Database Issues

Today my host had some database issues and decided to shutdown access to their server. Fortunately I had a backup (from the 19th) and I was able to restore access fairly quickly. Unfortunately the site isn't 100% and will not be until my host fixes their database.

Sorry for this outage, all will be well soon.

[wiki] Upgraded wiki software

Just a note to say I upgraded dokuwiki.

It took forever, none of the settings were saved, I nearly freaked out, but in the end I was able to get it back to normal.

[Forums] Huge upgrade incoming

Keep an eye on the forums this weekend, I'm doing some coding...

[Contest] June Winners!

This month's contest has ended. Congratulations to sptuck, Most Popular Script Overall, adg707, Most Active Developer, and microzoa, Most Popular Script: Television. Everyone did an awesome job!

Be sure to keep an eye on this month's contest!

Today I am adding ip banning...

With almost 9000 users I can say that a vast vast vast majority of them are good citizens but recently a few people have decided that they have a problem with a free site offering free content. I guess I've been spoiled because for a year and a half the thought never crossed my mind to create a banning system.

Recently I implemented a 'posting ban' because some users do not understand what to post where. Leaving negative reviews because you can't get a script to work is not appropriate. It's been made obtrusively clear, if we have a problem, that we should click the 'Get Support' links, not to leave a negative review.

At the same time I added 'account bans', this was mainly added as a barrier to bad accounts. Such as imitating a PlayOn Admin.

So this morning I will be adding IP banning because some people can't control themselves. I'd rather spend the time on new features but it is what it is.

Experiments, Contests, and Lists. Oh My!

Sometime this weekend Lists will be enabled for all users, the system seems stable and I'd like to get some broader feedback. Expect it soooooon.

The Monthly Contest will begin on 6/1/2011 and continue until 7/1/2011. Thanks to donations I was able to secure some funding for a couple months worth of contests. And, of course, the free PlayOn Premium upgrade being supplied by MediaMall! At the end of the contest winners will be contacted to supply an email address to accept the winnings via PayPal.

I've put up a new section on the forums asking for ideas for the website, I've been working on a good one which should also be put up sometime this weekend (more on this when it's released). Post your ideas for the website, no matter how crazy, and if it's possible, I'll try to get it done.

[Website] Server I/O Error

Tonight I discovered that there was a server error which resulted in many of the scripts hosted here being overwritten with a blank script or just the image data.

Developers please reupload your scripts as soon as you can. If you would like to bulk upload your scripts please ZIP them up and email them to mopenstein@gmail.com with the subject "bulk upload" and I'll see to it that your scripts get added as soon as possible.

I'd also like to apologize for not being diligent in backing up these files. I make daily backups of our database but not the physical files stored on the server. I honestly never thought this could happen and I assure you that I'll be making daily backups of the physical files as well from here on out.

Once again, I'm sorry, and thanks for everything.

[Website] Lists and Contests

Lists

Today I finished preliminary code on a new section of the website that will allow us to create and share our own lists of our favorite scripts. On every (non-adult) script page we'll see a little plus image that will let us save a script to a list that we name and create. When released anyone will be able view the created lists but in this testing phase only Gold Members can create new lists.

Over the next few days I plan on polishing the experience a little bit and hopefully get some feedback from you guys after it goes live.


Contests

Also today I got some good news concerning the upcoming scripting contests: MediaMall has agreed to give out some free premium subscriptions to contest winners. I'm not totally sure on the exact details but I do know that you'll be able to gift them to friends or family if you are currently a premium subscriber.

The first contest will definitely begin on June 1 with a cash prize and hopefully I'll work out the details with MediaMall about the free upgrades by then as well.

[Developers] New landing page when updating scripts

I realize sometimes after updating a script the website loading times can be quite awhile. I can't really do anything about the load times but I can make the wait time more bearable by giving you guys some idea of what's going on, so I did. If your script has a lot of subscribers and might take awhile to finish completing, you'll get a little message informing you that it might take a little bit of time. I think this will be better than just staring at the loading image in our browsers.

[Gold] Templates

I'm toying with the idea of changing the site design but I'm worried that my design ability is lacking. Gold Members (from their profile page) can choose how they want the site displayed.

[Website] PHP5 headaches

Upgraded the website to php5 last night and it's highlighted a some of my more sloppier code. Please let me know if you find any more, and sorry for any inconvenience.

[Website] Scheduled downtime

I plan on bringing the website down tonight to make some security upgrades. I've tried to make the site as secure as possible and, while there isn't currently any security issues, I'd like to make sure in case there ever is a breach that all your information is properly protected. It really isn't that big of deal since the website doesn't store a whole lot of personal information but the recent PlayStation Network issues have brought it close to home.

After everything is said and done all of us will be required to re-login to the website as our cookies will no longer be valid.

[Developers] Mark your scripts for the New API

Added a little box for developers to mark their scripts as "PlayOn Premium" This will sure help alleviate the inevitable confusion.

The Forums get (Gr)avatars

I just remembered about Gravatar, which seems like a great idea. So great that all users now have Gravatar Avatar. It's really easy to sign up and get you avatar showing. Just make sure you use the same email address you did when signing up with PlayOnScripts.com

Introducing: Bounties

Bounties are an idea I had thought of early on after developing the scripts plugin, but have just now gotten around to developing. Basically a user can submit a website that they want to see a script for with a dollar figure attached and developers can then choose to take up the task of developing the script.

PlayOnScripts will be the intermediate, the script will be uploaded to playonscripts.com, reviewed, and, if confirmed working, payment will be collected from the bounty poster. The developer will then be given the go ahead to add the script to the site and the bounty will be transferred. I plan on collecting a small fee for these transactions to compensate for handling and completing the bounties, and also for development.

I thinking around 10%, so if the bounty is 10$, PlayOnScripts would likely take 1$ (before any fees associated the credit card processing are deducted by Google Checkout) Also bounty posters are expected to use Google Checkout as the only way to pay a bounty, the developer, however, can choose between PayPal or Google Checkout.

It's a loose Beta application right now, so bugs might be discovered.


I got this section working a little early and decided to put it up as a beta

Busy at work...

My fingers have been hurriedly typing up a new section of the site which could help get some new content out there. And that's all I'm going to say until it's finished, which should be some time this week, or, possibly, next week.

Download Keys revisted

I've finally implemented the new procedure for downloading scripts that require a key that I outlined here.

Basically before downloading scripts that require a key, user's will be prompted to login or register for an account. Once logged their username will be appended to the Google Checkout purchase description. If you ever receive a charge back you'll be able to provide me with a name so I can investigate further.

Site Updates

Did some more work on the site, finally adding some things that were needed for a while now.

Developers can remove their Scripts

I coded a small little update that lets script developers delete their unwanted scripts.

Problems with Auto Updaters resolved

I was able to upgrade my hosting and resolve auto updating scripts for now, everything should be back to normal.

Script Developers and Automatically updating scripts

I've recently received a notice concerning a large amount of requests coming into the website. I've narrowed it down to scripts that perform automatic updates. The server is being hammered and it needs to be better managed.

As it stands most scripts are requesting the script's page and then, if an update is available, downloading the newest version. Which is great for the end user but if every single time the script is ran it makes these requests it adds up quick.

I'm going to have to find away to block auto updaters until I can work out a solution, I'm thinking of a developer key which can limit the amount of requests made to the server, if it get's excessive.

In the meantime I encourage script developers to update their scripts, disabling any auto update functions until I can get a system in place to manage the requests.

I hope you all understand, sorry about the inconvenience.

Download Keys

Recently some people have been purchasing scripts and then issuing charge backs. To combat this any script that requires a download key will require that the user be logged in, if they're not, they'll be prompted to login or register. To make the purchaser identifiable I'll probably append their user login name to the google checkout item description. That way if you do receive a charge back you'll be able to search for that purchase number and via the description provide me with a name so I can block them from the site.

Site goes Mobile

I did a little tinkering and if you visit the site from your mobile browser you should see a more mobile friendly site. I've only been able to test with a PSP that I have laying around but it makes a big difference on the smaller resolution. The design is changed very little and the content is 100% in tact.

Let me know if you have issues from your mobile device

Subscriptions

The Subscriptions page has had a significant design overhaul and upgrade. Besides being more pleasing to the eyes, it's also more functional.

Also did some behind the scenes work on the subs and found a bug, that has probably been affecting users for quite some time but was never brought to my attention, so if you've ever had problems adding subscriptions give it another go it may be fixed now.

Coding night!

Tonight I decided to sit down and do some back end maintenance and upgrade some code.

A lot of the back end is boring but a big chunk of what I worked on will allow me to work on the site without my tinkering resulting in odd errors for those unlucky to stumble upon whatever page I'm working on. Now we'll just get a simple message stating that the page is being worked on at the moment.

Messages too have been beefed up. We can now reply to messages that are in our inbox. This won't affect most users since most messages are sent between developers and to/from admins but when I enable sending messages between users it'll come in handy. I'm still debating on whether this will be a Gold feature only simply because it's more database intensive and will require quite a bit more code.

Speaking of Gold Members, they're seeing a new smaller version of the home page now. The updated page has a new simple javascript based portal widget displaying most of the content that currently takes up a lot of space on the main page. I wrote it myself after searching for something similar but I only turned up overly complex examples that would end up being a pain in the butt to implement and maintain, so I created one from scratch. I'll look for some feedback at a later date for opinions (if anyone actually cares that is).

Gold Membership for new Developers

In order to encourage new developers out there I'm offering up free Gold Memberships.

To be eligible for the upgrade users must add 3 or more free non-adult scripts!

If you've done the work and deserve the upgrade make a post on the forums.