Bugs I'm Tracking
- donators seeing ads in PMs should be fixed this week, I'm hoping. I stalk the guy who runs the ads like some spectre of doom, stressing him out to no end.
- some people are saying that profiles are broken for them? Anyone want to let me know what the deal is with that?
- still trying to track down why the site is so slow for some users. I got some good data from a couple of users but want to get a bit more -- if you run Firefox and can install addons and want to help, let me know!
CAPTCHA
We've noticed a rise in spam lately, especially offensive porn type stuff. (And what person, exactly, derives pleasure from sending out that sort of stuff? Misanthropes with no life and too much free time? I mean, c'mon, guys, really!) You'll note that we added CAPTCHA to profiles, and we just today rolled out CAPTCHA for the journals.
But the image spam is an issue that we'd like to do more about. We know this is a problem -- there are bunches of threads about it -- so we've been talking about how to combat it, and we think that we've got a way of doing it. We're taking a look at the feasibility and will be rolling it out soon.
What else are we doing about this? Well, bringing in more mods, for one, but that's something that you can only do so fast. We're also implemented a bunch of backend tools to help the moderator team find the problem spots faster. The bottom line of this is this: report that offensive post or thread, and the mods should be able to spot it faster and get to it sooner starting next week.
Passwords and Authentication
A bunch of users have asked us to increase the security on the site. A couple of notes here:
- We actually don't store your password in our databases. If, god forbid, we were invaded by a pack of hungry data-eating penguins, they would not be able to get your password. Instead, what we store is a fingerprint of your password called an md5 -- essentially, a code key that can tell us if you typed the right password, but not what your password actually is. Bottom line: not only will we never ask you for your password, but we couldn't even tell you what your password was!
- we don't even send your password over the internet. When you type it in the browser, we convert it into an MD5 and send the MD5 over. That way, even if someone can see the packets you send to us, they won't know your password.
Gross simplification, but trust me, you don't want me to geek out about MD5 and digital signatures.
- A while ago, we added protection to the PMs to prevent you from typing your password in your PM. This stopped a lot of the scams for a while... but then they picked up again, when the scammers started saying things like, "I AM AN OFICIAL ADMIN TYPE YOUR PASWORD WITH SPACES BETWEEN THE LETTERS" and such, and people were complying. This is why we're hesitant to implement two-factor authentication -- basically, even if have some other method of verification (i.e., secret question), we're afraid that people will still send them to scammers.
That said, we are discussing this problem a lot -- the more reports we can prevent from getting into the hacking queue, the better.
Marketplace Changes
Marketplace changes should go live today or tomorrow -- you'll no longer be able to cancel your auction after five minutes. "Buy only" auctions will not be affected. We're hoping that this brings about a healthier auction market with more bidding, but we'll see -- and, like many things, we'll watch it and continue to tweak it as necessary.
Item Normalization
I had mentioned in an earlier post that we were working on a huge upgrade to item normalization. Darknrgy, one of the devs doing, you know, actual work on the feature actually had a great detailed journal entry about it, if you'd like more of the nitty-gritty details.
Communication
You're going to see more and more communication from the different people that work at Gaia. We're looking at setting up a central blog or bulletin board or something that will aggregate all the postings from various people around the company. We hope to set this up really soon, and then tweak as we go -- no need to get it perfect the first time.
Find Friends
We're revamping the friends screen, and making it easier to find your friends -- that should come out in a week or two. Screenshots in a bit.
Controversy in Gaia
So, one of the devs is leaving, and posted in her journal a kind of a scathing evaluation of Gaia, to which people piled on, and then other devs replied in their journals, and so on and so forth... and, of course, if there was going to be a journal-fest, I had to put in my two cents. Although, really, I can't talk: I'm one of the "newcomers." Not a heartless symbol of corporate encroachment (last I checked, anyway), but definitely not someone that can say anything about how Gaia was. I can definitely tell you about how Gaia is, though.
I've done corporate, and let me tell you, this is no corporate.I've been with companies that have gone from a handful of people to huge lumbering behemoths. Small companies let you do more, at least on the face of it, but they have other constraints: they don't have the resources that a larger company has. Being able to work with other people becomes more important as the company grows, just because the network of people that you might have to deal with is increasing over time. Yes, I can't completely design my own major feature at Gaia anymore -- those days are long past -- but by working with an artist, I can get a really hot looking feature that is better than either one of us could have done individually, and it can be coordinated with a marketing campaign that gets it known to the users. That is very cool.
This company has the lowest amount of bull and the highest percentage of smart, straight-shooting people that I have seen yet, so I actually think that it is doing pretty well. I think at a fundamental level most people here actually care and actually try to do the right thing. Gaia is the sort of place where the brainstorming meetings are packed. It's also the sort of place where if you're going through a nasty breakup, tons of people will help you out -- that sort of atmosphere is actually not all that common.
Companies change as they grow. and sometimes, people are looking for something very different and leave, and, in fact, that is okay -- it's part of life, and, generally, not the end of the world for either party. It's a small industry, and you run into the same people again and again.
Unless I leave, of course, and then it is the COMPLETE END OF THE WORLD FOR GAIA. (Or perhaps I'd like to believe so! biggrin ) But seriously, this place is immensely fun, and I'm not thinking of leaving, and even if I did the enormously talented people would still be doing their best to make Gaia the best it can be, and I'd be leaving friends behind.
Community Member
Then again about ads, i dont worry because i block them xd
And that means that i have FireFox and i do can install Addons too, and i want to help because gaia is being slower everyday for me >_>
About captchas, thats a great idea! Keep up the good work guys! smile
Oh and Item Normalization sounds great surprised
Thanks for the news, specially about Item Normalization and the controversy in Gaia, i think that will help to clear about things.