lj advisory board user-rep post
Heard back from LJ on some things:
1) "WHY IS LIVEJOURNAL SO FREAKING SLOW!??" LJ is going through "major load issues" -- this is a side effect of, in part, the backup project but more specifically the whole server upgrade that will make backups possible.
The problem with backups (I shall digress a moment here) is not really with backing up, which is simple, the problem is implementing a restore that keeps the comments intact. I view the idea of an LJ restore which strips out comments as ... not terribly useful, or at least it loses the one really wonderful thing about LJ that makes it better than a paper journal -- namely everybody else. All of the comments need to be verified somehow (which will keep people from restoring a journal entry and editing people's comments), this is the tricky part.
It's possible that load issues will continue intermittently until May while they work on this.
2) "WHY ARE THESE @#$@#$ ADS PLAYING NOISE!" It's in LJ's agreement with advertisers that no ads can auto-play sounds. LJ doesn't deal directly with the advertisers but through a middleman who supplies content. Recently they dumped in a tub of ads that auto-play sound into the mix. LJ wants them out, we want them out, but finding all of these and pulling them from lJ's ad feed is, it seems, not high on the ad company's list of priorities, which bugs everybody. Except possibly Swiffer. If you hear an ad auto-play sound, the best thing to do is do a screen capture & send it to support, this helps LJ complain. I suppose it probably wouldn't hurt to send an email to the advertiser saying "you know how rude I think it is when one of your ads plays noise? It makes me not want to buy your product."
So -- on the whole: speed issue, resolving; ad issue, up in the air; backup issue, in the works. Of the three, I'm most concerned with backups working.
Thoughts comments, things I can help with, let me know. Feel free to repost/share.
Thanks,
Kyle
1) "WHY IS LIVEJOURNAL SO FREAKING SLOW!??" LJ is going through "major load issues" -- this is a side effect of, in part, the backup project but more specifically the whole server upgrade that will make backups possible.
The problem with backups (I shall digress a moment here) is not really with backing up, which is simple, the problem is implementing a restore that keeps the comments intact. I view the idea of an LJ restore which strips out comments as ... not terribly useful, or at least it loses the one really wonderful thing about LJ that makes it better than a paper journal -- namely everybody else. All of the comments need to be verified somehow (which will keep people from restoring a journal entry and editing people's comments), this is the tricky part.
It's possible that load issues will continue intermittently until May while they work on this.
2) "WHY ARE THESE @#$@#$ ADS PLAYING NOISE!" It's in LJ's agreement with advertisers that no ads can auto-play sounds. LJ doesn't deal directly with the advertisers but through a middleman who supplies content. Recently they dumped in a tub of ads that auto-play sound into the mix. LJ wants them out, we want them out, but finding all of these and pulling them from lJ's ad feed is, it seems, not high on the ad company's list of priorities, which bugs everybody. Except possibly Swiffer. If you hear an ad auto-play sound, the best thing to do is do a screen capture & send it to support, this helps LJ complain. I suppose it probably wouldn't hurt to send an email to the advertiser saying "you know how rude I think it is when one of your ads plays noise? It makes me not want to buy your product."
So -- on the whole: speed issue, resolving; ad issue, up in the air; backup issue, in the works. Of the three, I'm most concerned with backups working.
Thoughts comments, things I can help with, let me know. Feel free to repost/share.
Thanks,
Kyle