Somewhere in the mix of things the piece of code that actually gathers and saves the banner settings for you VIP's was broken, causing it to only save the URL and banner type, which aren't too useful. This resulted in lots of banners not working with the edit function. Due to all of the confusion and the relative uselessness of the settings saved by the broken function, I have purged all broken save settings from the database. If you're missing a banner or two, this is where they went.
The function is all fixed now, and with any luck it will remain working this time. Sorry for the complications and inconvenience this might cause!
For the record, the banner settings that are saved do not include the image. In order for us to store your image settings, we'd have to store the original copy of your image. Since some images are as large as 10MB and some of you have hundreds of saved banners, we'd be needing a lot of extra space.
Monday, April 21, 2008
ImageShack is down/slow
UPDATE: There are still some intermittent issues with ImageShack. If your banner doesn't save try to refresh/re-save the banner and probability says you've got a great chance of it working.
UPDATE: ImageShack is back online and hosting, so all of your banners should be back to normal as well!
Currently ImageShack is experiencing REALLY long connect times...resulting in the connection timing out when we try to upload a banner to them. In the meantime, we're hosting the banners on our backup banner server, but it's only capable of so much. Hopefully ImageShack gets everything working again ASAP and we can switch back over.
If you know of or have administrative say in another image host, we are currently seeking partnerships in that department.
UPDATE: ImageShack is back online and hosting, so all of your banners should be back to normal as well!
Currently ImageShack is experiencing REALLY long connect times...resulting in the connection timing out when we try to upload a banner to them. In the meantime, we're hosting the banners on our backup banner server, but it's only capable of so much. Hopefully ImageShack gets everything working again ASAP and we can switch back over.
If you know of or have administrative say in another image host, we are currently seeking partnerships in that department.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Phew!
Today went off pretty smoothly. I didn't really receive any emails with issues/complaints, so that's a plus. I'm hoping the issue with Google Ads crashing Safari is fixed. More extensive testing is on the board for tomorrow.
PS: Thanks to anybody voting in the little poll. Normally, I don't like 'em, but the questions will help make sure the banner maker is headed in the right direction.
PS: Thanks to anybody voting in the little poll. Normally, I don't like 'em, but the questions will help make sure the banner maker is headed in the right direction.
Banner Save Time Out
There is a known and on-going issue with the banner-upload to ImageShack.us (for hosting) timing out or not receiving a response. I've been experimenting with different types of uploading, but it doesn't seem to have much effect. It is believed that the issue is due to new hardware installed at ImageShack, which is beyond our control. In the meantime, the page should retry continuously until it gets it to upload. Since I can't control when it times out, though, it's hard to verify that it works correctly. If you have feedback on the page taking longer than 30 seconds to finish saving your banner...whether it was successful in finally saving or not, please let me know so I know whether stuff is working correctly.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Code Box Fixed
As quite a few people noticed, the code box wasn't working for a few days there. It was an accidental overwrite of a newer file by an older one that caused the problem. Despite my doubts that people were trying to use it with non-"Normal" type banners, it was, in fact, messed up. It's all fixed now, though!
FAQ Updated
A bunch of new questions were added to the FAQ, in addition to updating a couple of existing answers.
Google AdSense Ads Are Now Text Only
After having that irritating ad by Smiley Central up for a few weeks and realizing it was flash (which isn't supposed to be allowed per Google's TOS) I decided to trash the image ads from the AdSense ads. I don't really think it'll hurt much in the way of ad-revenue, and it's a lot easier on the eyes this way.
PS: Advertising is available directly through me if you're interested in advertising.
PS: Advertising is available directly through me if you're interested in advertising.
Header "Squashed"
I didn't really change the header...I just hid some of it where you can't see it. The idea was to shorten the length of the page a bit so you don't have as much scrolling to do. Every little bit helps...right?
Menu Updated
It's not the most attractive thing, but it's faster, doesn't use images, and has updated words and links. The JavaScript used to make the old menu work is gone, too...so that's even more speed for you.
Updates
The code/saved-banner page has received a minor update on the visual side of things. Now it's a bit easier to see what is going on...not quite as messy. It doesn't look as good as the annoying interstitial page that talented Reuben did, but it's better than it was.
For VIP's, I'm working on something so you can delete banners. VIP's can now delete banners saved to their accounts. The saved banner page has been updated so it looks better now.
---
The menu is being worked on. The About page is useless, and instead there needs to be a link to this blog, and I don't have the original files. Besides, the hover overs was done pretty poorly and so this will actually mean faster performance. :)
---
The menu is being worked on. The About page is useless, and instead there needs to be a link to this blog, and I don't have the original files. Besides, the hover overs was done pretty poorly and so this will actually mean faster performance. :)
Having Some Issues
There are some weird things going on right now with the banner maker.
First, Google Ads seem to be crashing Safari. As much as I'd love to trash the ads, I have to pay bills. If you're using Safari, I apologize, and I apologize for the crashing too. Use Firefox instead...it's good for you, or something.
Second, the color picker has gone nuts. It's the color picker from colourmod.com, and despite being gorgeous, coding wasn't Keegan Jones' (the 'kid' that created it) number one talent at the time. I've talked to him about it, and we agree that it's pretty messy. I tried (but failed apparently) to improve it and make it work better, but it has just caused issues. Ever since I touched it, entering the color code doesn't really work right, and changing the Hue (up-down slider) shifts the saturation and value (blue marker/circle/dot). Well, now it's not working for some people at all....instead of having the blue marker moved, it moves the color picker. Since I aren't too good at that there JavaScript (syntax is fine, but not familiar with the methods and objects...and certainly not with browser quirks) I can't figure out what's going on with it. Strangely enough, Safari refuses to claim anything is having an error when it happens. Oh, for the record, this is only on some of the color pickers...the background color ones still work. No idea. I'm enlisting the help of a guru.
Third, traffic is going down. It's hard to notice, but it is pretty bad...as contradictory as that is. It's almost ALL from Myspace, leading me to believe they're doing something funky again...or maybe people have realized banners suck and they should all just have plain Myspace profiles. I don't know, but if you do, tell me. I'm only one person.
For the record, Keegan Jones kicks ass at design. If he wasn't already designing for a company that charges more than I make in 6 months for design, I'd have him give you a pretty new site. Alas, I'll just keep hoping that people sign up for VIP accounts and traffic increases.
Oh. This is a new blog. I'm too busy to create a real news page, and you all deserve (I think so anyways, since I profit off of you...muahaha) to know what's going on.
Corey
First, Google Ads seem to be crashing Safari. As much as I'd love to trash the ads, I have to pay bills. If you're using Safari, I apologize, and I apologize for the crashing too. Use Firefox instead...it's good for you, or something.
Second, the color picker has gone nuts. It's the color picker from colourmod.com, and despite being gorgeous, coding wasn't Keegan Jones' (the 'kid' that created it) number one talent at the time. I've talked to him about it, and we agree that it's pretty messy. I tried (but failed apparently) to improve it and make it work better, but it has just caused issues. Ever since I touched it, entering the color code doesn't really work right, and changing the Hue (up-down slider) shifts the saturation and value (blue marker/circle/dot). Well, now it's not working for some people at all....instead of having the blue marker moved, it moves the color picker. Since I aren't too good at that there JavaScript (syntax is fine, but not familiar with the methods and objects...and certainly not with browser quirks) I can't figure out what's going on with it. Strangely enough, Safari refuses to claim anything is having an error when it happens. Oh, for the record, this is only on some of the color pickers...the background color ones still work. No idea. I'm enlisting the help of a guru.
Third, traffic is going down. It's hard to notice, but it is pretty bad...as contradictory as that is. It's almost ALL from Myspace, leading me to believe they're doing something funky again...or maybe people have realized banners suck and they should all just have plain Myspace profiles. I don't know, but if you do, tell me. I'm only one person.
For the record, Keegan Jones kicks ass at design. If he wasn't already designing for a company that charges more than I make in 6 months for design, I'd have him give you a pretty new site. Alas, I'll just keep hoping that people sign up for VIP accounts and traffic increases.
Oh. This is a new blog. I'm too busy to create a real news page, and you all deserve (I think so anyways, since I profit off of you...muahaha) to know what's going on.
Corey
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)