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Behind the scenes at My Opera

Upcoming Opera Community Downtime

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We will be taking down the Opera Community for some much needed maintenance Tuesday 10th of October. There will unfortunately be none of the promised hardware updates this time around, however we have quite a few new features and under-the-hood fixes for you.

We've had this update laying around the office, with the monkeys groping it, for a couple of weeks, hoping to be able to coincide the software update with the hardware update. We've had to realise, however, that the hardware update will not be doable within a couple of more weeks, due to a lot of unforseen delays outside our influence. Therefore we go ahead with the software update now, hoping the downtime will pay off in terms of increased performance, even on the old hardware.

Due to some major database schema restructuring, the downtime will be significant. We are looking at four to five hours of downtime, starting at 08:00CET (6AM UTC), Tuesday October 10th.

When we return, we will be offering some new features and fixes:

Blogging

  • redesigned blog posting interface
  • allow blog post excerpts to show on your blog front page with "read more" links to the entry proper
  • specifiable URLs for blog posts (e.g., http://my.opera.com/olekasper/blog/new-mms-handler/ )
  • possibility to have polls in the sidebar
  • improved photo album slideshow in the blog sidebar

Other

  • use faster scaling algorithm for uploaded images, should speed up image uploads significantly
  • delete self-made folders in "My Files"
  • you can now delete own posts in the forums (but not entire topics)
  • improved search interface for forums
  • moved forum announcements to hopefully make them a bit more visible
  • changed RSS feed validator, hopefully making more feeds work when you add them under "Links"
  • email activation reintroduced
  • a multitude of minor (and major) bug fixes
  • a multitude of significant under-the-hood optimisations

Problems, problems, problemsAlive

Comments

Matt Cox 4. October 2006, 11:51

Hurrah! Looking forward to it!! :D

You will be keeping the current designs on the server, right? Because my blog is CSSed up using elements from the default skin. If you change that, it'll look stupid. :wink:

Ramūnas 4. October 2006, 12:13

Can't wait, for the new features of course, not the downtime. :smile:

aaer 4. October 2006, 13:04

It is cool!
Waiting---

FataL 4. October 2006, 13:07

Yummy! :up:

Tamil 4. October 2006, 14:09

:cool: :up:

:wait:

Eddie Lopez 4. October 2006, 15:00

redesigned blog posting interface



This is interesting. I just listened to UIE brainsparks do a podcast on "social design" and the facebook feature "upgrade."

It's becoming more and more relevant to put thought into UI changes with the assurance that the community will not "revolt" against it. Not saying that's ever been a problem with Opera (maybe, but not to my recollection), but worth a thought. Social applications, or just web-apps in general have a strong need to be beta tested. It's the "my-way or the highway" nature of web apps. As mentioned in the podcast mentioned above, in the past, you could choose if and when to upgrade your software. Change was implemented on the user's terms. But with web apps, this isn't the case. The user goes along or finds a new home. In the case of facebook, it was the abrupt change of behavoir that caused the problem.

Clearly the facebook guys thought they were doing a service, but the users did not agree. These considerations should be handled through beta testing or screenshots or things of that nature. I *do* realize that Opera has the elektrans and their own testing, etc...

That said, I look forward to all those changes!

Daniel 4. October 2006, 15:07

:yes:
:wait: :wait:

Kc4 the Great 4. October 2006, 16:55

Blogging
redesigned blog posting interface
allow blog post excerpts to show on your blog front page with "read more" links to the entry proper
specifiable URLs for blog posts (e.g., http://my.opera.com/olekasper/blog/this-is-a-post/ )
possibility to have polls in the sidebar
improved photo album slideshow in the blog sidebar


All sounds good and this alone justifies the downtime for me.

Other
use faster scaling algorithm for uploaded images, should speed up image uploads significantly
delete self-made folders in "My Files"
you can now delete own posts in the forums (but not entire topics)
improved search interface for forums
a multitude of minor (and major) bug fixes
a multitude of significant under-the-hood optimisations


Faster image uploads means more chat time :yes:
I haven't really wanted to delete folders but it will be useful.
Finally we will be able to delete posts again.
Better search, great I have had enough of fighting with the current one.
bug fixes... such as?
under-the-hood optimisations I don't know if I should be impressed or scared.

Jadd 4. October 2006, 17:43

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Now all I have to do is wait :wait:
Thanks for the warning about downtime too.

dɹɐzılpǝkɔıw ɐʞɐ ɹǝɥgɐllɐg lǝbɐsı 4. October 2006, 19:58

okey dokey! :D

Vetle Roeim 4. October 2006, 21:04

Eddie_Lopez: We hear you! We don't want to make the same mistakes as Facebook. We'll make sure to include the wishes of the community when implenting drastic new features.

Speaking of downtime; Ole Kasper the code monkey is already having some much deserved downtime of his own, hopefully back on Monday well rested and ready to implement new cool features.

Thomas Bojer Eltorp 4. October 2006, 23:39

This sounds great:yes:

司马立林 5. October 2006, 03:34

JavaScript support

JavaScript support

ALLY G. 5. October 2006, 03:59

That sounds great. I'm looking forward to the new features (and the fixes!!!) and therefore I'm not worry for a short downtime. :up:

猫喵 5. October 2006, 08:45

specifiable URLs for blog posts (e.g., http://my.opera.com/olekasper/blog/this-is-a-post/ )


Will it support Chinese?

Mike A. Buffet 5. October 2006, 12:48

Great! :smile:

Kerby 5. October 2006, 16:26

Looking forward to it.

Thanks for your efforts.

Will the new functions influence the Web Page Layout ??

Fatimah 7. October 2006, 01:27

thanks for the heads up on this at least we won't be surprised :smile:

Dan DeVille 7. October 2006, 01:54

Oh boy!
Can't wait to see those deployed.
Peace,
Dan

ps.: thanks O.C. team!!! :wink:

João Eiras 7. October 2006, 03:49

how about the bbcode parser ?? Will it be improved, or even fixed ?

Leif Rømcke 7. October 2006, 05:34

:cool: :up:
I shall be in another town on Tuesday, down time no problem. :D

张弛 Sir AzureTimm, Kingdom of Love 7. October 2006, 06:40

Can you put tag definition box onto "add new blog post"page? It will be much more convenient for the opera mini users like me, for the amount of data is limited on the mobile phone accounts. Thank you! Thank all OC members!
Best regards, a anticipating boy, Timm.

Umman Şahiner 7. October 2006, 06:52

thank you:up:

rogerleos 7. October 2006, 07:39

Yeahh!!!! I have so many ideas to make daily polls on http://my.opera.com/rogerleos/ sidebar. Will we create our own polls? That would be great.

For keeping our files, as I deleted some pix from my computer in the hope of your hosting for the next time I need to downloaD my own files for future purposes, I Thank you.

I am amazed to be in the 110's to 120's most visited opera blogs.

I Thank a lot to all you READERS and VISITORS and also to some BLOGSPOT and FOTOLOG friends who very kindly added my opera blog to their weblogs, so spreading the opera community and its tecnology, our ideas, pictures, music and journals.

Florian 7. October 2006, 07:45

go opera go

Osman Yuksel 7. October 2006, 09:35

* Maybe its only a dream but :smile:, I want localized interface for forums and blogs.
* It will be fine, if there's a search bar (engine) for blogs.
* Also, it will be good, if there's a control for duplicated posts. Sometimes users posts same text in a time and there will be duplicated posts. Its same as in forum threads too.

Philip Seyfi 7. October 2006, 09:52

you can now delete own posts in the forums (but not entire topics)



finaly!

Sarah 7. October 2006, 11:59

allow blog post excerpts to show on your blog front page with "read more" links to the entry proper



This is great to those that are visiting your about page, pulling them into your blog. Been waiting for something like this. Thanks guys. :D

Ramūnas 7. October 2006, 14:00

Can you put tag definition box onto "add new blog post"page? It will be much more convenient for the opera mini users like me, for the amount of data is limited on the mobile phone accounts. Thank you! Thank all OC members!
Best regards, a anticipating boy, Timm.



+1 for this idea, because now its a pain in the a** to scroll down to submit button.

Richard 7. October 2006, 14:13

Excellent news. :smile:

I particularly look forward to the reintroduction of e-mail notices.

schwarzerpirat 7. October 2006, 14:30

Sounds great.
But i'm still missing a way to add own HTML-Code in the Sidebar, and making own designs beyond changing CSS.

Edward Piercy 7. October 2006, 19:55

The one feature I'd like to see most is just the ability to change the banner on ANY of the preset blog style sheets. To add a custom banner currently entails the use of the default sytle, which isn't to everyone's liking, and to change the banner and everything else using a custom CSS is beyond some people's abilities. I've been working on my own CSS for about four months now and still haven't got all the kinks out of it where I can use it.

Having more customizable style sheets. That's what I hope for most. UFOs have nothing to do with my blog!

Raphael 7. October 2006, 21:14

And again, we still can't use some JS on the blogs :frown: But anyways, it is always good to have some new features

saeedsaman 8. October 2006, 10:56

Opera blog is very slow. Hope you do something to
improve speed. And People with «rtl» languages are they going to still wait for templates to go with their needs for logntime?



Sarah 8. October 2006, 15:01

Edwardpiercy,
Opera out features most blogs out there already! The next step would be giving you a blank page to create yourself! (have you seen the other blogs???)

:yes: to Opera!

green head 8. October 2006, 15:23

thank you :smile:

Gary Denness 8. October 2006, 15:26

I still want an online bookmark facility stored on My Opera space, and I won't stop whining till I get it!!!

anynymous 8. October 2006, 17:53

Keep up the good work guys!

amaya 8. October 2006, 18:19

Excellent :yes:

Can't wait for this changes!

David Blangstrup 8. October 2006, 22:42

All we need is avoid the opera blog routine of click-wait/wait some more/wait/wait/...looooooad!/Hurrah!
And I am on a perfectly functioning 8Mbit line. What about the other poor bastards? :lol:

Stefannie sharron Anderson. 8. October 2006, 23:18

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO FOR SIX HOURS? sHAZZIE.
GOOD LUCK.

R.Frost 9. October 2006, 06:05

:coffee: 6 Hours , we can do it lol

lokutus_prime 9. October 2006, 08:50

...Great news guys!
Can I also mention that it would be kewell if you could give us some way to 'group' by alpha-sort or by subect or first-line sort, links within one's own page. For instance...

if I presently create a new link category and call it, say, "Poems About Programmers" (just joking!) and then under that category store all the poems I wrote on that 'theme', I cannot do any 'sort' process. In fact I cannot do any 'sort' process on any links at all. When they are entered, at the moment, they just take their place on my links page as they are saved, and that's that. Any chance of doing something about 'sorting' in general? It would be also kewell to be able to sort Archives, as an option, by first line,etc.

Ok... I am the only one who wants this :lol:
.... but on the specific question of facilitating a 'sorting' process on one's own Links I hope you will consider my request. Thanks :cheers:

Opera? ----Simply The Best! :yes:

Loku

Dr. Tanvir Hossain 9. October 2006, 09:39

Do you have include freê opera e-mail
sêrvice, if not, include it.

iliiad NTRVN 9. October 2006, 11:59

I like the current blog posting interface, I hope the changes to the blog posting design won't be too drastic in terms of the interface. However, it'd be nice if there's more and better support to vBB codes and HTML and things :wink:

And if there can be improved OperaMail service, it'd be great.

Gordy Wilson 9. October 2006, 17:08

I am new to Opera. Why did it take me so long!
I haven't been totally weaned from IE and Firefox, but I'm getting closer!

Can you translate the down time to US Central for me please?

Thank you, and keep making miracles!

Gordy

devans 9. October 2006, 23:05

Fantastico!:D

devans 9. October 2006, 23:05

Fantastico!:D

Saddle Magic 9. October 2006, 23:36

Thank you for giving us a heads-up on this :up:

AMPower 10. October 2006, 00:39

Looks like I joined the Opera Community in time to see something new - in addition to all there is about this community - I like it thus far and doubt I'll notice much of a change. Today is Day One.

Hats off the Opera for providing such a reliable "current" browser.

I have seen mention of changing page styles, I would like to pointed in the right direction as to how to change the appearance of blog/photo pages. I dabble in XHTML and CSS and would like to have my own distinct slant on the base-plates. Thanks!!

AMPower

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