My site is back up, but I have a lot of problems uploading my files. Checksum error, invalid format....
The weird thing about the checksum error I have, it says that xxxxxxx is not matching xxxxxxxx, but it is the exact same checksum, so it's probably more a programming error than a real checksum error.
Hi Shingo,
Can you let us know what uploading method you're using? The Lightroom plugin (version?) or MacDaddy?
Steve Mills
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
Hi Pete, his post said 'viewable' and yours says he said functional - not at all splitting hairs - RO mode means you can't upload or do owner stuff - so it is not 'fully functional' nor do we claim it to be. We say that photos and sites are viewable in in RO mode.
Maybe we should save the "Way to go" for when we make it through a day with a fully functional site. Let me guess tomorrow there will be scheduled downtime that doesn't count as downtime.
We make no contention that service interruptions aren't downtime. We're very open about it and when we try our utmost to post on our blog when they happen.
I wonder if it would be possible for Smugmug to send out a heads-up email as soon as possible when the service crashes catastrophically. That way Smugmug users - pros especially - would at least have the opportunity to go into damage-control mode. Clients could be informed and schedules could be changed. It would be better than finding out about the service disruption from a client, as many posters here apparently have.
In this day and age of ubiquitous smart-phone use, Smugmuggers would be likely to get a service-outage heads-up email in a reasonably timely fasion. Even if it only amounted to having the wherewithal to decide to temporarily hold off on sending sombody to my site, that would be a significant difference.
I realize that this idea doesn't actually solve the underlying problem, but it would go a long way towards shoring-up the communication issue.
Hi, we can't send emails - that would put undue burden on our system and all of our heroes - we do however, update our Status Blog http://status.blogs.smugmug.com/ and @smugmugstatus on Twitter as soon as we are able after an event occurs, and then we issue and all-clear when things are back to normal.
My site is back up, but I have a lot of problems uploading my files. Checksum error, invalid format....
The weird thing about the checksum error I have, it says that xxxxxxx is not matching xxxxxxxx, but it is the exact same checksum, so it's probably more a programming error than a real checksum error.
Please write our Support Heroes with details and we'll help from the help desk.
There used to be a message shown on our sites when smug was having problems.
I've mentioned it elsewhere in this thread - I agree - this was a different sort of problem and I'm not sure yet why we couldn't have that message in lieu of what we did have last night. But it's the topic of discussion right now and we're on it. Thank you Denise.
We make no contention that service interruptions aren't downtime. We're very open about it and when we try our utmost to post on our blog when they happen.
9:18, New York time, still a mess, my black "theme" is gray... this is very disturbing!
I'm using Jeffrey’s “Export to SmugMug” Lightroom Plugin, I'm using the latest version 20100323.153
My best so far is 5 pictures in a row without crashing.
I'l try to post a print screen of the next crash.
I purchase a pro account yesterday so I have a lot of files to upload.
Thanks for the info, Shingo. We just became aware of these issues about 24 hours ago, and we're digging hard to find, or help Jeffrey find the cause.
In the meantime, to get the bulk of your photos uploaded, retrying typically works for the files that it choked on the previous attempt. Likely a better option is to export to a folder, and drag that folder to the Simple Uploader while we sort this out. This is by no means a long term solution. We LOVE Jeffrey's plugin, and will be working hard to figure this out. I use it religiously and can't imagine Lightroom + SmugMug without it.
Steve Mills
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
I've mentioned it elsewhere in this thread - I agree - this was a different sort of problem and I'm not sure yet why we couldn't have that message in lieu of what we did have last night. But it's the topic of discussion right now and we're on it. Thank you Denise.
Well when things first went down the SmugMug is down screen was up instead of my site as it should be. Then the first short lived "All clear" was issued and at that point I believe the error screen was removed even though things weren't "all clear" then the all clear was removed and replaced with another message at which point perhaps someone forgot to re-enable the Smugmug is experiencing technical difficulties screen. Maybe this isn't what happened. Just conjecture.
Thanks for the info, Shingo. We just became aware of these issues about 24 hours ago, and we're digging hard to find, or help Jeffrey find the cause.
In the meantime, to get the bulk of your photos uploaded, retrying typically works for the files that it choked on the previous attempt. Likely a better option is to export to a folder, and drag that folder to the Simple Uploader while we sort this out. This is by no means a long term solution. We LOVE Jeffrey's plugin, and will be working hard to figure this out. I use it religiously and can't imagine Lightroom + SmugMug without it.
I'm using your method, the current upload is suppose to take 8 hours, so if it dosen't crash, it is a good work around for now. Thanks.
There appears to be a misconception that downtime only happens to smugmug and going somewhere else is going to make your pages magically up all the time. This simply isn't true. Smugmug did have some downtime, in fact its a pretty large amount by most peoples standards although in reality by internet standards I find it really was not that bad. Ive had much worst including from my internet provider who then says "whoops this is day 15 bummer, were working on it" then you have to call them again to remind them.
Id be willing to bet that every worker at smugmug was hard on this issue and I'm sure it was tense and frustrating. However, I would still be willing to bet that they were all working on it! Not going home until it is fixed and probably having food delivered right to their office because there was no time to waste because they pride themselves on working for you. Some are talking about "you'll have to convince me to stay" and the thing is they will actually try! Many other companies would just say "oh its just a few people, thats acceptable losses" but in my experience smugmug won't. They have some odd crazy ability to stay calm in the face of catastrophic failure and then turn around and say "we screwed up, what can we do to convince you we love all our customers?" How many other companies would do that?
Don't just imagine that things should work perfectly, they are trying to constantly implement the things that "we" ask for! Sometimes that is going to cause errors but its a complex system and thats just the reality of things. So you didn't post your ebay gear and you consider that money "lost" but you still have your product and can post it as soon as the site had returned, you havent really lost anything. Some did lose money, your hoping that your customers have some faith in you and return to purchase. If your site is down then your relying on your past reliability and your previous business relations with that customer, that is what smugmug is doing as well.
I don't think smugmug is a mom and pop but I would rather have their small business personal service attitude then that of a walmart or yahoo. I think they are keeping affordable prices and giving amazing service. Yahoo's flickr is $24 a year for a pro account and they are huge. Its because they act like real people that I like it here so much.
I suppose I could go on but in reality there is probably not much point. I talk in such a way because I have had the chance to work with these guys, to spend time with them and get a real idea of how they do business and to me its worth more then a few hours of downtime.
Wasn't one of the other photo hosting sites down for four or five days sometime in the last several months?
Some people live in a world where flat tires never occur, flights never get delayed, snow never needs to be shoveled, the power never goes off and computer systems never fail. The rest of us live in the real world. For $150 a year I'll gladly take a service where a real person seems to be availabe 24/7 (doesn't Andy ever sleep?), where friendly people help you with problems ranging from changing orders after they're submitted to self-inflicted CSS wounds, and where there's a real sense of community. And when you deal with real people, you're gonna get a few bumps along the road.
There are only two companies I've dealt with in the last few years who I would rate as having "superior" customer service -- SmugMug and GoDaddy (the folks at GoDaddy don't make much off me -- I tie up their customer service reps with all kinds of stupid questions).
Everyone has a bad week every now and then. That's life in the real world.
All seems fine now.
Hope this was just a bad week.
I do thank the good folks at Smugmug for their good service and product.
Downtime sucks for customers and the support folks both, it's frustrating for all.
But I still like smugmug and think it offers the best service for the dollar. Only thing slicker to show and sell images online would be to create a website from scratch in my view.
Hi, we can't send emails - that would put undue burden on our system and all of our heroes -
That's a load of bull, and I'm absolutely amazed you'd make such a statement Andy. There are free, open-source products out there (like www.sympa.org) that can be used to host and manage mailing lists with thousands of addresses in it, which can be run on a generic server. It's certainly within the ability of SM staff to send out a notification when the site's down and another when it's back up.
Save $5 off your first year's SmugMug image hosting with coupon code hccesQbqNBJbc
Comments
Hi Shingo,
Can you let us know what uploading method you're using? The Lightroom plugin (version?) or MacDaddy?
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
I'm using Jeffrey’s “Export to SmugMug” Lightroom Plugin, I'm using the latest version 20100323.153
My best so far is 5 pictures in a row without crashing.
I'l try to post a print screen of the next crash.
I purchase a pro account yesterday so I have a lot of files to upload.
Hi Pete, his post said 'viewable' and yours says he said functional - not at all splitting hairs - RO mode means you can't upload or do owner stuff - so it is not 'fully functional' nor do we claim it to be. We say that photos and sites are viewable in in RO mode.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
I don't know if the problem was fixed but I uploaded 17 picture in a row without crashing
I've mentioned it elsewhere in this thread - I agree - this was a different sort of problem and I'm not sure yet why we couldn't have that message in lieu of what we did have last night. But it's the topic of discussion right now and we're on it. Thank you Denise.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
9:18, New York time, still a mess, my black "theme" is gray... this is very disturbing!
where, specifically?
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
It was gray when I was logged in using owner and visitor view. I logged out, logged in again and now all appear ok. Keeping my fingers crossed...
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
http://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Other/Misc/1989975_rKS9H#107362213_hQ9S5
Try clearing your browser's cache (temp files) fully and completely. Then go back to the gallery.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
That did the trick. Thanks.
edit: broke again
http://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Other/Misc/1989975_rKS9H
Thanks for the info, Shingo. We just became aware of these issues about 24 hours ago, and we're digging hard to find, or help Jeffrey find the cause.
In the meantime, to get the bulk of your photos uploaded, retrying typically works for the files that it choked on the previous attempt. Likely a better option is to export to a folder, and drag that folder to the Simple Uploader while we sort this out. This is by no means a long term solution. We LOVE Jeffrey's plugin, and will be working hard to figure this out. I use it religiously and can't imagine Lightroom + SmugMug without it.
BizDev Account Manager
Image Specialist & Pro Concierge
http://www.downriverphotography.com
http://www.DviantImage.com
http://www.DragrWear.com
http://img.skitch.com/20100401-e236e6wn614642x277p8u7bbpn.jpg[IMG]file:///Users/spwidoff/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///tmp/Error%20response%20from%20SmugMug.jpg[/IMG]
BTW, This is using Jeffrey's LR plugin.
http://plusdave.com
I'm using your method, the current upload is suppose to take 8 hours, so if it dosen't crash, it is a good work around for now. Thanks.
http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1360834&postcount=177
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Id be willing to bet that every worker at smugmug was hard on this issue and I'm sure it was tense and frustrating. However, I would still be willing to bet that they were all working on it! Not going home until it is fixed and probably having food delivered right to their office because there was no time to waste because they pride themselves on working for you. Some are talking about "you'll have to convince me to stay" and the thing is they will actually try! Many other companies would just say "oh its just a few people, thats acceptable losses" but in my experience smugmug won't. They have some odd crazy ability to stay calm in the face of catastrophic failure and then turn around and say "we screwed up, what can we do to convince you we love all our customers?" How many other companies would do that?
Don't just imagine that things should work perfectly, they are trying to constantly implement the things that "we" ask for! Sometimes that is going to cause errors but its a complex system and thats just the reality of things. So you didn't post your ebay gear and you consider that money "lost" but you still have your product and can post it as soon as the site had returned, you havent really lost anything. Some did lose money, your hoping that your customers have some faith in you and return to purchase. If your site is down then your relying on your past reliability and your previous business relations with that customer, that is what smugmug is doing as well.
I don't think smugmug is a mom and pop but I would rather have their small business personal service attitude then that of a walmart or yahoo. I think they are keeping affordable prices and giving amazing service. Yahoo's flickr is $24 a year for a pro account and they are huge. Its because they act like real people that I like it here so much.
I suppose I could go on but in reality there is probably not much point. I talk in such a way because I have had the chance to work with these guys, to spend time with them and get a real idea of how they do business and to me its worth more then a few hours of downtime.
I Live at http://www.alaskamountainforum.com
Some people live in a world where flat tires never occur, flights never get delayed, snow never needs to be shoveled, the power never goes off and computer systems never fail. The rest of us live in the real world. For $150 a year I'll gladly take a service where a real person seems to be availabe 24/7 (doesn't Andy ever sleep?), where friendly people help you with problems ranging from changing orders after they're submitted to self-inflicted CSS wounds, and where there's a real sense of community. And when you deal with real people, you're gonna get a few bumps along the road.
There are only two companies I've dealt with in the last few years who I would rate as having "superior" customer service -- SmugMug and GoDaddy (the folks at GoDaddy don't make much off me -- I tie up their customer service reps with all kinds of stupid questions).
Everyone has a bad week every now and then. That's life in the real world.
The Railroad Photographer
www.railroadphotographer.com
Hope this was just a bad week.
I do thank the good folks at Smugmug for their good service and product.
Downtime sucks for customers and the support folks both, it's frustrating for all.
But I still like smugmug and think it offers the best service for the dollar. Only thing slicker to show and sell images online would be to create a website from scratch in my view.