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  • 13 Jun 2011
    You may have seen me asking for the support of my girlfriends here in my recent status updates.  Well the time has come and here's the favour...   You know I've spent over a decade working tirelessly on this community and I've also worked hard on Frock, my transgender magazine, for over two years now.  In that time Frock has grown and grown and now I believe it is time for it to really blossom.    I do need your help though.  Here's what I want to you do to help me with this...   Firstly, I want to give you the latest issue of Frock Magazine for free.  I'd like you to read it and enjoy it and then (and this is really important) I want you to tell your friends about the same page URL I'm about to give you...   http://bit.ly/iKPR9U   To get access to your complimentary copy of Frock Magazine you need to go to the page above.  When you get there, have a scan of what I'm trying to achieve and then click on the big girly pink button.   That will take you to a from where you will need to enter your first name and email address.  You will then be sent an email which contains the access details for your free mag.   Then I want you to enjoy Frock and who knows, you might even decide to become a subscriber.   Most importantly though, I want you to help me by giving this URL for the free copy of Frock to all of your friends around the web. here it is again...   http://bit.ly/iKPR9U   It doesn't matter if you are already a GS Full Member or an existing subscriber.  You can still help.   Please spread this URL far and wide, put it on your web site and in your blog and everywhere you can and pass it around by email to all your TG friends.  Put a notice on the wall at your local TG club, print it out and hand it to your TG friends when you see them.   It won't last for too long so don't delay.   Let me know what you think of our magazine too.  Send me an email and tell me what you really like or don't like.  Or offer to write and article if that's your forte.   There, I said it was a big favour and it is but such a worthy cause.  Frock Magazine's time has come and you can help us make it the best periodical for transgendered people anywhere.   Thank you very much for your in advance and hugs too, Katie   x   PS Here's the URL again - http://bit.ly/iKPR9U
    4365 Posted by Katie Glover
  • 22 Apr 2011
    Has anyone else noticed that The Trib was actually sent in error, before it was finished and ready to send out?  I'm actually hopping mad because a developer was supposed to be fixing several major problems with our newsletter software and by accident, he sent a half finished newsletter our to our whole membership.   That is very bad for heaps of reasons.  Firstly, it was not finished and so, it looks really amateurish.  Secondly, it was still full of bugs which he was supposed to be fixing (like the fact that the new forums threads just repeat the same one, over and over.   Thirdly, there was no unsubscribe link which has upset a lot of recipients.  We are trying to be responsible about email messages so in future all mail that comes from us will give recipients the option to unsubscribe.   Fourthly, this half finished, half baked newsletter was sent through the same mail server that sends out really important emails like new member's passwords.  Our IP has now been trashed because of this and so now we're finding that users who have Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail accounts, never receive their passwords.  This puts us right back to square one, where we were before we changed to this new site.  Moving to a new server gave us a fresh start but that has now been scuppered.   I am so cross about this!  You have no idea how angry I am!  If you received this issue of The Trib, please accept my apologies.   Hugs, Katie   x
    3922 Posted by Katie Glover
  • 02 Mar 2011
    We are so close to launch now.  I feel a bit like the Launch Director at Kennedy Space Center.  Our new site seems to be good to go, sitting on Pad 39A with the public still being kept a safe distance away.  But before we do anything rash, like pressing the 'launch' button, we have to make absolutely sure that all of our critical systems are working properly.   There will always be little bugs here and there in a site of this size and complexity, and as we add new functionality into the site over the coming weeks and months, we will undoubtedly introduce more bugs into the system, which we'll have to identify and deal with.  But that's the way dynamic, constantly changing sites like ours work.  It's an occupational hazard. It goes with the territory.   Rather, what I'm talking about here is the core functions that make the site work - the stuff we absolutely cannot do without.  If our News Feed went down tomorrow it would be annoying but the site would still remain on air.  If our Q&A feature suddenly stopped working, the rest of the site would still be there.   However, if our core software was not right, that would impact on everything else.  So we need to get this sorted out once and for all and we must not bow to pressure from other parties to launch prematurely or give in to the temptation to just do it and to hell with the consequences.   So once again I find myself apologising for the late arrival of your new site, but like the Launch Director I'd prefer to be certain that all systems really are 'go' and avoid the potential for a crash on the pad.   Thanks for your patience.  Hugs, Launch Director Katie   x
    3768 Posted by Katie Glover
  • 11 May 2011
    I don't know if you've ever thought about it but the life of a social network administrator is quite demanding.  You have to know about a lot of things, from email strategy to SEO, accounting, marketing and server administrating, from forum management to PHP programming and you need to know your HTML and CSS from soup to nuts (or know someone else who does).  You also have to know a thing or two about the subject matter of your site.  You've got to be an all knowing oracle on your subject for your members as well as a project manager and team leader to your developers.    You start work earlyish each day.  I start at around 9am most days.  You work until late.  I can usually be found still typing away at 10pm or later and sometimes much, much later.  I finished working one morning at 3.30am earlier this week.  That's ludicrous!    And you work every day.  I generally work seven days a week.  I work on weekends, national holidays, easter, christmas day, every day.  Even when I take a vacation (haven't had a proper one for over two years now) I always take my laptop with me so I can stay in touch and sort out any catastrophes that may occur.  A few years back I spent six weeks away, in Hong Kong and in Australia, and worked every day from my hotel room.   There's always something important that needs to be done and in our case, there's a list of important stuff we are gradually working through.  Trouble is, as we sort out one problem and cross it off, another two join the list.   So there you have it dear reader.  Running a social network is very, very hard work and often a thankless task but it is addictive and a labour of love.  I can recommend it for those who have no families or other ties and who don't mind never having any free time ever again.   Hugs, Katie   x Your Sys Op    
    3548 Posted by Katie Glover
Society Girl's Personal Blogs 2,520 views Oct 05, 2011
Another New Server, but hey, what's wrong with that?

Have you noticed?  Our site has been getting slower and slower over the last few weeks so we took the decision to move to a bigger, better, faster server with more RAM.  The transfer took around ten minutes during which time the site was down but I did take the precaution of posting notices warning everyone there would be a ten minute outage, several hours before it actually took place.
All sites like ours have to keep on top of their page load times and often a server upgrade is the only way forward.  Following the transfer, our page load times have improved dramatically (average page load time is now about 4 seconds and out http://gendersociety.com/invite page loads in 2.69 seconds).  That's blisteringly fast so I'm very pleased that we moved.  I am working hard to keep us ahead of the game.
However, I was a bit upset to hear that a number of our members dissed me when they heard we would be moving.  For the user we were talking about a few minutes of downtime to make the site much more useable but apparently several people just said something like, "What, another server move?  We just had one in March. What a bunch of wazzocks!"
So, sorry for the inconvenience but it was for the best.  We are extremely poor and cannot afford to make decisions like this lightly.  So when improvements like this are made, please be assured that they have been thought through and that they are for the best.
Hugs, Katie   x


Tags: #server 

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