denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
Denise ([staff profile] denise) wrote in [site community profile] dw_news2010-10-21 02:13 am

Weekly Update: 21 October

Hi Dreamwidth! I'm sorry for missing last week's update -- at first I was waiting a bit so we could finalize some stuff, and then it was the weekend and fewer people read DW on the weekend, and then I just said, eh, screw it, I'll wait until it's time for the next week's update. So, y'all get me now.

Behind the cut:

* Development
* Feature Design
* Code Push
* Icon Keyword Renames
* Stats!
* Sad News
* DW Community News



Development



Last week's code tour, containing 30 patches: Code tour: 2010 October 08 to 2010 October 13

This week's code tour, containing 18 patches: Code Tour: 14 October to 20 October

Huge welcome goes to new contributer [personal profile] tyggerjai (who hasn't been afraid to dive straight into the big stuff!) and to [personal profile] teamdestroyer, a university course team consisting of previous contributor Erin and new contributors Alicia, Josh, and Will. Welcome, guys!


Feature Design



We've had some discussion lately about the "linked accounts" feature we want to add -- where you'll be able to, say, specify your fic journal/your RP journal as yours, and make it easier for you to comment as that journal while logged into your main journal without having to log out/log in, use LJLogin, or do complicated cookie swap extension shenanigans.

I've just posted an entry in [site community profile] dw_biz with our current thoughts on the matter to get feedback. If you have a second, please read it over and give your thoughts: RFC: Multiple Account Model


Code Push



We've resolved to have smaller, more frequent code pushes, in order to minimize the length of time we have to wait to get access to new features and bugfixes. We've got one tentatively scheduled for this weekend, which (if we do it) would include the following code tours:

(Some of) Oct 1 - Oct 7
Oct 8 - Oct 13
Oct 14 - Oct 20

Keep an eye on [site community profile] dw_maintenance for scheduling and details.


Icon Keyword Renames



The work we've been doing to re-enable icon keyword renames has been going a little more slowly than we expected (we're being cautious!) So, we're still migrating people to use the new setup -- we're about 10% done so far, and each day does around 50,000 users. You can check to see if your account has been migrated by going to your Edit Icons page and changing a keyword -- if you've been migrated, you'll have the option to rename the keywords retroactively, while if you haven't been migrated, you'll see a note that you can only change the keywords and not have it apply to your old comments/entries.

This does not mean you can't change keywords! You totally can. It's just the process of making that change apply to older entries/comments that's still disabled for some users. We're working to make sure that we re-enable it for everybody slowly but surely. (The old way of doing it turned out to be too much database load.)


Stats!



The last code push introduced some awesome enhancements to the Dreamwidth site stats page:

Dreamwidth Site Statistics

This was a Google Summer of Code project by [personal profile] anarres, and it includes all kinds of crazy awesome graphs and visualizations. There's also the legacy stats page, which contains some data that the new stats page doesn't. (Yet.)

One of the things that really makes me happy is the percentage of accounts that are paid users. We did our initial calculations based on a 5% paid user rate past a certain level of membership, and it makes me really happy that we're at over twice that (if you count over active users -- it's around 4% of total users.) This doesn't mean we don't need your support -- we totally do, since your payments are our only form of income -- but it's really helpful, and I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's supported DW with their payments!


Sad News



I'm very sad to announce that last week, we lost one of the DW family. [personal profile] skywardprodigal passed away last week after a short illness. She was a good friend, a wonderful person, and a passionate advocate for social justice, as well as an enthusiastic DW supporter, and I (and a lot of her other friends) will miss her a great deal.

If you'd like to donate somewhere in her memory, the cause that was nearest and dearest to her heart was help for Haiti, since it was her spiritual and familial home. Charities she recommended include Bethlehem Ministry, National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians, and Partners in Health.

As a reminder, if one of your friends on Dreamwidth should pass away, we can make the account a memorial account -- this will block anyone from having new entries posted to it, and in the future will prevent posts from being deleted and people from logging in (in case someone should break into the account). It doesn't prevent comments being made, so you'll still be able to leave memorial comments. If you'd like us to do this for a friend's account, contact us by opening a support request in the Account Payments category with the name of the account and we'll take care of it for you. (This is one of the things that I always dearly wish I don't have to do.)


DW Community News



* The Dreamwidth photo pool on Flickr is still open for new members! If you're on Flickr, consider sharing some of your photos with your fellow dwenizens. (Or just browse everyone else's art.)

* Still, the photo of the week is totally this one of [personal profile] haruka's gerbils modeling some DW swag.

* If you've got some gerbils of your own to clothe, the DW store is waiting for you. Check out Zazzle's currently running deals if you're looking for a bargain. And if you've got any designs that you'd like to submit for DW merch, just drop me a line!

* [personal profile] yvi is hosting a Braunschweig, Germany DW meetup at her place on November 20! If you're in the area, head on to her entry for details.

* I made a DW users Etsy treasury for last week -- DW Treasury, 10/13/10 -- and then the news post didn't get posted, so I shall use last week's treasury for this week! Check out some of the art your fellows have been making. (And if you've got a shop of your own, let me know in comments, so you can be featured in a future week's treasury.) (Disclaimer: this week has a piece of mine and [personal profile] sarah's in it -- we're faultlesspajama -- since one of the items I'd added last week subsequently sold out and I didn't have the time to go through and figure out whose it was to replace it.)

*

That's it for us for another week! As always, if you're having problems with Dreamwidth, Support can help you; for notices of site problems and downtime, check the Twitter status page; if you've got an idea to make the site better, you can make a suggestion. (Even though I am totally behind on the suggestions queue omg.)

We'll see you next week for our next update.
florahart: (marshmallows)

[personal profile] florahart 2010-10-21 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
re: memorial accounts:

The text at the top in the profile, using the account you're mentioning here, is:

skywardprodigal's Journal
This is a memorial journal. New entries and comments can't be posted to it.
Seed Account

(which would imply comments can't be made. It looks like they can, with captcha (not that I tried to actually do so, because testing stuff in this context would be crappy), but the text probably needs fixing. Not that you want to have to use this feature much)
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)

[personal profile] azurelunatic 2010-10-21 07:29 am (UTC)(link)
(what the hell am I still doing even up? I was supposed to go to bed 2 hours ago like I said. But Picasa face tagging just ate part of my life. I have too many Harry Potter screencaps.) Tagging in [site community profile] dw_suggestions is caught up through part of August, so eventually [personal profile] zvi and I will catch up to you and then it will be easier to go "oh wait, did someone else...??" when suggesting.

(Oh, hm, when I am awake I should poke at search to see if external services, as in "has external service from $provider" is in there, so I can make a suggestion, because WOULD IT NOT BE LOVELY to search for a person in one's general area who has knitting as in interest and publicly lists a Ravelry profile?)
arcanetrivia: a light purple swirl on a darker purple background (agree (pathetically dimwitted))

[personal profile] arcanetrivia 2010-10-21 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I have too many Harry Potter screencaps.

Gee, this sure looks like English, but I can't figure out what it means.

(no subject)

[personal profile] azurelunatic - 2010-10-21 18:39 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] arcanetrivia - 2010-10-21 19:06 (UTC) - Expand
ineptshieldmaid: Language is my playground (Default)

[personal profile] ineptshieldmaid 2010-10-21 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
Oooh, shiny! Pleased to hear about the linked accounts feature :).

Is there any chance of DW ever acquiring a journal stats page like the one in the Wordpress dashboard?

(no subject)

[personal profile] ineptshieldmaid - 2010-10-21 08:00 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] nickygabriel - 2010-10-21 16:39 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] faithofone - 2010-10-21 18:24 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] nickygabriel - 2010-10-21 18:29 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] faithofone - 2010-10-21 19:32 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] nickygabriel - 2010-10-21 19:38 (UTC) - Expand
lanterne_rouee: dreamsheep glowing like a radioactive lantern (dreamsheep jackolantern1)

[personal profile] lanterne_rouee 2010-10-21 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
Mm-hmm. Everything seems to be in awesome order, as usual.

Thank you for doing the code pushes more often. :)
meredyth: (Woe)

[personal profile] meredyth 2010-10-21 08:16 am (UTC)(link)
I just wanted to say that I'm dreadfully sorry you've lost a friend.

Thank you, as always, for the clear and informative update.
mrs_tribble: (Sorrow)

[personal profile] mrs_tribble 2010-10-21 08:25 am (UTC)(link)
My sympathies to the DW team for the loss of your friend and colleague.

(no subject)

[personal profile] mrs_tribble - 2010-10-21 09:38 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] mrs_tribble - 2010-10-21 09:55 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] azurelunatic - 2010-10-21 15:12 (UTC) - Expand
nanbungaku: (xtumbling)

[personal profile] nanbungaku 2010-10-21 08:43 am (UTC)(link)
I'm really sorry for what happened to [personal profile] skywardprodigal.
trixtah: (Default)

[personal profile] trixtah 2010-10-21 09:07 am (UTC)(link)
Regarding the stats charts, great! But TINY! I can't read the text. Also, it's a little odd to have a 300x300 image formatted as 200x200 on the page. Any chance of having a 300x300 image which links through to something that can be read on high-rez screens? Thank you.

(no subject)

[personal profile] pauamma - 2010-10-21 20:00 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] pauamma - 2010-10-22 14:16 (UTC) - Expand

[personal profile] ex_wysteria616 2010-10-21 10:08 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so sorry for what happened to [personal profile] skywardprodigal. I didn't know her personally, but I saw her comments here and there, and she looked like a really good person.
lunaris1013: (Blackhawks)

[personal profile] lunaris1013 2010-10-21 11:03 am (UTC)(link)
I have a newly opened Etsy shop I'd like to include!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Lunaris1013

[personal profile] sparksofember 2010-10-21 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Very pretty. I love the pumkin necklace! ^_^

(no subject)

[personal profile] lunaris1013 - 2010-10-21 16:39 (UTC) - Expand
kake: The word "kake" written in white fixed-font on a black background. (Default)

[personal profile] kake 2010-10-21 11:10 am (UTC)(link)
Small request re the Flickr group — could you add a group icon? It makes the group look much more attractive than the default grey sadface does...

[personal profile] hotel_paranoia 2010-10-21 11:17 am (UTC)(link)
Yay, an update! I was so sad when there wasn't one last week.

...I can't believe how much I look forward to these. Thanks for communicating real information and listening to us.

[personal profile] faithofone 2010-10-21 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Me too. I think I checked my reading page four or five times more often because I was worried that there was no update due to tragedy or something.

(no subject)

[personal profile] lorem_ipsum - 2010-10-22 03:48 (UTC) - Expand
lorax: Katara (A:TLA - Katara Waterbending)

[personal profile] lorax 2010-10-21 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
My heart goes out to [personal profile] skywardprodigal's friends and family.

The linked account feature looks very exciting, and like it might be an excellent thing for fic writers, or RP'ers.
haruka: (chickadee)

[personal profile] haruka 2010-10-21 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the link to my pic. :)

(no subject)

[personal profile] haruka - 2010-10-21 12:50 (UTC) - Expand
senmut: modern style black canary on right in front of modern style deathstroke (Default)

[personal profile] senmut 2010-10-21 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)
The memorial account ability is something I think is a wonderful ability. [personal profile] skywardprodigal's passing was sad and I wish all her friends and family the best.

Smaller, more frequent code pushes sounds good.

I did get worried when I saw no update, but I presumed Life had stepped in, per usual.

I like the stats page; I love the breakdown with ACTIVE accounts.

Thank you, thank all of the team at Dreamwidth, for both the informative updates, and all the hard work behind the scenes.
msilverstar: (corset)

[personal profile] msilverstar 2010-10-21 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree with every single thing [personal profile] senmut says, and also want to encourage smaller code pushes. The more changes there are in one push, the more likely that problems will come up, exponentially more.
fulminata: (flower - tulip)

[personal profile] fulminata 2010-10-21 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Like everyone else, I'm sorry about the loss of [personal profile] skywardprodigal.

And thank you for being so forthcoming about how to go about doing a memorial account in unfortunate and sad instances such as these. I'm glad DW seems more supportive of doing this than LJ does.
sofiaviolet: drawing of three violets and three leaves (Default)

[personal profile] sofiaviolet 2010-10-21 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm really pleased to see progress on the associate-these-journals feature. :) Mostly for the convenience of posting, for me (I don't need to enforce a strong separation between online identities, so I don't have multiple reading pages to manage or anything like that). And also for shiny.

And woooo more frequent code pushes!
codeman38: Image of a Shy Guy and several Hothead enemies from Super Mario, with the caption 'A shy guy in a world of hotheads'. (Default)

[personal profile] codeman38 2010-10-21 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I've added a suggestion that's a huge accessibility issue-- in short, viewing messages that have been collapsed in the Inbox view is quite impossible with a keyboard, as far as I can tell. (It's bad enough clicking the small 11x11-pixel target with a mouse! -_-)

Is there anywhere else I should submit this other than [site community profile] dw_suggestions?
niqaeli: cat with arizona flag in the background (Default)

[personal profile] niqaeli 2010-10-21 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, if it's not accessible, that's a support issue, so you'd be quite right to bring it up over in Support; your suggestion will probably be let through and then redirected to where it needs to go (this is the stated general policy for stuff that's actually a bug or defect that gets brought up in Suggestions, because they do not want to discourage people from submitting suggestions!).

There's also [site community profile] dw_accessibility, which is mostly used for discussion of accessibility issues and how best to implement accessibility from what I can see.

Anyhow, I hope that is helpful. :)

(no subject)

[personal profile] codeman38 - 2010-10-21 19:44 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] sophie - 2010-10-21 22:26 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] niqaeli - 2010-10-21 22:47 (UTC) - Expand

[personal profile] sparksofember 2010-10-21 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
So sorry for DW's loss. The memorial is a very sweet idea.

I don't have any items listed just yet but here's my etsy for the future. And those are beautiful items in the treasury!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/thenaggingcrane
kitters: (Default)

[personal profile] kitters 2010-10-21 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
That linked accounts feature sounds really awesome! I love you guys. ;_;
ilyena_sylph: picture of masked woman with bisexual-triangle colors in gradient background (Bi masked)

[personal profile] ilyena_sylph 2010-10-21 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi Denise!

I am SO EXCITED about the one account, multiple journals thing, you do not even KNOW. So. Much. Joy. I'll be over there babbling shortly.

Also I really like the idea of smaller and more frequent code pushes, just FYI.

Heh. I still find it kind of amusing that it's the icon keywords that ate the site, but I'm so glad you're getting it fixed!

The new stats are awesome.

Thank you reminding everyone of the Memorial account status, but damn I wish you hadn't had to! She was such an amazing voice for justice.

sneezer222: Text only Keep Calm Carry Yarn (KeepCalmYarn)

[personal profile] sneezer222 2010-10-21 06:17 pm (UTC)(link)
OH thank you so much for inluding me in the etsy treasury. I wondered why those glasses suddenly had so many new views!
stepps: text "dreamer" on burnt sienna background ([dw] dreamer)

re stats page

[personal profile] stepps 2010-10-21 11:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I love graphs! I would however love them more if they where either larger, or click-to-enlarge. Still, visual representation of figures FTW :)

[personal profile] korundum 2010-10-22 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
Just dropping in to say that I absolutely love the idea of the "linked accounts." I really hope it gets implemented.
juliet316: (TW: Gwen despair)

[personal profile] juliet316 2010-10-22 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry for [personal profile] skywardprodigal's loss. my heart goes out to her family and friends. The memorial journals is a great idea.

The rest of the ideas in this update look really good.

Page 1 of 2