The assholes of OpenDiary (Part 1)

That’s right, His Divine Shadow is back, and apparently, just in time to miss the OD Outage of the Month. I would be lying if I said I was terribly surprised that, yet again, OpenDiary has suffered from a massive defect. However, the one thing I did notice was the amount of phony outrage that has poured out into the OpenDiary internets as a result of this catastrophe that no doubt makes the Haitian earthquake, Darfur genocide, and hurricane Katrina pale in comparison as disasters go.

The part that I found the most amusing is the fact that some folks here ARE surprised at this site outage, and, even more strangely, are actually demanding "compensation" for the time they spent offline. Now, I am hardly a shill for the OpenDiaryMaster – I would easily agree that this service is subpar, to say the least, and that he does a pretty terrible job of running a web-based service. But on the whole, the indignation here ranges from unreasonable to outright insane. I mean, the fact that I have gone exactly 90 days without updating my diary is proof positive that it is possible to go for more than 4 hours without being able to use OpenDiary. But you’d never notice that from the scathing reports that have been flooding the DiaryMaster’s inbox:

OMG was I having withdrawal symptoms. I need you OD in my life soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch

[Leonalia]

A good example of OpenDiary withdrawal and a good candidate for rehab.

Thanks for this update so that we aren’t left completely in the dark. I thought you were going to start e-mailing members with e-mail addresses on file to let them know what was going on, though?

[peteliske]

Right. Because I am sure that the fact that the site holding all the data to OpenDiary, including the user information and e-mails is down won’t cause prevent the DiaryMaster from e-mailing everyone to tell people that is down. Why not just ask him to post a Diary entry to mention to the folks that the site is down? I am sure he would have thought of that brilliant idea actually working if it wasn’t for the fact that the site is, well, down.

I appreciate that there’s a lot to do and I’m sure you’re very busy. As a paying Lifetime member, I’m fully prepared to accept scheduled downtime and even the occasional unexpected downtime. What I’m less prepared to accept is the lack of communication we’ve had from you (and other admins, via facebook etc) in general in the last several months.

I’m not sure if it’s my imagination (it could well be!), but I can’t help feeling like there’s something more going on that we’re not being told. I’m half expecting the site to just disappear one day without a word because there’s a distinct silence from this corner of OD.

I know you know how important this place is to so many people, and we’re forever grateful for this space that you’ve provided for us. All I want is for us to be kept in the loop.

[Lady of Many Talents]

Paranoia?

…it would be very helpful if…when these things do happen…and they do…update on Facebook and give us somewhere to get info. I must have checked FB 20 times yesterday and nothing. It’s very frustrating and would take less than a minute of your time.

[just elle]

This is nice to know but I have to say I agree with Lady of Many Talents. It would be nice to know a bit more, I know you’re very busy but it would be good to be kept in the loop. I’m worried I might not be able to login in one day! xxx

[RadioactiveSquirrel]

Yes, that would suck. You might actually have to go outside and get a life. Then again, considering your post on your front page as an "OpenDiary Addict", I probably shouldn’t hold my breath.

I’m sure it’s hard to run a site like this, and there’s bound to be errors. Some of us have been here since the hacker attack stole months worth of entries, so yeah, we wonder. No conspiracies, just a bunch of people who want to know what’s going on. Easiest way to alleviate a bunch of angry/curious/nervous bloggers is a heads up. Not necessary by any means, but we’d sure appreciate it! 🙂

[chicago hope]

A sane voice in the crowd?

Oh nooo now the people who have nothing better to do with their time then troll an online diary site won’t have anything to whine about! Oh poop. Investing allll that money in lifetime subscriptions to a site that is known to crap out randomly was a GREAT IDEA, HUH? Glad I only do piddly month subscriptions…because, you know, this site kind of sucks sometimes.

Thanks for the update, Mr. DM.

[Faith and Devotion]

A semi-idiot. Saying that lifetime memberships are for suckers, but then admitting to paying at all for a site that "craps out randomly" doesn’t help your case. You may be a dumbass of a lesser magnitude than people who shelled out the big bucks, but you are still an idiot.

Wow, people are getting really bitchy about this. =/

[Ceir]

Thank you for the update, Captain Obvious. 🙂

Okay Bruce, I can understand that occasionally there will be problems. I totally get that but your last update be on October 17 and then not another word for the 4 days? I find that inexcusable. I love this site and would be devastated to lose the privledge of coming here. To have to worry for days about whether or not OD was even coming back, not to mention the loss of our diaries, is not fair to any of us. I appreciate the job you and your staff do but I think you really did a disservice this time by not communicating. 2 or 3 lines on Facebook and on here would have relieved a lot of people’s minds. That being said, thank you for getting the site back up and running.

[~ms breathless~]

I don’t know which is more goddam presumptuous, the idea that you feel like you are on a first name basis with a man you probably have never met or worked with in your life, but that you also feel like you own his balls just because you opened an account on his site.

Man I just keep noticing things to write about!

This is not people just trolling an online diary site! This is a home to many people and their diaries! They’ve made friends here! IT. MEANS. SOMETHING. TO. THEM!

I don’t think you have the full right mentality for it!

[M.C.]

Words escape me on this one.

This is bullsh*t, just so you know.

[joyful.girl]

I couldn’t agree more.

What joyful.girl said.

Also, m.opendiary works but not the main site – still. As a few other noters pointed out already.

I think that you should offer everyone the opportunity to download their diary in ANY format, even if they aren’t paying members. I don’t want to lose my diary, or pay to download it in a decent format because I’m nervous with the site being down so often and with a serious lack of updates/contact. Let us download our dia

[take it and run]

Um, this option already exists. I download my diary every time I post. If you don’t like the format, well guess what, that is what you should pay for. Maybe you will also suggest to the DiaryMaster that he offer all the OD+ Lifetime Member benefits to anyone regardless of whether or not they are paying members next? I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, you can’t fix stupid!

and….crediting our accounts, or what? and how will Lifetime members be recompensed?

[convoyeur]

Let’s see, the average human being lives till about 75 years and you shelled out a total of $150 for a "LifeTime OD Membership." From what I see on your diary profile, you look around 30ish, and let’s assume for the sake of argument that you got your OD+ membership yesterday, just to maximise your return. Since there seems to be a disagreement over how long OD was down (I am seeing anywhere from three to five days) let’s just assume it’s been down for a week. If you amortize the cost of your "Lifetime Membership" over the estimated useful life of YOU, we get a total daily accrual of $0.01174 [150/(35*365)] of days of service for which you paid. Multiply that by 7 days that the site was down and your grand total reimbursement comes down to $0.082. I hope the bitching was worth the $0.082, Convoyeur. Hopefully, you will spend it more wisely than your last investment.

<td style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%; margin-top: 4px; background-color: rgb(102, 205, 170); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);”>What? Was OD down? Hmph! I didn’t even notice. lol Good job of getting it back up and running. 🙂

Eric

[EWS]

I regret that OpenDiary, unlike YouTube and Facebook, does not allow a thumbs up, operation

There are some diaries which have been sitting idle for years. is it fair to put a time limit on them and delete them if they are no longer active? perhaps that will lighten the system a bit.

[nepenthes-8)]

Uh oh…

As happy as we all are to have the site back up, a few points need to be addressed before everybody becomes complacent again:

1. Give the admins the ability to update the Facebook and Twitter feeds. You’re not good at either.

2. Hire on some admins with people skills. And don’t call them "admins." There needs to be a serious customer service overhaul in this place.

3. When you’ve finished crediting the accounts of plus members, Lifetime members need to get these perks you’ve been promising us since 2006. A lot of them. I say this in anticipation of a future entry from you telling us why we need to foot the bill for this latest service outage/work done on the servers, and don’t think for a second enough people are going to believe the whole, "If you buy a Lifetime subscription I’ll give you all kinds of awesome perks!" line again unless you’re proactive about it. Especially now that Lifetime subscriptions have gone up in price.

Oh, and before I forget, thanks for the message on the front of the site this time. Took you way too long to use it, but better late than never.

So you got the work done, but the execution could have been better. C

[temmahkrik]

All I can say to this is that only an idiot buys a good or service because they were promised future benefits. Think about it, would you pay a 2,500% premium on a car because I promise you that I might put rocket engines on it one day? Or make it able to fly under its own power?

Do America a favour, the next time it’s time to vote, stay home. Please.

We pay for this service. We deserve more.

[Eden Calling]

I think the solution is simple here. I’d suggest a lobotomy, but it looks like someone already beat me to it.

I can’t believe how many people are thanking you when the site was down for so long?! While everyone is saying 3 days it was more then 3 days as it was down & then up & then down again.

Sorry but I for one was pissed off. Especially considering how long it took you to put the message up on the front page. I refuse to join Facebook just to get outage updates on OD.

I’ve lost count of how many Plus Subscriptions I’ve gifted over the last 4 years but I won’t be doing it anymore. My subscription expires in 2012 & if anyone returns the favor & buys me a subscription I’m going to be pissed off.

[spilledperfume]

If Facebook is the only way the DM can address people when the site is down, what are you expecting exactly? For him to e-mail the millions of users to let them know when he probably can’t even access his mailing list? Or maybe perhaps personal daily status updates by phone on how well repairs are progressing? Maybe OD is better off without people like you paying for it.

I agree with [temmahkrik]’s and [Tigressa]’s notes.
I am shocked at the general complacency in these notes.

Yes, we’re all glad OD is back up. But the length of time it was down, with virtually NO communication as to what was going on, is inexcusable. I mentioned on twitter that this is basically the EXACT TIME the @opendiary account should be used.

I am going to seriously reevaluate whether I will continue paying for a Plus account. I doubt I am the only one.

[metaphorical duck]

Almost there…

Thanks much.

While OD was gone I went outside…in the sunlight?!?

I also went on You Tube and looked up Max Headroom and videos from the 80’s. Remember when MTV actually played music?

Take care.

[Mr. Mofo]

Another ray of sunshine in the dismal delves.

I do hope this means those of us who are paying subscribers will receive CREDIT for the DAYS this site was offline?

[Dave Dog]

it would have been nice to know what the crap was going on, instead of just a message saying that the site is down. i too, am going to mention the hacker attack of ’04. i lost nearly six month’s worth of diary entries in that attack and i was quite worried that would happen again. my diary back up is up to date, but that’s not really the point is it? what, exactly, is my lifetime membership paying for here? as temmahkrik said, where are all those perks you promised the lifetime members?

i realize that database issues are large deals, and that they take a while to fix. i’m not trying to negate the hard work you and the admins put in to getting things back up and running. but this shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and you should have given us a leeeeetle more information about what was going on. like, maybe a twitter update??

[pantheress]

People keep mentioning the "Hacker Attack of ’04." I was a member during that attack, but it didn’t affect me in anyway. I had 6 months of entries lost, but it didn’t matter to me because I actually took steps and downloaded my diary on a regular basis.

I reeeaaalllyyyy wish you had given a little more information as to what the *bleep* was going on. I thought OD was gone forever. I know it was only a few days, but for people that rely on this site for sanity, it was torture!

Some diarists need to write in here so they don’t commit suicide or self-harm. For them, I’m worried.

I didn’t know you had a facebook page, otherwise I would have checked it. Maybe saying "check our facebook page for more info" would have been helpful.

Anyways, I’m so glad it’s back up!! YAY.

[Sweet Bee]

It’s hard for me to have sympathy for people who are so obsessed and deranged that they would actually commit suicide or self-harm without access to OpenDiary. Somehow, I don’t think a Facebook update is going to do anything for these folks. Those people don’t need OD to come back online, they need psychiatric help.

It’s more than apparent that you personally do not value customer service, but you’re about to run your business into the ground over a lack of it.

Please hire someone to take care of OD’s customer service needs since you can’t be bothered to do it yourself.

[trellis]

Where have you been for the past 9 years?

As a paying member,the lack of communication was totally frustrating. I understand that you are busy and you have a family, but you also have a responsibility to your customers. A facebook or twitter update would not have taken long at all. Quite frankly, after my subscription is up, I will be going elsewhere.

[Seahorse]

Or you could just not pay and stay on this site anyway.

A server and database rebuild is no small task and to suddenly have to do it out of nowhere in five days without loss of data is pretty good work. Kudos on that.

An update would have been nice, but there wasn’t much to say anyway so no biggie. A bit of an overreaction by some, but I would expect nothing less around here.

[Zaphod]

That last sentence has got to be the understatement of the century. Open up a site of drama queens and then suggest that they don’t own your nuts by actually working on a problem instead of pandering to their need for constant attention and people are surprised that this is the result?

I agree with a number of the noters…

While I’m glad OD is back up and running, there was definitely lack of communication; there is an ongoing lack of customer service; and there is still a lack of "perks" promised yet not delivered.

Were you a politician before you started this website?

Plus the site was down for a bit today too… what happened there? Is our information even safe on this site an