Home : Blogs : Jorgen Hahn : Minor Missives

Localism: Striving to better, oft we mar what's well

Contrary to popular belief, Jon didn't hire me solely on the basis of my spellchecking fixing abilities. (the shock!) I have a confession to make, loyal readers: instead of working on spellcheck for these past few months, I've been busy pushing the new Localism to completion. (the intrigue!) There – I've said it. I feel better now!

Like any human endeavor, Localism isn't perfect. That bugs a perfectionist like me. The new Localism still has a few (sizable) rough patches:

You can't leave comments on posts
Photos uploaded to the old Localism during our internal transitional period may not appear
Layout issues. This mostly (and ironically) affects those of you who put the most time into making your profile great. We're still working on shoehorning things into our new design. It's like trying on those pants that are one size too small but look really great, so you manage to make it work.

Closed issues:

Top neighbors. We (Matt and I. Buy Matt a beer!) finally fixed it! You now (rightly) get credit for your older Localism posts!
Some layout issues. Internet Explorer throws a fit when it encounters extra-wide elements. If your profile on Localism looks weird, let me know!
Cities that belong to multiple counties now display correctly. Here's looking at you, Denver.
Photo uploads are working again!
No more slow loading pages. Or at least not as slow… We've made major strides on this issue today, and those agonizing 5 minute waits should be a thing of the past!
You're now able to create new neighborhoods when sponsoring communities

What can you do to help? Use and abuse the new Localism! Let me know what blows up. In direct contradiction to your mother's (loving) edicts, if you break it, I have to fix it.

Don't be afraid to criticize. I'm also very open to gushing compliments.

Update: Jon's got a great (and very official) Q&A up at http://activerain.com/blogsview/586195/Localism-Q-A-Official.

Posted by Jorgen Hahn on 07/09/2008 01:31 PM

Comments (86)

localism

Generate short URL

Post is included in group: Club Chaos

86 Comments on Localism: Striving to better, oft we mar what's well

JUL

2008

Jorgen, FAB u lous darling. You out did yourself. So glad that you got off the spell check duty. You are one talented soul.

Seriously, it looks great and you should be very proud. The only thing that I had issue this morning iwth and I believe it to be an overall Active Rain issue is the slow down of the system which sometimes due to the time it takes to load, seems to not accept changes or new posts readily.

I will have to go in and play in your neck of the woods. I'll let you know if I find any issues.

Keep up the spectacular work and stay off of spell check duty.

This:

(Enter the community or city you're interested in)

should be in deep red bold so people don't miss it.....like I did. :0

I'm not too open to criticizing ....but I will give my opinion after I navigate a bit more.

I'm still debating if I even want to 'buy' into thousands of communities on our island when I service the whole island :)

Is there going to be a place for market reports and listings on Localism?

Jorgen~ Looking pretty good so far. I am going to have to go in and use it to see how it all works. Thanks for all your hard work!

It does look good, but I guess I am unsure of how the top neighbor works. In my city Boca Raton I am a featured member, and I have posted tons of articles and photos to the old localism. Now I go on there and see only 1 member as a top neighbor, and all of his articles, but none of mine. Is there a reason. It is also a little slow, and you can't add a neighborhood in localism. You can only add it to AR. No big deal. It looks good though, and am looking forward to working with it.

Thanks for the early feedback!

Gena: Sorry if things were poky on ActiveRain and Localism this morning. We try to work quickly and quietly behind the scenes, but much like road construction, sometimes it spills out into the open :)

Celeste: You'll have to talk to the designer (Glin!) about that one.

Michael: I am but a lowly developer. You'll have to ask someone smarter (jon)

David: Not sure what's happening here. One of the community gurus should be able to give you a better response. We're still working on the speed of the site, and the ability to add neighborhoods is on the drawing board.

Thanks for the great feedback – keep it coming!

It looks great, I am really happy, just have had difficulty with the last post I was doing, kept on saying I was not logged in after I placed the post. I was logged in. Also, difficulty getting some of the photos on, finally gave up and just posted one photo.

Is there a place we can just photos like before? Thanks

Jorgen...

You should never ever talk about blowing things up around me. I may very well take you up on that. I'm intrigued now and think I'll go in and see what I can break, blow up and generally screw up :)

TLW...ROAR! (Queen of Crap at your service)

Christine: The ability to upload photos to the new Localism is coming soon!

Jorgen - welcome aboard and good job on the new localism! Who cares about spellchuck? I am glad to see that you have a sense of humor like the rest of the AR crew - you will need it with some of us local loonies.

I also think it looks great. Besides photos, I do not see a way to create new neighborhood areas. I think consumers will like this site.

Now if you can fix my HTML problem...I'd really love you...REALLY I would. Please :)

Thanks for the update...looking forward to using the new and improved site!

Thanks for the update and I love the way the "new" localism looks and navigates.

Joregen you mentioned community gurus. Who should I contact? Thanks so much

I notice on a few of my old posts the photos only show the outline but no photo...but I knew that since this morning.:)

I like the overall look, but I did notice that some of my posts are cut off on the right hand side (photos, etc), even though they look fine in AR. The same goes for longer headlines (i.e. the end is cut completely off).

If you click on "View my Blog" on one of the "Top Neighbors", then on the page it brings up, my name is cut off by the black header of the page. See http://localism.com/agents/blanchelola

Hi Jorgen...I just did a new post in honor of the new Localism.com. It is not showing up as yet so I will patiently wait. While waiting I will probably write a few more.

The site is impressive. Like the colors used and the simple, classy look.

Thanks for your contribution.

Kate

Jorgen - Hhmmm, you are new to me! I like you! :) Thanks for the update!

We like the new Localism, it seems much sleeker, even though all my posts are downsized and it messed up the spacing, sigh, another thing to go in and fix.

Will we be able to add neighborhoods in the future? I've been trying for a month or so to add them. I like the Google map feature and the way the photos scroll out.

Can't wait to go in and play around with it!!

Thanks for the new play toy...

Thanks for fixing spellcheck.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Launching A new Product is always fun! Good Luck

You asked for comments.

The pictures on the new localism are not placed property within the article. It works fine if you have one at the top, but the text doesn't wrap around the pics in the middle.

Where did all the neighborhood articles go, listings, market reports and regional events are gone.

You answered majority of my questions and yet other posts did too. What about adding a new development, there are several in Chandler, Arizona that are not on the list? And yet I've blogged about neighborhoods, market trends and events that have gone on through out the year and they are not there.

I know, day one...really it looks good and I like both the old Localism and the new! I'm assuming with time all that content will be put into each city and development and will not be lost....that is how alot of our clients have found us.

Cheron Lange

Jorgen,

Why does only one "top neighbor" show up in our county (Kankakee) in IL. and its not me! And I am the top person in our county on AR. Keep up the great work!

Jorgen, I totally appreciate your hard work and I am sure sweat and tears (oops there is no crying in blogging) ;). I do think form looking around that the photo area somehow has causes some issues with who is where and who should be "neighbors". I am listed as a "neighbor" in Alaska based only on pictures I have taken when I am up there. I have an address up there - just not a license - lol!!

Today I got a lot of "general errors." Probably the system was just overwhelmed. The only thing I worry about with these glitches is when people (consumers) are trying to access my stuff. This sort of thing is inevitable when things are being changed. Now I posted something to localism very, very early this morning. I loaded charts as pictures...they are up there now and in great shape. No problems. I haven't tried to load photos specifically to localism - I haven't for a long time - too many photos and no way to organize them. I wanted to see what this format was going to look like before I did any more and it became impossible to sort - if that's what I'm supposed to do.

I have noticed that when you scroll thru the blog a white box covers have the video "box" when using using the Vimeo or Veoh networks. YouTube seems to be ok. You can open the videos if you click thur, but would rather have a neighbor be able to open from the first time they encounter the video and not have to go "deeper" in if they don't want to. Wow that is confusing huh -

Hi Jorgen- Welcome aboard. Have they kept you locked in a basement, until they could launch Localism, or have you just been avoiding us?

I haven't spent that much time on Localism, but, I promise, in the future, to do my best to break it, test its capabilities. What I have noticed: when I search Westport, CT, only two of us have blogs, yet neither of us show up as "neighbors", in the right hand column. Also, if I click on "view my blog", when my blog loads, it cuts off the top half of my name and my banner pictures.

With this latest "featured" post, think of all the new friends you've made. I know you can't wait to keep hearing from us. ;-)

I still don't understand why the spellcheck in Firefox works everywhere except here...

I guess I am lucky, most of my articles and pictures are on the new site and the top neighbors are as they should be. I noticed some of the words go off the side and disappear, but I figure these are early glitches that will be fixed, overall, very good here in little ol' Akron, Ohio! Thank you.

I even made a new post for my neighborhood, Firestone Park, Akron, Ohio and it showed right up. I would like to add some pics, so I will wait for that to be fixed.......

Kind of wondering why the some of the featured Agents with points on AR do not show up on Localism.

My photos are there, but I am not. The main Rhode Island page at the bottom shows top neighbors from everywhere but Rhode Island.

Jorgen, I have noticed the I do not see any posts to Localism between June 19th and July 2nd. Will the posts between these date eventually show up on Localism?

The new Localism is just amazing to me that the conversion went as well as it did. A great credit to you and your crew. This will be an amazing resource for the community.

So far I'm hearing good things from people who don't blog here. You've got a lot of things right. Hey...it's only day one!

Jimmy, I noticed that, too! That is when I posted my Mesquite Relocation post, it took me forever - I planned it for Localism. :(

Jorgen - will the 'gap' posts go in later?

Jorgen - Hi I just noticed I have been wiped out completely from localism except of course for my pictures and can't log into the site under our user name Hammersteam. What happened to us? We have two sites one: pascackvalleyrealestate and Hammersteam. Only in the pascackvalleyrealestate name can I log into localism. What gives? So far I'm guessing it's a temporary bug? hopefully. All my pics are in there for Bergen County NJ but I can't get into them to edit at all of course cause I can't log in. Any help would be greatly appreciated and best of luck with this new launch. Bob H.

I'm slightly disturbed that all my older blogs seem as if they were a waste with the new forum. Though I've been on and posted for over a year I'm showing as the bottom "top neighbor". Need to get back to work posting on Localism!

Jorgen -- I am intrigued by your posts. I detect a sly personality that may prove to be a fine addition to this site. Let us hear from you.

I'll be tooling around the new Localism, but usually, the initial bugs disappear quickly as AR is on it.

Parked on Localism.

I have been checking out the new localism site. I like the new look but have a few concerns. The area I sell in is located in The Columbia River Gorge which straddles both Oregon & Washington and 2 counties in each state. One problem I have had in posting is sometimes having to decide which state and which county to post in when the article is relevant for maybe both states and either 2,3, or even all 4 counties. Lately I have been trying to write my posts to apply specifically to a certain area in the gorge but sometimes there is information that applies to the entire region. It would be nice if I could post to more than 1 state and county.

Another thing that isn't really correct for this area is the way the "popular cities" & "popular communities" are set up. All the towns in The Columbia River Gorge are pretty small and the towns are small towns in their own right. The way it's organized on localism is confusing and not really acurate. Here's an example. I looked up Klickitat County, when I click on White Salmon, It shows the communities as: Glenwood, Bingen, Lyle, Northwestern Lake, Bz Corners, Husum, Underwood, Pucker Huddle, Snowden, etc. Then if you click on one of these "communities" it says "White Salmon's Glenwood" or "White Salmon's Underwood" The thing is Glenwood is actually a town itself and is about 30 miles from White Salmon, not a community "in or of" White Salmon. Underwood is not in White Salmon it's about 10 miles away, actually in Skamania County, not even Klickitat County and is also small town itself, not a community of White Salmon. Of the ones listed here the only ones that could be accurately considered "communities of White Salmon" are Pucker Huddle, Snowden and maybe Northwestern Lake.

I noticed similar conflicts in the other gorge counties also: Skamania, Hood River, & Wasco. I don't know if others are having similar situations with their areas. It seems like the "popular communities" feature is maybe better suited for larger cities with many different neighborhoods still in that city.

I just thought I'd pass on my thoughts on this.

Jorgen, it's only day one and I think you all must be EXHAUSTED - but thanks for working on this. I'm sure it will come out great. We know the team is knocking themselves out to get this site stronger than ever.

It's hard for us to see the missing work and loss of placement that we worked so diligently to achieve. It's also hard to see that someone may stake a claim in an area we already staked by our blogging labor.

AR and Localism have truly been places where talent did matter more than money.

There is a lot of frustration in the ranks - but I think most of us are optimistic that it will come together in a fair way. Get some rest!

JUL

2008

Jorgen - Its nice to meet another one of the "hamsters" who keep AR on the go.

I see some similar issues in the new localism to the outside blog one of the two main ones is the width of the post section is different to AR and many posts look a little odd as a result especially ones that use custom html coding or with large pictures. The other is the fact that your email is visible which brings up the spam concerns I liked the way email is handled on our AR blogs.

Keep up the good work we all love AR

ps thanks for the better - working most of the time spell checker

Glitches are to be expected in a project of this size. I know you guys have a handle on it all though.

Wow. I'm completely overwhelmed by your outpouring of praise and constructive criticism! I've been hunkered down working on Localism in my own little "bubble", cut off from all human contact. (jon's a real taskmaster!) To see you using Localism, enjoying Localism, breaking Localism, makes all those 3am nights worth it.

Right now, my top priority is fixing the top neighbor display. I'll do a longer exposé about this feature at some indeterminate point in the future, but this'll be the third time we've completely rewritten the algorithm. Who says the life of a developer isn't glamorous?

-->Who says the life of a developer isn't glamorous?

Spoken like a TRUE Code Monkey :) I use that term with much endearment :)

Personally I'm pleased to see we have one with a sense of humor :)

TLW...ROAR!

Jorgen, here is a twitter message from Kristal Kraft:

"Dear AR God. Pleaz put Denver back where it belongs. Denver is a City AND a County. It's not in Arapahoe County. :) UhavePower!"

Can you also check to make sure the rest of the city/couty architecture is syncing properly?

When I google "Verrado homes for Sale", I have a Localism Post featured, Buckeye on page 2. When I click it, it goes to verrado but there's no post(of any kind).

Not much posted on Localism for Arizona and it's cities. The lack of info makes me think the launch seems a little pre mature..for a neighborpedia. No homes for sale listed in the neighborhoods?

Cosmetically, it's gorgeous!

Gig Harbor needs to be removed from Kitsap County - it is in Pierce County and does show up there.

I've fixed some issues and updated my post. Yay!

TLW: I've got a song called "Code Monkey"… don't judge me!

Jon: Welcome to my humble corner of AR. I'm glad you took a break from calling me on the phone to post a comment to my blog :) The Denver issue has been fixed. Localism now properly handles cities that reside in multiple counties. Do I get to take a break yet! (ha!)

Virtual Ndustry: Thanks for the compliment. Sadly, I don't have any editorial control – I just code all day. arbob or one of the other community gurus should be able to give you a better answer.

Jo Soss: You're talking to the wrong person, but that drink looks amazing. Is it for me?!

Jorgen, umm, no the beer is for Matt - :wink: I saw where Jonathan had posted about the Denver issue to you so I thought this was the place - hmmm so who do I bug ask next ?

Jorgen...

You mean this one <CLICK CLICK> :)

Just so you know I am so not judging you. Here on AR most of us are new to Blogging and interacting on the web. That being the case the title of "Code Monkey" is a term of endearment around here. Has been for quite sometime. Now I know why the last person to have your role on AR told me to be careful who I say that too :)

Please don't misunderstand me. I have nothing but the greatest respect for anyone that can look at HTML and tell me and the rest of us what the code actually means :)

If it weren't for people like you the rest of us would be...How should I say this?...Screwed :)

P.S. I only know one tiny little thing about coding: <p align="center">. Now that doesn't make me too bright now does it? :)

TLW...ROAR!

Hi Jorgen- Yea! I'm now a "neighbor." Now that that's cleared up, I guess I'll have to start adding more posts to Localism

JUL

2008

TLW: My special brand of dry sarcasm doesn't carry over well to the web. I should've used a winking face to let you know I was in on the joke :D That video was hilarious, and that's exactly the song I was talking about! Do you think I should tell jon to write the login page himself? ;)

(For the record, I'm a proud code monkey. Just don't tell my normal friends!)

Jo Soss: Try arbob. I hear he doesn't have enough to do :)

Jorgen, you are just a riot! I sent Bob the directive - :)

Jorgen, you offered - so here I am begging :) what do I need to do to my profile - it is way out of whack!

Jorgen, here's the one little IE buglet I noticed --- The agent name slides up halfway under the banner ... screen shots here http://activerain.com/blogsview/587012/One-of-those-Internet

Never mind, I just realized you already fixed it.

I think we're gonna be friends. :-)

Madison County, GA appears to be missing - even though there are cities from there with post showing up - are you the go to guy for checking on that?

JUL

2008

On the localism site I get this message when I fill the form field for eagle, idaho and then select your fixed field. Help!

Status: 500 Internal Server Error Content-Type: text/html

JUL

2008

box of steinies

Jorgen - I'll come back and read the rest of the comments later, but first I would like to buy both you and Matt a beer.... split this with him will ya? (If this picture is messed up, that's another issue with IE.)

I would like to complain about my profile and my blog.... some pictures are horizontally squashed... like this one appears to be.

I'll be back to whine some more, from Firefox.

Cheers!

I'm sorry I missed the memo - was this in the newsletter? Congrats on your new position at AR - are you ready?

I see the box of beer has arrived in this realm. Enjoy.

I've got your number, watch out. Expect more complaints.... : )

Thanks for being in the front line and taking the flak.

LOL Jorgen...

Yes I do. I think you should take up bossing Jonathan around. Glad to find out you be one of them there proud Code Monkeys. You should be proud. Your profession is so not for the faint of heart :)

And just so you know...I and many other Members are not receiving emails after we've checked off notify me of comments.

Okay. Fess up...Did you break something? Wink :)

TLW...ROAR!

Featured @ Club Chaos

If anyone is still reading this crazy post, photo uploads are working again! I think it was worth the wait – you can now upload multiple photos without pulling out great chunks of your hair.

Great Jorgen! I will go upload some. Did you fix it by yourself, or did Matt help you?

Michelle DeRepentigny: Looks like that extra-wide Realtor banner is throwing things off. You don't need to make any changes to your profile – everything will be fixed automatically (soon!)

Georgina: Looks like a stream-roller found your blog posts. Sorry about that :) We're still working on squeezing the extra-wide ActiveRain content into Localism. FYI, I've always wanted to live in lovely Hawaii. I'll have to pay a visit on my next trip!

TLW: Promise it wasn't me. Maybe you should talk to Matt? ;)

Jorgen, Of course we are still reading we are the AR groupies! I am so excited about the photos I have taken so many since it was shut off and to see how they are displayed on Localim really is inspiring!! After the gym I am loading up!!

For the one person still following this post (hi Jo!), we've pushed out more aggressive caching. You are no longer able to brew a pot of coffee while a page loads. (Unless you're Superman. Maybe)

Jorgen, trust me, there are a lot of us following this post! We just don't always comment. (LOL) Enjoy your evening, sweetie, and remember, you are very much appreciated in our little neck of the computer world. Regards, C.

Jorgen - don't think we are not still watching you over here :0 Thanks for the update on my whacked profile, I'll try to wait patiently.

Are you still the go to guy for: Madison County, GA appears to be missing - even though there are cities from there with post showing up? thanks for your help!

C: Thanks for the kind words. Nice to know that I'm not working in a vacuum :)

Michelle: Is this the madison county you're talking about? http://localism.com/ga/counties/madison_county

J, you are very welcome! :-)

JUL

2008

Jorgen, that would be it - now how the heck did you do that? Ok - it is there from your link but when you type in "Madison" on the front page search box nothing shows up in for a county in Georgia. Can you check on that for me :)

J - regarding the flattened pictures - do you think it has anything to do with uploading the pictures larger, and then resizing them in the dialog box? If so, I will try to stop doing that... but I find the quality comes out better that way.

(still lurking around and waiting for results)

Michelle: When you type in Madison, it lists the 10 most popular "Madison Counties". Sadly, Madison County (Georgia) doesn't make that initial cut. I found it by searching for "Madison GA". We're still tweaking the search algorithm :)

Georgina: We know what's causing the flattened pictures. Just need to find the time to fix it! Continue resizing in the dialog box – you won't break anything!

JUL

2008

Photo uploads - issues

1- I uploaded three photos to http://localism.com/on/counties/muskoka_county today but titles/ descriptions did not take can they be edited?

2- I think the photos I uploaded were too large a file is there a recommended size

JUL

2008

Thanks for fixing the skinny pictures, I think.

Can we upload more pics to Localism somehow?

AUG

2008

I have "before and after" pictures side by side on my profile on Localism and the "after" is cut off. I went into my AR Profile and changed it so the pictures were one on top of the other. I was hoping the change would also happen in Localism, but it didn't. How do I edit the pictures in my Localism profile?

Jorgen...

I'm glad this post popped up in my email. I've been meaning to come back and tell ya something.

I recently found out how old you are and I'm amazed. I mean REALLY amazed...A natural born Code Monkey. That is just so cool :)

I could spend years trying to learn what you do. All I would accomplish is losing 150 calories per hour from banging my head against a wall :)

By the way...I think I have hang overs older than you :)

TLW...ROAR!

AUG

2008

Jorgen, unless i'm missing something isn't the log in button missing from the home page on localism? Second, is there a way you guys can layout the page on localism just as it is on active rain, that way size issues would be a thing of the past(eg. no more cut off posts, shrunked images). Also many communities are duplicated within your network some even in multiple counties. Is there a particular person whom we can contact to correct some of that?

Jorgen, thanks for all you do man...I know I gave bob a long list yesterday...sorry for all the work I caused!

AUG

2008

Jorgen,

Localism continues to look better and better. I hope our Localism Compendium helps reference to info that may come in handy along your quest. That's our personal contribution which will hopefully better your efforts even more. Keep up the good work and All the Best-

FEB

2009

Hi there - on my profile, there is a lot of extra html that I can't seem to get in and remove. is there a way to edit our localism profile to remove that stuff? Also, I had someone recently spam a couple of my posts with a "check listings on my site" type of thing, and I deleted them from ActiveRain, but they are still on localism, and I would like to remove them. Do we have functionality for that yet?

Thanks!

AUG

2009

I've looked everywhere. I've posted general question on AR. How do I edit my Localism page?

Thanks, Anna Boyd Re/Max

JUN

I want to remove a post on Localism; please help!

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?

Jorgen Hahn

Seattle, WA

More about me…

Email Me

Links

Archives

Find WA real estate agents and Seattle real estate on ActiveRain.

Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.