T-Man T-Man

The State of WinCustomize Address

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The State of WinCustomize Address

Well, we really are not a state but we want to start legistlation to become one!

from WinCustomize Forums

As you all know WinCustomize has had more than its share of problems for the last year and especially the last few months.  Unfortunately we have not been able to give WinCustomize the attention that it deserves.  Two main reasons for this is because we are under staffed in our IT department and for the last several months our primary attention has been turned towards supporting the release of Galactic Civilizations II.

For many months are staff consisted of only 3 people to run WinCustomize.com, Stardock.com, TotalGaming.net, GalCiv1.com, PoliticalMachine.com, store.stardock.com, JoeUser.com, DesktopGadgets.com, SocietyGame.com, PowerUser.tv, XPThemes.com, our entire Database structure, Stardock Central Servers, all our Interal Database and Intranet needs, and of course now GalCiv2.com and its supporting sites.  But in January we hired another developer (Dean) to help lighten the load.  And starting next week we will have a new developer on board and by the years end we hope to hire a couple more developers.  So we are expanding our staff and we really hope to get everything fixed up properly this year.  So if you know of anyone who is interested in doing ASP.Net Web Development of if you are interested in it yourself and live in Michigan please send me a resume at [email protected]

While most of us were off working on GalCiv2.com, Dean has been slowly chomping away at converting WinCustomize from ASP.Net 1.14 to ASP.Net 2.0.  Yesterday we launched the new version of WinCustomize.  There really is not any new features with this new build of WinCustomize but there have been several tweaks to the code to improve performance and hopefully stability.  Some people are already reporting speed improvements so that is a good thing.  But always with updates there are always some bumps along the road as others are reporting logon issues. 

Many of the logon issues were occuring during our upgrade process because of an incompatability between cookies written under the different versions of ASP.Net.  If you are currently experiencing any logon/logoff issues please use this link ( https://www.wincustomize.com/killcookies.aspx ) to delete your WinCustomize cookies.  After that logon/relogon and if you still experience problems please report them here.

So over the course of the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on improving the stability and speed of WinCustomize.  So if you have any bugs or problems (no feature requests please) please report them here and we will do our best to get them fixed as soon as possible.

Also, we are adding additional servers to our server farm so we can load balance all of our sites better.  Not just WinCustomize but all our websites.  This should also help with speed and stability as well.

In a nutshell, thats where we are at and that is our plan.  We do apologize for all the site problems you have been enduring and we hope to turn things around.  And if we don't you have my permission to flog Dean (sorry Dean but my skin is a little sensitive and I don't want any bruises ;)  ) ..

4,888 views 117 replies
Reply #101 from WinCustomize Forums Top
All in all T-Man, Brad, Jafo and others.. I personally don't care. Stardock and WinCustomize have been great to me. We'll work through these mild inconveniences together. If it's not one thing, it's another. Being an Administrator myself I know all isn't always well. Our site for instance keeps getting the bandwidth limit all messed up.. If it's not that, it's the current skin of our forum acting fluky..

Again, we'll all be patient (hope I can speak for everyone) and just understand a site can't always be flawless.
Reply #102 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Again, we'll all be patient (hope I can speak for everyone) and just understand a site can't always be flawless.


Works for me
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #103 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I appreciate all the hard work...and thanks for all you guys do...if it means a little wait to get a great result...I'll be right here!
Reply #104 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well the last week or two has been tough.  Our systems have been just unhappy.   Both from a DB point of view and a coding point of view.   We've spend the last few days trying to find the problems but really haven't pinpointed anything specfically.  But we did clean up quite of few things which seems to have helped.  So far today things seem to be running more smoothly.   Hope it stays that way.
Reply #106 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So far today things seem to be running more smoothly. Hope it stays that way.


I fear the weekend. And not just because of the honey-do's.

Best of luck T-Man.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #107 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Over the passed few days things seemed to have improved...pages are loading faster now. The only problem I've been having is in regards to uploads...they're getting stuck in moderation even with journeyman status.
Reply #108 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The only problem I've been having is in regards to uploads...they're getting stuck in moderation even with journeyman status.

That 'should' be fixed now....I'd struck the same issue about 8 hours ago...

Reply #109 from WinCustomize Forums Top
We're back to server errors again...login not being recognized...then it is....then it isn't again...And uploads are still not getting through moderation...I've been trying to get another one through since last night...tried about 6 times so far and gave up.
Reply #110 from WinCustomize Forums Top
 WebGizmos ...if at first you don't succeed....it goes to the mod Queue ...so you won't see it straight up anyway...
Reply #111 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo...I figured that. I thought I'd post the problem here thinking maybe someone will see it and look into it. I feel like I've been demoted when my docks don't go through like they should. The main problem is after trying to upload something I'd get either a server error or page can't be found or time out...or the preview didn't take. And then when I does take...sometimes I'm not even sure...it gets stuck there. But the one before it got through no problem.

I should start doing screenshots..they always seem to get through...go figure!
Reply #112 from WinCustomize Forums Top

From time to time there appears to be upload errors....I had one with the last screenshot upload about 2 days ago now.

When that happens unfortunately a re-upload will be taken as an update and it'll go to the Queue...as it did with mine.

These 'should' just be seen as glitches in the matrix ...and not really all that common at that.

Hopefully once site-works settle down to some semblance of normality it won't happen...

Reply #113 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Site seems to be fast enough today, so far.
Way to go!
Any slowdowns possibly with IP or hand-offs...
...long as it keeps running...
Reply #114 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The W.C. Browser has been working fine for me but I do have on small question. When I bring up a library, like windows blinds only about 1/2 of them return the small preview icons of new blinds. Tried refresh and no joy. Was just wondering if anyone else was having this issue. When I go to W.C. direct with IE the preview icons are their. Thanks very much for your time and especially your efforts on this upgrade. . Hope this is correct section to post this. Let me know if it isn't.
Please disregard this post. The latest upgrade to windows blinds fixed my issue.
Reply #115 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hi, I have been having some logon/downloading problems the last couple of times. I tried to d/l the XP format WB skin and it wouldn't let me download it, didn't receive an error message or anything. Also, I have been having problems logging in. I enter in my email address and password and nothing happens, I usually have to do it 3 or 4 times or click on another page within the site and login.

Anyone else having those problems?

Shiva
Reply #116 from WinCustomize Forums Top
welcome back guys!only problem ive had lately is getting a preview image to upload.other than that all seems to be working better than normal. thanks for all your hard work that most of us take for granted and have no idea just how much you actually put into this (me having been one of these people) i apologize
Reply #117 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Site still seems very slow to respond here - sometimes I'll click on the forums or articles and wait and wait and wait, then finally I will just give up and browse elsewhere. The same thing with the various libraries here. Any estimate on when the site will be working at full seped again??