the dj paine show ::: blog and podcast

POWNCE - the “epic fail”?

July 24, 2008 //

i love the POWNCE network of people. i have found it to be a great community of mostly really interesting people. i have two free accounts on pownce that i like to use - one for djp photography & one for mustard empire - i use my djp account the most, i love to post new pictures, setting up friends groups, posting some pictures just to people who are more friendly etc. i have my awesome ping.fm account set up to update my pownce/djp account and that works great for simple status update style bits… also i love pimping some of my favourite music on the mustard account, and getting into interesting discussions about the music etc… awesome.
according to the super brains at pownce war i am the number 5 powncer in the universe, check it:

and check the top 10 here.

BUT! there is some SERIOUS trouble in paradise.

about a month ago i satrted getting some serious issues logging into my pownce accounts. i went to one of the greatest ideas on the interwebs: get satasfaction, and started a discussion:

“i am on a mac and have the same problem in both safari & firefox. if i am not logged in to Pownce i can go to pownce and surf around no problems, i can even go to my own pownce profile page and look around no problems. i can create a dummy account and then sign in and be fine. no problems. but as soon as i sign in to my REAL ACCOUNT then i cannot get into my pownce. once i sign in i can view other people’s pownce accounts but i CANNOT get into mine. HELP ME! this is severely annoying. my awesome pownce account is http://pownce.com/djp”

then from the pownce community manager Ariel i got this: “Just a quick update - we’re still looking into these isolated issues. In the meantime, if you want to create a new Pownce account, I can transfer your username to it afterwards. Let me know.”

well of course i didn’t want that so Ariel went on to say:

“Can you try logging in on a different system (e.g. different network/computer)? If not, I would need permission from you to login and test your account. We’re wondering if this is potentially a problem w/ the network or computer you’re using due to the browser errors you’re encountering and the sporadic nature of it. Any additional details help - thanks!”

i was up for them to log in and see what the problem was… so i gave permission. Ariel and the pownce team tested and here’s the reply.

“The issue seems to be caused by the fact that you’re a fan of an unusually large amount of people (DJ Paine, you’re a fan of 6,872 people and friends with 2,878 people). Unfortunately, it’s difficult for us to make the site perform for people who are a fan of such a large amount of users. In order to make your accounts accessible again, you can login (in which you might encounter the white screen) and then navigate to http://pownce.com/djp/fan_of and cancel some of your friend requests. We’re very sorry for this and we hope to be able to accommodate these types of situations in the future.”

woah woah woah! i had some questions:

“ariel, how many people can i be a fan of? what is the sweet spot?
and when is this going to change? if ever? i like being fans of lots of people!”

she relied:

” This is really a trial and error and it depends on the quantity of notes coming in to your home page more than how many people you follow. I’m *guessing* that following more than 500 people will start to slow the page down….. No current timeline on when this will change. We’re always working on improving the speed of the site, but this typically requires long-term work. Apologies for the tediousness of the process!”

so i went and had a good look at all those people i was fans of and i realized that 90% never post anything, they don’t use pownce. so ok, i’ll get rid of them! away with all those people i am a fan of! {on pownce you remain someones “fan” when you friend request them and they do nothing or deny you - that’s why interweb celeb kevin rose has 15,623 fans and a didly 132 friends…} to see who YOU are a fan of on pownce go to www.pownce.com/YOUR USER NAME/fan_of/ - once there you can see a list of people and the “cancel request” button it looks like this:now how easy is it to do a mass cancel of people you are fans of? let’s take a look {excuse the voice}

thursday 24th juky 2008 - POWNCE FAIL from djp on Vimeo.
FUN!!!!!!!!

now mind you, i WAS a fan of 6,872 people and as you can see from the video above i have now go it down to 4,860. it has taken me days of mindless clicking to do that {i’ll watch a video podcast or a movie on the imac at night while i click on the pownce page to one side… yeah i know what you’re thinking; dj paine you know how to live it up!}.

i’ll end this blog entry with a few points i’ve gleaned from this experience:

1} be careful of “social networks” that keep people you want to “friend” as people you are fans of - this whole concept sucks big time. friends and fans and all those words are stupid.

2} if you are planning on building a social network {why bother?} please do not cripple users for really using your site.

3} pownce team - fix this. or at least make a mass delete button or something!!!

DIGG this story here.

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commercial free.

July 23, 2008 //

i’ve decided to keep all of my websites, blogs, online stuff add free. i had a revelation that i hated website ads with a passion and i have super respect for people and groups who have no advertising on their sites… so why was i wasting time researching about ads on my websites? i dunno. temporary lapse into douchebag-ery? maybe… caught up in the hype of “professional web douchebags”? more like it….

two quick observations in my weeks of researching the whole idea of websites and advertising:
i love creative types who have websites that have no advertising and yet plug their own quality product in subtle and creative ways…
the web is full of douchebag hacks who don’t care.

i am determined for the “me online” to be honest, true, good, caring, encouraging, sharp, & opinionated… basically the opposite of most of the crap that is peddled online.

hmmmm… can i say the word “crap” and still be all those good things? i hope so.

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helpful hints with your mailbox

July 22, 2008 //

tuesday 22nd july 2008 - helpful hints with djp from djp on Vimeo.

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podcasting is broken {for now}

July 21, 2008 //

thanks to the few people who’ve taken the time to download the latest podcast episode… today i’ve been trying to work out why the feed is broken and why the podcast player is busted on the blog. like many other bloggers i love the amazing wordpress blogging platform and like many really clever types i use the amazing wordpress podcasting plug in “PodPress” created by the Mighty Seek. it has been a truly amazing part of my blogging experience. {note: i can never see/read “the mighty seek” without thinking of these awesome guys.}

podpress vs wordpress 2.6

so after spending a couple of hours going through the admin area of podpress and my blog, looking through itunes, trying to figure out wht the problem is… i finally had the brain wave to check the mighty seek forums and sure enough i found out i wasn’t the only nuff nuff. the podress plug in is broken under the awesomeness of some of the amazing features in wordpres 2.6… but Dan Kuykendall, the very clever fellow behind podpress has said he will try to get an update of podpress out before the end of the month.

so i got a question for you: a few of the podpress users are urging all podpress users to donate more money to Dan for the project {it is an amazing free, donate if ya wanna, style plug in}. am i totally wrong to instead of donating now, to pledge the money so it’s an incentive for him to get the upgrade out? i know if it was me doing it and i knew there was some cash coming in when i finished it, i’d go harder… just me? tight wad?

update: i started the pledge drive

so in the meantime download the all new DJ PAINE SHOW episode 00 right here.