Maintenance Time

By JoCo July 12, 2011

Just a heads up for those of you who spend all day refreshing this site to see if anything new happened (nope!): late tonight and tomorrow, some server monkeys are going to do some stuff and move this site over to a new server. While the DNS propagates some things will be read-only – the forums, the wiki, the comments. Don’t panic! Once your corner of the web gets the new info you’ll be back to read-write mode. You might not even notice.

Actually you will, because the site will have a little teensy weensy bit of a visual change, not a redesign mind you (which is long overdue), just a bit of a haircut. And we’re moving to Vanilla V2, which should be nicer looking, more secure, faster, and just different enough to make some of you COMPLETELY FURIOUS. But nothing should be broken and really we’ll all be better off.

Or, this whole thing could come crashing down. We don’t really know. You know what, why don’t you fill up the bathtub with fresh water just in case?

Comments

Patrick says

hmm I like it

Patrick says

also glad to see the streaming of the songs from the music page has gotten alot better

(don't worry I buying all your songs on my birthday)

Angelastic says

I notice that the links to song info on the store now go to the wiki pages. Is this deliberate/permanent? It's a nice idea, I guess, since it means no more duplication of lyrics and other information between the store and the wiki (although at least the lyrics in the store could be considered 'official' and unvandalised) but it means that there's no buy or download link or streaming on the info page. So people have to go back to the main store page to get all that stuff, which is not necessarily easy/convenient after browsing the wiki for a while and possibly closing that page, and it means they can't read the lyrics while listening to the preview (at least not as easily), and more importantly, they can't immediately give you lots or money/download the song the instant they read some exciting tidbit about it on the wiki. And the links from the wiki back to the store don't work any more.

Also, although most of the songs have wiki pages with more information than one could possibly want to know about the song, the links from the store page are not always correct. For example A Laptop Like You (Demo) and Brookline (Demo) link to nonexistent wiki pages with a capital D in Demo, while the actual pages have a lowercase d. This could easily be fixed with wiki redirects though. I should just do that already instead of complaining.

The forums are still read-only for me (they're not even readable if I'm logged in) and I am COMPLETELY FURIOUS about that. How are we supposed to talk about you behind your back? The Paul and Storums?

*pssst… I heard that Jonathan Coulton was polyamorous*

Angelastic says

I forgot to mention the main bad thing about linking to the wiki, which is the reason I discovered this. There's no page I can link to to show a specific song to a friend which gives information about the song, a streaming thing, possible link to an mp3, and link to buy. I wanted to show a friend IKEA, and ended up sending him a direct link to the free mp3, so now he's probably never going to browse around your site and give you money, and you'll probably starve.

Sara says

I do hope that the forums are going to eventually include a link back to the main page. Given that most people still can't log in I assume things are still being tinkered with.

Theanderblast says

The new forum site is a bit buggered up. I saw all these discussions, but once I logged in, did not.Indicated I had started 2 (probably true), but could not see those either. Went to look at my profile and got a permissions error.

I'm not even angry. I could never be mad at you.

Sara says

@Theanderblast: That's what's happening for everyone, don't worry. They're either still setting it up or--worst case--have accidentally set permissions wrong for existing users, and will fix it soon enough. Especially now that JoCo knows we're waiting. *cough*

Bry says

Angelastic: That's a good idea for something to add to the wiki, actually. Let's take the discussion to the for--oh, wait, right. But yes, I think that's something that could be done.

Sara says

@Bry: JoCo added the purchase links to the wiki this morning, so that's taken care of. Links to the absent pages will need to be purged from the wiki though. (Probably best to continue this discussion in the for--oh, wait.)

Sara says

Forums now working for me. Thanks, Jonathan! (And possibly Scarface.)

SRDownie says

Great update! It already makes Mac OS X 10.7 obsolete!

Marshall says

Dear god, what have you done?! Lines! Boxes! Organization! I will never get us-

Oh, now I'm used to it. Spiffy!

Angelastic says

Awesome! Another nice thing would be to make the new song tag on the wiki also add links to the flac, ogg and karaoke versions of the song, which would make it even better than the old song pages.

Angelastic says

…and when I say, 'links to the flac, ogg, and karaoke versions', I mean, 'the streaming/preview thing, and links to the flac, ogg, and karaoke versions'

I edited the song template so it also shows the purchase links for the demo versions (though without a heading to say what they are, and not many of the demo links from the store actually go to the right pages yet, because of the capital Ds.) Just thought I'd mention it in case you have a better idea/superstar wanna write goddamn wiki page himself.

The text 'Click the Info button next to a song to see lyrics, guitar chords, and (sometimes) a bit of explanation from me. You’ll also see stuff that other people have made based on that song, and you can submit your own video, short story, half-pony-half-monkey-monster sculpture, etc.' on the store should probably be changed slightly.

Jacob says

I like it a lot but I am pretty sad there is no tabs slab anymore :c

Sara says

@Jacob: Tabs are available on the wiki--check the sidebar of each songinfo page.

SSteve says

I filled up my bathtub, but it was empty the next morning. Now my Internet doesn't work.