Scribblit

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Hi Everyone.

In order to avoid all confusion I've set up a new community for TSFKAS - tsfkas - I ask that all members here join that community and that any new posts to be made are made in that community.

Kit has been set up as a maintainer there and once he accepts I will remove myself from that community as a maintainer and you'll be set! :)

Thanks again everyone for your support.

My scriblit account has disappeared. It says my username is not found. But I have the confirmation emails with my user name in them. Anyone know what may have happened? Or who can fix my problem? Thanks.

I'm going to pick a few names out of the mass of suggested names and put them to a vote. The poll will be on my staff journal on TSFKAS main, and it will be open to all current TSFKAS users. IOW, if you can log in, you can vote.

The poll will be open until 23:59:59 on 18 April 2008. When the poll has closed, the name with the most votes will be the new name of the site, provided it is still available. If it is not still available, I will chose the runner-up, and so on.

ETA: The poll is at http://www.scribblit.com/users/staff_kit/5571.html

Vote away.

As twocorpses posted recently, I am lovely. *beams*

That is all.

No, wait. There's that stuff about me taking over Scribblit. I suppose I should talk about that.

Anyway, as twocorpses said, she is handing the site over to me on the condition that she keeps rights to the "Scribblit" name. So I need some suggestions for a new name, because otherwise I'll think up something lame like "YetAnotherJournal" or something mildly clever like "NoPrefixJournal". Definitely not "NotAsInsaneAsInsaneJournalButStillPrettyInsaneJournal". :)

Also, I need help. I want the-site-formerly-known-as-Scribblit (hereinafter abbreviated TSFKAS) to be its own legal entity for my protection, so I need some kind of legal counsel and an accountant. I certainly can't afford to pay for those things on my own, so maybe there are folks here with those qualifications. *hopes*

Next there's the matter of time. I realize that taking over TSFKAS is going to require a greater time commitment from me, and I'll do the best I can with that, but I'm busy. So please understand that while TSFKAS is a high priority in my life, it is not the highest priority. I have a wife and a job, for one thing. :)

Now I realize that some of you may be dissatisfied with the way the site has been run, and I don't know if the way I run it will satisfy those folks any better. So in 90 days' time I will post a friends-locked entry on my staff journal on TSFKAS. There will be a poll in that entry, open to friends, and viewable to only me. The question in that poll will be simple: Do you want me to continue as the head of TSFKAS? If the majority vote "Yes", I will stay on. If the majority vote "No", I will hand the site over to someone else of my choosing or I will take the site down entirely. In short, if you become dissatisfied with my performance, you can vote me out.

Finally, a request. Please don't bring up TSFKAS stuff in my personal journal. Leave it in the new community that will be formed here on LJ to discuss TSFKAS.

I open the floor to questions, comments, and suggestions for a new name.

ETA: Since there's some talk of having "Ink" in the title, what about "InkyThoughts"?

ETA 2: Seems many of you don't like InkyThoughts. What about "Tikkybox"?

ETA 3: If not "Tikkybox", what about "Tikkytak", or "Tikatak"? Or maybe even "YetAnotherJournal"?

ETA 4: What about "ScribbleThat"?

Hi Everyone! I have a big announcement to make.

Due to personal issues as well as a waning interest in maintaining this site, I am handing over the project to my lovely SysOp, Kit. There is one exception to this - the name will be changed.

My main reasons for doing this have to do with the stress involved. I was feeling overwhelmed with everything and felt that I could not provide the level of service that I wanted to and thought you all deserved. After consulting with Kit he agreed to take over the site with the above exception.

The service will remain the same but it will have a new name and theme. Everyone who donated to have an account will remain early account holders. Everyone who is a beta tester retain their account status. The service itself will remain the same other than having a new name.

Kit's interest and desire to provide a good service rivals that of my own excitement earlier on in the project and I know he will do a good job.

Thank you everyone for your support for the past .... year almost and I hope you will continue to support Kit in getting the site off the ground!

Please watch scribblit as Kit will be making a post of his own.

Scribblit is currently offline due to accounting issues with our hosting provider. I am working with the provider to get the issue resolved, and will bring SI back ASAP.

EDIT: Accounting issues have been resolved, and SI is back up.

ETA2: OK, now I think it's really up. :)

I have switched around the DNS. Stewart, the machine formerly known as beta.scribblit.com, is now scribblit.com, i.e. Scribblit main. Post away!

ETA: If you're having problems staying logged in, clear out your cookies (or just the ones from scribblit.com and beta.scribblit.com) and try logging in again. It also might be a good idea to clear your cache.

ETA 2: OK, maybe it didn't go quite so smoothly as I'd hoped. For some reason, login cookies aren't working. I'm working on it, and will have things back up ASAP.

ETA 3: And we're back! Apparently I didn't restart Apache when I thought I had. Ooops.

ETA 4: This space intentionally left blank

Well, sorta. :)

After consulting with twocorpses, I have decided to turn Beta, our dedicated machine, into Scribblit main. I will be doing this in the DNS, so I won't be copying the database or the code from one machine to the other. I don't anticipate any problems like we had in Switcheroo or Swticheroo #2.

Just so that there's sufficient warning, I will be doing this in one week's time, on 29 March 2008. You can back up your journal if you want, but I don't anticipate any posts being lost. This should be a seamless process. The only things you'll need to update will be your bookmarks.

In fact, I'm not sure this qualifies as a Switcheroo. Maybe a mini-Switcheroo. I don't know, somebody else think up a clever name. :)

EDIT And the Fabulous No-Prize for a Clever Name goes to rascante for "Identity Crisis: Scribblit", which I am shortening to "Identity Crisis".

And in answer to questions posted (and replied to) in the comments:

• Does this mean there will be one Scribblit or two after the switch? There will continue to be two - Main and Beta.


• Which journals will be kept? All journals on the site that is currently beta.scribblit.com will be kept, as has been the plan since we first brought Beta on-line. After the switch, any journals on the site that is currently Main may be deleted, truncated, or messed up in any other way.


• Does this mean Scribblit is going live? Sadly, no, not yet. However, this is one step closer to that goal.

Folks, I'm very sorry about this, but I had to restore the database to the start of Switcheroo #2. And it's entirely my own fault.

As part of Switcheroo #2, I decided to update Beta to the latest and greatest LJ code. Unfortunately, this seems to have broken something; I don't know what. And since I didn't know how to un-break things, I had to restore the DB and the LJ code to known working states. So I apologize for anything that was lost. Know that I won't be updating the LJ code again. *wry grin*

If you posted a support request, I thank you for it, but you'll need to repost it.

There is something really goofy going on with Beta. I'm going to take it down again and try and fix whatever's going on.

EDIT: I've restored the database to its pre-Switcheroo #2 state, and the goofy is still happening... more digging.

So I can put back the userpics I inadvertently deleted. *sheepish grin*

EDIT Back up. Though something is still screwy with my friends page. I may end up nuking the DB again, so be warned.

If any of you are having any sort of trouble on Beta, please post a support request about it on Beta. This gives me a central place to look and know what to fix.

Your Humble Sysop

It took much longer than I anticipated, and for that I apologize.

The new dedicated machine for Beta is up and has all of Beta's stuff copied over. I cleared out the "%blob%" tables since we moved architectures (like we did when we copied Beta to SI main), so we shouldn't have any trouble there.

I know that I said 11 March at 23:59:59 CDT was the cutoff. I also, however, know that twocorpses went and suspended a bunch of accounts on Beta recently. And the DB doesn't show anything posted on new Beta since 12 March 03:30:00. So I'm going to pull the DB from old Beta now. I realize that's arbitrary, but I figure you're getting three extra days, nearly, so no complaints. :)

Oh, and to keep anyone from posting or commenting, I'm taking Beta down until the morning.

It's morning, and Beta is up. Go to it. :)

I am in the process of getting the new dedicated server for Beta up and running. During that time, beta.scribblit.com will not be available - as some of you have already seen, it's giving a "500 internal server error" the dreaded "we're working on something" message. I have yet to figure out what the problem is, but I'm working on it. So I guess we are "working on something". :) If anyone's interested, here's what I'm seeing in /usr/local/apache/log/error_log:

( cut for your pleasure )
-- Your Humble Sysop (who just got a new job! *g* )

ETA It's not a 500 error. It's an error being thrown by the LJ code, not Apache.

ETA2 I fixed it. I neglected to add the 'lj' user in MySQL.

Because of the outcry at my decision to remove accounts that were created without permission I am making a new post to address issues that have been brought up in the comments in my previous post.

You are not seeing it from your customer's point of view
I realize that it may appear that way but this is not the case. The site at this time, is not open to the public. There has always been a policy that beta testers and those who donated were not to invite other people to join. We have hashed this out on Scribblit itself with those who are actually part of the beta test and those that donated that invitations are not to be sent out unless there was an exception and permission given by me.

You shouldn't have had the invitation page up to begin with
Perhaps however with the problems we have been having with the servers and having to move everyone around, we have missed a few journals - these things happen - and so to make things easier on ourselves, we sent out invitations to those who were supposed to have them and did not get them. Should we have turned off the page when we were done with that? Probably but again I refer you to point #1 where the site is not open to the public and users were told not to invite people.

You're just going on a big powertrip and you don't care about your customers
This couldn't be farther from the truth. Every decision I make about this site is made in an effort to make it the best site it can be for everyone. However, it seems that some people are not realizing just how much work there is to do to get this site up and running. And while it may appear that we're not working on getting things fixed, the fact is, we are. We know about a lot of the issues and are working to get them fixed as quickly as possible. Keeping a smaller userbase on the site while it is still in testing generally makes it easier if we do have to back everything up and move everything around. And the faster we can get the problems fixed the sooner the site will be open to the public.

Let me reiterate a few things:
1) I have not nor will I ever delete journals randomly. Should a journal need to be deleted there will be a specific reason for it and the owner will be notified.
2) I have made no promises that there wouldn't be bumps in the road during the beta testing. Bumps and mistakes happen and in all honesty, should be expected when something is not fully functioning as desired. The people running this site are only human after all.
3) I care a great deal about the success of this project. I have been working on it for almost a year. I would have loved to have gotten it up and running and ready for January - I want to welcome everyone who wants to be there to the site. This site is my baby and I want it to succeed as much as anyone who is supporting this site. It was never my intention to do anything that would put people off - granted, I'm not going to be able to please everyone all the time but it has always been my intention to be as clear and transparent and available as possible.

What's going to happen to the journals then?
I have thought about this while typing up this entry and while reading the responses to my previous post. An investigation will still be done to determine the number of accounts that have been created since the beginning of March. If there is sufficient evidence that these accounts are not in fact spam account setups then these accounts will be suspended until the site is open. If it appears that the journals created have been the work of someone squatting on names or something similar then appropriate action will be taken (The squatted upon names will be deleted and purged so that they will be available to legitimate users when the site is open.)

For any user (beta tester or early contributer) who has sent out an invitation when they shouldn't have, your account will be suspended for an amount of time yet to be determined.

This is a reminder to all users: just because the invitation page may exist does not give you permission to invite people. And as I stated previously, we will be disabling it so this does not happen again.

As usual, I always encourage civil discussion but please keep it civil. I do not want to resort to disallowing anonymous comments due to someone saying something inappropriate.

[edit 5:08pm]
One last clarification, I apologize for leaving this out.

Beta testers were allowed to create secondary accounts for themselves. If you are curious as to whether or not you should be deleting that account you do not need to, the problem was with people inviting outside the beta tester/early contributor circle.

Also, only accounts that have been created from March 1/2008 will be examined.

[edit 5:16pm]
And one last thing. Since a number of people are claiming that it was never explicitly stated that users were not to send out invitations I would like to direct you to this post calling for more beta testers. Take note of the first point:

Do not create an account for yourself or for anyone else. If the account creation page is active it means that I am working on fixing the error that exists with it. DO NOT create an account

Common sense would dictate that one would extend such a rule to the invitations page since it clearly states not to create an account for anyone else.

First off, please make sure that your journals are backed up - here I am referring to SI Main. We are going to be working on the switcheroo over the next couple of days and hopefully we will be up and running again soon!

Secondly and perhaps most importantly DO NOT GIVE OUT INVITATION CODES. The site is not open to the public. Just because you have access to the invitation page does not mean you are allowed to use it. Once again, the site is not open to the public so invitation codes should not have been sent out. If you have sent out invitation codes you can inform those people that their accounts will be deleted and purged and they can recreate them when the site is live. And sadly, we will be revoking access to the invitation page so that this does not happen again.

[edit 2:42pm]
Apparently I was not clear enough and for that I apologize.

We will be doing an investigation into accounts that have been created without permission. One user has admitted already that they have been sending out invitations and this is unacceptable.

I realize that some people may find this rule to be a bit of overkill however with all of the problems we have been having and in an effort to keep things simple while we resolve the problems, the site was to remain closed. The site is closed. What this means is that people should NOT have been sending out invitations. Do not continue to send out invitations.

Should the invitation page be removed? Yes however in the process of updating and moving servers we needed the page to get everyone back up and running.

The fact of the matter is, those that have been created in March will be removed. Anything before that will be investigated.

If you have any concerns please email me at scribblit @ yahoo.ca.

[edit 3:34pm]
Please see my most recent post for more information and what will be done about the mis-created accounts.

Is anyone else suddenly not getting comment notifs from Beta? I'm not, on any of my journals. Anyone know of this issue?

Hi everyone!

I realize you haven't had an update in a while and that things are wonky all around. For both of those things I apologize.

We have had very little luck with our hosting company resolving the problem with the server and getting the code up and running so we are moving to a new company. The server should be set up later today and we will then work on getting the code installed there.

What does this mean for you? It means you need to back up you journals again! Please make sure you back up at both SI:Main and SI:Beta just to be on the safe side. At the moment I do not have a timeframe for when the other server will be taken down but it will not be before a week from now (March 12 - good grief it's March already?).

All of that being said, I really appreciate your patience and I am looking forward to the site opening soon!

I'm sorry again for the inconvenience and as soon as I know for sure when the other server will be taken down I will update again!

Also, please make sure to spread the word so that everyone who has an account knows! Link to this post if you must!

Is it just me or has beta been down since yesterday afternoon? At around 4:30 PM EST yesterday 2/19, I tried to log in and the main page wouldn't load. In fact, nothing would. Firefox kept giving me their "Unable to connect

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at www.beta.scribblit.com" error message. I thought it'd fix itself in a few hours like the last time beta sporadically went down, but it's 6:15 AM EST 2/20 and still nothing.

What's going on?