Howdy,

I'm pleased to announce that Photographica is now running on Amazon EC2.  It took quite a bit of work to make it happen, and I'm fairly sure there are some kinks to work out still but it had to be done.

Some known issues:

• email doesn't work yet (which will break account signups)
• the secure site probably doesn't work 100%
• subscriptions probably don't work
• badges will not get updated either
• there could be performance issues.  Hopefully not though.
• in theory, Photographica now supports IPv6.  Whether this works or not we will see. 

Let me know if you run into any trouble.  As I said this took a bit of work -- not only did I have to copy over the 30 gigs of data but I had to replatform the system to run on Ubuntu instead of FreeBSD.

I've deleted quite a bit of spam stories.  I dont know who is doing this, but they should know it is very annoying.

PS:  Got several posts comming up shortly.  Been quite busy this summer applying to business school and getting married (well, I will be in a month :-).

Stupid spammers.

I just updated the site to fix a rather odd login bug.

The bug is:

1. Go to log in
2. Enter proper username/password
3. Click "Login", only to have it not log you in and not give any "bad password" message

Turns for most cases the issue is because of installed certain toolbars / browser extensions.  Depending on the name of the toolbar or extension, the website was tricked into believing the browser was actually a mis-behaving search engine spider.  I've relaxed the rules Photographica uses to determine if a browser is in fact a search engine and I believe I've fixed the bug for 95% of all cases.

If you still have trouble logging in, drop me a line with your username and the exact date & time you tried logging in (I need the date & time to check the logs for what might be wrong).  My email is coryking@mozimedia.com.

Search works again... Mumble, mumble...  looks like it didn't get upgraded properly when I upgraded the database.  mumble mumble.  Sorry :-(

In better news, I've done some minor tweaks to the menus.  I found it very annoying that there was no quick link to upload your photos, so I put it in the most obvious place of all--the top right!  In addition, I added a link to the mobile site.

I've also switched the people I use to process your credit card when you become a subscriber.

Howdy!

I've beefed up facebook support and made it really easy to like/share your content on Facebook.  

In addition, I've fixed some bugs in the text editors so that you can now post stuff on your iPhone/iPad/iWhatevers.

More to come soon!

I'm an idiot.  I forgot to renew mozimedia.com.  When a domain isn't renewed, it doesn't work until you cough up some money.

Guess what uses mozimedia.com?  Photographica.  Guess what that breaks?  Images, javascript, RSS (my.yahoo.com), and everything else.  Not to mention my email too!

Domain renewed.  Order will be restored in mere hours.

How embarrassing. Seriously.  I am really embarrassed.

At least it was an easy fix though!

I'm pleased to announce the fact we now have to web servers, bringing the total number of computers serving Photographica to four.  The new server is about two orders of magnitude faster than the original web server and should serve us quite well!

Let me know if you run into any trouble!

If you were getting "module not found" or "page not found" errors when trying to log in last night, I've fixed the issue.  Can't explain why the system decided to go afoul, but if it keeps up by all means drop me a line--don't be shy :-)

coryking@mozimedia.com

Howdy Folks,

So far, so good.  If you were a donor, I've just granted you a badge.  I'll add those who mailed in checks once I get it in the mail.

If you dont see yourself on the list, drop me a line and I'll get you added.  I tried pretty hard to make sure everybody was included, but I could have let a couple slip through.

Thank again for all your support.  Without you, this site would not be funcitoning today!

http://www.photographica.org/badges/51/donor

Howdy,

I've added a new feature and fixed several bugs.

1. New Story Manager
2. Fixed the logout page so it doesn't give an internal server error (oops!)
3. Fixed artclick.org so the images on the bottom of each story will display correctly when clicked on.
4. Fixed the forum page so it shows the correct information.
5. Updated: Fixed the list of story pictures so there are no duplicates.
6. Updated : Added a Badge for members who have over one thousand images and a badge for those with over one hundred stories .
7. Updated : Added yet more badges.  "Famous Story " has been changed to include only stories with one hundred comments.  "Popular Story " is for stories with at least 30 comments.  Added a "Commenter " badge for your first comment.

Howdy,

Working on an even better way to edit and filter your stories.  Right now, it is on my development server running here at home .

Please give this new way of listing stories a shot .  You'll need Silverlight installed --I haven't finished with the "revert to non-silverlight" yet.  I'll leave my development server running all night.  You might have to create an account there if you haven't already.  Remember... anything goes on that server, so have fun!

Thanks!

Both are fixed on my development server and you'll love the new way stories are listed too.  I'll be pushing out the changes later today or tomorrow.

Sorry I've been slacking.  I had to put out a pretty major fire for a client and I've been busy trying to get a real job in this sour (but picking up) economy.  If I had more free time, I'd have had everything fixed already :-(

UPDATE :  I've updated your dashboard with a better way to list stories.  It is still a work in progress, and I'll probably have a couple more updates today.  I wanted to ship it now so you get a feel for what I'm doing.

SECOND UPDATE: Please give this new way of listing stories a shot .  You'll need Silverlight installed --I haven't finished with the "revert to non-silverlight" yet.  I'll leave my development server running all night.  You might have to create an account there if you haven't already.  Remember... anything goes on that server, so have fun!

This has only been a test.  Had this been a real story, you would have seen something more interesting. 

If the upgrade worked, nothing should be different.  Why the upgrade?  It is a secret :-)

UPDATE: There is still some buggaros.  Mostly with the whole new comment business and the forums

Yes, a story about the website.  How boring :-)  Hear me out though because this might be a good idea.

Groups.

Flickr has them.  Facebook has them.  Myspace has them.  Everybody has them.  Photographica, I think, should have them.  A group would be basically a mini version of Photographica with its own sections, and possibly its own forums and challenges.   Here are some examples of a group that one might create:

• Seattle Photographers Group
• Nikon Owners Group
• Urban Photography Group
• Newbie Group

Anybody with an account should be able to start a group on Photographica.  Initially, group membership would be open to all, but in the future I'd add support for invite-only groups as well.  These groups would have very granular permissions and the owner could delegate tasks to their own editors just like is done here on Photographica.  Further down the line, if a group got big enough, its members could pool together, purchase their own domain name, and start their own "real" website with very little fuss.

What about stories? 
How would you write a story in this regeme?  The same as you do now.  You'd start with a draft and when you are finished you would publish the draft to one or more groups, each with their own sections and rules about how often you could post.  That is right, I'd get it so a single story and its comments would be shared across one or more groups and even websites--for example if you created a really cool abstract art peice in Photoshop and were in some "Photoshop Artists Group" on Photographica and you were on a "Abstract Art" group on artClick, you'd post the story to both places.  The comments would be shared across both websites.

What about the front page of Photographica? 
This is where it gets tricky.  Flickr doesn't really have a "front page" like we do.  I like our front page, and I think you all do as well.. it makes things more intimate because your work is shown for all to see.  Keeping this in mind, I have a few ideas that I'd like to toss out: 

1. Photographica's front page shows all stories posted, including those from any group.
2. The front page show only stories that the author chose to post there.  Keep in mind that the author can post a story to both the front page *and* a group.
3. The front page shows only stories that group owners and editors select.
4. The front page shows stories show content front groups the system deems "popular" (as in gets enough comments, gets enough visits, etc)
5. Some combination of the above.

I dont want it to loose intimacy and "everybody knows everybody" feel of Photographica, but I also think the idea of groups is something many of you would really like.  Unlike voting, I think it would solve many of the problems with peoples hard work getting lost; the groups would probably move slower then the front page, but if the group is big enough, your work would still have lots of eyeballs.

So, two questions:

1. Is this a good idea or am I full of it?
2. If it is a good idea, what would the front page show?

That is right, I've added the ability to search Stories and Users .  Not much else to mention about the whole ordeal, but have fun!  Oh yeah, happy Thanksgiving to all of you as well!!

Here are some interesting queries to give you an idea of what is up:

• HDR
• f-stop
• Bi-Weekly Challenge
• Photoshop Tips
• Nikon D80
• Autumn Leaves
• Roller Coaster
• Washington DC
• Seattle at night
• City Moon

Have fun!

Things go wrong.  Stuff stops working.  Life grinds to a halt.

Order should be restored.  Sorry for the interuption!

By the way, if you haven't yet, you should really check out PhotoSynth .  It is pretty slick .

Check out the sweet new way to view slideshows !

If you are running Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Opera on Windows or an Intel Mac, with a quick install of Silverlight you should be able to view the slideshows using the cool new method.

If for some reason, you cannot install Silverlight, you can always opt out.  The system should detect if you are running a browser that cannot install Silverlight and simply use the old slideshow.

And just for the heck of it, here is another slideshow to test it out !

PS: I also changed how some things get loaded.  Let me know if you run into any problems with *anything* :-)
PPS: Next up will be a way to zoom into images, as requested.  It will be a silverlight app , just like the stuff above.

Hello All,

I'm working on a way to reward your participation on Photographica.  If you publish stories, post helpful comments, or provide feedback, you will be rewarded with various badges.

For example, if you post a comment that at least 5 people find helpful, you will receive a "Good Comment" badge.  If you publish a story that has at least thirty comments, you will receive a "Famous Story" badge.  Along side your name, other users will see how many badges you have been awarded.  Your profile page now has a list of the badges you have been rewarded so far.

This new system is still under development so I invite your feedback and any ideas for new badges.

Update: You can get a list of badges here .