Round 1 got us ready for tonight. Same drill—we’re taking down the sites for 60 minutes (perhaps more … or less) to activate the new database. Chuq is driving the Robot boat tonight and with any luck we’ll have a new db by Friday and will no longer be bringing the sites down daily to backup the db. Good Chuq, luck!
UPDATE Nov. 30 10:42pm: sites are back up. Success! 84 minutes of downtime and the second database is up and running. There’s more work to be done, but we’re well on our way to having the sites up around the clock. Can I get a WHAT WHAT for Chuq?
WHAT WHAT!! CHUQ IS A FREAKIN PIMP.
I cannot log in to 43places and post content. It lets me log on just fine, but when I try to upload a photo or something, it asks me to login again. That either leaves me back on a login page or it leaves me at a welcome page - and when I navigate to where I want to add the content, it asks me to login again.
Frustrated much!
Elderbear
Hey Chug What? What? Thanks for the hard work. The Robots are the best, the best you hear?
((((((((((((super hugs)))))))))))))))))
george
Robots, I am going to try to post this comment again, as it hasn’t been accepted on the other entries I’ve tried. I haven’t seen anything from you about the new format of the subscription page. Is this change intended to be permanent?
Yep. This speeds the page up considerably for heavy users (like me or you). What it does:
* left column shows you who you’re subscribed to that has created recent content
* at the bottom of left column you can click to see a full list of all your subscriptions
It’s showing the same content in the main column, we’re just constraining the left column of your subscriptions to speed the page up. This page used to time out pretty much everytime I used it (or other heavy users) and it took a long time to load. Now it’s much faster and has yet to time out on me. You?
It didn’t “time out” on me before nor did I have any “speed issues” (at least since you took away everything but the last week of comments), so I’m not sure what you’re referring to?
I hate to be negative again, Daniel, I really do, but to be honest, I really don’t like it at all (and it’s not just a matter of it being something new to get used to), and I have only heard one positive comment among the several people who have mentioned it to me. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if we could see all of our subscriptions entries as they were posted, but I am still missing a majority of them (including a lot of “new” people and people who do not post very often). Having to go thorugh one more step to see who all of our susbriptions are and have access to the entries we can see just seems like pouring salt on the wound.
On a more postive note, I hardly ever get any “oops” messages anymore, and it’s “super-duper” nice to not have the site go down at 3 a.m./1 a.m. (even if I am “supposed” to be in bed at that time)!!!
HUGS,
Flirt
Hi Flirt -
I think we’re talking about 2 separate issues. The first (the new design) is simply shortening the list of people in the left column so the page doesn’t time out. It does time out. It may not time out for you, but it does for many heavy users. Trust me on that one.
The new design doesn’t affect anything in the main center column where all the content from your subscriptions are displayed. I can see that it may appear as such as you’re seeing fewer people in the left column — but we’re now only displaying in the left column those subscriptions who have recently updated content on the site. This is a good thing for keeping this page fast. What I think you’re still referring to is the copius users issues — which is that as of now we simply can’t display hundreds of comments from users in subscriptions as it’s computationally expensive and brings the site down for everyone. So, we’ll still work on that — but that won’t change anytime soon. I understand you want it back the way it was but It’s really a matter of spreading our resources to serve the majority of users until we figure out a way of to deliver all the content in subscriptions.
The lack of Oops pages is a result of trimming parts of the site — namely subscriptions. It’s a bit of a Catch-43 — to keep the site healthy we need to cut back on a few features for the time being. We’re not pouring salt on a wound. We’re bringing the site back from a time when Oops pages were all too common. I’d say that’s good medicine.
Hi Daniel!
I appreciate your takiing the time to respond. It’s not that I don’t “trust you”, it’s that I still don’t understand what you are referring to when you say “time out” — do you mean it was logging people off of 43Things, or do you mean something else?
And, yes, we are talking about 2 separate things, but to me (and a lot of people) they are inter-related. As far as what you call the “copius users” issue, I’m sure you’re getting tired of hearing this from me, but it’s not just the copius users whose recent entries are only updating every 12 hours. And there are some people who are VERY copius users whose entries are “on time.” Please know that we (at least most of the people I talk to) do understand that you have a whole host of issues and concerns that you’re working on, but this issue has a major affect on almost everyone in one way or the other. Either their entries aren’t being seen, or they can’t see other peoples entries. For me, I know that my entries aren’t being seen, and I can’t see a majority of my subscriptions entries. As Des said “It just doesn’t have the same effect if I have to wait until tomorrow to find out how they were doing yesterday.”
I think it just adds to our frustration that the Robots seem to think of this as a minor issue and we can’t seem to get very much communication from you concerning it.
Flirt - I think it is unfair to characterize this as something you have not had much communication about. You’ve written about it many times and we’ve shared with you the various ways we’ve tried to troubleshoot the issue. You even went so far as posting comments on our personal goals about this (which frankly, is just rude!).
We don’t think this is a minor problem - but it is just hard to fix. We are frustrated too! The challenge with the subscriptions issue is that we can’t reproduce the problems you are describing. If you could send us specific examples of content that you can’t view, we will continue to investigate it. You can send these to [email protected].
By the way, this is all distinct from the changes to the sidebar which you were complaining about. We needed to make those changes to keep the site from “timing out” - which is what happens when a page takes more than 21 seconds to load. That results in an error on the site (and that means the Oops page). Sorry you don’t like the new sidebar, but it makes a huge difference in site performance.
Believe us when we say we don’t like disappointing users of the site.
Hi, Josh,
I ned to begin by saying that I am REALLY getting tired of you calling me “rude”, especially for something that was not ALL that rude in the context of things, and something that I have apologized for twice. Something that you have not acknowledged either time. I am not normally a rude person, and it was only out of frustration at not receiving an answer to my e-mail over a very frustrating problem that I posted comments on under posts.
Secondly, it is not just me that thinks there is a clear lack of communication on this issue, as is documented throughout the site on several people’s posts/comments. I have tried to describe the problem several times in the last three weeks and this is the first time you have asked for specifics. When we were having the problem in October, the only specific you asked for was confirmation that it was not related to the problem with the pictures, which I confirmed immediately.
I will be glad to put together some specifics concerning the subscrition page probkem and will have to you in the a.m. Meanwhile, take a look at my “recent entries page”:http://wildaboutthecats.43people.com/feeds and you will see that it currently says that my most recent entry was 8 hours ago, which is definitely not the case.
I really did not want to make any of this a “public” discussion, but when I didn’t get any response to my e-mails I took this route.
Smiles,
Flirt
P.S. Now that I understand what you mean by “timing out” I can tell you that on my subscrition page it hasn’t improved as far as I can tell.
Can’t say I’m surprised to get a reply with a few more complaints from you, Flirt! We never get the cookies — only the complaints.
Thanks though for pointing us to your feed page - there we saw some comments missing from your content. We are looking into the bug now.
P.S. You know, use of our site is purely voluntary.
Hi Josh!
I am not trying to complain, just communicate. I am trying to be as positive as I can be, but somehow I seem to rub you the wrong way, and that just seems to make a frustrating situation worse. I have also said many positive things both publicly and privately.
If you are referring to the comment about the “timing out”, I was just giving you honest feedback that I can’t see any improvement since you instituted the change, no complaining was meant to be implied. Do you not want us to tell you when you’ve fixed something but we’re still seeing the problem?
As far as the missing comments from my feed page, that is what I have been trying to explain to you for 3 weeks. I really appreciate your looking into it, and since it’s not just me that has the problem, hopefully if you fix one you can fix them all. As way of some further information, in case you don’t already have it, the missing content seems to update every 12 hours.
Smiles,
Flirt
P.S. The goal is to send you cookies as a “thank you” for fixing the subscription page”, but I’d be happy to send you cookies any time!!!
I am in total disbelief. Whether or not a business owner perceives his customers/clients to be complaining and ungrateful, a professional business person would not speak to others in such a manner. I would strongly advise that those people who tend to lose their tempers and communicate in an aggressive, sarcastic, and belittling manner should make it a point not to interact with the public and should designate another employee to do it on their behalf.
and if these comments could be cheered. I surly would do that for both Des and Flirt. I have never said a word to the Robots. I honestly don’t know who you all are. I bow to your knowledge, I would not know the first thing to do to fix any of these problems. I am thankful that you are all working so hard and fast. I will tell you I’ve been on this site a year and I regularly click on the advertisements on the side of the page. I spend a good amount of time looking at them. I figured they are the reason the site is free and that is the very least I could do.
Now, you know I have never spoken to you. Baby, you were plain rude. There is no way around it. Your frustrations has gotten to you and maybe someone else should respond to Flirt. I know your job is difficult. You can not come into a hospital and do my job or tell me how quickly to do that job. I will never presume to tell you how to do yours. Kindness is just that love, Kindness.
Thank you for listening, thank you for working so hard.
Light and Love Seren
I think the new subscription page seems to miss picking up feeds from my subscriptions at times and at a varying frequency. Part of the charm of this site is real time interaction with other people…not only your subscriptions. It may be I have too many and it causes problems. I am subscribed right now to 79 people and I know they do not all show up all the time.
It would be like when I stood in the Robot Coop office and some of you would have been invisible…not good…
Of course I use this site for many things. The bast way to describe it would be hanging out at the 7/11 / arcade/ in front of the drugstore in my younger days…
Cheers and a future cup of java to you all….