Please Remove The "We're Having Difficulties" From visitors view

photowinz

Why do our clients have to see the red bar displayed "We're having temporary..." when smugmug goes down?? The site is still viewable (readable), and this doesn't look very professional for clients visiting during these times.

Please explain.

Thanks!

Andy

photowinz wrote:

Why do our clients have to see the red bar displayed "We're having temporary..." when smugmug goes down?? The site is still viewable (readable), and this doesn't look very professional for clients visiting during these times.

Please explain.

Thanks!

They can view but can't purchase or leave comments - so it's pretty common to have a notice up that explains things a bit, no?

photowinz

Andy wrote:

They can view but can't purchase or leave comments - so it's pretty common to have a notice up that explains things a bit, no?

Hey Andy-

It would make a lot more sense to have a warning on those pages then. Or display a warning when someone actually tries to make a purchase or leave comments.

To have a huge "WARNING" banner at the top of every page for any site that displays portfolios is a bit misleading. I have three email drafts waiting to be sent to potential clients because I don't want them viewing my work with the 'warning' sign.

Thanks for your help.

photowinz

photowinz wrote:

Hey Andy-

It would make a lot more sense to have a warning on those pages then. Or display a warning when someone actually tries to make a purchase or leave comments.

To have a huge "WARNING" banner at the top of every page for any site that displays portfolios is a bit misleading. I have three email drafts waiting to be sent to potential clients because I don't want them viewing my work with the 'warning' sign.

Thanks for your help.

This is back up today. IS anyone else out there annoyed by this "warning" at the top of their website.

Smugmug - Is there any way to include this ONLY on the pages that are actually affected (like when purchasing). It is a major annoyance for those of us displaying our work to clients.

Andy

Kevn, add this to your CSS:

#readOnlyMode {margin-top: -40px;}


adjust to taste.

gundog

Sorry guys - don't mean to beat you up but I agree with photowinz. The first email from the client said "she wasn't going to join smugmug to see her pictures". I suspect this was the first 'view' issue.

I sent her links MYSELF not aware of the problems and AFTER that realized she couldn't shop! If I had KNOWN she couldn't purchase and what the DEPTH of the issue was - I could have let her know in the first place.

COMMUNICATION is key. Sorry...I'm pissed at what appears an 'oh well attitude'.

TwistedJ

Yep second time on both my accounts. Doesn't sit good don't know if I will renew.

Andy

gundog wrote:

COMMUNICATION is key. Sorry...I'm pissed at what appears an 'oh well attitude'.

I'm sorry, gundog, what is our oh well? attitude... we're busting butt to deal with the issue. We don't like it at all, no more than you do.

Our record over the past couple years has been amazingly high in terms of uptime. I'll stack it against anybody.

Downtime sucks, Read Only sucks less. Do you have a better answer, we're all

gundog

Well Andy, a couple thig come to mind. First - I have no idea when the problem started, still don't know and have no idea how many clients experienced the same issue as the one that DID alert me. Bummer that it is the CUSTOMER letting us know So information on the issue would be nice. Does smugmug have all the pro-users email addresses?

Secondly - perhaps a brief descriptor on the page that says" Shopping Cart may currently be unavailable" might help.

I assume the issue was not from some type of mid-day release of new services?

I'm proud of the up-time Andy. Not so proud of the way down times are handled? Is that fair as a customer?

Andy

gundog wrote:

Well Andy, a couple thig come to mind. First - I have no idea when the problem started, still don't know and have no idea how many clients experienced the same issue as the one that DID alert me. Bummer that it is the CUSTOMER letting us know So information on the issue would be nice. Does smugmug have all the pro-users email addresses?

We've been through this a number of times. We can't email when there's a site issue and many times the issue is resolved before emails could be sent

Best? Subscribe to our Status Update Blog:

http://smugmug.wordpress.com/
Put that in your feed reader and get updates fast. This is a huge improvement and we implemented this at pro customer request.

I think we're doing as much as we humanly possibly can to inform and deal with the issue, gundog.

Secondly - perhaps a brief descriptor on the page that says" Shopping Cart may currently be unavailable" might help.

I assume the issue was not from some type of mid-day release of new services?

I'm proud of the up-time Andy. Not so proud of the way down times are handled? Is that fair as a customer?

The issue is not a midday release of new services. See our status update, thanks!

jww

The first time I saw it I was not real thrilled, but in thinking about it I think I like it as it is, but possibly a bit clearer message on what things they might not be able to do..

for example.. "We are having difficulties. Galleries may have trouble loading quickly and should be resolved shortly.

or

"We are having difficulties. Photo purchasing is currently unavailable, but galleries can still be viewed. We should have the issue corrected shortly."

Basically.. I would rather know that a store is having issues with something rather than spending all that time shopping to find out they temporarily cannot accept credit cards after I come up to the cash register.

..but I guess it depends on the shopkeeper.. Some might like the customer wandering around happily enjoying the pics before they get upset attempting to add something to the shopping cart.

DJT

I know I don't use my smug site as my main business, I'm an office manager at a dealership, but as far as I can tell... $150.00 a year for unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and full customization with the site if you want it. Smugs price can't be beaten. A little down time here or there, no big deal, they'll get it fixed. Q quick "We're down" at the top of pages is probably the fastest way to tell 1000's of customers, we're having problems - now that's communication.

One could go else where and pay $$$$ for a custom site or have A+ Quality Service at Smugmug at an unbeatable price. If the custom site goes down in the evening, most likely the supports not 24/7. Seems like Smug's on the job 24/7. Do you ever take a vacation?

Keep up the good work! We lub ya!

-david

p.s. started writing this about 20minutes ago.... so I'm sure there's been lots posted in between. Also posted this on the wrong thread meant to go on the Temp problems thread. ~/sigh.
DJT having temporary problems, he'll be normal... nah... I'm normal all the time.

gundog

Andy wrote:

We've been through this a number of times. We can't email when there's a site issue and many times the issue is resolved before emails could be sent

Best? Subscribe to our Status Update Blog:

http://smugmug.wordpress.com/
Put that in your feed reader and get updates fast. This is a huge improvement and we implemented this at pro customer request.

I think we're doing as much as we humanly possibly can to inform and deal with the issue, gundog.
The issue is not a midday release of new services. See our status update, thanks!

Thanks Andy.

gundog

DJT wrote:

I know I don't use my smug site as my main business, I'm an office manager at a dealership, but as far as I can tell... $150.00 a year for unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and full customization with the site if you want it. Smugs price can't be beaten. A little down time here or there, no big deal, they'll get it fixed. Q quick "We're down" at the top of pages is probably the fastest way to tell 1000's of customers, we're having problems - now that's communication.

One could go else where and pay $$$$ for a custom site or have A+ Quality Service at Smugmug at an unbeatable price. If the custom site goes down in the evening, most likely the supports not 24/7. Seems like Smug's on the job 24/7. Do you ever take a vacation?

Keep up the good work! We lub ya!

-david

p.s. started writing this about 20minutes ago.... so I'm sure there's been lots posted in between. Also posted this on the wrong thread meant to go on the Temp problems thread. ~/sigh.
DJT having temporary problems, he'll be normal... nah... I'm normal all the time.

Don't get me wrong...smugmug is a fine site for the money. Of course...merchandise purchase and 15% adds up to more than $150.00/yr if you are selling work, right?

Like your perspective - we have one too. $500.00 in expenses, a few hundred hours in editing and then an invitation to view and purchase photos. Purchases benefit both gundog and smugmug but gundog has the $$ in the deal for the galleries.

Stuff happens...are you suggesting I lower my high expectations for smugmug?

gundog

Andy - if you gave me that cool status update thingy - thank you!

Andy

gundog wrote:

Andy - if you gave me that cool status update thingy - thank you!

http://smugmug.wordpress.com/ you're very welcome

DJT

gundog wrote:

Stuff happens...are you suggesting I lower my high expectations for smugmug?

nah........ not at all. Just have patience and they'll get it fixed. they know it's broken.

You stated your oppinion and stated mine. Not gonna get in a forum fight over it.

THE DO YOU EVER TAKE A VACATION was for SMUGMUG :oops: sorry if you (GunDog) thought it was aimed at you.

God Speed,
david

DrDavid

For all those complaining about the downtime and the status bar showing up.... Seriously, do you think there's some magic man keeping smugmug running? It is running on machines (computers) with moving parts. Things break. It's a fact of life. Also, databases get corrupt; a database as large as SM's can take a long time to repair--even to restore. It is what it is. If you don't like the fact that there's downtime, you can always do things yourself--you COULD create a photo site that's 99.999% available. But, it would cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars at LEAST for hardware ALONE.

As for the content of the banner, I agree, there could be a better message. Something that is clear about what things are broken. i.e. "We are having technical difficulties right now. Galleries may not load correctly, and purchasing photos and leaving comments are not working at all. We'll get it fixed quickly. Sorry!"

Just my 2cents.

David

p.s. Of course, I finally have a big block of time to get some sites smugizated, and I get a read-only mode.. :cry Guess I need to find something else to do.

coleygm

The warning sign is the perfect way to handle this in my opinion, and i want to thank SmugMug for handling this issue in this way.

I'd much rather have my customers see from the start that there is a current issue, but that it will only effect them buying at this time. This is MUCH better then them not knowing there's an issue and then trying to buy to then find out they can't. I personally hate having my time wasted when it could have been avoided....so again, thanks again SmugMug.

...and for what it's worth, my other job is maintaining computer equipment and web servers for a fortune 100 company. Professionally speaking, SmugMug does a better job than most at operations, uptime, and especially customer service. Keep up the great work SmugMug!

photowinz

coleygm wrote:

The warning sign is the perfect way to handle this in my opinion, and i want to thank SmugMug for handling this issue in this way.

I'd much rather have my customers see from the start that there is a current issue, but that it will only effect them buying at this time. This is MUCH better then them not knowing there's an issue and then trying to buy to then find out they can't. I personally hate having my time wasted when it could have been avoided....so again, thanks again SmugMug.

...and for what it's worth, my other job is maintaining computer equipment and web servers for a fortune 100 company. Professionally speaking, SmugMug does a better job than most at operations, uptime, and especially customer service. Keep up the great work SmugMug!

Thanks Andy for the code. I'll throw it in once out of "read only". You say adjust to taste, but If the warning banner is gone once I can put the code in I'm afraid I might not be able to test whether it's positioned correclty.

Coleygym - They are doing a great job and I am very pleased with the uptime. A lot of bang for the buck and I appreciate the 24/7 support tremendously. We all use Smugmug for slightly different purposes. My site, primarily, is built to show to key clients and prospects in a commercial market, a portfolio of work that will initiate more business. Each time I've seen the "temp difficulites" banner, the navigation around galleries has seemed to work just fine and thus the warning is not particluarly attractive to an art director or ad agency.

I am curious to know if the issue can be pinpointed to, say, the 'shopping cart' or 'comments' section. Or is the problem also that photos are really loading more slowly or the navigation affected? If the latter, then I do agree some type of warning is helpful as anyone viewing the site would then have a poor experience.

Smumug?

DrDavid

Andy wrote:

Kevn, add this to your CSS:

#readOnlyMode {margin-top: -40px;}


adjust to taste.

Actually...

#readOnlyMode {margin-top: -60px;}

Works better..

David

Andy

DrDavid wrote:

Actually...

#readOnlyMode {margin-top: -60px;}

Works better..

David

It depends on the site in question.

Andy

photowinz wrote:

I am curious to know if the issue can be pinpointed to, say, the 'shopping cart' or 'comments' section.

No, not really, sorry.

penguindriver

Andy and to all the other guys in the server room, I just want to say thanks for all the HARD WORK you guys do keeping this site up for everyone. I know how you are guys are feeling about right since I work in the IT profession myself and have had to put in the long hours to get a site back up or systems restored for a customer (US Government). After this outage, go out and raise mug to yourselves and pat yourselfs on the back and say we made it though another day.

Thanks

David

JoeG

I love the message at the top. I do not use this as a business, so I know my perspective is different.

You'll never make everyone happy. To load this modified header template on "affected" pages only is just not practical (from a web programming point of view).

There's even a link to the wordpress blog that contains details on the problem. I see this as customer service at its finest.

If I could offer ANY thoughts, maybe if there was a "custom error message" field (even if just for pro users), that defaults to what you already have. Then, the pro users could go in and make it whatever they wanted. The problem with that is that it creates more overhead, and an additional database query, and may not be practical.

I hate going to sites (google, digg, or anywhere else) and have it not load, timeout, or just be down, and not knowing WTF was going on. SM is the only site that I visit that lets everyone know that there's an issue and things may not work properly.

Thing is, SM won't always know the extent of the issue (cart, galleries, etc), so a generic "not working" message fits. Instead of making a custom error message each time the site messes up, they can just turn on the error message and dedicate their resources into fixing the problem, instead of updating the error everytime they find something else that is affected by the problem.

/rant.

penguindriver

JoeG wrote:

I love the message at the top. I do not use this as a business, so I know my perspective is different.

You'll never make everyone happy. To load this modified header template on "affected" pages only is just not practical (from a web programming point of view).

There's even a link to the wordpress blog that contains details on the problem. I see this as customer service at its finest.

If I could offer ANY thoughts, maybe if there was a "custom error message" field (even if just for pro users), that defaults to what you already have. Then, the pro users could go in and make it whatever they wanted. The problem with that is that it creates more overhead, and an additional database query, and may not be practical.

I hate going to sites (google, digg, or anywhere else) and have it not load, timeout, or just be down, and not knowing WTF was going on. SM is the only site that I visit that lets everyone know that there's an issue and things may not work properly.

Thing is, SM won't always know the extent of the issue (cart, galleries, etc), so a generic "not working" message fits. Instead of making a custom error message each time the site messes up, they can just turn on the error message and dedicate their resources into fixing the problem, instead of updating the error everytime they find something else that is affected by the problem.

/rant.

Amen, you hit the nail right on the head. I think SM is doing a fantastic job and they are one of the few sites I have seen that actually lets the users know what is going on when there is a problem. Keep up the good work Baldy and guys.

David

cabbey

photowinz wrote:

Thanks Andy for the code. I'll throw it in once out of "read only". You say adjust to taste, but If the warning banner is gone once I can put the code in I'm afraid I might not be able to test whether it's positioned correclty.

While in readonly mode, you can use firebug to locally adjust your css to get what you want.

I thought there was a url modification you could do the rest of the time to get a 'simulated' read only mode for that type of work, but I can't find it in the customizations forum at the moment.

Andy

cabbey wrote:

While in readonly mode, you can use firebug to locally adjust your css to get what you want.

I thought there was a url modification you could do the rest of the time to get a 'simulated' read only mode for that type of work, but I can't find it in the customizations forum at the moment.

Or Firefox and WebDev, and we teach you how, here:
http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1354921

cptkoi

Its great that the guys at SM are on the case and that at least the world can still see our images etc

However they say you discover how good the service is when things go wrong.

Were now at almost 3 hrs of down time and I don't find that acceptable even if it is only once in a blue moon.

Hopefully lessons will be learnt, investment made, procedures changed to ensure better fault tolerance and customer experience in future.

H

DrDavid

cptkoi wrote:

Were now at almost 3 hrs of down time and I don't find that acceptable even if it is only once in a blue moon.

Hopefully lessons will be learnt, investment made, procedures changed to ensure better fault tolerance and customer experience in future.

You're right. It's 3 hrs of downtime. But, they are fixing a database table that probably has a few hundred-million rows! It takes a few minutes to fix that!

I guess they could go to their backups, and you'd lose any work you did for the last few days, but, that wouldn't be any better. And, there's no guarantee that the backup has a pristine version of the database either.

Bottom line; let them work, and I'm sure they'll get the site up as fast as possible. They don't want to be down either.

David

Andy

Onethumb hasn't moved from his computer in three hours he's doing everything humanly possible to restore the site to full read/write service level, just as fast as he can.

We appreciate everyone's patience and we thank you in advance, for your understanding.

We hate this just as much as you do, we really, really do.

Sorry again for the hassle, folks.