MEEDEOR

I'm a very irresponsible blogger...

So, I haven’t updated the development blog since March. Since then, we have totally rebuilt the site from the ground up. This included countless retoolings of the interface and backend, but for the most part, functionality remained unchanged. We did remove a few features for quality control purposes. These were:

• Video posting
• Amazon product links

Both will be reimplemented when resources allow. Nonetheless, since the fateful day of the new version of the site (and its public launch) on July 1st, many bugs in our application have been revealed. We have spent countless hours identifying and squashing them… and we still feel like we have a long way to go.

In September, MEEDEOR began taking turns in new directions. Geotagging became a large part of our site, in many ways (Organization, searching, networking). It will continue to be a major plank in our development platform.

In October, we tried posting our link on Reddit. Within hours, several previously-unknown performance and usability issues were brought to our attention. We have done our best to find solutions for these. However, optimization will still be a major focus for us.

Anyway, considering the current build of MEEDEOR has already taken over 200 code revisions to get to where it is now, I can’t think of a version number that would well suit it. Nonetheless, I will try to stay more current with my updates on this development blog.

-Hunter

Meedeor Beta v3.1

Hello everyone. Thank you for being patient with us over the last couple of months. We have been rethinking a lot of the site and are about to rock your world with the next update. But, for now, we have a new set of fixes:

• Site now works for new users (That was a pretty bad one…)
• Mobile posting compatibility and stability upgrade (Still in progress for Sprint users)
• Video posting/processing now works much more reliably
• Huge interface accessibility upgrade
• Javascript and CSS is no longer dynamic and is now cacheable, meaning faster load times for the end user.
• Assorted miscellaneous fixes and tweaks across the site

Thanks for sticking with us. Talk to you soon!

-Hunter

Meedeor Beta v3 Update

After a long month of development, we’ve finished another huge list of updates. Also, please welcome Mr. Matt Feury to the development team. He’s become an invaluable asset to us.

Changes:

• Meedeor is now on a dedicated server. All this means to you is faster load times.
• All of the pages have been redesigned and fine tuned for cross-browser compatibility. This means you, Internet Explorer 7!
• All internal navigation on the site is now done with AJAX. This makes the site operate about 10x faster than it used to for the end-user.
• You can now post videos.
• There is a mobile-friendly version of Meedeor now available at http://m.meedeor.com/ . Currently, iPhone is the only platform that can support streaming video.
• The Contacts page has gotten a huge functionality boost. There is an alphabetical sorting feature that makes it easier to find users in your contacts.
• You can now use the arrow keys browse feed entries on the view entry page.
• The Media Feed has been extensively tweaked for both design and performance.
• If there is a product in a post that is also available on the Amazon.com online store, Meedeor will magically attempt to find that product and provide a link to it.
• Numerous bug fixes have been addressed.

There’s still much more to come in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

-Hunter

MEEDEOR beta v2.3 Update

Hope everyone’s had a good Halloween weekend. Just finished flipping another big revision to MEEDEOR. Here’s all I’ve done. On your end

• There was a broken image issue with the Thickbox loading graphic. This has been resolved.
• The link to the devblog on the About page has been fixed.
• AJAX requests on Media Feeds and on the Contacts Page now override instead of queue. What this means is, you can now switch freely between tabs without getting the wrong chunk of content.
• The “View Contacts” link on each user’s feed now shows a total number of contacts for that user. Tabs in the contacts page also now have totals.
• Lots of UI tweaks, including “Loading” messages and graphics on the Media Feed, contacts page, and comments. Also I’ve added some nice transitions to a few pages and auto-scrolling to the media feed and view entry page for users with smaller screens.
• There is now a live search/autocomplete feature in the search bar for quick access to your subscriptions.
• The function that grabs the URL for each user’s avatar has been rewritten and optimized. What this means is that the Media Feed, contacts page, and comments render a lot more quickly, as well as the site as a whole.
• Mobile posting has once again been revised for compatibility. Also, I’ve added the functionality to post text in the body of the email. If no text is found in the body, the script will still check the subject line.
• You can no longer post a text entry that is the default text in the entry field. I believe it’s “Type your post text here”
• The “Try Again” links upon a computer-based post error have been fixed.
• Loading graphics have been added behind lots of places that have avatars.
• The login page now redirects you to the page that linked you to it, provided it’s a MEEDEOR page.
• The headers on the contacts page now reflect singular counts (e.g. “1 subscription” instead of “1 subscriptions”)
• Links are now replaced with [link] instead of abbreviated versions of the URL. You can still view the URL by mousing over the link.
• Text entries now hyphenate properly.
• There is now a single-click option in all email notifications to stop receiving them altogether. They can be reactivated at any time in your account preferences. The same goes for mobile post responses.
• If you click on a post in the public feed and go back, you will now be returned to the public feed.

As you can see, lots of these were minor tweaks and annoyances that just needed to be addressed. All steps towards a simpler, cleaner, more cohesive interface.

On the back end of things, I’ve reorganized a lot of function files that were getting a bit unwieldy.

Enjoy!

-Hunter

Site Update - Oct 23 2008

Evenin’ ladies and gents. I’ve just finished flipping another hot batch of updates. Read up on the juicy details on this and last time’s here.

• Amended “Remember Me” function. It works now.
• Tweaked the text entry auto-size function
• Removed “Report a bug” bar from menu
• Added 500 character limit to text entries
• Added mobile posting compatibility for Alltel and Sprint
• Text entry background colors are now dynamic and time-based in the media feed
• Addressed problem of long (20+ character) words.
• Addressed problem of plus signs in comments
• Slashes are stripped in email output
• Email messages checked for grammar and wording
• Redesigned user card (public profile)
• Converted from script.aculo.us javascript framework to jQuery
• We now use Thickbox
• RSS Feed available for any feed on the site
• Contacts page updated and fixed

Massive Development Session in Progress!

Hello again,

We’re in the middle of another big development session. We’re pushing out some new stuff that I think everyone is going to like. There have been some hiccups with the site lately since we’ve had to do some serious work on it. However, we’ve built a new development environment so we can develop new features without disturbing anyone’s experience on the site. The current site should be working, so continue posting away. I’ll update everyone when we’re ready to roll out the new version!

New Things on the Horizon

Hello everyone! Things have been going well. We’re making progress and we’re getting ready to go on a massive bug squashing mission. Also, we’ve been thinking about a lot of new ways to streamline and clean up the UI. We have a vision for what we want Meedeor to be and we’ll keep chugging along until we get there. New things are in the works and we’re very excited about it!

Have a great week!

-Daniel

The Friday Update

We’ve encountered a few bugs that haven’t been fixed immediately because our fearless developer, Hunter, has been sick. Hopefully he’ll be feeling better soon and we’ll crack down on this bugginess. However, users are coming in and making some really cool posts. Everyone has also done a great job helping with bug reports and we’re working to fix problems as fast as we possibly can.

Have a great Friday everyone!

-Daniel

First Impressions

We’ve just started signing up a few users in the beta version of the site! It’s so great to see people posting and interacting with each other. I would like to thank everyone who is participating in the beta testing. You guys are awesome! We realize there are a few bugs still in the system, but we’re working hard to get things straightened out. If you see a bug, help us out by clicking the “Report a Bug” link just below the menu bar. Meedeor mobile is also up and running, so try that out if you can. Remember, Meedeor is all about the “here and now”, so keep your friends updated with the latest happenings. If anyone has any questions or would like to get their hands on a few invites email me at daniel@meedeor.com. Thanks again everyone and keep up the great work!

-Daniel