OD Back Online

It’s so great to see OD up and running again!(Especially in time for it’s twelfth birthday!!) Thank you for all your hard work!

Thank you and Happy Birthday OD!

I has learned how important it is to download my diary!

Thanks for updating your Facebook page- meant SO much to us.

YAYYYYYYYYYYYY thank you muchly!!

Thank you!

Almost had to turn on the TV without Open Diary. Willy of

Thanks for all your hardwork & keeping us updated as best you can. As hard as this may be to us–I’m sure it’s much more difficult for you! Thank you!

Thank you. I’ve missed the place.

What a wonderful OD birthday present! Thanks, Diarymaster!

Thank you! Thank you! I feel like I’ve been released from jail. *Mwa! Mwa!*

Thanks, DM. It was a long wait, but I’m glad we’re back.

Happy Anniversary … kinda. 🙂

Thank you!!!

thanks mr OD man! 🙂

YAY Glad its back up and running. The outage will those days it was out be added to our supscripation days??

thank you for getting it back for us. i was going thru severe withdrawals. LOL i kept checking every 5 minutes to see if it was back yet.

Glad 2 c it back up 🙂 I was going through OD withdrawals too.

Really glad you fixed the issue. Small piece of advice; have someone assigned to update the freaking out minions on FB next time. I think a little more communication could have helped calm them down. Thanks for the hard work!

Taa Daaaa! Thanks! Next, (for future service interruption planning) let’s chat about minimal (once or twice a day) updates on Facebook/Twitter while the site is down!

PS: http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D116647&entry=20086&mode=

THANK YOU!!!!

DUDE! You have NO IDEA how happy I am to see that lil’ Yoda guy! It can’t have been a fun week for you. I appreciate all your hard work. Now kick back and have yourself a cookie! *HUGGLES*

I missed OD. I appreciate your working so hard to get it back up. It must have been very frustrating for you. Thanks for not giving up!

Thanks DM! 🙂

Yay! Thank you! I’m glad things are running smoother now–even if it IS hard to go even a day without OD!

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

Thank you!!!!!! 🙂 ♥

Thank You…. You were missed!!! 🙂

Thanks! I didn’t know what three days without this site would do to me…

Nice to see you again. I don’t mind waiting cause I’d rather wait if it means doing things right. Later,

Thanks for all your hard work and care! Much appreciated.

Thanks, glad to have it back

Agree about thnaks, agree about a bit more communication.

I about jumped through the roof when I clicked on OD and it loaded! 😀 Is the database problems that caused the extreme outage also the reason we were having problems prior, earlier last week? And thanks for all the hard work to you and your admin! So glad to have my diary back! 🙂 *clings to it*

Wow I was really sweating this one out, I thought it was curtains this time. Thanks for all your efforts DM

Thanks for bringing the site back. Shame you didn’t find time to provide updates while you were doing it though! CD

What? Was OD down? Hmph! I didn’t even notice. lol Good job of getting it back up and running. 🙂 Eric

This is a special place. Thank you for it.

The Circles are still so broken. Just FYI

Well done. I hope you didn’t pull all your hair out and the cuss words weren’t in front of the kids! Now take a day off. X x

Will those of us who pay for the privilege of not being able to access the site be credited for all the down time…again?

Yay, thankyou for all your hard work!!! So glad it’s back. 😀

Glad to have this place back! But to echo many other noters, PLEASE update us via Facebook or Twitter when something like this happens. As someone who was around during the hacker attack in 2004 (and lost my entries detailing the first few dates with my boyfriend, which breaks my heart every time I think of it), it was hard not to assume the worst. A quick note on FB/Twitter, even something like “Server problems but we’ll be back ASAP”, would have gone a long way to assuage our fears.

thank you xx

Thanks for all your hard work, DM. We really appreciate it 🙂 Happy birthday to OD for yesterday as well 🙂

Thank you for all the hard work and stress you have experienced these past few days. You did a wonderful job to get us back online. You are stars!! We appreciate all your sweat and lack of sleep!

Dear Bruce Wayne, thank you for your hours logged away in the batcave. Please find an injectable anticdote for OD withdrawals for when the site has problems. I have to buy a new mouse from harshly pressing the refresh button. Yours Truly,

I appreciate your efforts to preserver our entries and get the site running again. It was sorely missed!

I have to admit that one worried me. It would be good to get a message on the actual diary pages, something other than ‘failed to find include file’ etc, or a redirect on all pages to the front page message. Thanks

Thank you 🙂 I missed the site!!

Nice to be back, and thanks for all the hard work…

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

Thanks DM, im super stoked you got this site up and running again, i REALLLY appreciate it 😀

That sounds labor intensive . Thanks for getting it back up & running !

*sigh of relief* MISSED OD!!!

thanks DM, we were all soooo frustrated and almost suicidal over the loss for so long. Great work you do….we really appreciate this site more than you can ever know. big hugs to you and the staff…. P

Thank Diary Master

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.

Good work, and thanks; ya done good.

thank you so much for working so hard to get this site back up and running again!! i have missed it so very much. did a lot of playing around in facebook but it’s just not the same. and i did a lot more reading. but, i’ve never been so glad to see a site back!!! thanks, again! take care,

Thank you and the Lordy =)x

DiaryMaster, thank you for bringing the site back up. I didn’t have any withdrawal symptoms this time round. I’m glad you were able to salvage our rants and the chunks of our lives…God bless!

Thank you.

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

Thank you (: <3

Thank you muchly. I have to agree with some of the notes saying a little bit more information other than what had been offered. It would be a little more reassuring.

Diary Master, THANK YOU!! It seems like you get a lot of hate mail when things turn downward. It’s all so unnececssary, (spelling at 6am?). I love this site. I’m also glad I am on FB, as I was able to see your notices regarding these dark, dark days! I have missed my people here. I have missed having my voice here.

Just a suggestion – next time you might want to update the facebook page occasionally so people don’t think you’ve left them high & dry.

Thank You!!!!!!! I know the hours of work and the headaches. I really do appreciate all you do to keep this place safe and running.:)

What a relief. To echo the others…. A daily update on Facebook should be done. Sunday to Wednesday night without another word is unacceptable. The client service part of OD needs major tweaking. You, as a consumer would not accept this from another vendor to whom you paid money for a service. Communication is key to good customer service. Also, there is no mention in your entry about a refund for the days of service lost. I expect that will just be happening, correct?

OD ought to have a page on a sparate server entity like etsy.com does so that you can update us when you are down.

Thanks for getting the sure back up on my birthday, DM! One of the most memorable presents yet!

You guys are awesome and if anything the outage should bring to light the hard work you do behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly for us. Thanks!!

Oh thank God!! I forget how much I rely on OD until I can’t log on. Then I panic , and the longer it takes the more worried I get..lol My friends here probably know me better than most people in my real life so I’d really be upset if I lost my little community. Thanks for taking such good care of our diaries. Hugs

Who are all these people who are HAPPY with you?!?! If any other website went down for three days and flat out refused to give its users any information as to why, there would be HELL to pay. We pay for this service. We deserve more.

EDEN–the people who are leaving nasty notes are obv getting deleted. Go figure.

Welcome back dear friend! Hope the system can handle my multiple backdated entries! LOL

Always glad to see OD back. As always, many thanks for your efforts.

Thank you for all the work that you have done to get OD back online… seems I have been going into OD withdrawl so I’m very glad its back up and running again!

Hi DM, I wrote an entry that I would appreciate your taking the time to read. Thanks.

Thank you =)

Thank you … your hard work is much appreciated

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 manyPlus 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.

i’m tempted to buy spilledperfume a lifetime sub.

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.

Thanks, Bruce, seriously. This place is really important to a lot of people (me included).

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.

If we have issues in the future, as I know we will (every website has problems from time to time) can we please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeease be updated on facebook or twitter so we know what’s going on? Love,

Has the “Newest Diaries” section of the front page been removed? This is what I was using to identify and report spam diaries (the numbers of which, last I saw, were continuing to grow; do you have any plan for stopping them/slowing them down?).

Thank you for all your hard work! I’m glad everything is still here!

Thanks for resurrecting the site.

Thank you for caring and being careful. Of course I missed OD terribly but glad you worked things out and we’re back on track.

Glad to see you’re back. This place is like coffee for me – necessary to continue on in my day. I agree with the other noters. We love updates on progress (or lack of it). Even a “still working on it” and a date stamp would have been enough for me in the past few days.

Thank you for your hard work; I do some work in an IT related job so I know what it’s like! This site is very important to me! And happy birthdy OD! However, my job is also customer facing, and takes that aspect extremely seriously, and I can tell you that I would be immediately fired if I went five days while working on an issue with one update. This is not how you treat customers, especially when there are still lingering memories of the crash in ’04. One thing I was taught in my training was that if you let a customer down in that way (even though the hack was not the site’s fault), it’s pretty much impossible to regain their trust; at the very least it will always be in the back of their mind when something else bad happens. I’m a lifetime member and I really don’t care about reimbursement, since that’s why I paid a lifetime membership – over time it saves me money. But the lack of customer service does annoy me. But, I’m glad the site is back! Thank you for your hard work! I hope you can get some rest.

Yay!! You guys do such a GREAT job =)

THANKS! OD is back woot! woot! Also thanks for posting this up ever time I tried to log on up: Open Diary is temporarily offline for database maintenance. We are working to return to normal service as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience. Also The front OD main Page when I logged in now looks out of whack???? THANKS!!!!!!!! 🙂

Look, I know sh*t happens. I’m in IT. I know bad sh*t happens, all the time. I’m very appreciative to have the site back up with all data intact (but will be backing up my diary right after leaving this note anyway.) But the people part of this business is important too. Is it really too much to task that you update us once a day, even if it’s just to say, “we’re working on it”? You’ve lost long-time members…again. All for lack of a little communication. And as a long-standing member of OD, that just makes me sad.

Oh well, I got a lot of cooking done. I didn’t even think to look on Facebook!

This sure beats what happened to us at MDD….but sure put a scare into all of us 🙁

Thank you for all your hard work and diligence!

While I’m sure I can speak for all of us that we are thrilled OD is back online an update or two on FB or Twitter would go a long way. Most people were upset at the lack of communication to let us know what was going on with the site. We all know technology is fickle and I thank you endlessly for devoting so much time and effort into this site but please think of us and calm our fears when it comes to outtages such as this. On the FB fanpage an all out war was starting between writers. Even just a quick “Hey, we’re still working on it” would ease our minds.

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

Once again, I realized the “import” of OD to me, in my life~!!!!!!! Thank You D.M. for all of your & your whole staff, and including the families, whom support ya’ll while you’s (lol) work so much!!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL, KUDOS AND BLESSINGS from God be upon ALL of you. I LOVE OD, & was seriously jonesing for it while it was down!! I don’t mean to sound mercinary, but, are we getting 3 days credit now, on paid accounts? I KNOW you are really good and fair in that respect. Thanks again for everything, as I know it can’t be easy to repair all that “stuff” and also preserve all the files and info!!! BigHUgz!!!!!!!

Hi there, Glad OD is up and running. I was extremely disappointed with the lack of communication from you or other admins. This entry by Nunzio at the end of August is well-written and I hope you read it: http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D116647&entry=20086&mode= An update by Facebook or Twitter, or even changing the temporary default OD page to include SOME KIND OF UPDATE (i.e. saying more than just “OD is down”) would have been EXTREMELY appreciated. Please consider your many customers and, as Nunzio says, take steps to ease our anxiety and to communicate with us in the future. Days without any updates is unheard of nowadays online. Thank you.

Thanks for your hard work!

It’s like Christmas….in October.

=) i am sooo glad its back!

Thank you! I missed this place!

Thanks for getting us back on line. Better to be safe than sorry. I thank you for that

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??

Aloha nui loa (again)…

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.

thanks for fixing everything, DM.

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.

Glad you are back!

Well I think it’s safe to say there’s a HUGE number of people who immediately downloaded their diaries as soon as open diary was up. I, like many others, had been contemplating paying for OD+ and thank goodness I didn’t. The lack of updates was disgusting. Even if the update is just to say that things are the same, but you were STILL trying. just, re-assure people everything hasn’t been lost!

(con’t) but thank gawd it’s back up and nothing was lost. I was getting worried. thank you for all your work, but daaaaamn man, keep in touch with people. this place means a helluvalot to some of us. more than I think you know? just… don’t leave us in the dark for so long. it’s not appreciated or acceptable really. take care

Good to see the site back. Happy Birthday..and thank you!

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.

Its called Customer Service. I suggest you invest in it.

Thanks for all your hard work getting us back DM! Much appreciated.

So Glad to see the site back up and running, I expect you’ll be reimbursing us non-lifetime subscribers for the downtime.

yaaaayyyyyy x

Hi, DM. Wow, you’ve taken some nasty punches in your notes. Seems to me if this site causes that much rage, perhaps an OD addiction room is in in order. About the Lifetime Membership credit…see, I figure I’ve been here enough years that my hundred bucks paid up way back when has already reached the break even point and every year from here on out is a free year of plus membership. So, if the site goes down once in a while (you’d think these folks never had a car in the repair shop!), I’m out nothing. I missed the place, but I found other interesting stuff to do until you got the place back in running order. No biggie.

You know, I started wondering about the whole “lifetime” membership deal. What happens when your lifetime expires? What is the long-term plan for Open Diary? I agree with some of the previous noters: what’s the point of having Twitter and Facebook pages if they aren’t updated when the site is down? Glad the site is back because I really missed it!

Thank you for your work (: …. I’m glad to have the site back up … I really do love OD. =^.^=

Wow. No apology for the lack of updates/communication from you or the admins? Do you even care about the people who will leave the site because you didn’t take 30 seconds of your time to update on Facebook/Twitter about the status of the outage? Your total disregard for the OD community is nothing short of astounding. BTW – I left a note previously, but not surprisingly, the site choked.

I write here and at 750 Words. Both went down over the weekend. 750 words handled their downtime much better. I understand **** Happens & OD is much bigger and more unwieldy, but you’d benefit from setting up a tumblr page and keeping the community updated as they did over there.

I feel sorry for the folks who bought into your Lifetime Membership scam. Those poor folks got screwed HUGE, with nothing to show for it but site outages and none of the extras they were promised.

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.

Yeah, I’m definitely not echoing the perky “great to have you back!” notes here. This is one of the reasons I will never again pay for OD. I paid for this service for YEARS, but the shoddy service and poor communication made me vow to never put money in your pocket again. This site is repeated offline for days at a time two to three times a year. Would you accept this poor level of service from

A Twitter update to stop us worrying would not have gone amiss, but I am glad the site is online. Whenever OD is down for any length of time it still takes us back to the time of the ‘great crash’ and gives me the heebie-jeebies.

your bank’s website? Yes, this site is free to many, but if I were a paying customer, I’d be PISSED at this level of service. Having this site down repeatedly, for days at a time, is not something that inspires faith in people or that makes them want to pay for this site. This place meant a lot to me for a very long time and I’ve made some amazing friends on this site. The people here are

incredible. I wish the management would catch up.

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 anymore?

Yeah. I appreciate the hell out of the hard work as far as that goes but as a paying customer, a quick daily e-mail or facebook update and a more detailed apology/explanation at the end REALLY REALLY don’t seem like unfair requests. This is an online clearing house of the rough drafts of ALL my short form writing and, not for nothing, my only form of communication with five or six onlinefriends. I certainly understand that there are problems with websites that aren’t heavily staffed that could cause it to go down for a half a week but… Seriously. Three or four mass e-mails or status updates of two or three sentences over that period would not be asking for the moon.

Completely totally agree with temmahkrik’s note. You got the work done. FINALLY. Only to have it go out again a few hours later. It’s back up again FINALLY. Who knows for how long. Honestly, sick of seeing people thanking you. Interesting to also learn that while many of us are paying you you’re not giving certain members any of the perks they were promised FOUR years ago. Maybe time to look intothat.

thanks for getting od back up and running!! 🙂 ive missed writing so much! 🙂

I am glad OD is back up, for now, and none of our diaries were lost, this time, but I am not going to sit here and thank you for not even apologizing for ignoring that people that make Open Diary…Open Diary…CUSTOMER SERVICE… You and your team should learn the meaning of it. You have our email addresses, why not shoot out emails to us? Why not take the 5 seconds and update the FB or Twitter

Nope. Still not working properly. CD

pages, but no.. you dont do anything….it seriously makes me sick. I have been with OD since the start and just hate that I dont even want to write here anymore… Seriously, look into some customer service training…

and the site is still being slow and timing out…. I bet its down before the days over with

First I would like to thank you for all your hard work in getting us back up. But I would like to echo the requests from others that you keep your customers informed of the progress. Those of us who pay for the site deserve that much.

For those of us that PAY to use this site, are you giving us a refund or extending our subscriptions by the amount of days the site was down? Seems the fair thing to do.

Keep up the good work. Though I hate it when OD is down your uptime is fantastic so I don’t fret. If I could make one point though and that would be to put some sort of daily update up on that front page when it goes down. I dunno it’s just nice to know how long we’re going to be without our beloved OD. Now have yourself a smoke and a pancake and chill out. Job done!

Thanks for getting the site up and running again. I’ve missed it x

Hey, if you won’t do a bunch of cool stuff for Lifetime members, maybe you can compensate us by giving each of us a puppy? I’ll even name mine after you if you want.

Thanks for all of your hard work!!!!

Will our accounts be credited for the days the site was down?

No no and NO. I cannot believe all these “THANK YOU DM” notes. Are these people insane? I don’t care that the site was down. Things happen. But are you 100% against proper customer service? The kind where, when something is down, you keep your customers updated? Why is it THAT hard. I’m sure there are plenty of people that will volunteer for the job. It is absolutely atrocious that you couldn’t update FB or something. Why do you feel this is an acceptable practice? And why when you come back to update do you not acknowledge ANY of this? Its like we are just talking to the wall. Not only is there never any explanation for your piss poor CS but you outright IGNORE the questions and comments from us.

I’m relieved that the site is back up but like many other users, I am disappointed by the lack of communication. I’m used to OD being down for days at a time and having to just wait it out but those were the early 2000’s before things like Facebook and Twitter. Nowadays, there is no excuse for not keeping your members up to date on what is going on. You have these accounts and I think using themmore frequently would make everyone a lot happier. You have to remember, our lives are on this site and our entries cannot be replaced. To think about losing them all would just be devastating. A simple Facebook/Twitter update every day or so would really easy our minds. I lost about 3 months of entries in the hacker attack of 2004 but thankfully, I backed up my diary and only lost 2 weeks or entries. However, I still have those blank months in my diary’s calendar and they are a reminder of how awful it would be to lose everything. Keeping us in the dark makes us think just that.

Well it’s about sodding time….

I missed OD while it was down and I kept you and your staff in my thoughts and prayers. Still am. =)

I am SO glad to see that not everyone is completely ignoring how inept the DM is, or how he basically ignores us. These “oh the DM is so wonderful and works so hard” notes were about making me sick…happy to know other’s see him for what he really is.

I don’t mind about the down time. And I also don’t mind about the Lifetime subscription and I don’t expect any kind of compensation and I don’t really think anyone else should either. I paid that money in good faith, but also in the knowledge that OD could possible disappear at any time after paying it. That’s just the way it goes, and people just have to deal with that. Like I said in mynote on your previous entry – all I want is for us to be kept in the loop. There used to be a time when you wrote entries about all kinds of things, about what was happening with the site and what was happening outside of OD. That’s not happening anymore. There’s no connection between you and the members of this community anymore. That’s not a problem if it’s because you’re busy with other things. But it is a problem if your heart isn’t in OD anymore. And honestly, that’s the feeling I’m getting. People are worried, and it would be so easy to reassure us. But it’s not happening and we have to wonder why. If something’s going on that could potentially take OD away, please do us the courtesy of giving us a heads up. If that’s not a concern, then please say that as well.

While I’m glad that the site is back up, it was really frustrating not knowing what was going on. Would it have killed you to update Facebook? If my friends and relations can take 30 seconds on a daily basis to tell me that their kids have plague and their house is on fire, the least you could do is tell the paying customers what was going on. “Random database errors?” Can you not understand how nervous that’s going to make people? A lot of people will say “It’s just a website,” but my favorites are my friends. I’ve known some of them for years. They were guests at my wedding! And what about paid subscribers? I just got a lifetime membership a couple months ago. That wasn’t cheap, but I bought it because I anticipate being here long enough to make it worth it. And yet you can’t be bothered to communicate with your customers?

I’m in with Leslie and Lady of Many Talents. I dont want to be compensated. – I can and do go weeks with out writing public/friends entries. But none the less i want RESPECT. I get it I get it “you were busy working so ****ing hard to be “careful and the utmost cautious” would it have been that hard to update the FB page? DUDE if you had broken fingers, you could have used apen in your mouth to update in less than 60seconds! NO EXCUSE. YOU/STAFF ACTED LIKE A DOUCHE. HOW ABOUT AN ACTUAL APPOLOGY?

I’m in with Leslie and Lady of Many Talents. I dont want to be compensated. – I can and do go weeks with out writing public/friends entries. But none the less i want RESPECT. I get it I get it “you were busy working so ****ing hard to be “careful and the utmost cautious” would it have been that hard to update the FB page? DUDE if you had broken fingers, you could have used apen in your mouth to update in less than 60seconds! NO EXCUSE. YOU/STAFF ACTED LIKE A DOUCHE. HOW ABOUT AN ACTUAL APPOLOGY?

I’m glad it’s back. But as a paying customer, I do hope I’m compensated for the days when the site was down. I pay for a service expecting it to be working. I understand if it’s down for a few hours, things happen, but after a couple of days I’d like them to be credited to my account. It’s only fair.

I’ve been here for ten years. Ten. I’m no longer an OD+ member because of the crappy services you give. I can’t warrant spending the money on something that is clearly dying. This site is only special in the fact that it holds ten years of memories for me and notes from people who have passed on.

Also: It should be noted that fixing the facebook page is all well and good, but you should know that there are members on here that aren’t on the Facebook page because our privacy is important to us here. I don’t want a family member or friend stumbling upon the OD Page wandering over here to find me. No thanks. Update that little block you put up with some more information. Daily.

What a hell of a job. Thanks for getting us running again. Don’t forget to update us in the future on Facebook. Hugs to you and yours.

We Lifetimers, who paid that money when you needed it, and when you created that level of subscription in the wake of a massive crash/attack and loss of data… we, who supported you and this site when we only had FAITH IN YOU to believe in… are hurt by your actions recently, sir. We did our part, and we’re asking you to do yours. I don’t need reimbursement for the outtages. I couldn’t care less about the outtages. What I care about is the lack of communication, and your obvious – OBVIOUS – lack of concern for your customers… the very same people that you’ve claimed for years to care about as a family. A FAMILY? I believed that once. I truly did. And I think that once upon a time you did care. But I think those days are gone for you, and this site is just something you ‘have to do’. Well sir… as another noter said… if that’s the case, let us know. Sell the site to someone who will properly maintain it and offer acceptable customer service. But don’t ignore us. Don’t ignore the people you once called family. It hurts us to be treated this way, and yes, hurt turns to anger really, really friggin quick.

Thanks for all of your hard work. It is very much appreciated. Eleven years of writing here has turned me into a addict of sorts, and I enjoy catching up on my many friends here. I see a lot of unhappy customers leaving you notes regarding the lack of communication about the outage, and I have to say I agree with them. At the very least, a bulk email could be sent to those with email accountshere at OD, don’t you think? Respectfully,

How in the world did you have time to read notes if you couldn’t/wouldn’t post a new message on Facebook? All you had to do was say, “It will be another day before we are up and running”. Even if you posted a new message each day saying the same thing it would solve some anxiety. I’ve been here for 10 1/2 yrs and there has never been any sort of customer service. It would be nice if you would now just admit exactly why you didn’t update more often. Yeah when pigs fly!

Never thought to look on FB, but by reading your notes I guess it didn’t matter. Ditto to lots of notes – Yay we’re back, and in tact. Shame on you for not considering the fears of those of us who lost entries in The Great Hack of OD. I’ve documented my pregnancy and first six months of my daughters life here. Yes it ultimately would have been ‘my bad’ for not downloading and we should all be reminded from this to not trust ‘you’ so much… And yet how sad is it that we are questioning in our trust of this site? I for one ran out and started a blog on another site during the outage – because I had no idea what was going on and feared the worst like many others. And of course my subscription is up this month – and I love the community I’ve become a part of too much to not renew, but I resent paying to a company who failed to take into account what it’s customers were going through and not given any reassurance.

I am glad the site is back up and running. HOWEVER, I am also pissed because of the lack of communication from you or your admins. This has happened often enough where you should have a protocol in contacting OD members through FB or Twitter. I expect a monetary reimbursement.

I can’t view (some of? haven’t tested all of them) my favorites’ diaries/entries. Their diary front page shows up with a database error in the table where the entry list should be. If I click the link to the entry itself, I get a page with just a database error. I think this might be only affecting FO diaries, but I’m not sure because I don’t remember which of my friends are FO.

Well, it’s plain to see ….we are all OD addicts. (Might hafta start a group!) Hawwww! Glad we’re back up and running and as always, thank you for all the hard work you do and I especially thank you for the option of still having a FREE membership. There are many of us that can not afford a paid subscription and I’ve been here since 2000. I don’t know what I’d do without OD andmy family of friends I’ve made over time, including YOU. For those bitching…. got two things to say: 1) Back up your entries and add your friends to a FB page or something. 2)Face it, you are a OD addict. Bitching comes with with-drawal. None of us are immune. Love yens! 2)

Thank God it’s back up! I have a very extensive diary, and I would hate to lose almost 1100 entries! 🙂

Thank you, DairyMaster, thank you very much. You take good care of all of us.

*thumbs up* It was getting lonely out here in the real world.

I appreciate that these things take a while to sort out, but I have to agree that the lack of communication was really frustrating, especially as a paying member. If my car were in the shop for three days and no one would tell me what was wrong with it I would be irritated as well. It doesn’t take much to put a time-stamped “Sorry it’s still down, we’re still working on it” message on the front page and that would have gone a long way. Basic courtesy.

i’m still getting errors every once and awhile when noting or posting

Your notes are so entertaining 🙂 Thanks for all your and the admins’ work!~

Yayyyy!

SQL Server sucks. When are you changing to Oracle?

Either update the fb page or grant access to the admins who kept emailing us the forms saying they’d talked to “just an hour ago”. Not giving us updates was irresponsible, suspicious and just plain rude. All these smarmy “welcome back sunshine” notes confound me.

Where do we go to report a bug?… since coming online I get an error when I try to post, though apparently the post DOES go up. Problem is it doesn’t update my diary in bookmarks and apparently only some people can see the entry. I had to post-and-delete one 9 times before it showed up, and gave up on the second one.

I’m going to add my two cents. I’m glad its back, but please, please, please can we have come better customer service?! And not just on Faceache, I’m not on it so I had no idea what was going (not that people on faceache did either) and why not having a better front page explaining the problem? I don’t think I’ll ever leave OD, I’m just very disappointed and I’m not that bothered about having days added to my sub, just some better service please! xxx

Go Diary Master!!! You’re the bomb! You’re doing great!

Thank goodness! The site was down for so long I was starting to wonder if it was gone forever…

I keep getting error lines and messages popping up, when I log in or check my book marks, are you sure its fixed? xx

There is definitely something going on with Bookmarks, and it seems to be affecting public entries only. If someone posts a FO entry, it seems to show up fine on everyone’s Bookmarks, but if it’s a public entry, it doesn’t show up at all.

thanks, Bruce, but we are having minor problems…however, so glad to see it back!!!!!

Someone needs to get back to me, please. I am seeing ads and I JUST paid for a renewal on my subscription a few weeks ago.

I think that everything I wanted to say and then some has already been said. My only hope is that you take all of these comments and suggestions to heart and there are positive changes in store for the site. I’ve been here so long it hurts to see this happen and the lack of communication, it’s NOT ok.

You know, no matter how many times people harp you, you can’t undo the past. I hope that, in the future, you’ll have an admin update the FB page and the twitter feed. It’s the easiest way to calm the masses. I know that fixing issues is no cake walk, but you have 2-3 admins who work for you that can do it. Or appoint a new admin to do nothing but update the feed when there’s an issue. Having someone to do that will help ease a lot of confusion and anxiety from the masses.

Thank you for all your hard work. I have missed OD.

Wanted you to know that when I save an entry I get the message below…the good thing is that my entry saves anyway….. (Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ‘80004005’ Possible index corruption detected. Run DBCC CHECKDB. /entrysave.asp, line 601 )

I am getting periodic timeouts and database error messages again.

DUDE. WHAT THE HELL?

Im getting an error message when I go to send an entry…not sure if anyone else is having this problem. It shows up on the home page but does not show up in bookmarks.

Man. Good luck with this. It does not look good. Try not to let the seething masses get to you.

My Bookmarks are not updating when someone new updates — that is , if they are a lifetimer, it updates and says they posted something new, but my other bookmarks don’t…

So who are the DM fluffers? Really. The service on this site is the worst service I have *ever* received. Not “oooOOomg!! Thankie thankie DM darling! *swoooon*” No. Really just maintain the site, and provide some semblance of customer service. I’ve been here since the month after this place opened its E-doors (so to speak) and have been a paying member since OD+ was introduced back when there was”opendiary” and “freeopendiary” I expect a certain amount of interaction from the owner. I expect a certain amount of care from him. I lost my *whole* diary when the site was hacked in 2004 and at least back then he seemed like he cared that it happened. Now? If the site was hacked? He wouldn’t say a word about it, and that make me very, very sad.

I assume that the people who actually pay to post here will have the number of days the site was offline recredited to their account? After a decade here – paid for since OD+ first came about – I’ve lost an incredible amount of faith in the site, and will be downloading my diary accordingly. There’s no longer surprise or concern when the site is down, more a matter of, “Again?”. Pretty sad. Ilike this place and the people, and half of my favourites are talking about moving on.

I’m still getting error messages and Od is loading up properly xxx

This is beyond pathetic. I think that the staff here should have the decency to keep the users updated. If the site isn’t 100% stable, let us know. Don’t update the Twitter and Facebook fan pages AFTER the fact. Where is the customer service? Where is the love? Where are the manners to admit a mistake, and move forward, with a new mandate of transparency and an action plan when problems arise? This is shameful, and everyone involved knows it.

not fixed Friday … using firefox, my entries don’t save in Mz Odd diary. They did save yesterday.

I still get the login handshake error a lot

Oh for god’s sake. These notes were worth the down time. Hahahaha. Put your shoes on and go for a walk. Remember those?

Thank you.

So glad it is up and running…you don’t know what you have until it’s gone literally.With out this sight I don’t know where I would be.Next time you up date please put a note out there to let me know and others what is going on that way we don’t cry like the babies we are. Lola Falana

My work site goes down more often than not, every other week. A multi billion dollar Corp. Not too bad on your behalf as well as admins that this doesn’t happen more often.

I want notifications chiseled in granite. Is your real name Master?

thank you so much for your hard work and all you do for OD! It is much appreciated. I sure am sorry you have to listen to ANY kind of moaning and whining from the minions. Keep your head up, there are many more who appreciate your efforts!!

So I wanted to tell you… even if you might never actually read this or care… I was tired of not being able to get into my OD. Everyone was. We were all frustrated and some even angry. I was just tired of seeing the “Denied” website. So I started looking for another online/computer journal/diary thing that might work. I’ve been one of those ODers who change reluctantly with the times. I’m an old TODer in fact. But after doing some research and looking and even trying out a few other sites, I discovered a harsh truth. I love OD too much. There are copycat sites and sites that are completely different with different purposes. And I just don’t like them. I like OD and I like how you run things about 95% of the time. No place is perfect, but 95% is pretty good. So you have my patience and you have my support. Keep on keeping on. ~rory

oh my gosh, people, these notes are atrocious!!! Put on your big boy & girl pants & get about your business! DM has & always DOES do all he & his staff possibly can do for us, in the quickest possible time. we all own computers, we know the issues, so why is anyone so shocked with a problem? So can we just quit DM/OD bashing & be grateful for what has been done to fix our situation?

I also meant to give you my thanks! 🙂 Yes more updates could’ve been afforded when the site was down but “shrugs” not gonna hold a grudge cause I’m not that kinda person. And when the site was down for a bit today people seem to have missed the fact that it’s not like it was ignored and it’s up and running again despite whatever isn’t it! This place will always mean a lot to me! Any other

diary site’s not the same! I’m not gonna drag ya down as harshly as the other noters did. I just don’t feel the need to keep dragging it out. Half of the people are unhappy and half and half and some are just thankful to have the site back! Well half and whatever. I don’t expect a site to be running top notch. Glitches are gonna happen from time to time. Just a bit of realism I have there I

I guess. I didn’t even expect the site to be fully glitch free even when you and the admins got it back up. Yes it’s a bit whatever but people just have to learn to deal with the fact that sites are sites! It’s not gonna be running smoothly all the time despite it’s good condition. They can’t expect you to have it all done in the one shot! People have their different reasons for their

different feelings for this site. A majority of them seem to feel the same way I do! It means a lot to us and it’s very important to us!

I think you should read this… and learn http://www.bloopdiary.com/steve/thoughts-about-the-recent-od-crashes

oh my. i’m jealous of all your notes 😉 wishing you and yours a good weekend.

http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=C100185&entry=21241 Please read this entry

I hope you realize that the people who are threatening to leave–they’re exagerating? Nawwwww, they won’t leave…you won’t be so lucky to get rid of them. If they’re THIS addicted to OD that some are worried about ODrs commiting SUICIDE for it not being available from a few hours to a few days, for heaven’s sake, I’m fairly certain they’re just idle threats. Too bad, huh? OD’s the BEST format out there–you’re stuck with ’em. I imagine they have no idea what it takes to figure out AND resolve this kind of technical problem…whatever it is. I sure hope this sampling of notes isn’t a reflection of even 1/4 of our society. IF it is–that is really really scary! Thank you..for all you do..in supporting ODr’s. You do a great job.

hey, I’m still having some problems.. When i click on a bookmarked diary it sends me sometimes months back. About 50 % of the time I can’t leave notes, or post an entry. When it does post it take several hours to actually show…

Yeah, I used to be your number one fan but I have to admit I was gutted that I couldn’t come here and share with my friends when i needed them and this site the most.

I can’t post entries still….when is this going to be fixed?!?!

Thank you for working on the site. I am sorry you’re getting a lot of negative feedback. Please, as a paid member thinking about talking her boyfriend into getting a permanent diary, please please talk to us. Maybe give us credit for the days we lost, etc. But please, talk to us again. I am starting to worry you all may not be around much longer…

In light of the website being unavailable for a full week, and in light of so many users still having serious issues with some of the most basic functions of the site… what are you going to do to compensate the OD Plus users who could not (and in some cases, still cannot) use the features they paid for? Are you going to extend our subscriptions? Reimburse us? What? If you rented a car,and the dealership suddenly took the car back – without any explanations – and held the car for a week… wouldn’t you expect them to adjust your bill accordingly? Wouldn’t you expect to be compensated? I hope you have a plan in this regard, because you have a lot of very restless users already. If you alienate the subscribers… you’re site is going to collapse very quickly.

I am having an issue with anyone’s diaries coming up in bookmarks that they have even updated. Is there going to be something done to fix this?

it was tough to do without OD. Even though I don’t write as often currently, I sure as heck needed to write while it was down lol.

As always you have come through for us. I know how hard it can be fixing computer problems. Our family is lucky enough to have someone who works hard to make sure we are online. Thanks for all you are doing.

I will always be thankful for this site and for you…no matter what. Thank you.

Thank You 🙂

I’m getting error messages when I try to save my entry (saves anyway), not sure if its showing up as new in my bookmarks. Any idea when the site is going to be functioning properly? I understand that when the site goes down for a period of time, there’s still errors and bugs, but the fact that the site keeps crashing and we’re still getting errors is getting old and a bit ridiculous. Especially since there’s been no communication from you about this – even just a ‘yes, we know there are still problems, we’re working on it, this is when we hope to have it fixed’ would be fine.

will paying users be credited for the days lost? a friend of mine is wondering about that.

I’m fairly shocked that site has been up for several days and you STILL HAVE NOT APOLOGIZED FOR THE HORRENDOUS LACK OF QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE AROUND HERE. You are coming off as arrogant and dismissive of our concerns. It is not a stretch that people are upset at the lack of updates. Apologize and describe what you will do differently next time. This is absolutely absurd.

What I find absurd is how pissy diary writer are about this whole thing, I mean, seriously, is your life so empty that you can’t find any thing else to do for a few days?!

I thought “I” dealt with multiple personalities. You win, hands down. Glad OD is back!

Thank you for all of your hard work. I have no idea what happened much less how to fix it. Thank goodness you know all of that. Hang in there. Linda

I am a very private person but I wanted to publically thankyou for Open Diary. It is my home. I will never leave. Hopefully, Open Diary will be here for many more years to come. Thankyou for taking care of the computer issues. It is really appreciated. I would like to also mention that within the past few days, I’ve had to contact your system administrators regarding a few issues and I received aprompt and courteous reply. The customer service was excellent. Truly, I am surprised that they were able to get back with me given the difficulties Open Diary has been having. I am most impressed. My very best to you and your family.

My God, you would think people were paying a $100 a month the way they are carrying on. Now that you know how desperate they are, this would be a good time to ask for more money. Yeah, the crazy people would go nuts but those of us who have been here forever would pay more.

Database rebuilds are a b*tch. Glad things went well for you, and I’m glad to see the website back up! Yeah, I was annoyed, but it happens, and I understand…after 10 years, I don’t even stress over it anymore 🙂 OD always comes back.

Here’s hoping the kind notes will offset the rude notes!!!

Dear Diary Master, I was not angry at you or any one while the site was down. I was scared because all it said was ” data base maintenance” I thought oh heck… my diary is gone. I didn’t actually think you guys were doing maintenance. But I am very thankful you are back. Don’t even worry about crediting my account, because honestly you need that money to keep OD up and running. I lookedat it this way: time to get off the computer for a bit! People need to realize nothing is perfect and stuff DOES happen in life. Thanks for having OD! *HUGS*

For some reason I can’t get on the od boards 🙁

I would be bereft without OD, which has been a big part of my life for over 10 years. I appreciate so much that you have made this home for us on the internet & all the hard work you do to maintain it.

Hi DM! I have a question for you. I’m a DJ for an online radio stream. Do you think it would be possible to advertise my radio stream url/info and offer a radio program to the members of OD? We aren’t a 24/7 station yet, so I’d have to give you my schedule, but I thought it might be nice to offer something like this to OD members. Let me know what you think, please.