepad, it ends up looking like the worst piece of chewed up garbage point-and-clicked by a blind person. The colors look pale and washed out, the contrast is off, the vibrance is gone and the light/dark balance is totally destroyed. The photos look so awful, it's embarrassing to post them.

I think I will be looking for a new blogging plaform very soon.

Typepad sucks. DO NOT start a blog on Typepad. Go elsewhere.

- from a very unhappy Typepad customer who most likely will not be renewing her subscription next month. Or who, at the very least, will be taking her photoblog elsewhere.

Comments

[Colleen]

Hi Anna! I spotted this post via your Twitter and wanted to check in. We have your Support ticket and our admin Mel is taking a look right now and you should receive a reply from her soon. We definitely don't want to lose you as a subscriber! We hope you'll give us a chance to make this situation better for you - we want you to be happy with TypePad!

We apologize for any frustration this is causing you. If there's anything at all we can do to keep you as a subscriber, please do mention that to Mel in your help ticket.

Thanks!
Colleen
TypePad Support, Lead

[Anna Ikeda]

Hi Colleen,
thank you for your response.
I am so frustrated with this problem that I am at my wits ends at this point. I have visited several forums and this is a very common complaint among Typepad users and the general consensus and advice I got was Move to Wordpress.org.
I do hope this can be solved and I can stay with Typepad... I do like you guys, but at this point I just want my photos to show correctly.

[Zoe Goetz]

Hi Anna,

Ran across your blog some time ago and I find your posts refreshing and funny! I use Bootsnall. Check it out. Mine is here:

http://blogs.bootsnall.com/nomads

I don't tweak it because I don't know html but you may be able to get it to do what you want. I do post video and pics. They respond immediately when you have trouble.

Zoe