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Faster, Safer, Better...ActiveRain is Undergoing a Major Tune-Up So 'Please Excuse The Mess'

ActiveRain has been admittedly a little extra 'wonky' lately. Everyone has probably experienced the 'Proxy' (and a few other) errors, including HTML, widget and other outside application disfunctionalities.

While it may seem like things are breaking down, in reality we're really beefing things up. The programming architecture that AR primarily runs on recently underwent a pretty substantial upgrade. In a nutshell, the version upgrade allows our programmers to work, implement and fix features and utilities much faster and easier than before. It also places an emphasis on simplicity, security and stability, all vital for a bustling community such as AR to function properly.

Alas, little bugs, glitches and other side-effects are inevitable (1 step back to take 4 steps forward)...also, we've locked out certain widgets, HTML tags and other scripts that can be malicious in nature (which can/have caused other issues on the network), such as:

Certain HTML tags will not work, specifically the <font> tag. H (header) and tags should be used instead.
Only 'approved' widgets will work in the network. Brad Andersohn will be releasing a post with the specific approved widget providers.
Some 3rd party applications (i.e. realestateshows.com) were temporarily down. Jeff Turnerites, please put down your pitchforks ;)

We've had other issues around commenting and inter-network email outages as well as links not opening in a new window, but they've been fixed.

I've noticed various posts popping up around the network identifying some or all of the above. While open communication is great, as it helps the entire community understand these issues are not theirs alone, if anyone notices 'bugs' in the future please also drop a line to Brad (brad@activerain.com), Rich (rich@activerain.com), Bob (bob@activerain.com) and/or myself (jcorbett@activerain.com). Chances are the powers that be are already aware of and working on the issues but some items may slip through the cracks and we want to make sure we've addressed everything. In any case, these bugs and issues are very temporary and will fade to black in the near future.

As always, we appreciate your patience and participation as we continue to build on the worlds best real estate social network.

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 12/01/2008 01:28 PM

Comments (97)

Active Rain Community Support in the ActiveRain Channel

activerain bugs, activerain issues

Originally posted at: The XBroker: Faster, Safer, Better...ActiveRain is Undergoing a Major Tune-Up So 'Please Excuse The Mess'

97 Comments on Faster, Safer, Better...ActiveRain is Undergoing a Major Tune-Up So 'Please Excuse The Mess'

DEC

2008

Wishing you luck with the fix. I have not used any widgets because I always wondered if they slow down the system. I prefer faster loadtime over too many gadgets, but I know others love the widgets.

Thanks Jeff, sure appreciate you taking the time to post this! :-) I'll start the post now, right after I warn everyone about the Antivirus Pro 2009 that nearly killed my home office network over the weekend. :-((

So, here's my question...If you fix everything, what will we have to complain about??? LOL. Actually, thank you for moving forward with growing AR. We users appreciate it.

Thanks for the "heads up" Jeff, and for continually making this a better and better place to be.

"wonky" Love it! Can we have the word proxy replaced with "wonky 502" :).

Jeez brad! You installed that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_pro_2009

Jeff what software do you guys use on this anyways? I am just wondering what platform this is.

Jeff: It's always great to see the improvements that area always coming to AR. I see you have the Re-Blog button here... I can't seen to get it to show up on a recent post..

Hi Jeff, Noticed some funky stuff and figured it was a " Short between the keyboard and the floor ! ". Thanks for the update and especially for the effort.

Jeff:Thanks for the post. Your continual improvements and upgrades makes this one of the best (if not the best) social/networking site available

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the update and for everything you do.

These are simply growing pains and it is a good sign that this network is continuing in the right direction.

Keep up the great work!

"Wonky?"....is that like "Willy Wonky?"....

A great site making improvements, how fantastic!

Jeff, thanks for the update. With the number of users and the number of new features you keep rolling out, I am impressed that it works as well as it does. Thanks for all that the AR people do!

Glad to hear you are "really beefing things up" Most AR pages have worked well recently.

While it may seem like things are breaking down, in reality we're really beefing things up....

That's what my dentist said, when he made the cavity bigger, before filling it in. Hope this fix also has a silver lining. ;-)

Jeff, when the first post came out about widgets & scripts one of the ones mentioned that would definately stay is statcounter. Now, it isn't working. Is this something going away or is it one that still needs to be fixed?

Thanks for the update Jeff! I loved talking with you at the AR party at NAR, and look forward to a lot of the enhancements you've got in the works!

Thank you for the upgrades and the information! I have been getting a bunch of the Proxy things lately.

Jeff - it's just like life. You think everything is fine and then you hit a pothole. The fact that you all try to fix the problems is all I can ask. Thanks for your hard work!

THanks for the updates and progress you have all been making. I was wondering what all of the problems were...

Jeff, FYI- On my profile- I wanted to delete just some comments & it deletes ALL of them. I first noticed this last week when other things were wonky. As of 5 minutes ago, this is still wonky.

THe Horse Girl ~ Marian

Yes it has been pretty "wonky" ha ha. At this point my only real concern is not getting points for my blog on Sunday, but I sent in a report so maybe someone will correct it. Anything and everything you guys do"up there" to make it easier to do this stuff "down here" is greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Debbie

Thanks guys for all your hard work. I've had a few technical issues and just sent them along to the AR problem desk. Some postlets are still not operating correctly and are slightly out of sync. I know you will fix it soon! Higher pay and better nuts for the squirrels? Gold plated squirrel cages for Christmas?

Thanks for making the improvements to an already fantastic site. Thankfully I have not experienced any problems, but will let AR know if I do.

"wonky".... LOL.

I'll be looking forward to the HTML updates. Will embedded stylesheets still work, or will we be limited to the choices within the AR editor?

Thanks for the updates! Even though only here briefly, I've seen some of these but assumed that they were simply quirks of the system. Nice to know it's only getting better.

Thanks, Jeff! Looking forward to the 4 steps forward, as I step back :)

Tom

www.nypropertyinsurance.com

Why not simply have a bugs@activerain.com to simplify notifications?

SUPER DUDES.....continue to improve our Active Rain. Thanks for all your hard work and improvements. ( I ain't complaining here..... ) :)

Thanks guys! We appreciate it! And, to BRAD -- ANTIVIRUS 2009 SUCKS!!!!!! Spent roughly 9 hours trying to kill that bastard of a program a week ago...

Wish you luck!

What system are you using as the platform? HP, Sun, IBM? Sun has the best products right now, including many free ones like mySQL, and ZFS.

Hi Jeff could this be why Statcounter does not seem to be recording any visits for the past few day and if so is it just a matter of waiting or something that we can do to correct? Thanks.

What will happen to widgets that we are currently using if they are not on the new "approved" list?

Jeff, Did the linking points go away? I did not know if this is a glitch or what.

Jeff -"patience" is a virtue they say, which I would hazard a guess, makes most of the 122,000 plus members very virtuous. :-) ;-) Thanks for the info "Patiently Waiting"

Jeff.. Thanks for not keeping us in the dark, and giving us an overview of what is happening on the IT end of ActiveRain. I'm sure this answers some of the questions that have been asked many times over in the last few days.

valerie osterhoudt

Jeff, you guys rocked in getting things back up for us. Thank you!

This might explain why my counters have n been functioning. Thanks for the heads up.

X...Y Here...

That Turnerite things cracks me up every time.

What was this post about and should I care? :)

TLW...ROAR!

You guys are great in letting the community know what going on. does this mean the posting that I have made over the last 5 months to localism will appear again or do I need to re-post? Keep us the great work you guys rock.

Jeff - thanks for the updates. Yep, it has been clear lots of changes in the works ut good to know we will be seeing a new adn improvedAR.

Any other information on what HTML will not work? Any guidance for those of us with limited knowledge who use it will be helpful.

Jeff

Blogging on a construction site proves to be interesting. Maybe we should wear our hard hats for a while. :)

Jeff - On my embedded RealEstateShow, the "Show More Photos" link doesn't work.

Is this the problem you were talking about, or should I contact RealEstateShows directly? (I meant to contact them, but forgot until I saw this post)

Thanks.

I was thinking some of my sidebar stuff was not operating properly. My statcounter went AOL too. Thank God it's not because I'm blonde!

I understand, thank you for the explanation. I know that when things go funky on me it is just growing pains and I shouldn't freak out! None of us should freak out! WE should just know things will be back to "normal" soon. THanks! KM

Jeff - there's no way you can even as a group go through all the posts to find out about bugs or outages, so it's a great suggestion to send y'all a group e-mail.

Jeff - Thanks for the updates! Consider my pitchfork at ease.

Now you have me all confused again. I was rold this isn't a social network, now you are saying it is? I think it is but like I said I was told that it was not. Now I am muttering to myself . . .

Progress is good... keep up the good work!

Jeff: It's a good thing to know that we have such great people in charge... ironing out the wrinkles and straightening out the sharp turns. Thanks so much.

OH...

I like that hard hat idea.

And Do the powers that be have any new powers we should be aware of? :)

TLW...ROAR!

Teresa...

I'm having a similar reaction...I thought it was my personal think tank :)

I love that simply because I get tired of paying people to think for me :)

TLW...ROAR!

It must be a real pain in the $#% dealing with everyones complaints...I am sure that is a full time job itself:)

To TLW, I just found something that I think you'll like.... Cowboy hard hats. Here's the link. OK, it wouldn't let me post the link. But here it is... http://www.discountsafetygear.com/vucohahatres.html?gclid=CLbKyevUoJcCFQMQswod-nWk_Q

@ Shane: Our developer has sworn me to secrecy, although it shouldnt be too hard to figure out in the near future ;)

@TLW: Nothing to see here :)

@TBoard: AR is a Social Think Tank Network and Personal Community ;)

@Bill Gassett: Client services my friend, served with a :) Problems and subsequently complaints are a given for a growing organization, how they are dealt with is what makes the difference in the end.

Looking into the rest of the issues outlined here...most if not all should begin to function normally over the next few days, again, we appreciate your patience...

As long as you're not using <style> or <font> tags in your HTML, all should be ok.

Check Brad's blog for list of approved widgets. Widgets that will not be approved for use on the network are those that try to execute arbitrary scripts (this = potentially malicious code that can potentially steal information, better safe than sorry)...StatCounter is an example of a Widget that relies on the execution of an arbitrary script and therefore is not compatible with the network. We will update and permit new Widgets to be used on the network from time to time and on a case by case basis. Again, they cannot contain arbitrary scripts.

'Wonky 502' - Love it!!

Thanks again to everyone for understanding :)

Marian...

That is flippin' hilarious. Thank you. I'm sure I'll find good use for it someday in the near future :)

TLW...ROAR!

Thanks for the update -- try and not burn the midnight oil too much. All the best.

I haven't noticed a thing but will have patience if something comes up, which in atypical.

sad to see statcounter go, but understand

Jeff - I think some of the AR Gals are just happy to look at your photo when you have a featured post...

You guys are doing a good job.... and I expect the mapping on Localism will be fixed too, right?

Thanks you for fixing Real Estate Shows. ;)

Jeff- It is all a part of growing pains. It is what it is. All of this is to make AR that much better and protected.

Jeff I can't believe how busy you guys have been for the last week, yet Brad still has the time to call me to help me figure something out . . . .it did end up being something else he found not working but thats cool-just thankful he took the time!

Jeff~ Not too worry...we know the Think Tank is on overdrive working through these problems, I mean "wonky" issues.

Thanks for the update!

Hi Jeff. Thanks for writing.

That is probably why my posts are not being sent to twitter!

I have been wondering about that for a few weeks.

Thanks again,

Ken

Thanks for the headsup! I'm so thankful for this place that a little 'mess' from time to time is no big deal at all. GBU~

Jeff, Active Rain is worth the wait. I have watched the metamorphosis over the last year and a half and you are a wonderful addition. I am seeing so many incredible improvements and I want to say thank you to you, yourself and the staff and programmers and brains behind all this. The wizard may stay hidden but the "teamwork" is appreciated. Thank you,

Later in the rain~Deb

Glad to have the update and understand some of the things that are going on. My slide shows from slidel.com are not working on all my blogs. I assume it should work, but let me know if this will no longer be supported. Thanks for all the hard work.

A social think tank? I need to think about that. I'll be back.

Thank you, Jeff, for the info. I am a HTML rookie, and learned to use the font tags to change color, size, etc. (Now I know why it stopped working! LOL) Can you point me to a site that will help me to learn how to change the size and color with H (header) tags?

Thanks much!

Debi

Jeff, thank you so much for all you do to make ActiveRain run (most of the time).

I was having issues posting an embed from Utterli... but it seems to be working now.

Brad... that Anti-virus 2009 thingie sucked. I didn't get it, but we thought there might have been exposure. So I went through all of the steps to kill it.

I try to be patient and just let it happen but it is great to hear progress is being made thanks for all your work.

Jeff keeping us informed as to what is happening will cut down on the emails to support. Thanks to AR staff for your help.

Jeff:

The spinmeister award is safely tucked away, or I would have to hand it over ; )

But, you know... It's a good go. Nicely done then!

Staying positive and visioning the good.... Works so much better that dissin the programmers.

Rain on!

er, um... approved rain only - please ; )

Does this mean that if you've written a blog about the problems, as I have, that your site will be the last to be fixed? lol! Sorry guys, I wrote that blog early on the first Sunday, when I could find nothing written about any problems.

I trust you to get it all fixed soon!

Jeff - Thanks for the updates. I know you guys are working hard to fix the problems and we do appreciate it.

DEC

2008

Thanks Jeff. I am one of those people who has struggled a bit with AR the last few days, thinking it was something wrong with my computer. Glad to know I'm okay, and that the fixes are in progress.

Thanks for making the information I love improvements, this is a fantastic site. Thanks

This is a fantastic site, Thanks for making the information. I love Active rain. Thanks for all the hard work.

I haven't noticed any problems... guess I have not been visiting enough lately...everything looks great!!!

Turnerite here, checking in. And yes, it's been a bit wonky here lately, but I'm a huge fan and appreciate everything about AR... and the quite fix of my RESs.

Another Turnerite checking in. I am happy to hear you have solved the RealEstateShows problem.

X...

Is there any reason why Proxy can't be changed to Wonky? I likes it :)

Not only do I like it I think the posts that will be written about it would be amusing as well :)

TLW...ROAR!

We trust that the Rain Gods have our best technological and networking inerests at heart...at monitor and keyboard...and hoping that there will be some folks who still write in English....and that the errors will not come during the time when we have the most time to write....thank you for all you do and continue to do...happiest of holidays !

that explains it!! I was trying to figure out why the google docs widget for my graph was not working and I tried uploading it about 5 times and gave up. I had watched your video and thought I was doing something wrong! Google docs no longer lets you save your graph as an image, you have to use the script.

I always liked Willy Wonka so this should be just a box of chocolate in the end.

Jeff,

I am so glad we have you to fix things! If it were my job - we'd be in BIG trouble!!

thanks for your hard work!

Jeff,

Good to hear a bit of background to some of the minor disturbances lately. Everybody certainly is excited about the new and improved AR and willing to put up with some dust now.

Thanks for the update. Very, very appreciated........by all.

DEC

2008

Jeff, I have been so busy trying to save my own, old RSSPieces blog from complete loss that these problems, albeit frustrating, are certainly understandable and I truly appreciate how hard you all work at AR and how much we can trust you. Thanks!

Jeff, Thanks for the update. Improvement should make Active Rain even better.

DEC

2008

X...

Do you know if we are ever going to be able to access Members Only Blog Posts on a search?

TLW...ROAR!

DEC

2008

Thanks for including your email addresses so that we can communicate with you directly if necessary!

DEC

Thanks for all that the AR team does. Sometimes growing pains can be a bit frustrating but in the end good things are always worth the wait. Scott and I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season with all of the joy and love that it brings.

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