Sunday, February 19, 2006

Private Journals Rostering Problems?

Hi folks -- a few of you have written in to let me know about some problems you've been having with managing your private Journals, where people on your roster, who should be able to read your blog, can't.

I don't know if this is a new problem or a recurrence of the rostering problem we'd seen last month -- I will have to let Product Manager Susan and the rest of the team know so they can work on it.

There is a workaround that has helped some people in the past -- if you don't want to make your private Journal public (after all, it is private), try removing all the readers from your roster, then add them back again. This has worked for some people.

I know, it's inconvenient, which is why you should consider it a temporary workaround until we can figure out why it's happened.

As a reminder, if you're want to report a problem with your own private Journal (either by leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail), please be sure to include the Web address of your private Journal. Because it's private, it won't show up in Journals search, so I can't find it unless you tell me where it is.

Thanks -- Joe

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I go back to private in my journal?  I dont have even the option of adding or managing readers....THEY ARE ALL GONE.....there arent even links for that....It only says PRIVATE JOURNAL at that top.....

kelly

Anonymous said...

thank you Joe!
natalie

Anonymous said...

h

Anonymous said...

Hey is there any way to get my journal ou there?

Anonymous said...

h

Anonymous said...

Joe, I know your probably tired of the problems that AOL keeps having..over and over without fixing same. But this is the second morning in two days that my Web counter has reset. Also, sometimes I get alerts, and other times, I don't...I have made a couple of tech changes, as you folks always recomend...but to no avail. It does sound simple with your written explanantions on how to reset the counter, but it doesn't always work the way you describe.  Probably not your fault either, but something STILL wrong with AOL. One would think that they could get these issues behind them..but apparently not.

Larryt39

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry -- Product Manager Susan and I both agree that we need to find a replacement for the current hit counters; I've asked the Journals team to make some recommendations on what we can do to replace our hit counter.

In the meantime, you may want to look at a third-party hit counter for your Journal (just do a Web search on "free hit counters") -- there are several available; you just need to find an HTML-only hit counter that doesn't use Javascript.

If you choose to use a third-party hit counter, you'll need to go through their registration process, then take the HTML code that they give you and paste it into your All About Me area. This is subject to your All About Me character limit (though this should increase in the next month or so).

Because third-party hit counter providers just have to focus on one thing -- hit counters -- they typically are able to offer more features, layout options, etc, so you will have to see if the extra setup is worth it to you.

I am hoping we will be able to offer both a more robust replacement for our own hit counter, as well as make it easier for you to integrate a third-party hit counter if you want to go that route.

I will be writing more about this as we get more information.

Thanks -- Joe (posted & mailed)

Anonymous said...

Dear Joe,

Can you let me know what problems aol are experiencing now!!!!!!!!  I tried to upload photographs in the usual way today through File Manager, could not do it, they start to load and then say "this page is unavailable, try again"  I try again and nothing happens.  So I tried FTP instead.  The pictures loaded o.k. but took ages and ages to transfer to my journal.  I know I have not exceeded my space on either of these.
Then, when the pictures were finally on my journal, the journal will not load, not properly, only three pictures appear .  I am unable to get into the edit button to do anything about it as the journal is not loading.  I checked back to the beginning of January, only a few of the pictures and graphics I have posted are loading, others are just blank space, not a red cross or anything, just not loading.  I have heard from other British journallers that they are having problems as well.
Just when are aol going to sort these problems out???????????? We repeatedly get no alerts, then wirelss alerts with no journal name on them so we do not have the slightest damned idea who wrote them and now are journals are not running properly.  I, for one, cannot take much more of this.  Please Please get something done, give us the service that we pay for.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeannette -- I will forward to the Journals & Hometown/FTP folks.

Thanks -- Joe (posted & mailed)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Joe. Oh, by the way did I mention that my edit button will not work, so I am unable to get into my journal even to delete anything from it or add anything to it.  It is so frustrating.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

Anonymous said...

Actually Joe there is a way to determine the URL of a private Journal. With all the counter reset discussions I've noticed that private Journals create the same odometer file public Journals do in the member FTP space. The odometer file uses the Journal name and from there you can construct a URL.

Anonymous said...

Steven -- this is true, though I find that a lot of folks have an index.html page that keeps one from seeing their main directory listing.

Of course, the tech folks are able to check the database for journals owned by a screen name, so they can still investigate -- providing the URL just makes it easier, especially if the user has multiple Journals.  Thanks -- Joe