As promised last month, here is the second of my monthly site updates – designed to keep you all in the know with the comings and goings of the site.
1. Server Migration
We are now fully operating on our new servers, and aside from a few problems with hotlinking images, we seem to be stable. We have had very little downtime since the move and what downtime we have had has been dealt with extremely quickly. Thank you all once again for your patience during the move!
2. Christmas
As you know, I leave for New Zealand in just over one week and I will be gone for a month. I am taking my trusty Mac and will be monitoring the site and posting at least one article per day. You may find that I am commenting less because I will be spending time with family and friends and enjoying lots of good New Zealand wine. I will be back here on the 19th of January.
This leads me to remind you – you now have only a few days left in which to get your Christmas Competition entries in. I will not accept any entries after midnight UTC on the 15th of December.
3. RSS Feed
I have modified the RSS feed so that it now shows the first item and full description of the list. I am hoping that this will inspire more people to come to the site from the feed. One side-effect of this has been that you will have noticed all of the items from the previous week showing up in the feed as unread. This will only happen the once.
4. Facebook Application
I have been struggling for weeks in my spare time to create a List Universe Application for Facebook and I am happy to announce that I finally finished it! You can see it in the screenshot above. Be sure to install it so all your friends can hear about the List Universe and join in the fun!
Install the List Universe Facebook application
5. Logo Competition
Today we have launched our logo competition. When I have received all logos I will post them on the forums for all to admire. The prize is a $200 Amazon gift voucher so be sure to put your best foot forward!
6. Amazon
Some of you have noticed that I put amazon links on the photography list – this is not new but I am now using images with the links to try to brighten the site up a bit. Also, in case you didn’t know, I have put a link on the right side to Amazon – even if you don’t want to buy the item showing, if you click that link the site makes a small percentage of your total purchases – regardless of what you buy – so please don’t be afraid to click it.
Do the lists for the christmas competition have to be marked ‘christmas competition’, or is it just any list sent it thats considered?
They have to be marked especially for the competition.
Ok then, I’ll remember to do that. I’ve got an idea for a good one.
Great – can’t wait to see it! I plan on sorting the lists and picking the winner while I am on the plane to NZ. That should help me to pass the 30 hours.
Ouch, I dont envy you that journey! When I went to NZ a few years ago we had 2 weeks in Australia beforehand to break up the journey, so the flight there wasnt so bad haha
Wow, December has been quite a month!
Jess: it seems like that every month!
dangorironhide: I am dreading it – but at least the joy at the other end makes it worth it
Jamie: Do you have any good suggestions on Wine? Cheap wine of course, I cant afford any of that expensive stuff.
Well I am glad you found something to keep you occupied on the plane. I have only ever been on a plane once and that was in a little ceasna flying over the Ventura coast in California. (Even got to control the plan for a few). Never been on a commercial flight though. I wouldn’t know what to do.
Juggz: Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is good – it is one of our best wine varieties – either from Marlborough or Hawkes Bay. They are very very fruity compared to most other Sauvs (including American).
Ravyn: it is awful frankly – especially for over 30 hours – but we have no choice unfortunately – not until someone invents a teleporter
Juggz: Just to comment on a good cheap wine… if you can find it (I know we have it here but I don’t know how far it sells) Mon Ami wines are very yummy. Like their rose wine or pink catabwa.
I got a bottle Of Mon Ami Pink Catabwa waiting to be opened on the 20th. So many times that I just want to pop it open and have at it.
Lets not forget the infamous top 10 most commented on lists list:P
JMurf: I was going to give that one a month to settle
I would like to add that we are now trialling Amazon S3 to see if it helps with the server load – we are also now being upgraded on one of our servers.
Top 10 inexpensive but good wines or champainges(sp?) would be cool to bring in the new year.
ugh i hit submit too soon.
thanks for the suggestions I have never beena big wine drinker as it tends to give me horrendous heartburn. But every now and then I crave it.
Juggz: you can get great heartburn tablets that allow you drink as much as you want – I eat them so often I am turning in to one
Jamie: haha
good new zealand wine = oxymoron?
PeteFloyd: why is that an oxymoron? New Zealand wine is renowned for its high quality.
I just want to say – I don’t know why – but we have gone from serving 5 MB/s to 30 MB/s – someone has linked us and I don’t know who!
kottke.org linked to you today, maybe thats why.
Making a Facebook app is a great idea. There’s a huge market there waiting to be tapped.
What did you think of the API? The documentation isn’t great.
kenrick: that may be why – the traffic is still huge!
fgds: the documentation was the worst I have ever seen! It took me 6 hours today to get the app working and I have been a professional software developer for many years!
IMDb.com linked to this page a little while ago, month before last I think, that’s where I learned about this page.
What no MySpace page?
Denashi – yeah – that was great – it brought in a lot of new users.
Amanda: Maybe after Christmas
Jamie, I just have a quick question. When does the Christmas Competition end?
On the original post, it says “No lists will be accepted on or after the 15th of December, 2007.”
However, on this post, it says “I will not accept any entries after the 20th of December.”
Thanks!
Jess: December 15th is the last day for submissions – it ends at midnight UTC on the 15th.
I thought it was the 20th – I have updated this list to reflect the original date
FACEBOOK APP?! I’m so pumped. Will you accept list submissions not for the Christmas Competition, just general list submissions, after the 15th?
Kelsi: definitely – I am always taking lists.
Petefloyd. You must be an ocker.
I just realized that the logo that means “on” or “start” looks like hand giving the middle finger…
Or maybe that’s just me.