RIA is currently under a mild DDOS (Dedicated Denial of Service Attack) from somewhere in China. Basically what this means is that zombie computers are being directed to tie up as much of our bandwidth as possible, in an attempt to cripple the site.
I think we have things under control, as there appears to have been only a handful of IP addresses involved. We're filtering these out as they pop up, and things seem to be stabilizing.
8/29/07
8/27/07
New Tool
Hi all, in case you missed it, there's now a new tool live on the site that lets you delete the comments that you post under a specific review.
This is consistent with RIA's core philosophy to give its members complete control over the opinions and content that they post to the site. I'm not aware of another site that provides tools so that members can post their content on other sites, shares ad revenue, and allows its members full deletion functionality.
This is consistent with RIA's core philosophy to give its members complete control over the opinions and content that they post to the site. I'm not aware of another site that provides tools so that members can post their content on other sites, shares ad revenue, and allows its members full deletion functionality.
8/24/07
Couple of Profile Page Tweaks
You may have noticed a small change to the profile page:
We've moved the member's historical site activity up on the page, so it's the first thing you see after the person's "About Me" section. I'm finding it nice to not have to scroll way the heck down to read someone's review history.
Also, we're experimenting with caching some of the live stats on the profile page, so that they update once a day. This is to try and speed up the load time - I'm still not happy with the speed of these pages.
We've moved the member's historical site activity up on the page, so it's the first thing you see after the person's "About Me" section. I'm finding it nice to not have to scroll way the heck down to read someone's review history.
Also, we're experimenting with caching some of the live stats on the profile page, so that they update once a day. This is to try and speed up the load time - I'm still not happy with the speed of these pages.
8/23/07
Changing Your Profile Image
Some of you have reported an error message when trying to switch your profile image. This is now fixed.
8/20/07
Image Syncing Now Live
We now have images synchronized across all of our web servers. No more "now you see it, now you don't."
Please let me know if you see anything screwy when adding images to profile pages, weblists, or item pages.
Now it's on to the fun stuff! Rate-O-Matic comes next :)
Please let me know if you see anything screwy when adding images to profile pages, weblists, or item pages.
Now it's on to the fun stuff! Rate-O-Matic comes next :)
8/19/07
New Web Server Online
Our new web server is now online - this means we now have three web servers and a db server sharing the site's traffic load.
I don't expect the new server to make the site faster, but I do expect it to help significantly in making sure that big traffic surges don't cripple the site. In sum, RateItAll is now better equipped to handle significant traffic bursts.
So, in the past week, we have:
- optimized the Recent Comments page
- optimized the profile pages
- added a new web server
This is pretty boring stuff, but critically important.
We're also very, very close to rolling in the image server fix. Stay tuned.
I don't expect the new server to make the site faster, but I do expect it to help significantly in making sure that big traffic surges don't cripple the site. In sum, RateItAll is now better equipped to handle significant traffic bursts.
So, in the past week, we have:
- optimized the Recent Comments page
- optimized the profile pages
- added a new web server
This is pretty boring stuff, but critically important.
We're also very, very close to rolling in the image server fix. Stay tuned.
8/17/07
Profile Pages
OK, we made some optimizations to the profile pages and we now have the heaviest profile pages (with lots of widgets, rating history, etc) down to about 5-6 seconds, from (gulp) 15 seconds plus.
This is a big improvement, but still not fast enough. We'll keep plugging away.
This is a big improvement, but still not fast enough. We'll keep plugging away.
8/16/07
Just Bought Another Server
We'll hopefully have it in the mix some time next week. We're also, very close to putting in that image fix so that images are synced across all servers. I'm also hopeful that we will have the profile pages optimized shortly for faster page loads.
This is stuff is boring from a development perspective, but a fast site makes the RIA experience much better IMHO.
This is stuff is boring from a development perspective, but a fast site makes the RIA experience much better IMHO.
8/14/07
Record Traffic Day
Yesterday was an all time record traffic day for us. Depending on what stats package you believe, we did anywhere from 41K to 49K total visits.
For the most part, the site held up, though it got a little bit sluggish from time to time.
For the moment, we have prioritized site performance issues over everything else - some cool features have been put on the backburner until we can get some problem pages (e.g. profiles) loading fast.
I've also requested a quote for another web server.
For the most part, the site held up, though it got a little bit sluggish from time to time.
For the moment, we have prioritized site performance issues over everything else - some cool features have been put on the backburner until we can get some problem pages (e.g. profiles) loading fast.
I've also requested a quote for another web server.
8/13/07
Recent Comments Page Breakthrough
Guys, I think we've solved the chronic slow loading of the recent comments page from a logged in state. The solution has been right front of our eyes - divide the load into small chunks. Enjoy. Now I can go back to hitting that page about 700 times per day.
Weekly Goals
Our goals for the week:
1) Fix the image syncing issue
2) Speed up the recent comments page for logged in users
3) Speed up the profile pages
1) Fix the image syncing issue
2) Speed up the recent comments page for logged in users
3) Speed up the profile pages
8/9/07
Images
Some of you may have noticed strange stuff going on with profile and item images. Sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not.
This has to do with when we went to a mulitple web server configuration a few weeks ago. Because the images are saved locally on either one server or the other, you will see or them or not see them depending on what server you're hitting.
We have a fix in the works that will sync all images across all servers - this should be up some time next week.
This has to do with when we went to a mulitple web server configuration a few weeks ago. Because the images are saved locally on either one server or the other, you will see or them or not see them depending on what server you're hitting.
We have a fix in the works that will sync all images across all servers - this should be up some time next week.
8/7/07
Couple of Small Fixes Went Live
We pushed a few very minor fixes live last night:
- The default display in the "Reviews from Trusted Network" display went from two degrees away, to one degree away. In other words, you'll now only see reviews from folks in your immediate trusted network on your profile page.
- We changed the Overall Rating display on each item page from stars to numbers. I was getting tired of accidentally clicking the cumulative rating stars when I was trying to post my rating.
- We fixed it so clicking on the "comments" link associated with any review will automatically scroll you down the page to where the comments begin.
- The default display in the "Reviews from Trusted Network" display went from two degrees away, to one degree away. In other words, you'll now only see reviews from folks in your immediate trusted network on your profile page.
- We changed the Overall Rating display on each item page from stars to numbers. I was getting tired of accidentally clicking the cumulative rating stars when I was trying to post my rating.
- We fixed it so clicking on the "comments" link associated with any review will automatically scroll you down the page to where the comments begin.
8/6/07
RateItAll on the BBC
Over the weekend, the BBC included RateItAll in a segment called "The New Wave of Silicon Valley Start-Ups." If you watch the video clip, RateItAll's mention is about 8 minutes in. It's a brief mention, but very positive nonetheless.
7/27/07
Helpful Votes Updated
OK, the new tallies are up. Also, those of you who were waiting for "Top XX" tags now have them.
The shake-up was not as big as I thought it would be - we ALL lost helpful votes.
The shake-up was not as big as I thought it would be - we ALL lost helpful votes.
You May Want to Sit Down for This One
OK, how about a post about everybody's favorite topic... helpful votes.
There is going to be a big shake up in the rankings.
For a long time, the display used to track the top helpful vote getters has only taken into account positive helpful votes. What this display has failed to capture is what happens when users delete their accounts, when users are banned, or when generally bogus accounts are deleted. In all of these instances, the helpful vote tally for each user should go down.
This has not happened to date. The tallies could go up, but they could never go down to reflect helpful votes that are taken away with the deletion of a user or an account.
Momentarily we will be recalculating the helpful votes of all site members to reflect their true value. I'm expecting some pretty radical shake ups.
There is going to be a big shake up in the rankings.
For a long time, the display used to track the top helpful vote getters has only taken into account positive helpful votes. What this display has failed to capture is what happens when users delete their accounts, when users are banned, or when generally bogus accounts are deleted. In all of these instances, the helpful vote tally for each user should go down.
This has not happened to date. The tallies could go up, but they could never go down to reflect helpful votes that are taken away with the deletion of a user or an account.
Momentarily we will be recalculating the helpful votes of all site members to reflect their true value. I'm expecting some pretty radical shake ups.
7/24/07
Anonymous Ratings?
Historically on RateItAll, a rating without a review has been as good as an anonymous rating. If I wanted to drop a five star rating on the new Britney Spears anthology, I could do so without fear of reprisal.
This may no longer be the case.
One of the unanticipated features of the new rating widget is the ability to see all of the raters of a given item. Let's take for example, the RateItAll Reviewers list. By building a rating widget for Magellan, you can now see all of the folks who have rated Magellan - whether or not they posted a review. To do this, just play around with the icons at the bottom of the widget.
While this may result in some awkward moments ("I can't believe so and so gave me a one star rating!!"), I do think that more transparency is generally a good thing.
However, now might be a good time to get your house in order in terms of being able to back up your ratings :)
This may no longer be the case.
One of the unanticipated features of the new rating widget is the ability to see all of the raters of a given item. Let's take for example, the RateItAll Reviewers list. By building a rating widget for Magellan, you can now see all of the folks who have rated Magellan - whether or not they posted a review. To do this, just play around with the icons at the bottom of the widget.
While this may result in some awkward moments ("I can't believe so and so gave me a one star rating!!"), I do think that more transparency is generally a good thing.
However, now might be a good time to get your house in order in terms of being able to back up your ratings :)
7/19/07
Let People Rate Your Blog - From Your Blog
Do you remember all that testing that was going on a while back? Well, what we were testing is this cool new widget that lets you rate stuff on RateItAll without ever going to RateItAll.
We're trying this concept out as a Blog Feedback Widget. So, if you have a blog, and would like to let people rate it right from your Blog, click here.
The widget does all sorts of other cool stuff to - like show thumbnail pics of recent reviewers, and let you scroll through the most recent reviews.
We're trying this concept out as a Blog Feedback Widget. So, if you have a blog, and would like to let people rate it right from your Blog, click here.
The widget does all sorts of other cool stuff to - like show thumbnail pics of recent reviewers, and let you scroll through the most recent reviews.
Server Update
We now have two quad webservers, fully load blanced, up and talking to each other. Those annoying login problems should be a thing of the past.
I am hopeful that we can now get back to rolling out cool stuff with the fear that our servers will be overwhelmed.
I am hopeful that we can now get back to rolling out cool stuff with the fear that our servers will be overwhelmed.
7/18/07
Need some testing help!
We're testing some changes that should fix this login status problem that we've been having, and that will also make it easier to add more servers as we grow.
Can you please try surfing around demo3.rateitall.com as you would on RIA? Try rating stuff, logging in and out, messaging - in other words, anything that you would be doing anyway.
Look for things that don't work right, and that seem strange.
Demo3 is hooked up to the live database, so anything that you post will post to the regular site.
Thanks!
Can you please try surfing around demo3.rateitall.com as you would on RIA? Try rating stuff, logging in and out, messaging - in other words, anything that you would be doing anyway.
Look for things that don't work right, and that seem strange.
Demo3 is hooked up to the live database, so anything that you post will post to the regular site.
Thanks!
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