Journals Rllb Release Successfully Launched

Hi folks -- as I mentioned yesterday, the Journals team installed the AOL Journals R11b release in production early this morning.

The install went pretty smoothly; let me know if you're experiencing any problems.

Here are a few open issues and clarifications:

* Status on Features for International (non-US) Users:

- Record Video: Right now, recording and embedding video from your webcam directly into your blog entry is US-only. It's powered by a Userplane module that was built as a prototype. Not sure what the plan is for an International rollout.

- Flickr Tab in Pictures Picker: This feature is currently only available to US, Latino, and Germany. The team is working to get it added to other locales (like UK and France); hopefully sooner rather than later.

Company-wide, there's a renewed emphasis on international customers, so hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more simultaneous roll outs, instead of catch-up for non-US folks.

* Page Loading: I'm seeing some intermittent delays -- more like hitches and hiccups, rather than full "hangs" -- in page loading, possibly related to the AOL Pictures integrations. Not sure; am asking the team to look into it.

* Woohoo Album Displays: This one I should have done a little more homework on so I could have pre-messaged it better: Now, when you embed an AOL Pictures album into your blog, it uses the Woohoo display module (click to see all the styles available).

I did not realize that this would affect the albums already in your Journals. Sorry about that. There are two main issues people are bringing up:

1. The current Woohoo album styles don't display captions.
2. Some folks don't like the default "Ken Burns" style.

I have asked the Woohoo team to see what they can do about displaying captions. Right now, I would suggest using the "Photo Album" style, where when you click a picture, it opens a new window with the single-picture view in AOL Pictures (with caption).

"Ken Burns" style (named after the signature style of the documentary filmmaker -- a slow pan over a photo) also takes you to the photo page when you click a photo, but some people don't like the movement. I will talk more about Woohoo and the styles later.

* Display Names in Comments: A few folks have pointed out that when they leave comments, their first name is being displayed instead of their screen name. I'm not sure why this is happening and have asked the tech folks to investigate.

If you are running into any problems with Journals today, or have feedback on the new features, please let me and the Journals team know.

I will be talking more in-depth about the new features and other changes.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, journals status, journals features, r11b

Written by journalseditor Blog about this entry

This entry has 19 comments: (Add your own)

#19 Comment from lpleas3333
5/18/07 11:37 AM | Permalink

Please HELP! My photos which were in neat little albums, now either don't show or are on a horrible looking slide show which cuts off most of the picture it's showing but I'm mostly getting a little black "timed out" message with no pictures.
Some of the photos you'll see were copied and pasted from another site, these weren't affected, the photos in albums aren't working.
Please look at my journal and advise me what to do next. I'm frantic because this is the best way I've got to communicate with far-off family. I'm mostly getting a little black "timed out" message and no pictures. If I right-click the black "timed out" message I get some kind of settings from woohoo?
I spent all day Wednesday trying to get my point across to tech support, they had me standing on my head making changes to my computer (which I later had to un-do since none worked) Here's the link. My email address is
LPleas3333@aol.com

http://journals.aol.com/lpleas3333/AdensAdventures/
Comment from lpleas3333 - 5/18/07 7:09 AM
#18 Comment from monponsett
5/17/07 12:32 AM | Permalink

Busy day for you, no?
#17 Comment from mparekh0264
5/16/07 9:48 PM | Permalink

Hi Jennifer, no reason to be concerned. The journals list page for a user shows different content based on who is viewing the page. It only shows those journals that a viewer is authorized to read.

When I click on your name in the comment, I do NOT see any of your journals.
You can see your private journal(s) because you are the owner of your journal(s) and have signed in to AOL. Private journals can only been seen by you and the readers you added to your private journal.
#16 Comment from journalseditorEntry Author
5/16/07 9:38 PM | Permalink

SKChen -- I'll have to test the wrapping settings to see what's up. Also, we're checking on having a classic, non-animated style for multiple pictures (the way single pictures are added is still basically the same.

For the rest of you asking about captions -- we're looking into a fix for this and a few other things; check out my most recent entry: http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2007/05/16/r11b-update-screen-name-fix--more/2217

Thanks -- Joe
#15 Comment from journalseditorEntry Author
5/16/07 9:30 PM | Permalink

All4movingahead -- I wasn't aware of any color changes in the text editor; I will have to check with the team on that one.

Regarding the public list page and private Journals -- only you, the private Journal owner (and the people you've allowed to read your Private Journal) will be able to see your Private Journals listed on that page. So no worries there.

Thanks -- Joe (posted & mailed)

Show all comments (14 more)

AOL Journals: Magic Smoke Public Journal
Back to Journal	Archives \| Alerts x Entry Alerts Comment Alerts \| Feeds

AOL Journals: Magic Smoke

Journals Rllb Release Successfully Launched