Squidblog

Looks like our servers drank a little too much eggnog over the holidays, because Squidoo is taking a short winter’s nap right now.

Yes, the site’s down. The good news is: Gil is on it.

Thanks for hanging in. And while you wait, maybe that Saturday M*A*S*H marathon is still on…

Earlier this week we released a totally overhauled Workshop lens editor.

Our goals for it were simple: a little more stability, a few shortcuts for lens editing, and a more WYSIWYG experience.

The feedback we’ve gotten since has been overwhelmingly positive and generous. We’re thrilled you guys like it so much! I’m also happy to report that the release was incredibly smooth and bug free.

So much so, in fact, that on Monday Dec 22 we’re phasing out the old Workshop entirely. From what I can tell, no one will particularly miss it.

So, how to use the new Workshop? Easy. The next time you edit a lens, you should automatically see it. Voila.

And one more thing: we have a list of a few more very cool features to add to this Workshop very soon, along with a whole new Module Picker. Stay tuned.

We know our lensmasters are uber talented, and a few are showing off their mad graphic design skillz with a new take on the Squidoo logo - Squidoodles.

http://www.squidoo.com/squidart
http://www.squidoo.com/squidarttoo
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoodles
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoodles-2

Lensmasters tagsforkids and Comfortdoc have even opened their masterpieces up to be shared, through a Creative Commons license. (See their individual lenses for details.)

Of course, Marshall the FireSquid is my personal fav. Which one do you love?

Squidoo hearts Squidoodles!

Happy holidays! This tangled squid is courtesy of Comfortdoc under a Creative Commons license.

The Giant Squids recently got a chance to chat live with Gil Hildebrand Jr., our Chief Engineer and one of the first members of the SquidTeam. There wasn’t quite enough time to answer all their questions, so I’ve picked some of the best and let Gil share his answers, here. Have fun! — Megan, Editor in Chief

Q: What does the “Chief Engineer” do all day?

Gil: Saving the world, duh! Well, not quite, but being a Chief Engineer does involve performing a minor miracle here and there. When you have trouble accessing Squidoo, no matter what time of day it is, you can bet that I’m on a computer somewhere in the world doing everything I can to bring it back online right away. Equally as important, I’m always developing new reports and other tools to identify and wipe out spam as quickly as possible.

One of the tricks to successful development is to avoid optimizing too soon. Often, this means developing new features quickly to see if they stick. If a feature does become popular, it usually needs a little TLC in order to scale to thousands or hundreds of thousands of users. This is another key responsibility for the Chief Engineer.

When I’m not knee deep in code, or remote controlling a server hundreds (or thousands!) of miles away, I do my best to keep up with the community. I want to know which features lensmasters want most, which bugs are driving people crazy, and who’s finding new ways to use Squidoo. With a high level view of everything tech, it’s easier to identify the hot spots where our small but nimble team can be most effective.

Q: Any ideas or plans to either 1) have some kind of REST or XML ability to edit lenses through a third party app or 2) make submission and approval of 3rd party modules easier to develop / use / submit ?

G: We do not have plans to build an API for building or managing lenses. There’s just too great of a chance that those tools will be used to create massive amounts of spam and junk lenses. We prefer the handmade, curated approach.

But for your second question, we do have a recently updated toolkit called the MDK (Module Developers Kit) which makes it easy to develop modules for Squidoo. Building a module is a great way to get that extra feature you’ve been dying for. Using the MDK requires knowledge of HTML and PHP. We’re still beta testing the new release, but if you’re interested you can contact me directly for a sneak preview.

Q: Gil, what makes a great bug report? what info do you like to see?

G: The first thing I need to know is which account a report is in reference to, and if it pertains to a specific lens. Knowing the time of day the problem first occured can also be helpful. You’d be surprised how many reports are made without the basics.

If you have a screenshot of a problem in progress, you won’t be able to send it when you first submit a bug report, but you can reply to the case and attach it to an email after you hear back from us. If the problem is a showstopper (i.e. urgent), make sure to indicate that so we can get back to you more quickly.

Finally, don’t be afraid to give us “too much” detail. If you think a nugget of information might be worthwhile, it probably is.

Q: You mentioned that soon we’ll have the ability to roll back to previous versions of your lens. How does that work and why do we need it?

G: Let’s face it: every computer program sometimes behaves unexpectedly. Couple that with internet connections that aren’t always reliable, and web browsers that aren’t always compatible, and the occassional bug does pop up. And what about when folks decide to repurpose a lens, only to decide they liked it how it better how it was before? In those cases, having a backup ready to go is safe comfort.

We’ve always given you a way to take an XML backup of your lens, but there’s no way to restore it on to your lens. In the near future we’ll be taking backups automatically, every time you publish. You’ll also have the opportunity to ‘force’ a backup right before you dive in to make some changes. We’ll save the backups on ours servers so you won’t have to worry about keeping track of them, and restoring your lens will be as simple as selecting one of the backups from a list. You’ll even be able to see a preview before you commit to the restore.

Q: Is the bulk of spam lenses still… (whisper) porn?

G: As much as we believe in freedom of speech and in the open web, we have to take a long view of the problem. The biggest source of spam is porn–no question. We’ve de-emphasized X rated content as a result, with harsher punishment for lensmasters who don’t categorize their lenses properly. We have several ways to track down spam, but as always, it’s helpful to have a community like ours helping us out.

Q: And last, a really important one since you’re from New Orleans: Are you going to Mardi Gras?

G: Probably not. I’ll still be carving up the mountains in Colorado, where my snowboard and I are moving to later this week. We can’t wait!

Not only does Operation Helmet have an awesome lens (go ahead, check it out), they keep us updated about how they’re using donations they receive from lensmasters just like you.

Learn more about what Operation Helmet does for our soldiers in this letter from Doc Bob.

Is this important to you? Five minutes is all it takes to create a lens for this or another of our sponsored worthwhile causes.

We just launched the Squidoo Twitterdrive for Charity yesterday, and already there are tons of tweetvotes. Very cool to see this spread.

By popular request, we are changing the rules a little. (Don’t worry, all the $30,000 is still getting donated. The only change is that we’re letting you allocate even more of it).

Now you can vote once a day. Not just once ever.

This lets passionate Twitterers earmark even more for their favorite charities on the list, or share the love to multiple charities. Hard to pick just one, I know.

So: $1 per vote per person per day. Up to $30,000 or December 22nd, whichever comes first.

If you vote every day for the next 10 days, that’s $10 to the charity you like best. For free.

Got it? Now go vote.

But hurry. Things are moving fast.

As long as we’re talking about Fives for Thursday, why not give a big high five to these new organizations, joining us as official Squidoo charities!

EnviroCorps
Operation Gratitude
Cpl Stokes Legacy Project
Cheetah Conservation Fund
Polar Bears International
Hope for Henry
Steve’s Club
Diabetes Research Institute
Big Cat Rescue - lens coming soon!
Jay Jay’s Skate Park

These are hooked up in our lens donation system, meaning starting immediately you can set your lenses to donate to them. (Check back soon to add them in the Donations Module!) Why not set aside 5 minutes today to start making a lens for one of these worthwhile organizations?

(Some of these made the TwitterDrive. Cast your vote today! Then pass it on.)

1. Happy payday! The economy may be bananas, but our lensmasters are earning tens, hundreds and thousands of dollars for them and for charity.

2. You heard it here first. (Well, second. We launched on Twitter first). We’re running a Squidoo Holiday Twitterdrive for Charity. Make sure you vote for the charity you like best.

3. Squidoo Workshop 2.0 is on the way. We’ve overhauled our Workshop for editing lenses. The Angels and Giant Squid Organizers are busy testing it out for us over the next few days, and then it’s a’comin your way. Should make for smoother, faster, simpler, stabler editing of lenses.

4. This may be burying the lead but: We’ve got some very cool stuff in the works for you Facebook-ing lensmasters out there. You’ll see some info on your dashboards about it soon. Opt in if you want to be one of the first. Or, wait for later.

5. Last: Glam ads. We’re experimenting with a new set of Glam ads on lenses. Starting soon. According to Glam, these are high quality display ads and should be nicely profitable. We’re going to give it a shot and, as always, give you guys half. This won’t run forever, it’s just a holiday season perk.

That’s it, your Five Things for Thursday.

The economy is crackers. Companies are laying off thousands at a time. Santa is tightening his belt.

But at Squidoo, we’re donating $30,000 to charity. And we need your help giving it away!

That’s why we’re running The Squidoo Holiday Twitterdrive for Charity.

Tweet your favorite charity from our list. 1 vote = $1 we donate. One tweet per person.

Until we hit 30,000 tweets or December 22nd, whichever comes first. And if you don’t help us give it all away in time, any leftover funds will be donated to charity regardless. Promise.

1. A new look for SquidU.

2. Get 99 Squidtips, 1 a day, for the next 99 days. Follow @squidureview on Twitter. If you’re interested in making lenses for your Zazzle gallery, try following @squidazzle.

3. Oh yeah, and Zazzle lenses are already paying off.

4. If you don’t read the Giant Squid Community Showcase, give it a try.

5. Meet Lauren the Llama. Why? Why not.

6. 25 days left to apply for the next round of the Giant Squids

7. Don’t miss Kimberly’s Holiday Lensmaking Secrets series on the Lens of the Day blog. For safekeeping: Secrets #1, #2 and #3 right here.