The Biblioblog Reference Librarian's Desk

The Reference Library is Down…

Steve Caruso — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:09:10 +0000

So, the main table for the Library has crashed and the auto-repair has failed…. This is bad.

I need to figure out what to do from here as it looks like the only backups I have that were not also affected are quite old.

As such the project is going on hold for a bit until I’m able to sort things out and find a better hosting solution.

–The Reference Librarian

UPDATE: I have managed to rebuild the table that crashed, however, I am not sure how long it will hold. At this point the plan is to make a backup of the entire thing, move the backup to a new server, and in the meantime, shut down the most data-intensive portions of the website. This will hopefully preserve the hit counter and blog rankings until I am able to find a better, more dedicated solution.

Also a Quick Peek at the Stats

Steve Caruso — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:28:54 +0000

Just to show you how much data is actually in the Library right now, here are the Archive’s current stats:

Posts Archived: 83,009
Post Updates Archived: 28,188
Comments Archived: 245,103
Comment Updates Archived: 11,489

We’ve just breached 83,000 posts and are approaching a quarter million comments. A quarter million. That’s a lot of comments.

–The Reference Librarian

Insufferably Slow

Steve Caruso — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:15:45 +0000

Well, looking at how the Reference Library is performing after SBL, I realize that it’s not scaling well on shared hosting. Our webhost tends to cap performance under a standard threshold, which is causing page loads in places to be insufferably slow after the database updates itself and rebuilds the cache.

So, with that in mind: A new re-design is in order! I’m going to be changing the face of the Reference Library once again, and see if I can fix the slowness once and for all.

Also, once the new version is released, I will also be opening up user accounts publicly. This means that people will be able to claim and manage their blogs directly, as well as add new blogs to the archive for review on their own.

Big, awesome stuff ahead. Stay tuned.

–The Reference Librarian

Tracker & QR Code Fix

Steve Caruso — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:14:21 +0000

For those of you who have been having trouble with the tracker code working on your blog, due to some intermediary (such as Networked Blogs) or due to code-scrubbing, the following code will now work instead:

For the tracker:

For the archive code:

(Where X is your Blog’s ID number.)

– The Reference Librarian

Lots to Catch Up On

Steve Caruso — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:54:05 +0000

So aye, I haven’t had much time to keep parts of the Library updated as I’d like.

With the archiving glitch fixed, I’m going to try and get a bunch of blogs added and updated by the end of this month, so we’ll see how it works out.

– The Reference Librarian

Archiving Busted

Steve Caruso — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:38:22 +0000

Well, something happened on the 3rd of this month, and the Archivist program stopped archiving.

I’m now looking into what could have possibly happened, and soon we’ll have things back up and running as usual.

–The Reference Librarian

Old Ranking System Depreciated

Steve Caruso — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:29:21 +0000

Now it’s official: The old ranking and hits system is now depreciated and the new one is chugging along without a hitch.

Since it only has ranking data since the beginning of the month, don’t be worried if you see your total stats take a dip on the Top 50 page. It’ll be back up to a full month’s worth of hits by the next time the Top 50 announcement is going to be made.

Also, if you have the tracker installed on your blog you don’t need to do anything at all. It’s currently working.

– The Reference Librarian

iOS 5 Webkit

Steve Caruso — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:59:08 +0000

Well, I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 5 and noticed that I could no longer successfully view the Library website with it. It seems as if the iOS 5 Webkit has been updated and the update kills the scrolling sidebar on handheld devices.

So, now I’m going to put together a true mobile version that doesn’t glitch.

– The Reference Librarian

Past 30 Days Stats Up, Too

Steve Caruso — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:51:43 +0000

I’ve also just added the same real-time stats but for the past 30 days as well.

– The Reference Librarian

New Feature: Article Reads in Real Time

Steve Caruso — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:55:24 +0000

As you can see above, the new hit counter database allows me to have a bit of fun. Visit the new real-time article read counter and check it out.

You can also pull down the title menu and select which blog you want to see the stats for directly.

– The Reference Librarian