Yesterday, I mentioned the things I had to do on Sunday. There were twelve things on my list and my hope was to get things down into the single digits on the To-Do list.

Well, that didn’t happen.

First, I worked on the navigation system, wherein I ran into some problems. I’ve got that straightened out, hopefully. But, it’s not completely done. It works as far as I can test it now, but I can’t do a full test until other things are scratched off the list. So, this is one that can only be marked as partially done.

I did some work on four other features on the list.

I was able to scratch one thing completely off the list. Yay!

But, I thought of something else that wasn’t on the list that should be. So, the net result is that there are still a dozen things to do on the list.

There are five things that need to be done before I can let in the pioneers. Yesterday, there were six things, so that’s an improvement. But, no, the sixth thing was not the thing I crossed off the list. The sixth thing was actually the navigation system. While it’s not fully complete, it is complete enough to let the pioneers in. Once, of course, the other five things are completed.

As I’ve mentioned before, two of the items are the time-consuming ones. I’ve done a little bit on those, but not a whole lot because of the other stuff I’ve been working on. Plus, battling with CSS is never fun either.

I think it’s time for a nap…

It’s July 25th! It’s officially Christmas in July! Save big on your holiday purchases!

Too bad I’m not really selling anything. Well, except for the eBooks, but they’re not on sale. Sorry.

Anyway, it’s the thought that counts, right?

By the way, there are now 153 shopping days until Christmas.

So, time for another progress report.

I mentioned yesterday a few things I was working on regarding the forum system.

Well, a lot of that is done, actually. I made the database changes I mentioned needed to be done. I also did the admin-oriented feature I mentioned that would sometimes be useful for users too. Did that and tested it. Seems to be working fine.

I did a fair amount of the recoding needed too. I made the change from a linear structure to a more flexible structure. All that’s left to do in that regard is the navigation system. I have started it, but it’s not complete yet. It’s late now, so I am going to get some sleep. I should mention I also did some yard work today. Otherwise, I might have had this thing done.

Anyway, hopefully I will be able to get the navigation system finished later today. But, you never know what problems you might run into. With the other changes I made today, I did run into problems that I needed to solve. Hopefully, I won’t run into any major issues while implementing the navigation system.

If I’m not missing anything on my To-Do list, I have twelve things left to finish on the forum system, including the navigation system. Of these, six need to be done before I can let in the pioneers and a number of others should be done before I let in the pioneers.

I don’t think I’ll be able to get all those done this weekend. In fact, I know I won’t. Two of them are easy but time-consuming. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to finish up the navigation system later today. If all goes well with that, maybe I can knock out a couple others. If I can get down to the single digits on the To-Do list, that would be good.

So, here is an update, especially for those would-be pioneers anxiously (hopefully!) awaiting their stagecoach passes…

As recorded in several posts this week, I took care of a few things this week on the forum system.

As for the “complex” bit I mentioned, well, that has taken some pondering. I basically had two ways to do it.

The first was the way I had it. I just needed to do some amount of re-coding to get things to work the way they should. I have a “lite” version of the forum system on another site that is working, however, the advanced bit that I thought was working doesn’t. The reason is because, on the other site, there is only one of something while on the new site, there are a number of them. Where one works just fine, with multiples it doesn’t. I don’t remember if I thought I had that solved or if I just figured I’d take care of it on the full version. Either way, it wasn’t working for the full version.

So, there was one way of fixing it, and I was thinking along that way as to how to get it to work. Somewhere in there I realized that I didn’t want to be restricted to that one way of doing it. It was much too linear, whereas what I would prefer is something more flexible.

Flexibility became the goal. That created a new set of problems. Mainly, it created problems for navigation because, while there could be multiple ways of getting somewhere, once there, you’d have to find the way back. And there was the problem. You don’t want to get into something and them, upon leaving, taking an entirely different track then you took to get in, especially if you were looking for something you had already passed.

However, shortly afternoon today, as in just a few minutes after noon, I arrived at what I believe to be a solution to that problem. Coincidentally, it is similar to a solution I used for an almost completely different problem earlier on, way back when I was still working on the “lite” version on the other website.

So, I need to make a change to the database and then begin coding. And, while I’m making changes to that database, I might as well make changes to another database to code in another feature I want to add. It’s not a user-oriented feature so much as it is an admin-oriented feature, but it is something that may be beneficial to some users in the future. And it’s probably something I should have thought to do a long time ago, but it hadn’t crossed my mind.

Well, well, back to work…

The other day, I mentioned I found a bug:

And then last night, or perhaps it was in the wee early hours this morning, I discovered another bug I need to fix. Basically, it limits logins to one user per computer. For a lot of people that probably isn’t even an issue. But, if anyone has a spouse or someone they share a computer with, and they both want an account, it becomes a problem.

That’s fixed now.

Or, I should say it is hopefully fixed now. There are two areas I have to test. The first has been tested and the fix holds true. The second hasn’t been tested yet. That part involves the timeout feature, so I need to wait until it actually times out in order to be sure. But, I’m reasonably sure if the new code works for the other part, it will also work for the timeout. That’s something I’ll probably confirm tomorrow, when I can leave the window open in the background while doing something else. I’d do it now, but I plan to be in bed before the timeout would occur.

Yesterday, I mentioned something else…

And now it occurs to me that I may be able to make a small change to it to make it a bit easier too. Hmmm… I think I’ll go test that…

That’s done too. Did that one last night after posting that.

Next up is the “complex” changes I need to make. The thinking and planning may be more complex than the actual coding. That’s a bit of a hold-up, as I want to do it right. It’s more or less getting the concept down. From there, the implementation should be relatively easy.

Also, today I thought of another new idea. Just need to figure out how to do it…

I just finished re-coding the portion of the forum system I mentioned the past couple days.

So far, so good.

It basically amounted to changing one section of code, and everything fell into place on its own. Technically, it should be able to accommodate 9,999,999 posts per second. Not that that is likely to happen or that the server could even handle it, but I wanted to have plenty of leeway. Perhaps I tended toward overkill, but I’d rather have overkill than cut things too short, you know?

By comparison, Twitter’s maximum tweets per second so far was just short of 3,300 tweets per second. Twitter has probably over 20 million members or thereabouts. So, it’s likely very much overkill to be able to accommodate 9,999,999 posts per second. If 20 million members only results in a high of 3,300 tweets per second, I’d possibly need to have over 60 billion members. The population of the Earth is under 7 billion.

So, yeah, maybe it’s a bit of overkill, but hopefully that will help future-proof it.

And now it occurs to me that I may be able to make a small change to it to make it a bit easier too. Hmmm… I think I’ll go test that…

I’ve just about completed the coding for the one change I was making, which I mentioned the other day. Fortunately, it was just a short bit of code. I won’t be completely sure until I finish it up and test it, but so far it is just four lines of code that need to be replaced. They’ll be replaced with more than four lines of code, but at least it is only that section of the code that I need to contend with.

I haven’t completed the coding yet because I encountered a small stumbling block. It’s something I’m sure can be overcome, but I’m waiting to hear back on an inquiry I sent. Once I get that sorted out, I can finish the coding and be done with that part.

The other thing I need to do will be a more complex change. That’s the bit that I mentioned would require a fair amount of re-coding.

And then last night, or perhaps it was in the wee early hours this morning, I discovered another bug I need to fix. Basically, it limits logins to one user per computer. For a lot of people that probably isn’t even an issue. But, if anyone has a spouse or someone they share a computer with, and they both want an account, it becomes a problem.

Once I’ve sorted that stuff out, I will then start adding the starter stuff (stuff like “What’s this for?” and “Why is this here?”). And then there will probably be a few more things to do that I’m forgetting right now. After that, I can start bringing in the pioneers. So, if you’ve left a comment asking to be one, I’ll be contacting you then. So, don’t think I have forgotten about you if I don’t reply. It’s just that I haven’t sent out the stagecoach passes yet.

And, if you’re wondering what this project is, well, go here to refresh your memory.

I think I used this title recently…

Oh, yes, I did. Five days ago…

At any rate, it fits.

So, you know I just end up creating more work for myself.

I have one part of the forum system that I’m working on, whereby if I want to do what I want to do, I cannot change it later. And, yes, I am intentionally vague sometimes, and sometimes I’ll read my posts later and have no idea what I was talking about. At any rate, it would put a real hamper on my plans, because if I wanted to do everything I wanted to do, I’d have to do it now, so everything would be essentially on hold until I got that part finished.

The problem is that it’s not necessarily important in the scheme of things. It’s one of those things that would be nice to do but not every part of it is essential. So, I could just do the most important parts and move forward, but then I’d have to completely abandon the other stuff, which would be nice to have in there at some point in the future, as time permits.

However, I think I’ve come up with a solution that solves it. It would allow me to to the important stuff now and then return later at any point to finish off the rest. A win-win, as it wouldn’t cause a delay or cause me to lose things that I’d really like to have in at some point.

Of course, it requires some re-coding for what I’ve already done. Not sure how much yet (I’m thinking just a few lines of code), because it’s a tangled web that I won’t be able to unravel until I dig in, which I hope to start on later this evening, unless we have stormy weather, which is a possibility.

At the same time, I’m pondering another change that will require re-coding a larger bit of what I’ve already done. I thought I had done well by designing the forum structure the way that I had, but I’m now discovering some limitations. So, I’ve been thinking of a way to overcome those limitations and add more flexibility to the forums, but that’s going to require a fair amount of re-coding. On top of that, I’ll be forced to figure out why I put some things in there that I am no longer sure of what they do or were meant to do. Fun times.

So, anyway, that’s what’s been going on.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I will soon need some pioneers to help tame (test) the wild, wild west (beta) of my new forum system.

So far, Teeni is the only one that has asked for her stagecoach ticket. (Teeni, may I eMail you the details?)

Here is where I am with it…

I still have coding to do. There are bugs that I know about that need to be taken care of. I want to have all the known problems taken care of before I let people loose in the forums. I have a “lite” version of this forum system working on another site. So, the issues are primarily in the more advanced features and things that work in the “lite” version aren’t quite working in the full version. So things I thought were ready to go, aren’t. That’s been something that’s delayed me more than expected, because I didn’t expect it!

There are also some advanced features that were planned for but not implemented in the lite version. So, I need to get those working for the full version.

At the same time, I’ve decided on some new features I want to add.

On top of that, I am recovering content from previous incarnations of the forum system so that I can integrate them into the current version.

So, there’s been a lot more working going into this than I had initially planned on.

But, still, I anticipate needing pioneers soon, so now’s the time to ask for your stagecoach pass so you can be a pioneer! Just leave a comment on this message, convince me your not a dirty rotten spammer, and I’ll consider your request.

And, since I failed to mention this on the last go-around, I will do so now: By asking for your stagecoach pass, you are giving me permission to eMail you the details using the eMail address you enter into the comment form.

Thanks!

As of about 10 minutes ago, I have one less WordPress blog.

Mind you, I haven’t updated it since February of 2009, but it is one less blog I have to worry about nonethless.

Thanks to Speedy and Teeni who were the only commenters on the blog.

So, that’s one down and at least one to go. Maybe two. Or maybe I might just go hog-wild and start deleting blogs like a maniac…

Because I actually have a radical plan for doing just that, though I’ve not decided yet if I will go that route.

Also, I might start a new blog. What? you say? Well, it won’t be a WordPress blog. And, if I do that, you might want to start reading that blog instead of this one. I’m sort of thinking this blog has gone so far down the tubes that there may not be any possible hope for it anymore. Might be better to start fresh.

Oh, I’ll still get my 1000 days in a row here (fingers crossed!) but I may just save the good stuff for the new blog.

Plus, I’ll be able to post pictures. And there won’t be any pressure (probably) to post daily.

So, what have you learned today? Not much. But you love it when I’m cryptic.

And, if not, well, that’s further evidence why I might need to start over with a new blog, right?

About a month or so ago, I received an eMail from one of the lists I am on about a video that promised some information that sounded interesting. To view the video, I had to join another marketer’s list. So, I did.

The video was a long meandering video that failed to deliver what was promised. It was a complete waste of my time.

Still, I stayed on the list, hoping at some point I might learn something useful.

Well, this particular marketer largely uses video marketing, so the vast majority of the eMails are nothing more than links to a video I can’t or mustn’t miss and so on.

So, a little over a week ago, after receiving the umpteenth link to a pointless video, I decided to unsubscribe from the list. I realized I am not learning anything from the guy’s marketing techniques nor am I likely to buy from him and, seeing that he is using a list service that he has to pay for, my being on the list is costing him money, while wasting my time, so neither one of us was benefiting from it.

I unsubscribed.

In what I hope is a coincidence, within about 1-2 days of unsubscribing, the amount of spam I’ve been getting has increased dramatically. I’d estimate I am getting at least 50 (and perhaps closer to 100) more spam messages per day than I usually get. Many of them are duplicates of one another.

And, this new plethora of spam is only coming in on that one eMail that I used to subscribe to the list.

In Internet marketing circles, we’re often taught here to stay on lists and learn from how others handle their lists. But, just because a marketer has a list doesn’t necessarily mean that they are making any money. You could fall into the trap of trying to learn from someone who isn’t making money selling the products he is promoting. This is much more so the case when dealing with someone you’ve never heard of before versus someone who is well-known.

If the guy’s not making money selling products to his list, maybe he makes money selling the eMail addresses of unsubscribers to spammers. Maybe that’s where he’s making his money.

Of course, it is probably coincidence. It would be a lot of work to put together videos and such in order to get people to subscribe to your list with the intent of driving them off your list and then selling their eMail address to spammers when they unsubscribe. It just wouldn’t make a lot of sense (or cents). It could be a “revenge” thing too, as in “I’ll show you for unsubscribing to my list!” But, who really has time for that sort of thing? Better to focus on the subscribers you do have and on getting new ones and generating sales rather than fooling around with trying to take “revenge” out on unsubscribers.

So, I am going to tend to believe it was coincidence, albeit a biggie.

Here, however, are the keypoints.

• First, the initial video, which required an opt-in, failed to deliver on what was promised.
• Subsequent videos and messages also failed to deliver on what was promised.
• The bottom line is that subscribing to the list offered me nothing of value.
• As such, I leave with not the best view of that marketer.
• Shortly after leaving the list, I start getting hammered with spam.

In other words, something coincidental happened after unsubscribing from a “bad” marketer’s list. And, because of that negative view of the marketer, one adds one and one together and has to wonder…

Now, as I’ve said, probably just a coincidence, but that’s only because we know that it just doesn’t make a lot of business sense to do something like this to a former subscriber.

But, how many of your former subscribers would think that through?

Imagine that someone unsubscribes from your list and then something coincidental happens. They get hit with a phishing eMail. They get hammered with spam. Their Facebook account gets hacked. Whatever.

The key thing here is that the marketer was not delivering what they were promising. If you say your video will reveal some great tip or secret, it better reveal that great tip or secret and just not be a sales pitch to buy the product that will reveal the secret. Reveal the secret and then promote the product because it has more secrets, or whatever. Just make sure that you deliver what you promise. After all, if your video doesn’t deliver what you promised it would, how can I trust that the product will deliver what you promise it would?

If I had left the list with a more positive view of the marketer, it is less likely that I would have linked him in my mind to the sudden spike in spam. Remember, I left the list because it wasn’t offering me anything of value. It wasn’t because the information the list offered were things I already knew or things that weren’t applicable to me or anything along those lines. It was because the list wasn’t offering me what it promised.

And that leaves a bad taste in your virtual mouth.

If it were a case of, hey, there’s nothing wrong with this guy but he’s just not teaching me anything I don’t already know, then the idea that he might sell my eMail address may never have popped into my mind.

As it was, the marketer left me with a bad impression and when something bad happened shortly thereafter, it wasn’t a stretch for my mind to form a connection.

As I’ve said, it is probably entirely coincidental. The problem is that a lot of people don’t think things through like this. They see a simple cause and effect. Thus, it is important to leave everyone—at least to the extent that you can—with a positive impression of you and your business. You can start by delivering what you promise.

Otherwise, what is coincidental may be viewed as causative.