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Back up to 4 DB Processors

OK, our fan fix went smoothly. We're back up and running, and things should be humming again.

Downtime at 11AM PST

We're dropping in the new DB fans at 11AM California time. We should be back up no later than 11:30.

Running on Half Power

Last night, two of the cooling fans on our quad DB crapped out. The overheated CPUs caused the database server to shut down.

As a short term fix, we disabled the two processors that correlated to the broken fans until we could find some replacement fans.

Currently, RIA's DB is running on only 2 of its 4 processors. This could result in some slowness, especially during peak hours.

The good news is that we've found some replacement fans and will be dropping them into the DB later today, which will allow us to bring all four processors back up. There will be about 20 minutes of scheduled downtime while we make this happen.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Having DB issues

We're working on it...

Any Facebook Members out There?

Hey all, any of you on Facebook? We're testing out the new RateItAll reviews app for Facebook. It's basically a stripped down version of RIA that lets you share your reviews with your network of Facebook friends.

Here's a couple of key things you should know:

- Helpful, Funny, Agree votes accumulated on Facebook count towards your RIA totals
- On Facebook, you get a notification when somebody else on Facebook votes your review helpful. This means you can know WHO your helpfuls are coming from.
- Stuff you post on Facebook RIA will also post on RIA. Write once, post many.
- Make sure to merge your accounts once you add the app - this will ensure that all helpful votes you get on Facebook go towards your RIA tally

Want to try it out? Click here (if you're not a Facebook member, you'll have to join first.) Also, stay tuned for a RateItAll group on FB - I'll set one up shortly.

I'm actually doing most of my RIA posting on Facebook now. I've found it's faster and easier to post, and I can better response in terms of votes and feedback.

This Facebook version of RIA also explains the recent search of posts coming from people with names starting with "FB" (these are Facebook members who don't yet have a RateItAll Account)

Profile Pages

Guys, we fixed a bottleneck in how the profile pages were loading. I think you'll find that some of the heavier profile pages of folks with lots of data are now loading much faster.

A Sneak Peek

The recent helpful, funny, agree changes to reviews also have corresponding display implications.

I haven't been crazy about the home page for a while. There's too much static content, and too much of an emphasis on telling people what the site does. I want a page that shows what the site does.

Here's a sneak peek of a portion of a revised home page we're working on. Note the reviewer module on the bottom right that highlights the daily most active, most helpful, most agreed with, and funniest reviewer. I think it's going to be cool.

Helpful, Funny, Agree is Now Live

We've added helpful, funny, and agree buttons for every review on the site. Each person's profile page is now tabulating votes in each of these categories.

The way it's set up, you can only choose one vote per review - for example, you can't vote a review helpful AND funny.

Please be on the lookout for things that aren't working properly with this new feature.

Deleting Weblists

I've been getting a ton of feedback that when a reviewer leaves, they shouldn't be able to delete their Weblists. Why? Because deleting a list means deleting all of the reviews that were posted under that list.

Folks (so far) have universally felt that this is unfair. That if a Weblist is pushed out to the public domain, it's creator shouldn't have the power to delete it.

I can see the arguments on both sides of this one. Anyone care to comment?