Question Swap Blog

I logged into my Blog!

2009-03-13T00:32:00.001Z

I'd forgotten all about this thing.

Hello

:)

New Changes

2006-09-19T09:45:00.000Z

Last night I made a few changes to QuestionSwap. Just rejigged the homepage using the fancy new MasterPages available in ASP.NET v2.

Just need to cache the results of the LeaderBoard and the Forum so the database isn't getting hit to badly on every page load.

As expected, people don't like change, but it isn't that major. I won't ever be able to please everyone.

Rain

2006-09-14T13:27:00.000Z

Due to last nights rain in London, I didn't go jogging. It's a nice feeling. You're all dressed up ready to run, and then it starts chucking it down. And it's getting dark. Oh well - you think. You don't feel guilty, just relieved.

I seem to be working round the clock at the moment. Lots of work for a large multi-national I've been freelancing for for the past few years, and then home to work on other projects. I'm currently building a web application that will allow customers to send and manage newsletters. Currently it's a joke. One site I built (but not run) has a subscriber base of about 15,000. Problem is, about 3ooo of these bounce back. This cripples the server, and shuts down all the sites hosted on it. I needed something that would let emails be managed, and bounced emails gracefully flagged so as not to attempt again. That should clean up the list, and reduce the bounces to a minimum. It starts off easily enough, then you realise you need a page to add this, and then a page to edit that, and then delete stuff. The pages of the application soon pile up. And I never write anything down on paper. So everything is planned in my head. Sometimes the best ideas come to me in the shower. A little lightbulb will appear over my head. Then I realise that it is an actual lightbulb, and my bathroom is much too small.

Let's just hope it doesn't rain tonight...

Nike 10k Run

2006-09-13T15:34:00.000Z

Some of you may remember me starting an exercise routine a fair while back. I was a bit overweight, and felt very unhealthy.

My first run was for 10 minutes. I nearly died. I only ran round the block at a very slow pace. The muscles in my legs were in pain, and my lungs struggled. I kept needing to spit. I got to the end and was very glad it was over. I hated it.

I've stuck to it though, and I'm still running 3 times a week. The increases have been slow and steady, and I've been adding on a couple of minutes a week. I can now run 5km pretty comfortably in 25, 26 minutes.

I also signed up to do the Nike 10km run in October. It's quite good. You get a little chip to tie on your laces that tracks your times. You're able to attend training runs where there are lots of Nike staff to motivate you. You're even able to trial new pairs of Nike running shoes. I tried a pair of Nike Pegasus for a 5 km run. I handed them back and the guy gave me a coupon with the model and my size written on it, and a 20% discount. I got to hand it to Nike, they're clever marketers.

So tonight I'm going to try to ramp it up a little. Do a 45 minute run at an easy pace. Get my legs used to running a long distance. Once you're been running a few months it becomes quite enjoyable. It feels nice when you can feel improvements in your body. Sailing past a point on a run that only a few weeks ago you had to stop and take a breather.

And the results? Not bad. I've lost about 8kg. Still another 8 to go before I reach a level I'm really happy with. But I'm getting the odd compliment that I've lost weight which is always nice.

So, if you're thinking of starting up running, have a go! The first 3 months are the worst, and then you hit a nice stride. The weight starts to fall off, and your legs strengthen up, and your lungs open up. Just take your time. Set yourself a 6 month goal.

Good luck and all the best!

Adam

ps - anyone actually read any of that?

Back to reality

2006-09-12T13:40:00.000Z

I don't have an awful lot to say, but according to my statistics there are about a dozen of you who regulary check this blog to see if there have been any updates. So here you go! Exciting isn't it?

Being an Australian I was kind of shocked about Steve Irwin. It was a weird sensation. I never met the bloke, never sat through an entire episode of his TV programme, and never really thought about him. So when he died the news was shocking, but not for the reasons normally associated with hearing about a death. Actually, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I had the seed of an idea, and I hoped that if I typed about it, it would sprout into something elegant and meaningful. So much for that idea.

What else? Let me talk to you about London. It's one of those cities you can truly love and hate at the same time. When you're reading about murders, and you see all the litter and filth, and you see the over crowding - you hate it. But when I go back home to Melbourne I find myself missing the place. Missing all the stuff to do. And there is a strange feeling of pride of living in a city that draws so many tourists. If they all are all coming here, there must be something good about it right?

QuestionSwap passed the One Millionth Question the other day. Quite a milestone. If I had have known I'd reach the million mark in just over 6 months I would have done things a lot differently. Probably would have tried to run it more as a business. At times the site has been more of a nuisance than anything. But, right now I'm feeling motivated, so watch out for some cool changes.

One final thing to write about - what's up with Boots and their meal deal? For those that don't know, Boots is a popular chain of chemists here in the UK. They have been running a meal deal promotion for quite a few years. But it seems that little by little, they shaft you. They cut the size of the orange juice bottle from 500ml to 330ml. Then you get about half the amount of sushi. Then, today, no more cashew nuts. They are a bunch of thieves. And they sell a lot of quack products like homoeopathy and copper bracelets. But I'll save that rant for anther day...

Here is me in Dubai eating Lebanese food - my favourite..

Thanks

Adam

In the newsletter again...

2006-09-04T17:02:00.001Z

Not sure how many of you have come from here from the b3ta.com newsletter. This site got its first legup thanks to the newsletter back in Feburary, and now we've just been featured in the '2006 Best Of' newsletter. So another wave of traffic. It's a great newsletter, and well worth subscribing to. Full of funy stuff. The people who hang out on the boards are a cool bunch too.

Making registration to QuestionSwap compulsory was actually a good move. The server is coping a lot better, and the quality of the questions has improved vastly.

Right, here is me in Dubai

HAve a good day!

Adam

What to do...

2006-08-30T11:27:00.000Z

It's occurred to me that I've got something with QuestionSwap that it pretty special. One million questions in less than 6 months. A great, friendly community chatting away on the forum. These are cool things.

Now, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. Do I go for it? Meaning, do I put QuestionSwap on it's own server, and really make a go of it? I could redesign it, and put in some new really cool features. Ramp up the advertising.

The cost of a server is about £90 a month. I'd just need to make sure the site makes more than that to break even. It should do I think.

By putting it on its own server, I wouldn't having to worry about the popularity of the site compromising other sites on the server.

Not sure why I typed all that, just wanted to get it off my chest. Thanks for reading, not that anyone really reads this blog anymore.

Adam

It's back!

2006-08-29T11:54:00.000Z

I had to take QuestionSwap offline. It was causing too many headaches. I was getting complaints from clients who were saying their email was playing up. Not being able to afford to lose any clients, QuestionSwap had to go.

Whilst it was offline, I got a few very nice emails asking when it would be back online. Nice to think people actually missed it.

But now it's back, and I've made a few changes.

A big cheesy logo
More prominent advertising. It looks ugly but so what
Compulsory membership.

The last point was quite crucial. I needed to take the strain of my server. And it seems email is an expensive resource. So, that's all gone. Will usage go down? Probably. But that's fine. Maybe by having compulsory membership the quality of the questions and answers will go up? Who knows?

I'm feeling a lot more motvated about things at the moment. So, expect a few more improvements to QS, and other ideas from me.

Thanks

Adam

On the BBC!

2006-07-10T10:21:00.000Z

The site has had a bit of a resurgence thanks to a couple of factors. One is that I wiped a few hundred thousand questions from the database. The other is a prominent mention on the BBC. I feel some free advertising on the BBC is fair enough, as I have been paying my license fee to them every year for ages. It's about £120 or something.

The site will survive, and I even have a few cool ideas to make it better. I just need to find the time. Got about 3 projects on the go at the moment.

Anyway, thanks for all your nice emails of support.

Adam

Latest State of Affairs

2006-05-04T15:26:00.000Z

OK,

So what's the deal with QuestionSwap I hear you ask?

It started off small and humble. A simple idea that I thought could be interesting. Now, it's a lumbering beast with a sagging database, with the spamming and racist vultures picking away at it's flesh.

I'm the one to blame. When the site first started, I was really excited by the feedback it was getting. I'd spend hours every day tinkering on the code and checking the quality of the answers. I had grand visions of the site becoming something quite important.

Now, I barely think about the site. Someone emailed me today saying there might be spammers on the site. I checked and the same question had been asked 1000's of times. I used to be able to catch and deter the spammers and the idiots, but I can't monitor the site 24/7 like I used to.

So, what to do? Put a bullet in the site's head? Put it up for sale on ebay? Roll up my sleeves and do some more work on the site?

One thing is for sure - the site isn't a money spinner. It's a labour of love.

Anyway, that's how I'm feeling at the moment, and this is a blog, so there you go.

Thanks

Adam

No reason

2006-05-02T09:57:00.000Z

Everytime I watch it, the punch just seems to get harder and harder

My services are available

2006-04-27T17:26:00.000Z

I thought I'd use QuestionSwap to advertise my skills! What a great idea eh?

OK, so here is the rundown.

Me

I'm based in London, UK
I'm actually Australian. Not that that has anything to do with it, just thought you might find that interesting
I have my own limited company through which I do consulting work.

Skills

ASP.NET (vb.net)
Classic ASP
mySQL database
SQL Server database
HTML
XML
I can also use Flash quite well.

Everything I do is lovingly handcoded (I have a dislike for DreamWeaver etc), and written fairly robustly. I'm also good at coming up with ideas, and improving on ideas.

So, if you have a web project you need building, then get in touch. Or maybe you have a website that is a nightmare to maintain, and you'd like to make it database driven.

My Email : lunarsafari [@] gmail.com

Thanks!

Adam Marmaras

500,000 Questions Asked!

2006-04-25T10:24:00.000Z

The other day the site passed quite a milestone. Half a million questions. Quite amazing. Now, if only I had have charged a dollar for every question...

I'm thinking of adding a discussion forum to the site. what do you think?

Apart from that - all is well here. Last night I went and saw Jose Gonzalez at the Hammersmith Apollo. He is incredible. If you ever get a chance to go see him, then Go! Even if you're not a fan of guitar music. Well worth seeing.

That's all! Sorry for the lack of updates to the blog. I love you all!

HeadWindow Animations

2006-04-12T09:59:00.000Z

A long long time ago (well, this is the internet, so four years ago seems like a lifetime) I made a series of really stupid animations.

They were popular for a little while. Actually, if you type the word 'Tequila' in Google or Yahoo one of them shows up in the top five I think.

So, here they are;

HeadWindow.com

This is about a third of what I found on my computer. If you like what you see, then I'll dig out some more. Be sure to write a comment below!

Thanks

Adam

RSS Feeds

2006-04-11T16:06:00.000Z

OK, as we all know, RSS is the next big thing. We're all going to be sucking down newsfeeds like a demented twit with a straw and 10 milkshakes. So, now there is the QuestionSwap RSS feed.

Thing is, most of you probably wouldn't know what to do with that feed. Some suggestions are;

Add it to MyYahoo

Find a geek, and get them to put it in your website.

Use Google and learn how to do it yourself.

If any of you manage to get the feed working in your website, then get in touch and I'll link to it, and you can act as an example of the RSS feedy goodness.

I am still working on the site. It is a work in progress. There are many future bells and whistles to come. Including the ability to attempt to get in touch with someone who has sent you a great answer. Obviously, all emails are kept 100% confidential, it will act like one of those dating website contact things, where you get a message saying someone has tried to contact you.

I'd love to work on the site full time, but I need to pay bills! Hence, work for other clients. Doing serious stuff, like Intranet applications for oil and gas companies. I'd much rather be working on QS, but life is no party.

Thanks for hanging around and using the site

adam

Trusted Members

2006-04-05T16:42:00.000Z

Today I added the ability for certain members to add Questions and Answers to the featured pages. It's a risky move, but what the heck. This way, the featured pages will update continually. At the moment they only update when I take the time to sit down and do it. And the novelty of sifting through thousands of questions and answers is wearing a bit thin!

So, if you find yourself a trusted member, then congratulations! Remember what Uncle Ben said to spiderman on his death bed, and don't be evil.

Thanks

Adam

Major Behind the scenes working

2006-04-04T18:02:00.000Z

I must have spent about 8 hours solid on the site today. And it wasn't the 'fun' front end stuff either. It was the tedious database stuff.

The site is slowing down again. This is due to the database filling up, and becoming sluggish. So what I did today was break the database into different tables. One for the Featured Questions, and one which will act as an archive. What this means is that the main 'pot' of questions will reduce down to a few thousand rows and become light and nimble again.

The process is very gradual. I'm shifting the records across at a rate of about 20,000 a day, so the impact on the site won't be too noticible.

Right - time to get away from the PC!

Bird Flu Song

2006-04-01T09:39:00.000Z

OK, so I was reading the paper, and in the letters to the editor column was a small piece that said something like;

Is is true that the Beatles are releasing a song called Norweigan Wood (this bird has flu)?

That got me thinking, and it was a boring train trip, so I came up with some lyrics. Then I got home, and played it in front of my webcam.

Here's the result;

The Bird Flu Song

Post your comments below!

EDIT

A few people have emailed who have noticed a hidden phallic image in the video. I can assure you that this was not intentional!!

Picture of the Day

2006-03-30T11:34:00.000Z

The site is slowly coming along. The quality of the questions has gone up a lot. Every now and again a wave of kids will come through like a tornado and post "your mum" a couple of hundred times, but that's not the end of the world.

I'm quite happy with the picture of the day. I've always loved photoshopped pictures and thought this was a good way to combine that with the site. So thanks to the people who have taken the time to do that.

I was browsing round other Question and Answer sites and it seems most of them have an economic model of some sort. People have a really tough question and they are prepared to pay good money for an answer. Now, I know I've got some really smart people using QS, and there is potential there for them to make some money from their efforts. How about each member can accept paypal donations for their efforts? Or, everyone creates an Amazon wishlist, and when they answer a question there is a small bit of text saying;

"If you liked my answer, then buy me something from my Amazon Wishlist"

Or something like that. Problem with that of course is that Australia and most European countries don't have Amazon, and the shipping fees could be demotivating for the asker. Somewhere along the line I'll need to take a cut for hosting and building the whole thing. But for now I'd rather just keep it simple.

Anyone got any ideas?

The running is going well. I've done two 10 minute runs. The first was a killer, but the second was a lot easier. My next run is tomorrow, and this is going to sound a bit sad, but I'm half looking forward to it.

Keep telling your friends about the site! The stats are down!

Adam

Anyone want to get into shape with me?

2006-03-27T16:33:00.000Z

OK, so I need to get into shape. It's been a long and cold winter, and I've been hibernating in a flat in London, venturing out every now and again to go to the pub. It's not the best city to get fit. Car parking is non-existant, so driving to my local sports centre is out of the question. A new kickboxing club opened up down the road which got me very excited. I went to a trial class which was fun (I've done it before - great sport), but at the end they told me that it costs £90 a month, and you are restricted to 2 classes a week. Screw that, what a ripoff.

So, I'm taking matters into my own hands. I have drawn up a running schedule which you may download here.

Adam's running schedule - click to open!

It starts off easy for a reason. I've jogged before and got demotivated very quickly. I'd push myself too hard on the first few runs, feel like dying, and throw in the towel. The schedule above has you doing 3, ten minute runs in the first week. That's achievable. In the second week, you do 12 minute runs, and so on.

Why am I doing this? Because if I make this public I've got a better chance to stick to it.

Why else am I doing this? Because in August I'm going to Australia (I'm Australian btw), for a few weeks, and need to get in shape. I'll be spendin time on the beach. My dad will be there, and he's the fittest 61 year old I know. And there will be me, a pasty white blob. No way!

So, if you want to join me on this odessy, then sign up below. Three times a week you'll have to switch off your computer (scary thought I know), and go outside! Get a new pair of running shoes! I did.

Right, this is out in the public now. If you want to get in shape for summer sign up below... Together we can do this

Difficult Second Album Syndrome

2006-03-27T13:21:00.000Z

OK, so myPZL hasn't exactly taken off. I have all but forgotten about it. It's only 3 pages of code, so no great loss.

The youTube server much be under such strain that the videos didn't load properly. The users didn't really bother to upload puzzles, although it was a piece of piss. Lacking most though I think was a sense of community.

But I got a decent domain out of it, so not the end of the world.

How about I throw it open to you guys? How could the site be better? Forget youTube.com, as they are obviously unreliable.

How could a community build a series of puzzles? Or I am giving mouth to mouth to a dead horse?

I've got a load of work to do for clients (got to actually earn some money!) , so the changes to QS this week will take a bit of time. I've got some great enhancements in mind. Firstly though, I need to allow people to opt out of having their featured questions published. I mean, your email will never be made available, but people are feeling a little exposed. So, sorry about that if I've upset anyone.

Right,

Carry on

P.S. Anyone seen Howl's Moving Castle? Saw it on the weekend. Very good, if you like that surreal Japanese animation.

New Site - myPZL

2006-03-23T17:02:00.000Z

OK,

I have made this little thing

myPZL

It all seems to work in my head, and like most websites I'm launching it before it's probably ready. But I know there is a regular reader base of this blog, and that makes for great testers!

So, try it out. Most importantly, add some puzzles yourself. This thing will work really well if there are 1000's of puzzles in there. Bit rubbish if you get the same puzzle twice.

I know there are ways to make it better 'a report abuse button' for instance, but the germ of the idea is there.

Thanks for your help!

Adam

Click for big

Getting into shape now

2006-03-22T15:27:00.000Z

OK, so I redesigned the site as you have probably noticed. Being the quality programmer that I am I just redesigned the live site on the go. I should probably have a back-up or mirror or something like that, but not me.

Hopefully the site looks fine for everyone. The text was coming out in two completely different colours for Firefox and IE. I know Firefox is a better browser, but I'm too lazy to change. Actually, isn't Opera the best browser? Perhaps that could be a Question of the Day one day?

Speaking of which, QotD is going well. Nobody seems to be voting very much which is a shame. But I've loaded up a month's worth of questions in the database. So there is nothing for me to do there, and that part of the site will just run itself.

I was lying in bed the other day, and go another idea for a website. I hope it will be easy to use, addictive and fun. And, like QS, the 'content' will come from the public. Watch this space for that. I'll need a bunch of people to test/break it before launch.

Getting sunnier here in London. I'm just sitting here drinking tea out of my Darth Vader shaped mug. The builders are still here, working on the flat upstairs. I hear them crash around and shout Polish to each other.

Keep spreading the word on QuestionSwap!

thanks

Adam

Into the third week

2006-03-20T12:11:00.000Z

Loads of great feedback on my last post. Thanks for everyone who wrote a comment. Some good points were raised, like the Legends Board will become quite obsolete as 50 rating becomes quite common. I'll just keep on raising the bar.

I'm quite happy about the Question of the Day. I wanted to automate it as much as possible (I spend way too much time on the site as it is), so all I needed to do was load up the QotD with about a dozen questions and they automatically spit out at a certain time each day. I've picked a time when both sides of the Atlantic are awake! Got any good QotD's? Send them to me!! I'm already running out of ideas.

I think a redesign of the site is in order. Someone commented on my previous post that navigation is getting confusing. It's true. It's a mess. And the homepage is now too cluttered. I want to get it all nice and clean.

And to the people who came up with the idea of seeing your own Featured Q/A's in your member's area - good idea! That'll be coming soon. See, your comments do make a difference!

No reason

EDIT

There were some firefox issues, with text showing up white. I have fixed these now. But I'm guessing you all still hate the new design...

EDIT AGAIN

What links are showing up white? I've doubled checked the style sheets and everything? Please provide a link / screenshot?

One site to rule them all!

2006-03-16T12:32:00.000Z

The new leaderboard seems to be going well. No doubt the quality of the answers has gone up a lot. But things still aren't perfect. Actually lets face it, on a website where anyone can join and post anonymously, it never will be. But that's what makes the intenet such an addictive place.

I've been reading the questions and answers coming through (sometimes I feel like the Eye of Sauron, looking down, reading it all as it comes through), and one or two people are saying that deliberately bad ratings are being given to sabotage other peoples efforts. Or, people are simply ignoring a question if it seems that the person asking it is young/idiotic. How to solve all this?

Well, one way would be to have more than one leaderboard. Should someone with only 6 ratings be at the top of the leaderboard, while someone with 100 ratings lingers around the middle? I want to highlight the legends! The ones who spend all day on the site. So, coming soon will be a Super Legends Leaderboard. I might also raise the minimum number of ratings from 5 to 20 or something like that.

And how about not only showing the average score you have received, but how about the average score you have given? Easy to weed out the QS scrooges!

There is a brand new feature coming very soon. I was working on it this morning, doing final testing. It's a bit complicated, but should be a lot of fun. Should be ready in time for the weekend!

Thanks

Adam

PS - Any ASP.NET geeks know how to create an autonumber on a datagrid, so I can place ranking numbers on the leaderboard?

New LeaderBoard

2006-03-14T14:20:00.000Z

When I was little, my GrandMother gave a book of Aesop's fables. I must of read it hundreds of times, and I'd dog ear my favourite favourite fables. One of my favourites was this one;

A MAN and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they werewalking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a Donkey for but to ride upon?”

So the Man put the Boy on the Donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”

Well, the Man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his Boy up before him on the Donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them. The Man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at. The men said: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor Donkey of yours—you and your hulking son?”

The Man and Boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, till at last they cut down a pole, tied the Donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the Donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them till they came to Market Bridge, when the Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied together he was drowned.

“That will teach you,” said an old man who had followed them:

“PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”

I feel a bit like that man with the donkey. The feedback has been awesome, and everyone has an opinion on how the site should go. I'll just keep on tinkering, and make changes that seem right at the time.

There is now a new leaderboard! Nothing gets people motivated more than the chance to top a leaderboard. Now, I know the system isn't perfect, and how do you answer a question that is something like "fdgdgdgdgd?", but it's the best I can think of. Chances are, the person who asked the inane question isn't a member anyway, and won't be rating your answer.

If a member is seen to be sabotaging what is otherwise a fun past-time, I'll just boot them off. The people at the top of the leaderboard will be genuine.

Now, what next.....

EDIT

Thanks for letting me know about the pages not working. I think I fixed the bug. It was to do with the 'RequiredFieldValidator' in ASP.NET. It was a bit glitchy. Please all try again and let me know!

Members

2006-03-13T14:22:00.000Z

On Friday I launched the members section. I went away for the weekend, and now there are nearly 600 members on the site. I'm hoping that they are the major users of the site, so that has taken a bit of pressure off the server.

Thanks for all the comments being posted to the blog. I read every one and they all make a difference. Like most people I've started a blog before, and like most people abandoned it after a week or so through boredom. But I'm quite motivated to keep this one going, as judging by the feedback it is being read. I wish Blogger would provide some stats though! That couldn't be too hard could it? I guess I could install my own hit counter...

Almost all of you are enjoying the new members section without any hiccups, but I have had one or two emails saying that there have been problems. I'm now trying to isolate what may have caused them. Browser issues perhaps?

Seems to work OK for me now. The was one error being displayed if you clicked on an unanswered question (it was trying to do an IP lookup on a non-existant IP!), but this is fixed now. Be sure to send me all your error messages, including a copy of the error including the line number. If I was a half decent programmer I'd do proper testing before I launched new features, but what you going to do?

Thanks

Adam

Getting There

2006-03-10T19:22:00.000Z

OK, things are taking shape now. Some of you may have noticed the new members section. The main motive for this was to take the strain off the server with all the emails being sent out. You still get your reply, but now you can only read it online. One benefit of this is that you're able to keep an archive of all the questions you have asked and answered.

So, what next? I'd really like there to be some way of recognising the talented and the thoughtful on this site. Somehow reward those who take time and effort in their Question Swapping. So, the next step may be a simple rating button that comes with each answer. Theorectically, those that are answering well will get good feedback, and rise to the top. Then some sort of leaderboard could be set up.

But one change at a time. I'm frightened that if I change everything too fast, I'll wreck the site and lose everybody.

Have a good weekend

Adam

Much faster!

2006-03-09T11:17:00.000Z

Last night I removed 200,000 questions out of the database. This had sped things up considerably.

I didn't delete the questions, and will hang on to them. Maybe in 1000 years they will provide an interesting insight into what the people of today are thinking. I mean, can you imagine what if QS was around in the fifth century B.C.

Q. Do you think the new Parthenon is a waste of public money?

A. Yes, and not only that, Pericles couldn't design birdhouse.

Anyway, that's all sorted now. New features coming soon!

(Can anyone think of a better Ancient Greek Q/A? Ancient Roman? Someone must be able to do better than my effort!)

Still a bit slow....

2006-03-07T11:31:00.000Z

The site is still performing much slower than I'd like. What I'd put it down to the size of the database. In just over 10 days, there are 250,000 questions in the database. I'm running update queries on that table, which is taking forever.

So Operation 'Speed up Site' is moving into the next phase. I'm going to create a table in the database that contains an archive of old questions. This can sit, and get the odd query from the 'featured page'.

But the pot of questions being asked, answered and emailed will reduce to only a couple of thousand. This should speed things up loads and loads. Well, it better, because I'm running out of ideas. If this doesn't speed things up then I'll have to limit the number of emails sent a day. Or limit the number of characters used in each Question and Answer.

I'll get there in the end.

I did a lot of work on a new members area last night. Should launch very soon!

Adam

Site ReWrite

2006-03-06T15:25:00.000Z

The original QS site was built in a rushed fashion. I usually code in ASP.NET, but for a site as simple as QS, I couldn't be bothered. So I just slapped down a whole bunch of 'classic ASP' spaghetti code, and launched it. To make sure people didn't abuse the site, the Q & A process was controlled by using session variables. Problem is, when the questions are flying through at a rate of one a second, that places a lot of strain on the server. To the point where the whole thing ground to a halt.

So over the weekend, I rewrote the site using ASP.NET, and got rid of all references to sessions. To make the system 'uncheatable' I came up with the idea of assigning a long random string to each question. This is working well, and the site speed has improved considerably.

The bedroom is all fixed now. What you think?

Choosing the Domain

2006-03-03T11:45:00.000Z

One of the most surprising things about Question Swap was obtaining the domain name. How many times have you thought up an idea, or thought "That'd be a good domain name to own!", and gone to GoDaddy or where ever and tried to buy it. For me, the domain has always been taken already. Usually about 3 years ago.

When I got the idea for QS, I went to goDaddy as usual, and typed it in to see if it was available. Amazingly it was. I checked my spelling and it seemed OK. I put it down to dumb luck that I got it.

Still having server problems today so sorry about the site performing slowly. Next week I'm going to rewrite the entire site in ASP.NET. And remove all the session variables. That should help performance a lot. Nowadays I usually code in .NET, but QS was such a quick and dirty idea, that I couldn't be bothered with all structuring that goes with it. So I just bashed out some 'Classic ASP' spaghetti code. Paying the price for it now though.

Thanks everyone for your comments on my other posts. Very helpful and constructive. Keep 'em coming!

Adam

Me working at home in my bedroom

Advertising

2006-03-02T13:06:00.000Z

You may have noticed that I am trying different types of advertising. I've got Google AdSense going on the Featured Questions, and AdBrite on the homepage and the answered page. The reason for this is that when I put AdSense on the homepage, there wasn't enough text there for any relevant adverts to show up. So I thought I'd try AdBrite, which seems to show adverts for things that everyone is interested in. Namely, gambling and viagra. We'll see what happens.

I've set the price real low. So you can have a text ad that reaches about 12,000 unique people, for just $5. Try it out. You'll also be helping towards the running costs of this site, so that's also a good thing.

I've got a few ideas up my sleeve for the site, but this week I have been unable to do any work on it. You see, on Monday morning the ceiling in my bedroom collasped. On top of my bed, while I was sleeping. I got covered in plaster and concrete and dust, and my room was covered in rubble. The builders upstairs had been a little too vigorous in their renovations, and it's a very old property, and down it all came. Now, my PC was in my bedroom, and to renovate the ceiling, everything had to be moved out. So that means I am working on this old laptop, with a wireless connection that is continually dropping out. If this blog captured sound as well as text, you'd be able to hear the Polish builder scraping and banging in the room next to me.

Not sure why I typed all that. Just thought you might like to know

Calling all Geeks

2006-03-01T17:17:00.000Z

I consider myself to be a bit of a geek, and I'm not ashamed. I look at the jobs other people have, and piss farting about on a computer all day seems pretty cool. Anyway, if you are a geek too, then one of you brothers needs help. Me!

Right, so I have turned off QS for a little while. The CPU monitor has been showing 100% all day. Although the QS answers are being mailed OK, I'm not getting any QS emails. More worryingly, neither are my clients who share the server. I promised that a dedicated server would be the end to all their shared hosting nightmares, and things would run nice and fast. Then I go and put QS on the same server and it all goes tits up.

How do I clear the backlog of emails? I'm running on Windows 2003 Server. It's like a jammed photocopier. Nothing is coming out. Or have I lost them all?

You can post anonymously to this - click the pencil icon.

Thanks!

Adam

EDIT

Fixed it. Just rebooted the server, and they all came flooding in. I'll put the site back online shortly.

Server Trouble today

2006-03-01T15:43:00.000Z

I'm not sure the server I'm using to host QS can handle sending out an email a second, every minute of the day. Or maybe my coding is bad? Anyway, I'm not getting any emails to my QS address, including the hundreds of bounced emails that come though every hour.

What to do?

Ultimately, I'm going to have to move away from a system that relies on emails for answers to be sent, to a system where your answers end up on your on-line account. This will allow you to archive all your Questions and Answers so that might be a good thing.

Comments?

Hello all

2006-03-01T13:04:00.000Z

Thought I might start one of these blog things, as I am getting a fair bit of mail coming through. Of course a lot of it is the same questions and requests, so hopefully with this blog I will be able to address some of it in advance.

The site is doing well. Only a week old, and already 110,000 questions in the database. The questions are being posted at nearly one a second. Quite amazing.

I have all but given up trying to keep track of the questions. On the first day it was launched, I could sit and watch all the questions as they came in, and watch the answers go out. They came in at a pace which allowed me to a) delete innapropriate questions before they got answered, and b) promote answers I like to the featured page. Now I think it would take 2 or 3 people working round the clock to keep on top of it all. Which is sort of sad, as there is a lot of great questions and answers flying through which may never make it on the featured page.

"Then why don't you automate it somehow?" I hear you ask. Good question. Perhaps a checkbox, that if checked, keeps whatever you have written private? Anything not checked goes up on the featured page. Not too difficult to implement. But that would just open the doors to spammers and trolls, to flood the featured page with liks to porn sites and casinos. It's already a bit of a problem as it is.

"Then why don't you have a members only section?" I hear you ask. Good question, and I like this one better. I'm wary to mess with the current format too much, as it is obviously working well. But to have an area where people could go to swap questions, and perhaps have an opportunity to continue discussion on a certain question - that could be a good thing. What does everyone think? Feedback appreciated.

That's all for now! Thanks for using the site!

adam