Blogzerk Blog

Blogzerk Billing Moving to Host Orlando

Chris Scott — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:37:08 -0400

Over the next few days, we will be moving all our billing for Blogzerk from the Adaptive Hosting Solutions billing system to our new Host Orlando billing system. This system will give you one-stop access to all your account information, invoices, and support requests.

As part of this move, we will be changing all Blogzerk billing to monthly billing due on the first day of the month. The new billing policy is detailed on the Host Orlando policies page.

We'll be sending out a formal announcement via email of these changes in the next day or two.

Blogzerk Scheduled Maintenance for 04/07/2007

Chris Scott — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:06:40 -0400

A maintenance window is scheduled for April 7, 2007 for Blogzerk. During this time, the Blogware servers will be moved to a new datacenter:

Date: April 7 - 8, 2007 EDT
Time: 10:00 PM EDT 04/07/2007 - 07:30 AM EDT 04/08/2007
Duration: 9.5 hours

During this windows, blogs and the publisher's control panel will be unavailable.

Control Panel URL

Chris Scott — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:15:21 -0500

Due to the update to Blogware this weekend, you will need to use http://controlpanel.blogzerk.com/ Most of you already use this and will not need to change anything. Prior to using the Blogzerk name for our blog hosting, we used blogadmin.adaptivehostingsolutions.com as the control panel URL. This will no longer work.

Blogzerk Scheduled Maintenance for 12/02/2006

Chris Scott — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 08:37:39 -0500

A maintenance window is scheduled for October 28, 2006 to enhance Blogware:

Date: 2 December 2006 EST
Time: 10:00PM EST - 03:00AM EST
Duration: 6 hours

During this windows, blogs and the publisher's control panel will be unavailable.

The following enhancements will be made:

Creating Reader Accounts:

"Create A Reader Account" renamed to "Create An Account".
Clicking the "Create An Account" link in a blog will go directly to the "Create An Account" page. This page has been re-designed to keep the user within the blog instead of an external page.

Managing Reader Accounts:

Readers can now manage their reader account from a single page. Readers who log into a blog can click ‘My Preferences’, and will be taken to the preferences page.
Readers can delete their reader account, change their email notifications, or display name.

User Permissions Section:

"Manage Groups" changed to "List Groups". Existing groups will be listed and new groups can be added.
The "Edit Group" page has been re-designed to be more user-friendly.
The "Edit User" screen has been redesigned and email notifications for readers (users with no associated blog) can now be modified by the blog owner.

Once these changes are made, the documentation (link available in the control panel) will be updated.

Blogzerk Control Panel Outage - RESOLVED

Chris Scott — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 08:39:16 -0500

Since approximately 8:10 AM ET, the Blogzerk Control Panel (http://controlpanel.blogzerk.com/) has been down. Blogware is working on this and we will update this post when we have more information.

UPDATED 10:30 AM ET: This has been resolved and the control panel is working now.

Happy Birthday to Us!

Chris Scott — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:00:00 -0400

Blogzerk Scheduled Maintenance for 10/28/2006

Chris Scott — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:55:22 -0400

A maintenance window is scheduled for October 28, 2006 to maintain the Blogware databases:

Date: 28 October 2006 EDT
Start Time: 10:00PM EDT - 01:00AM EST
Duration: 4 hours

During this windows, blogs and the publisher's control panel will be unavailable.

Blogzerk Scheduled Maintenance - 10/14/06

Chris Scott — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 16:59:36 -0400

Sorry for the short notice, but we missed the original announcement of this from Blogware. A maintenance window is scheduled for tomorrow to maintain the Blogware databases:

Date: 14 October 2006 EDT
Start Time: 10:00PM EDT - 03:00AM EDT
Duration: 5 hours

During this windows, blogs and the publisher's control panel will be unavailable.

Blogzerk Plans Upgraded and Simplified

Chris Scott — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:53:16 -0400

As of October 1 (yes, this message is a bit late), our Blogzerk plans have been upgraded and simplified.

The Basic plan has been upgraded to 2GB of storage space and 5GB of monthly data transfer. The price is still $5.95/month.
The Ultra plan has been upgraded to 10GB of storage and 40GB of monthly data transfer. The price on the Ultra plan has been reduced from $27.95/month to $15.95/month.

All other plans have been retired and we wish them well in their future endeavors.

For customers on the Blogzerk Basic plan (most of our customers), you now have more storage and transfer for the same price.
If you are on the Plus plan you will be moved to the Basic plan since that plan now has the same limits the Plus plan had (confused yet?). This will reduce your monthly cost from $10.95 to $5.95.
None of the other plans were being used so we won't talk about them.

If you outgrow the Basic plan, the upgrade path is now to the upgraded Ultra plan. Hopefully the new limits will prevent most of our customers from needing this but it is available if needed for those blogs with a high traffic volume or storage needs.

A Great Explanation of RSS

Chris Scott — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:23:39 -0400

Been trying to figure out what RSS is or how to explain it to someone? Check out How to explain RSS the Oprah way at Back in skinny jeans.

Rare Custom Template Truncation Bug in Blogzerk/Blogware

Chris Scott — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 09:10:35 -0400

If you have customized your blog's templates, now would be a good time to download a copy of your current, custom template so you have a backup. While this is a good idea at any time, now is a really good time since there is a rare bug with Blogware where custom templates may be truncated. Depending on which template this is, it could cause anything from your custom CSS not being applied, to articles not displaying, to the whole blog not displaying.

Up until last night, we had only seen this on blogs we were testing or managing. We had reported this to Blogware as a bug a few weeks ago but they weren't able to replicate it. Last night, a customer reported their custom article template had been truncated which was causing the article to not display.

We have reopened this bug with Blogware to try to get this fixed. In the mean time, if you have customized your templates be sure to download a copy of them in case this bug bites you.

Blogzerk Bug Fixes and Open Bugs

Chris Scott — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:44:53 -0400

Blogware squashed a few bugs yesterday:

Apache log file format: The logfile format has been returned to its previous format before the implementation of the SQUID caching system This will not be visible until 8/18's stats are run.
Anonymous posting for blogs that don't allow anonymous comments: The unauthenticated user now receives a message letting them know that they need to authenticate first before posting. Uncustomized versions of article/photo.html were fixed previously and this one will address customized ones, backing up the previous version as article/photo.html.bak.
Improved SQUID cache handling: These should address issues of displaying cached pages after some actions (like using manage_notices, or after creating a reader account).
Issues where misspellings of getText causing errors have been fixed.

The following bugs are noted and are being prioritized for a fix:

French accents in moblogging subject lines not handled gracefully.
Text server side includes still being cached, but graphics seem okay.
Some errors are being shown in another language than the blog's default language.
Problems downloading logfiles for French and Spanish blogs -- errors with "invalid day of week".
Browsers are caching Web Pages in the blogging environment after they're updated.
Problems attaching additional photos (or files) to Photo blog postings.
Posting a comment doesn't automatically refresh the page.
Some RSS readers (most notably my.yahoo.com) are having trouble parsing RSS feeds.

BlogOrlando Conference Sessions Posted

Chris Scott — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:37:27 -0400

Josh posted the Sessions listing and some info. on them over on the BlogOrlando blog. If you're attending, check it out to see what's in store. If you want to attend, you can still register.

Tags: blogorlando

Blogzerk Howto Video Podcasts Added to iTunes Music Store

Chris Scott — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:31:24 -0400

You can now find our howto video podcasts in the iTunes Music Store. Here's a direct link. It was added last night, so browsing and searching for it doesn't show it yet but that should work soon as iTunes updates.

Video Howto: Adding a Photo to an Article

Chris Scott — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:27:11 -0400

This video podcast kicks of a series of short howto videos on common tasks you'll encounter when using your Blogzerk blog.

Today's howto covers adding a photo to an article. This only covers the case where you have an image saved on your hard drive that you want to include in an article post. Note that this isn't the only way to skin this cat and may not even be the way you prefer, but since we wanted to include using the File Manager in this howto, that's why we did it the way we did it. In the next few howto's, we'll show you how to use images from your photo albums and direct URLs.

An iTunes/iPod formatted video file is attached to this post for use in iTunes. If you subscribe to our RSS feed with iTunes (sub with iTunes now), it should download automatically into your Podcasts section. Also, here it is as a 640x480 MPEG-4 (Quicktime compatible, 9.5MB) movie or WMV (4.6MB) movie. We traded a bit of quality for file size so it won't be crystal clear.

Please let us know what you think of this in the comments as well as any requests you have for future topics.

Add Google Calendar to Your Blogzerk Blog

Chris Scott — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:30:51 -0400

I just posted a how-to in the Blogzerk Forums on adding Google Calendar as an RSS Headline Component to your Blogzerk blog to display Google Calendar entries as a component.

Note that Google allows you to create multiple calendars and each has its own RSS URL so you can display multiple calendars as components on your blog or just use multiple calendars to separate your personal and blog calendars.

Comments Broken in Custom Article Templates After Today's Update - UPDATED WITH FIX

Chris Scott — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:55:22 -0400

In adding the functionality for AJAX comments, any blog that has a customized article template will now find that the comments link does not work. We are waiting for a final fix for this and a related issue from Blogware and will update this post with more information. We apologize for the inconvenience.

To fix this problem the following templates must be modified if you have customized them. If you have not customized any of these templates, you do not need to do anything.

Article
Book Review
Music Reivew
Movie Review
Photo

Each template listed above contains the following code:

{{if allow_comments}} {{if can_post}} <div style="margin-bottom:20px;"><a href="#post_comment"><%= gettext("Post a comment") %></a></div> {{/if}}  {{/if}} 

This code needs to be replaced with:

{{if allow_comments}} {{if can_post}} <div style="margin-bottom:20px;"><a href="#post_comment" onclick="return reveal_post_comment_inline(true, false);"><%= gettext("Post a comment") %></a></div> {{/if}}  {{/if}} 

If you have customized your base template, you will also need to add the following to the top of your article template:

Comments Broken in Custom Article Templates After Today's Update

Chris Scott — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:48:29 -0400

BlogOrlando Registration Now Online

Chris Scott — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:49:46 -0400

Yesterday we told you about the BlogOrlando unconference and promised we'd tell you when we had more info. Well, we do: registration is now open for BlogOrlando. Oh, and the price..FREE! Please read the registration instructions and note that you should only register if you plan on actually attending.

BlogOrlando, an Unconference - September 22-24, 2006 - Orlando, FL

Chris Scott — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 16:43:58 -0400

Josh at Hyku and Rollins College are putting together an unconference on blogging right in our back yard. Check out BlogOrlando.com for the details, but here's a preview:

Hyku, in partnership with Rollins College will host this FREE event that is open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike from Florida and anywhere else (so far we have one international attendee). We hope to bring together a good cross-section of folks to discuss blogging, podcasting, public relations, social media, citizen's journalism and other related topics. In addition to the Friday event we are planning some outings at the local theme parks over the weekend. This event is as much a social/family gathering as it is a 'work' gathering, so bring the family (kids included).

What's an unconference? Wikipedia has an good bit of detail on what it all entails but the main idea is that content of the conference is determined and created by the participants not the organizer. If you're in the Orlando area, you should plan on attending. Knowing Josh this will be a great conference and it only gets better with more people. I'm glad Blogzerk could contribute the domain name for the conference site.

Check the BlogOrlando site in the next few weeks for more details. We'll also post them here as we get them.

Blogzerk Emergency Maintenance - June 29, 2006

Chris Scott — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:12:47 -0400

Blogware will be conducting a maintenance window on June 24, 2006 to conduct database configuration changes to reduce timeout

errors (500 errors) when posting to blogs remotely.

Date: June 29, 2006
Start Time: 12:00 AM ET
Duration: 0.5 Hours

Impact: During this window, the Publishers' Control Panel and blogs will not be accessible. Each interface will be made live as soon as it is available to minimize impact on end users.

Blogzerk Scheduled Maintenance - June 24, 2006

Chris Scott — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:23:11 -0400

Blogware will be conducting a maintenance window on June 24, 2006 to perform preventative maintenance on the system databases.

Date: June 24, 2006
Start Time: 10:00 PM ET
Duration: 0.5 Hours

Impact: During this window, the Publishers' Control Panel and blogs will not be accessible. Each interface will be made live as soon as it is available to minimize impact on end users.

Business Blogging Tips

Chris Scott — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:42:52 -0400

Darren at ProBlogger has a must-read post up for any business thinking about getting a blog. Here's the highlights of his advice:

Get Objectives Clear
Beware of the Propaganda Trap
Blogs as Interactive Spaces
Blogging Takes Time
Advertising on Business Blogs
Basic Blogging Principles Apply

Head on over to the link above to view all the juicy details. Of course, if you're thinking about getting a blog for your business, Blogzerk is the natural choice.

Google Toolbar for Firefox Causing Authentication Prompts on Blogzerk Blogs

Chris Scott — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:55:32 -0400

We've had reports of a few Firefox users getting authentication prompts when viewing Blogzerk (and other Blogware) blogs even though they aren't trying to view restricted categories. It looks like there is a bug in the Google Toolbar that causes it to prefetch the authenticated RSS URL that are part of all Blogware blogs. Google is aware of the bug and working on a fix. If you are using Firefox and Google Toolbar and get a login box when viewing Blogzerk/Blogware blogs, try disabling the Google Toolbar.

Degraded Performance on Blogs During Emergency Maintenance - COMPLETED

Chris Scott — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:10:30 -0400

Currently, Blogzerk blogs are undergoing emergency maintenance to fix performance issues. Also, the following bugs will be fixed:

Comment / Trackback notifications not being sent out to multiple addresses.
Template Handling for Sub-Categories will be fixed.
Site Stats will be fixed to reflect correct numbers which have been off since Squid caching was added.
Approve Selected button missing in Publisher Control Panel.

This should be complete by 10:00 AM ET.

UPDATED -12:10 PM ET: The process was completed a bit before 10:00 AM ET.

Blogzerk User Forums

Chris Scott — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 09:22:49 -0400

Just a reminder that you can use the Blogzerk Forums to get help from other users as well as Blogzerk staff. Have a question about how to customize your blog or how to customize your templates? Feel free to post in the forums. Chances are someone has done it before and can help you out.

A New Look for the Blogzerk Web Site

Chris Scott — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:22:11 -0400

We've updated the Blogzerk.com web site to version 2.0. The site sports a new look throughout, some new pages, and new features.

We've added THE BUZZ to track the buzz about blogs and Blogzerk and added a Theme page to showcase our custom themes. All other pages are the same as they ever were but look different. No URLs were harmed in this update so your bookmarks will still work.

To make it easier to log in to the Publisher's Control Panel to manage your blog, we've added a fancy-shmancy appearing and dissappearing login form to the home page when you click on the CONTROL PANEL link:

If you have JavaScript enabled, you'll see some cool effects. If not, you'll be taken directly to the login page.

We hope you like this new site. Please feel free to leave your comments here.

Allowed Transfer for Basic Plan Updated

Chris Scott — Thu, 25 May 2006 09:08:06 -0400

Prior to transfer allowances being enforced, Blogware updated the Basic Plan to allow 2GB of data transfer instead of 1GB. Our web site was not updated to reflect this change. We have corrected our Blogzerk Plans and Pricing page to reflect this. The 2GB limit has been in effect since transfer allowances began being enforced so this is just a clerical change and doesn't affect your blog.

Additional Transfer Price Lowered

Chris Scott — Wed, 24 May 2006 11:20:21 -0400

We've lowered the price of additional data transfer from $2.00/GB/month to $1.50/GB/month. This pricing will take effect for any new transfer added to your blog.

More Lifestyle Themes Added

Chris Scott — Fri, 19 May 2006 15:48:42 -0400

Today we added another batch of lifestyle blog themes to Blogzerk. In addition to the triathlon and running blog themes we added a few days ago, we now have themes for cats, dogs, car racing, tropics, and surfing.