AOL Journals: Magic Smoke

Tuesday, November 29, 2005
6:55:00 PM EST Okay folks -- here's the word on our other open issues (as noted, the ad banner disclaimer and save fix will go live tomorrow morning):

* Character Set Displays Improperly:
We've got a handle on the problem of characters with accents and other "special" symbols not displaying properly -- if you want to get the geek update, it involves servlet engines, UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 (check out developer John's entry on this and our other open issues).

Suffice it to say, the fix is being tested, and we hope to have it live soon. I will let you know here when we have a date for an install.

* Inaccurate Archive Counts
The problem of the wrong number of entries, and the wrong month's entries, being displayed in the monthly archive view is still being worked on, but the tech folks think they have a line on this problem, too. If testing of the fix goes through okay, we should hopefully install it with the the Character Set fix. Again, I will let you know here.

* More Info on the Patch:
As noted in my previous entry, the patch is still scheduled for 4AM tomorrow. Developer John, in his entry mentioned above, notes that what killed the patch the first time was a typo, so we should be set for the ad disclaimer and the save entry fix.

If you want to see the disclaimer in the beta environment, you can go to the beta servers -- just stick "beta." on the front of your Journal's address. For example, my blog's production address is
http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke

Its address on the beta server is:
http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke

In addition to developer John's blog, there are a few other Journals-related blogs I will show you tomorrow (after our successful patch install, of course.)

Thanks -- Joe

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This entry has 38 comments: (Add your own)

• #38 Comment from floralilia 
  12/1/05 10:28 AM | Permalink

  "As America Online turns more toward advertising dollars to offset the shrinking number of subscribers who pay a monthly fee, the company may be upsetting the longtime customers who have remained faithful over the years."
  
  The lesson here? The best way to save a floundering business model is to alienate your remaining consumer base.
  
  When your mass-marketing strategy for delivering 1025 free hours of AOL into the hands of every man, woman, child, orangutan and flying squirrel on the planet fails...DON'T think to update your marketing strategy. NEVER adapt. REFUSE to change -- all while the amorphous internet continually reshapes itself.
  
  Cheers to you, AOL. If the Cretaceous era taught us anything, it's that adaptation is overrated."
  
  http://beyondmediatv.com/
  
  
• #37 Comment from gabreaelinfo 
  11/30/05 5:29 PM | Permalink

  Forget "Joe should resign." Joe should be fired.
  
  Gabreael
• #36 Comment from randlprysock 
  11/30/05 5:04 PM | Permalink

  Hey Joe,
  I have an idea.  Do you think that the folks at AOL behind these ads would consider grandfathering those of us in Journal Land who have been here since say at least as old as my journal is... more than a year now... do you think they would let us grandfather out of the ads?  Ya know, just let the new journals get them?
  Lisa  
• #35 Comment from sieblonde 
  11/30/05 4:54 PM | Permalink

  Now the ads are not only obnoxious SPAM that has been plastered onto Journals, they are POP UP ads too.  
  
  Way to go AOL!.  Can't wait to see what else you do to your paying customers....  How else can you subject us to unwanted advertising?  Ads down the sidebar next?  Charging extra for ad-free journals?    ~Sie http://persnicketypfft.blogspot.com/
• #34 Comment from stetsonboy21 
  11/30/05 4:49 PM | Permalink

  The disclaimer doesn't do a damn thing to fix the problem.  How about finding a REAL solution?

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