Canceled - Thanksgiving week: Tentative maintenance window on Monday

Baldy · November 19, 2009

EDIT: Monday, Nov 23: We will NOT be doing maintenance tonight.

I'm putting this in its own thread because of its importance...

We have a feature progressing nicely in testing that we think should be ready for shipping next week. But Thursday, our normal night for maintenance, is Thanksgiving... And this feature requires placing the site in read-only mode.

We consulted with some pros who said this feature is important enough that we should take the hit for maintenance on Monday rather than delaying it a week, so that's our tentative schedule.

The disclaimer is it's possible we'll find a show-stopper bug between now and Monday, but we don't expect to.

Andy · November 19, 2009

Updated: http://smugmug.wordpress.com/

Robinivich · November 20, 2009

Sounds exciting...

I suppose I have to wait for tuesday to find out what goodies you have in store?

Malte · November 20, 2009

Robinivich wrote:

Sounds exciting...

I suppose I have to wait for tuesday to find out what goodies you have in store?

Oh, you think you've got it tough? :tough I'm in Europe so for me it'll be friggin Wednesday... :smo:cry

Malte

Andy · November 20, 2009

Robinivich wrote:

Sounds exciting...

I suppose I have to wait for tuesday to find out what goodies you have in store?

Keep in mind, we're saying tentative - we might change our mind, we're just leaving the option open.

echmrr · November 20, 2009

Baldy wrote:

We have a feature progressing nicely in testing that we think should be ready for shipping next week. But Thursday, our normal night for maintenance, is Thanksgiving... And this feature requires placing the site in read-only mode.

Could this be THE feature all of us Pros been waiting for???

Malte · November 22, 2009

Is it locked in now or still tentative?

Malte

Andy · November 22, 2009

Malte wrote:

Is it locked in now or still tentative?

Malte

More as I get it - but we're likely NOT using the window on Monday night.

alacranera · November 22, 2009

It is threads like this that have made me discourage many folks from trying out Smugmug. A few of your close friends may actually enjoy surprises, but when you're needing to communicate with hundreds of thousands of folks, this cute smugness does not fly.

Exactly what is it you are implementing? Is it a fix for one of the many existing "features" that still does not work? Or is it a brand new "feature" that may or may not be half baked?

I've spent the weekend trying to work around one of your absurdly ill considered "features" (updated dates which don't actually display updated dates). If I thought or knew you were working on that particular absurdity, I would not have bothered. But since that particular absurdity was drawn to Smugmug's attention at least 4 years ago, I'm guessing this IMPORTANT tentative shutdown will not address that. Still, it would be nice if you bothered to say what the IMPORTANT tentative shutdown does address.

Recently, I'm so happy to see that nearly all my photos now sport nifty keywords like "056", or "057". Those evoke such memories, don't you think? I do realize that Smugmug is maybe in the middle of revamping its keyword logic, but did nobody at Smugmug ever consider that keywords and file names were not necessarily, if ever, synonymous? That Smugmug ever auto-generated keywords out of file names was absurdly stupid. If this anticipated IMPORTANT shutdown does address the idiotic handling of keywords, then Smugmug should be apologizing for its previous idiocy, not reaching out for accolades.

Rather than posting smilie laden surprises which seem aimed at receiving virtual smug pats on the back and changing the subject, I'd suggest Smugmug post an actual log of projects in progress, along with tentative launch dates. If you want to keep a loyal clientele, you have to communicate honestly. You folks at Smugmug don't seem too capable of that.

SamirD · November 23, 2009

alacranera wrote:

It is threads like this that have made me discourage many folks from trying out Smugmug. A few of your close friends may actually enjoy surprises, but when you're needing to communicate with hundreds of thousands of folks, this cute smugness does not fly.

Exactly what is it you are implementing? Is it a fix for one of the many existing "features" that still does not work? Or is it a brand new "feature" that may or may not be half baked?

I've spent the weekend trying to work around one of your absurdly ill considered "features" (updated dates which don't actually display updated dates). If I thought, or knew you were working on that particular absurdity, I would not have bothered. But since that particular absurdity was drawn to Smugmug's attention at least 4 years ago, I'm guessing this IMPORTANT tentative shutdown will not address that. Still, it would be nice if you bothered to say what the IMPORTANT tentative shutdown does address.

Recently, I'm so happy to see that nearly all my photos now sport nifty keywords like "056", or "057". Those evoke such memories, don't you think? I do realize that Smugmug is maybe in the middle of revamping its keyword logic, but did nobody at Smugmug ever consider that keywords and file names were not necessarily, if ever, synonymous? That Smugmug ever auto-generated keywords out of file names was absurdly stupid. If this anticipated IMPORTANT shutdown does address the idiotic handling of keywords, then Smugmug should be apologizing for its previous idiocy, not reaching out for accolades.

Rather than posting smilie laden surprises which seem aimed at receiving virtual smug pats on the back and changing the subject, I'd suggest you post an actual log of projects in progress, along with tentative launch dates. If you want to keep a loyal clientele, you have to communicate honestly. You folks at Smugmug don't seem too capable of that.

This thread may make you feel a tad better:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=151160

Andy · November 23, 2009

Sorry folks, we'll not be using the maintenance window tonight. More updates as we get 'em, thanks!

Andy · November 23, 2009

alacranera wrote:

It is threads like this that have made me discourage many folks from trying out Smugmug. A few of your close friends may actually enjoy surprises, but when you're needing to communicate with hundreds of thousands of folks, this cute smugness does not fly.

Exactly what is it you are implementing?

Hi, ack - I'm sorry you are so upset

I will be happy to help, if I can.

We dont' really preannounce but it is one of the more important features that folks have been waiting a while for. And it requires a database update.

Is it a fix for one of the many existing "features" that still does not work? Or is it a brand new "feature" that may or may not be half baked?

I've spent the weekend trying to work around one of your absurdly ill considered "features" (updated dates which don't actually display updated dates). If I thought or knew you were working on that particular absurdity, I would not have bothered. But since that particular absurdity was drawn to Smugmug's attention at least 4 years ago,

If you can give me some details here, I'm all ears.

I'm guessing this IMPORTANT tentative shutdown will not address that. Still, it would be nice if you bothered to say what the IMPORTANT tentative shutdown does address.

Recently, I'm so happy to see that nearly all my photos now sport nifty keywords like "056", or "057". Those evoke such memories, don't you think? I do realize that Smugmug is maybe in the middle of revamping its keyword logic, but did nobody at Smugmug ever consider that keywords and file names were not necessarily, if ever, synonymous? That Smugmug ever auto-generated keywords out of file names was absurdly stupid. If this anticipated IMPORTANT shutdown does address the idiotic handling of keywords, then Smugmug should be apologizing for its previous idiocy, not reaching out for accolades.

Rather than posting smilie laden surprises which seem aimed at receiving virtual smug pats on the back and changing the subject, I'd suggest Smugmug post an actual log of projects in progress, along with tentative launch dates.

You can read about the recent and in-the-works keywording changes here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1268213#post1268213

If you want to keep a loyal clientele, you have to communicate honestly. You folks at Smugmug don't seem too capable of that

I'm sorry you feel this way. I'd love to know where we've not been honest with you (or anyone else)? We leave everything completely out in the open here on DGrin and we're completely transparent. We have nothing to hide. But we won't divulge secrets or business plans.

PS: I checked out your site - nice work! If you want some help with that logo of yours, to make it less jaggy, I'd be happy to assist - just write our Support Heroes ATTN: Andy anytime.

alacranera · November 23, 2009

Thanks for the reply, Andy.

I've read thru the entire post on keywords, and still have no idea whether Smugmug intends to eliminate all that auto-generated garbage, or whether it will have to be done manually.

There is a thread about the issue I'm having with the updated "feature" here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=150365

If you can explain the wisdom of basing the report of upload dates on a gallery's position rather than the upload date, I'd like to hear it.

Thanks for offering to fix "that logo of mine", but I think it's just fine. Maybe consider fixing some of your own issues first.

Andy · November 23, 2009

alacranera wrote:

Thanks for the reply, Andy.

I've read thru the entire post on keywords, and still have no idea whether Smugmug intends to eliminate all that auto-generated garbage, or whether it will have to be done manually.

we've made a toggle - you'll choose it in control panel, whether you want keywords from filenames or not. It'll be your choice. We hope to ship this in our next release.

There is a thread about the issue I'm having with the updated "feature" here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=150365

If you can explain the wisdom of basing the report of upload dates on a gallery's position rather than the upload date, I'd like to hear it.

Thanks for offering to fix "that logo of mine", but I think it's just fine. Maybe consider fixing some of your own issues first.

Ouch. Please, I sure hope you don't take offense. I've helped hundreds if not thousands with their logos. Yours seemed like it was jaggy. I'm very sorry and meant no disrespect or offense, have a nice day!

alacranera · November 23, 2009

No offense taken.

Can you explain the reasoning behind having the updated feature based on a gallery's position within a (sub)category, rather than on the actual date of upload?

Thanks

Andy · November 23, 2009

alacranera wrote:

No offense taken.

Can you explain the reasoning behind having the updated feature based on a gallery's position within a (sub)category, rather than on the actual date of upload?

Thanks

No, I can't - I'm sorry

David Evertsen · November 24, 2009

Thanks...

Canceled - Thanksgiving week: Tentative maintenance window on Monday

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