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silent_will
Location: Manila
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 Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| i've experienced this too. I thought it was my browser so i tried to use Mozilla, Opera, IE, and MSN but they were all the same. there just seems to be some lag coz after a few minutes, or an hour the page would get updated. |
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John Furie Zacharias
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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Rymza,
I sincerely appreciate that you followed my previous advice and restrained your insults. You expressed them in a far more tasteful manner this time.
| rymza wrote: | No, it's not a pragmatic thought. Being pragmatic is
about putting your two bare feet into others' shoes. |
"Putting your two bare feet into others' shoes" describes empathy.
Click here for the definition of Pragmatism.
Personally, I thought I was being both empathetic and pragmatic when I said, "While I can understand that it might feel gratifying to vent frustrations, I think some perspective might be in order before we all grab our digital pitchforks, light our torches, and storm Blogdrive."
I even added some visual imagery of the angry mob. I understand people get frustrated. Honestly, I do. I don't deny anyone their emotions and anger, if that's how they deal with technical problems.
I get annoyed when my internet service provider (ISP) has technical problems at their Network Operations Center for some duration of time and I can't use the internet as I'd prefer. It's totally inconvenient, but it happens.
And no, they don't forewarn me. They don't send me an appologetic email. Do I freak out, jump up and down, and scream? No. What good is that? It's the nature of an internet business to have technical problems, periodically. Like I said, I get annoyed. (perspective)
Perhaps, I'm just a little calmer and mild-mannered when Blogdrive experiences problems. Perhaps, it is my perspective. Perhaps, my personality is such that I don't threaten legal action or speak in grandiose emotional language like "these souls in pain."
Professionally speaking, I do freelance contract work for an online business that charges an annual subscription fee in a range between $10,000 and $100,000, depending upon their end product and access requirements. Do they have occasional technical problems and drop offline? Yes.
In contrast, I paid $119.50 for the most extreme yearly subsciption plan offered at Blogdrive. (and renewed it in April). I've been here for over three years. My attitude is this: Since I pay annually, I get two months free. Blogdrive could be down for two months straight and I'd still get what I paid for and be happy about it.
I put that list of Google links in my original response in this thread as a pragmatic illustration that all online services have technical outages. It's the nature of the beast.
Did anyone who said I was "a BD appologist" or "a poor BD ambassador" actually click through those links to see what I was talking about?
I doubt it, from the responses I just received.
I understand that when Blogdrive has technical problems and the service is not 100% for 100% of the users, people get frustrated. I just offered my personal, albeit mob-dissenting opinion and perspective about it.
If I personally could make money by selling you Blogdrive effigies to burn in the streets, I'd seriously consider asking them for a limited license of their logo for that business purpose.
Instead, I will respect your sincere frustrations. As with all technical questions posed in the help forum, I will strive to assist you and obtain whatever answers I can obtain.
_________________
Forecast: Thunderstorms in the Imajica
Mostly Sunny at the HelpForum blog
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Seige
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| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| rymza wrote: | What perspective you're trying to offer? For God's sake -- please RE-READ all your responses. All of them simply fall into two categories (although you might have put them in many different ways):
* That BD is doing fine and all the problems are normal.
* That all those keep complaining are just being unreasonably silly.
You can twist your words (for all I care) and come up with thousands of defensive reasonings (which won't bother me to the sligthest) -- but it doesn't change the fact you're the second worst of BD's self-appointed ambassador. That silly One-Random-Girl being the number one.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | I simply gave my personal opinion, trying to inject some pragmatic thought into the thread here. Obviously, you feel vastly pissed off about this topic. |
No, it's not a pragmatic thought. Being pragmatic is about putting your two bare feet into others' shoes. What you did all these whiles were offering other people to wear your shoes -- which you think the best and most comfortable one. That's not pragmatic. That's what the civilised world calls "pathetically idealistic". They don't need your overly-idealistic perspective. They want you to understand the situation these people are put into.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | I think I should leave you to your own unpleasantness, for the time being. I honestly didn't mean to rain on your parade. I appologize for doing that. |
What exactly you mean by saying: DIDN'T MEAN to rain on their parade? After all those repetitive annoying advices and explainations -- that you keep pouring on these souls in pain? If you really believe you DIDN'T MEAN it -- you are either naturally born silly, or simply being intellectually dishonest. Natural stupidity is forgivable. You can't help it. But intellectual dishonesty is not. Take you pick now.
PS: BTW, all my 'edited' latest entries don't load up since yesterday. And few days ago -- I severely suffered the same old BD's diease of entries kept 'appearing' and 'disappearing'. |
As much as I agree with half of what you say regarding Blogdrive's service, and since we are in the same boat for this issue along with Joe Walter, PhilM and others, I must say I do not appreciate any of your personal insults toward John.
A discussion or argument regarding an issue should not, in whatever level of society you're in, even Internet forums, be personal. Matters should be focused to the issue at hand and never be directed to personal. I would like you to remember this.
I hope you keep personal insults down to a minimum. As much as I disagree with John, he do not deserved to be treated like that.
_________________
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http://design.blogdrive.com/
Blogger Skin Converter (BETA 1.1) |
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rymza
Location: Fantasy World
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| Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | rymza wrote: | No, it's not a pragmatic thought. Being pragmatic is
about putting your two bare feet into others' shoes. |
"Putting your two bare feet into others' shoes" describes empathy.
Click here for the definition of Pragmatism. |
Pragmatism is an outlook in life. Your 'mental attitude' towards things around you. To be empathetic -- that's how one translates his/her (mental) outlook into a (prcatical) action. Thus, being pragmatic and being empathetic are not mutually exclusive. They can co-exist -- depending on the circumstances. So, I don't buy your lingusitically-oriented argument.
Pragmatism is about understanding and accepting the reality. To look at things practically. And in this case -- it's NOT ABOUT you (because you're OBVIOUSLY ever happy with BD). It's about THESE UNSATISFIED users. This is the issue here. So, if you want to be pragmatic -- you have to show your pragmatism based on 'the issue'. You fail to do that because you are naturally not part of the issue.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | Personally, I thought I was being both empathetic and pragmatic when I said, "While I can understand that it might feel gratifying to vent frustrations, I think some perspective might be in order before we all grab our digital pitchforks, light our torches, and storm Blogdrive." |
You personally thought you were. Apparently you're not. You failed to observe these facts:
* The same problems keep occuring and reoccuring.
* No official and timely statement/explanation from BD -- with the 'reasonable amount' that can equally match the 'amount of the problems' themselves.
* Some of these people who consistently complains HAVE BEEN on cyber-world LONG ENOUGH to (fully) understand that BD's problems are unique and they are not something you would NORMALLY experience in other blog-hosts.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | I get annoyed when my internet service provider (ISP) has technical problems at their Network Operations Center for some duration of time and I can't use the internet as I'd prefer. It's totally inconvenient, but it happens. |
People grew up in different civilisations. People are blessed with different levels of intelligences. Thus, people do have different expectations from this civilised universe. The most simplistic escapism of -- ".... but it happens!" -- doesn't work with most people, these days. And nobody should try to repeatedly force that so-called 'but-it-happens' idea to anyone. It's annoyingly uncool.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | It's the nature of an internet business to have technical problems, periodically. |
True. Agree with you. But what is currently happening in BD -- I don't call that PERIODICALLY. Period.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | Perhaps, my personality is such that I don't threaten legal action or speak in grandiose emotional language like "these souls in pain." |
I don't have problem with your personality, if you keep it just within yourself. But when you abuse your nice 'personality' to judge others' choices (of expressing themselves) -- then some people surely will find it a problem. Especially that most of the issues have nothing to do with you. It's about them (the users) and the BD people!
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | Professionally speaking, I do freelance contract work for an online business that charges an annual subscription fee in a range between $10,000 and $100,000, depending upon their end product and access requirements. Do they have occasional technical problems and drop offline? Yes. |
Again, you always give an irrelevant comparison. I'm starting to doubt -- if you really do have a perspective or not. What happens with BD -- I don't even call that as "OCCASSIONAL" technical problems. It has become a habit for BD -- even if it's not a hobby!
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | My attitude is this: Since I pay annually, I get two months free. Blogdrive could be down for two months straight and I'd still get what I paid for and be happy about it. |
Yes, I can totally understand 'your attitude' by looking at 'what you use your blog for' and 'what is the rate of your readership'. Unfortunately, once again you fail to understand that NOT ALL BLOGGERS use their blogs with the same purpose as yours; neither their readerships are in any way comparable to yours. Two months straight down and you would be still happy? Either you're joking, or your blog is a mere joke. Put it this way -- if you pay for a nice car with 20% discount -- would you be still be happy to find out that one of the wheels is missing? The discount (or whatever comes FREE upon purchasing) is not a good reason for you to get a lousy service/product. That's a marketing strategy for BD to get you buying its product.
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | I put that list of Google links in my original response in this thread as a pragmatic illustration that all online services have technical outages. It's the nature of the beast. |
Yes, we all understand it. ALL ONLINE SERVICES HAVE TECHNICAL OUTAGES (please repeat that 77 times!). The issue is: the degree and frequency of the problems are different. And it's this DIFFERENCE that we are interested to talk about!
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | I understand that when Blogdrive has technical problems and the service is not 100% for 100% of the users, people get frustrated. I just offered my personal, albeit mob-dissenting opinion and perspective about it. |
Again, you miss the point here. You desperately need to adjust your perspective. People are not expecting a 100%-perfect service. Not even 85%. What people do expect is: at any given day -- BD is working properly for at least 12 of 24 hours (50%). Mathematically speaking, the past few days -- BD's performance is often between 0% - 20%. It has happened many times where BD users literally disconnected from their account for more than 24 hours, continously. Sometimes up to 36 hours!
In my definition of 'what blogging is' -- that's unacceptably ridiculous!
_________________
http://rymza.blogdrive.com |
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John Furie Zacharias
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 4:31 am Post subject: |
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| PhilM wrote: | | Until the people working at BD wake up & understand that they're pissing people off, things won't get any better. And while you may be fine & dandy with that, personally I think newer members should be aware of how many people are dissatisfied and why. If for nothing else than to keep them from getting their hopes up, only to wind up being part of the next wave of pissed off, unsatisfied customers. |
Preventing the next wave of pissed off, unsatisfied customers is a great idea! I'm all for that. I'm not being sarcastic, either.
I prefer happy, shiny people. Sadly, I think if Blogdrive posted a notification that said, "Your blog will be unavailable next Sunday due to hardware additions and software upgrades in order to provide you better service in the future," some people would still be part of the next wave.
In any event, I believe Blogdrive is looking for better ways to provide customer service and communications for that very reason. There is a balance between personal, one-on-one customer service through trouble tickets and dealing with the mass flood of trouble tickets and customer concerns when the service is degraded for whatever reason.
At this time, I have visited the following blogs which displayed the entries listed below, which I can only assume are the most recent:
http://jlwalther.blogdrive.com/archive/112.html -- Man, I thought you was dead!
http://herbthiel.blogdrive.com/archive/230.html -- Stem Cell Issue
http://rymza.blogdrive.com/archive/359.html -- Gambar Lembu (ii)
http://nomadechoes.blogdrive.com/archive/526.html -- Ah, more sleep
I list those entries for anyone who might have had concerns that their entry dated 29 October was lost or missing.
All I can say from my position as a fellow user and volunteer in the help forum is that I appreciate all of the people who displayed patience and civility in the midst of their frustration. Some of their private messages were generous and heart-warming, and a pleasant surprise for me.
_________________
Forecast: Thunderstorms in the Imajica
Mostly Sunny at the HelpForum blog
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PhilM
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | I prefer happy, shiny people. Sadly, I think if Blogdrive posted a notification that said, "Your blog will be unavailable next Sunday due to hardware additions and software upgrades in order to provide you better service in the future," some people would still be part of the next wave. |
You are correct. There will always be people who complain or are dissatisfied. But to use this as an excuse is an indicator that you still don't understand what people are complaining about. Which do you think would cause the most negative feedback/annoyance: A) Blogdrive announcing that "Your blog will be unavailable next Sunday due to hardware additions and software upgrades"; or B) Blogdrive simply being unavailable for an entire day with no advance notice & no explanation after the fact?
And, as I've said plenty of times before, the "it's maintenance" excuse has worn very thin. If, indeed, all (or even a majority) of BD's outages have been a result of maintenance, then someone's not doing their job right. There is no excuse for that level of downtime due to maintenance. Even if BD is running everything off a single server, which we all know they're not. There are plenty of ways to perform maintenance in a clustered environment without service interruption (degradation, maybe, but not interruption).
| John Furie Zacharias wrote: | | In any event, I believe Blogdrive is looking for better ways to provide customer service and communications for that very reason. There is a balance between personal, one-on-one customer service through trouble tickets and dealing with the mass flood of trouble tickets and customer concerns when the service is degraded for whatever reason. |
Yes, there is a balance that needs to be maintained. I'm not sure where your belief that BD is looking to improve customer service & communication stems from, since in the 1.5 years I've been a BD user I have yet to see a single step in that direction. I'll point it out again . . . this latest fiasco has been going on for almost a month, yet there hasn't been a single bulletin/announcement about it, numerous complaints about non-response from trouble tickets/phone calls, and less than a handfull (none of which have been helpfull) of responses here on this forum from an official BD source.
Again, you're not understanding the problem. Yes, that post you listed is my most recent entry. But guess what . . . just because you can see it doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist or is resolved. There is a synchronization problem going on. This means that when someone views a given blog, they may or may not see the latest entries. Viewing my own blog, it took nearly 11 hours for my latest entry to show up. Then "disappeared" later that day. I've been checking my blog periodically through last night & this morning, and it's been about 50/50 as to whether or not the latest post shows up (for the record, as I'm typing this my most recent entry is not displaying for me, though it was visible about an hour ago). And no, it's not a cache problem, as it's consistent using 3 different computers & 2 different browsers, even after cache purges, deleting cookies & reboots. Yes, the posts are apparently being saved. But that's not the issue. The issue is that they are not consistently displaying, or taking an unacceptable amount of time to show up. Is it a major issue for a personal blog like mine? No. But it's frustrating none-the-less. And there are quite a few users here who use their blogs professionally, which means that it is a big issue for them. This type of problem can cost them readership and revenue.
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http://nomadechoes.blogdrive.com |
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logansackett
Location: Colorado Springs, CO USA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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I would love to be able to tell people when the planned outages were going to happen, but are they really planned  The blog that is supposed to tell us about these issues is seldom, if ever, updated. In my search for a place to blog when I first started out I tried e-bloggy and Xanga. They both put a message up when the services were down so if I went there, either as a visitor or blogger, I knew what to expect.
As much as I respect Seige and honor the volunteer service status of you trusty BD warriors, I think there are a lot of times when an actual BD person should make an appearance and pretend to care. As to being insulting, I don't know if calling a person a "Blogdrive Apologist" is insulting or not, but I intended no hurt feelings. I just don't think BD cares or they would offer something, if not remuneration to paying customers in the form of credit, at least honor us with a personal appearance and an apology, not a flip comment.
But as to you volunteers, well, you couldn't pay me a thousand dollars to volunteer. 
_________________
http://herbthiel.blogdrive.com/
The world's history is a divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Attributed to: James A Garfield (1831-1881), U.S. president. |
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Sinister Ninja
Location: The Ninja Suite
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| Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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Holy crap.
Oh and good luck with that class-action lawsuit. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that conversation when you tell a lawyer that you want to sue a blog publishing company because you aren't happy with the service. Lmao.
_________________
~If you can't BE the best, KILL the best~
Homonyms our are friends.
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silent_will
Location: Manila
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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i wonder what happened to my site. it just keeps giving me a blank page.
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The Silence of the Will |
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Ang
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Will, when i try to view your source code, it doesn't exist. Check your main template coding to make sure it hasn't been accidentaly deleted. You may need to re-select your blog layout.
_________________
Lost in your search for answers? Try the FAQ.
http://occasional.blogdrive.com |
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silent_will
Location: Manila
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Ang. I tried it but after saving and a refresh I got this message:
"Upgrading servers. We'll be back up in a few of minutes. We are currently storing submitted entries for later processing. "
And then it's back to the blank page. I also checked the codes and as far as I can tell everything is properly tagged. And I CAN view each of my entries if I go to edit mode, and clicked on Preview, the pages show up just fine. And the source code do show up as well. Clicking on the Next button on the Preview Page though leads again to another white empty page. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
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The Silence of the Will |
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IludiumPhosdex
Location: Winona, MN
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| Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| silent_will wrote: | | i wonder what happened to my site. it just keeps giving me a blank page. |
 In reply:
Such seems to have been the case with my own weblog over much of today (Wednesday, 8th instant) as well; in fact, attempts to access my own weblog were met repeatedly with either:
- the connexion attempt "timing out;"
- a blanko screen;
- the "We can't find ..." error message; or
- the "Cannot find server" such.
Making things even more galling, not to mention testing my own patience--and perhaps the rest of us--is the lack of issuing a proper and timely notice beforehand as would have helped matters greatly. In any case, an explanation as to why timely notice could not have been issued beforehand would be appreciated.
(A check of the Update Blog, which would have provided some helpful cluedos, was likewise unsuccessful. In fact, prior to today's outages setting in, I did check the Update Blog, and the most recent message to date was from the planned outage back in early October.)
We would also welcome an apology for the lack of timely prior notice, as well as decent "make-good" compensation. I was among those brought up to accept the belief that a business should either do it right, or else make things right.
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The Exaggerator ... a thinking blog (with online shopping) in and for these ignorant and superstitious times |
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ssprite
Location: Pacific Grove CA USA
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| Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe its different down south, but more than likely they are suffering power outages the same as we are up here in northern California.
There are storms across the north moving south, as well as many fires in the mountains near LA. That effects everyone while the power companies switch out certain areas to accommodate others where there are emergency providers like firehouses and hospitals.
Which gets me to the point of Blogdrive's current status. It might be that they can't RESPOND to you while trying to get the system back up and scynronized. That takes TIME...
BE PATIENT PLEASE
Thanks from another paid Blogdrive user.
_________________
sometimes the bug ~ sometimes the windshield |
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deadringer
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| Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:41 pm Post subject: UNABLE TO POST |
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This has been going on for two days now, no ability to post - my readership is dwindling, and there is no repsonse from management - what is up? I have news related time sensitive material. Frankly, it has been one disaster after another with no personal replies from any management. I am not a blogging novice - I have NEVER seen anything like this before, inacceptable.
http://notinhisname.blogdrive.com
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what the hell is wrong with the management here, I have been unable to post for two days now, and there is NO response! |
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Splotch!
Location: Chicago
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