Being down all afternoon with a large upload sitting around that is time sensitive, yes I am thinking something should be offered. I really don't understand this outage nor the service maintenance outages
The least that can be done is send a mass email message quickly advising your customers (at least your pro accounts) about the downtime. That, too, is unprofessional. Please advise.
You know, I think this is a terrific idea except that when it was brought up once before, the amount of load on a mail server to do this during a time of a SM problem would just make things worse.
But I know that something proactive like this would be wonderful for pros. It's egg on your face when your customer is telling you something is broken and you're just sitting there with no real answer.
When I owned an auto parts distributorship, I would call my customer in the morning if a part that was supposed to come from a distributor wasn't there. I wouldn't wait like all my competitors who when would have their angry customer calling them about what's going on. My customers always thanked me for giving them a heads up and choices as to what can be done. The simple action of calling them first showed that I respected their time and understood that they need information, even when bad, to make business decisions best for them. I think all of us would be half as frustrated/angry over this if we knew about an outage the second our customers did.
You know, I think this is a terrific idea except that when it was brought up once before, the amount of load on a mail server to do this during a time of a SM problem would just make things worse.
But I know that something proactive like this would be wonderful for pros. It's egg on your face when your customer is telling you something is broken and you're just sitting there with no real answer.
When I owned an auto parts distributorship, I would call my customer in the morning if a part that was supposed to come from a distributor wasn't there. I wouldn't wait like all my competitors who when would have their angry customer calling them about what's going on. My customers always thanked me for giving them a heads up and choices as to what can be done. The simple action of calling them first showed that I respected their time and understood that they need information, even when bad, to make business decisions best for them. I think all of us would be half as frustrated/angry over this if we knew about an outage the second our customers did.
Email's not so practical - given the timing - but we do put notices on our status blog, facebook, twitter, and Dgrin. We do try and be transparent and open with what's going on. Thanks for your posts!
Email's not so practical - given the timing - but we do put notices on our status blog, facebook, twitter, and Dgrin. We do try and be transparent and open with what's going on. Thanks for your posts!
I completely understand the unfeasible nature of direct email, but I'm subscribed to everything that SM has and I didn't get an email notification of the outage.
For my main site, I'm able to use things like host-tracker.com to send notifications to my cell phone. I know when my site is down more than my visitors do. I'd like to have something for SM. At least, then I can prepare for the flood or re-arrange things.
Being down all afternoon with a large upload sitting around that is time sensitive, yes I am thinking something should be offered. I really don't understand this outage nor the service maintenance outages
This is both the advantage and disadvantage of have a partner like SM. On one hand, SM is losing revenue too. But on the other hand, you have no control of the business in times like this. If there was a financially feasible way to get around the maintenance window or outages, I'm thinking it would have been done by now. Because it's starting to wear on even long-time customers like myself.
I'm a little confused on the current status. The status page says "May 26, 10:23PM We are back in Read/Write" which makes it sound like things should be mostly working? But my page brings up a "These aren't the photos you're looking for" page. (Which is cute, landspeeder and all, but makes it look like my photos are not even there, rather than a site-outage-technical-difficulties situation.) Trying to log in to the site, gives the same thing.
I completely understand the unfeasible nature of direct email, but I'm subscribed to everything that SM has and I didn't get an email notification of the outage.
For my main site, I'm able to use things like host-tracker.com to send notifications to my cell phone. I know when my site is down more than my visitors do. I'd like to have something for SM. At least, then I can prepare for the flood or re-arrange things.
I use Twitter...and have it set to send all tweets from smugmug to my cell........works great!
I believe I got only 5 tweets from them yesterday.....all telling me about the site being down and when it was back up.
Its the only reason I have a Twitter account......i don't use it for anything thing else.
yeah I am sure it is...but, by comparison, at least today's outage was a blip on the radar lasting only about an hour. but if that was the hour you planed on uploading images or doing other maintenance on your site then you are SOL I suppose. Nothing like paying for stability only to receive a constantly moving target in return.
SM needs to address system stability and has for a long time now. I don't think I would use them if my livelihood depended on it. Then again none of the other hosting companies are any better, most are worse by all accounts. SO what are ya gonna do?
I suppose it could be fixed but everyone at SM was too busy doing their make-up for the next round of tired "wacky" photos. It's funny when the system works above and beyond, but not so much when we see multiple multi-hour outages every year. I can usually live with read-only so it does not affect me as much as long as that is the case. But people trying to budget time and coordinate their clients with putting images online are the ones dealing with the frustrations. I totally sympathize with them...I lived through the horrid eBay outages of the late 90's though early 2000's until they went and hired a real pro to address the issue. They went and hired Maynard Webb who implemented a plan to finally stabilize the site, and it worked as within a handful of months the place ran like a clock-works. Maynard was a no-nonsense sort of guy that knew how to get the job done. I wonder what he is up to these days, well only if SM could afford him that is. And that is not a knock against SM, Maynard is not an inexpensive addition to any company but is still worth the cost.
Right now seems as if SM is addressing site stability the same way the McCourts addressed stadium security at Dodger Stadium at the beginning of the year...
SM needs to address system stability and has for a long time now. I don't think I would use them if my livelihood depended on it. Then again none of the other hosting companies are any better, most are worse by all accounts. SO what are ya gonna do?
If I sold my pictures for a living, which I don't, I very much doubt I would still be with SM. I really like the ease of use and the helpful feedback from the 'heroes' but these past few days have shaken my faith.
Are we just dropping this?
Since we "pay the bills" 'n' all... Can we have an explanation of what happens to cause these problems and what's being done to prevent it? I see a disturbing pattern in: Release - outage/trouble - one or two bugfix releases - repeat cycle.
I don't want to be your beta tester, no matter how early it gets me the features.
Since we "pay the bills" 'n' all... Can we have an explanation of what happens to cause these problems and what's being done to prevent it? I see a disturbing pattern in: Release - outage/trouble - one or two bugfix releases - repeat cycle.
I don't want to be your beta tester, no matter how early it gets me the features.
Comments
But I know that something proactive like this would be wonderful for pros. It's egg on your face when your customer is telling you something is broken and you're just sitting there with no real answer.
When I owned an auto parts distributorship, I would call my customer in the morning if a part that was supposed to come from a distributor wasn't there. I wouldn't wait like all my competitors who when would have their angry customer calling them about what's going on. My customers always thanked me for giving them a heads up and choices as to what can be done. The simple action of calling them first showed that I respected their time and understood that they need information, even when bad, to make business decisions best for them. I think all of us would be half as frustrated/angry over this if we knew about an outage the second our customers did.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Email's not so practical - given the timing - but we do put notices on our status blog, facebook, twitter, and Dgrin. We do try and be transparent and open with what's going on. Thanks for your posts!
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
For my main site, I'm able to use things like host-tracker.com to send notifications to my cell phone. I know when my site is down more than my visitors do. I'd like to have something for SM. At least, then I can prepare for the flood or re-arrange things.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
I use Twitter...and have it set to send all tweets from smugmug to my cell........works great!
I believe I got only 5 tweets from them yesterday.....all telling me about the site being down and when it was back up.
Its the only reason I have a Twitter account......i don't use it for anything thing else.
My Smugmug Site
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
yeah I am sure it is...but, by comparison, at least today's outage was a blip on the radar lasting only about an hour. but if that was the hour you planed on uploading images or doing other maintenance on your site then you are SOL I suppose. Nothing like paying for stability only to receive a constantly moving target in return.
SM needs to address system stability and has for a long time now. I don't think I would use them if my livelihood depended on it. Then again none of the other hosting companies are any better, most are worse by all accounts. SO what are ya gonna do?
I suppose it could be fixed but everyone at SM was too busy doing their make-up for the next round of tired "wacky" photos. It's funny when the system works above and beyond, but not so much when we see multiple multi-hour outages every year. I can usually live with read-only so it does not affect me as much as long as that is the case. But people trying to budget time and coordinate their clients with putting images online are the ones dealing with the frustrations. I totally sympathize with them...I lived through the horrid eBay outages of the late 90's though early 2000's until they went and hired a real pro to address the issue. They went and hired Maynard Webb who implemented a plan to finally stabilize the site, and it worked as within a handful of months the place ran like a clock-works. Maynard was a no-nonsense sort of guy that knew how to get the job done. I wonder what he is up to these days, well only if SM could afford him that is.
Right now seems as if SM is addressing site stability the same way the McCourts addressed stadium security at Dodger Stadium at the beginning of the year...
If I sold my pictures for a living, which I don't, I very much doubt I would still be with SM. I really like the ease of use and the helpful feedback from the 'heroes' but these past few days have shaken my faith.
:cry
Since we "pay the bills" 'n' all... Can we have an explanation of what happens to cause these problems and what's being done to prevent it? I see a disturbing pattern in: Release - outage/trouble - one or two bugfix releases - repeat cycle.
I don't want to be your beta tester, no matter how early it gets me the features.
Malte
Bump.
Malte