What's happening at bcwish.cliff1976.net?

Wish Lists Come Home

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:11:52 -0700

Long-term dream come true! At the BC convention in London last weekend, the management revealed that they're offering a built-in wish list functionality to their paying members (at first, while the service is in beta testing). I really, really think this is a good idea.

Back when I started these here wish lists in 2002 or thereabouts, my motivation was the lack of a wish list function. Now that it's there, and they've made it available to Members Plus users, I can start phasing out these wish lists in favor of doing it over there.

There are a lot of donated funds still available for this site though, so until they run out, these hosted-by-me wish lists don't have to necessarily go anywhere. But I'm no longer accepting donations for the site, and if you send me any money, it'll go into my pocket and not the wish list coffers (just so you know).

server move on 2007-09-10 mostly OK

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:12:21 -0700

Looks like the ol' wishlist survived the move from one datacenter to another which my hosting provider carried out on September 10th (you may have noticed some downtime on that day). Apparently the only consequence I can detect (thanks to BookCrossers who spotted it and discussed it here) is that the site is now more sensitive to trailing slashes in its URLs. I certainly didn't anticipate this, and I doubt the hosting company did either — lots of their customers are affected by this, not just you and I. If you pay close attention to your URLs in your links and iframes on your BookCrossing shelves, you should be fine.

http://bcwish.cliff1976.net/marahsulloy

won't work, but

http://bcwish.cliff1976.net/marahsulloy/

will, and the same goes for the URLs for inline frames.

outage planned for tomorrow — 4-8 hours estimated

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:45:23 -0700

To try to prevent outages like the last one we had (the power went out), my hosting company is moving all their equipment to another datacenter. The irony of this is that it will cause another outage, tomorrow for four to eight hours. Just so you know. Sorry about the late notice. By the way, you will only read this (a) before the move, (b) after the move, or (c) during the move, but then via a feedreader.

HTML content in wishes no longer displayed

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:00:19 -0700

Some users have been sneaky and clever and found ways to mark up their wish list entries to format the text or even *gasp* display images in their wishes. I too like the freedom to make things pretty, where appropriate, but the fact of the matter is that a typing or cut-and-paste mistake can mess up a user's entire wish list or even worse: mess up your wishes as returned in search results. So, I've had to clamp down and strip HTML tags from wish records. Anyone relying on markup in wish title or author fields to display wishes as stricken should probably completely remove those wishes, because the strike-out effect has been negated, as of today.

Belated thanks to MyssCyn

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 23:40:10 -0700

MyssCyn made a secret donation back in June that I overlooked. Please join me in thanking her for keeping the site rolling for roughly two months through her donation. If you decide to make a donation, please make some noise about it — tell me! And also please tell me if you'd like it to remain anonymous or not.

Next 100 days of wishes on Cassiopaeia

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:40:56 -0700

If you get a book from your wish list, or help someone get one from theirs in the next 100 days or so, be sure to thank BookCrosser Cassiopaeia for it — her generous donation today made it possible. I suggest helping her out with her own wish list, of course.

Obsolete wish list URLs no longer forwarded

Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:57:22 -0700

After a year at the new address, it's time for people to start updating the URL in their links and inline wish list frames. Instructions are at: http://bcwish.cliff1976.net/help/#WishList

This won't affect anyone who's noticed that the wish list site moved in July 2006 and updated their links/frames accordingly — just the late bloomers and procrastinators who haven't gotten around to it yet.

RSS news feeds available here

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:36:31 -0700

Following up on an old suggestion from Iojima, I've made these wish list news items into an RSS feed. I like to "feed" readers hungry for news about stuff. Heh. I made a funny.

Improved RSS feeds for wishes

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:36:31 -0700

I tweaked the RSS feeds for wishes hosted here today. Now each wish gets its own RSS element. No changes required on your end as a wish list owner; wish list feed subscribers will get a crop of new wish list feed items, most or all of which will be items that were previously grouped together in one RSS entry. Confused? Don't worry, it's not a big deal. If you read other people's wishes through RSS, you'll see what I mean.

BIG BIG thanks to BCer hotflash for her donation

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Please join me in thanking wish list user hotflash for her donation. Her contribution will fund this site for about 90 days (based on users' recent activity). Send her something from her wish list!

Optional user country display via RABCK.com

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700

At long last, due to public demand, I have implemented a way to show user countries in-line with wish list search results. Many many thanks are due to RABCK.com for the cooperation in getting this project completed. In short, if you want to have your country of residence shown in wish list search results, you can do so over at RABCK.com and it will (automagically!) show up here, too. Following the User Settings link over there on the left, you can choose which countries you are particularly interested in, and when a wish list user representing that country appears in a wish list search result, you'll see this emblem near her user name:

Wish Lists — now geekier than ever

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700

I introduced one of those RSS buttons on the wish list pages. At the risk of sounding like one of those cryptic geeksnobs, suffice it to say that those who know what that's for will appreciate it. Those who don't can safely ignore it. But I hope someone besides me finds it useful. Want to start taking advantage of it? When you see it at the top of someone's wish list, copy the URL that RSS link points to, and paste it into your favorite RSS reader. I recommend the Google Reader. You can use this to subscribe to the wish lists of your bestest peeps, and your RSS reader will inform you when their wish lists have changed. Of course I meant that crack about geeks in the nicest of ways.

Heartfelt thanks to lorelei03

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700

BIG BIG thanks to BookCrosser Lorelei03 for a very generous donation. Please send her something from her wish list if you can. Her donation is funding the site for about the next 50 days. Want to contribute? Read on to find out how.