Upgrade: Couple of upgrades to take advantage of the New Server.

Dear Shouters,

Thanks to Exabytes, ShoutOutLounge is now sitting on a brand new server (here is the news). Instantly we are blessed with plenty of Server Memory, Server Processing, Server Bandwidth and Server Database.

To take advantage of that, we have gone in and remove some of the artificial constraints we put in place. The artificial constraints were there to ‘slow down’ ShoutOutLounge so that it will not take too much resources or else we’ll get a warning letter from our hosting company! But thinking about, we did get a couple of them before.

So here are the constraint that we have removed:

• You can now type more characters per Shout. In fact, 50 more characters. Previously, it was 200 characters.
• More shouts are now loaded on your ShoutOut box. Additional 5 more messages. Previously was 30, now 35.
• Refresh rate has been improved by 20%.
• Shouts are now retained longer. Now up to 30 days. Previously was 20 days.

Have anymore constraint that you think ShoutOutLounge should remove?

Oh! By the way … Whisper are now silent. Meaning, only the Whisperer and Whisperee will see the Whisper. The rest of the Shouters will NOT see a thing! Go ahead and try it!

 

 

(Photo by Charles & Clint)

What do you think? 5 comments received.

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Planning to host your Blog? Hold your horses!

Dear Shouters,

If you are planning to host your blog or going to renew your current hosting plan soon, please hold your horses. Yes, please take a deep breath and relax. You won’t regret it.

An arrangement is coming up soon by none other than Exabytes. Here’s the best part, Shouters and only Shouters will benefit from it.

So take a break and stay tuned!

 

 

(photo by law_keven)

What do you think? 0 comments received.

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It’s Moving Day

Dear Shouters,

Today, we’ll begin to move all critical modules and functions from the old rented home to a new mansion for ShoutOutLounge. As mentioned before, this new home for ShoutOutLounge is kindly sponsored by Exabytes.

So please do not be alarmed if you see intermittent downtime for ShoutOutLounge. We assure you that everything is well. Once all these are done we’ll let you all know.

Can’t wait!

What do you think? 0 comments received.

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Opinion Received: Shhhhhh….!

Dear Shouters,

We heard you loud and clear. Whispers should be quiet, really really quiet. As such, we have added into our priority pipeline to modify the whisper function. So in the future, when you whisper, no one is going to hear you except you and the person you whisper to. We believe this can have a huge impact where it is now practically the same as if you open up a separate MSN channel and chat with your fellow Shouters.

While we are on the subject of the whisper function, we want to reinforce that your whisper is safe. We (Elise and Lasker) have not and will not view your whispers. This is exactly the same as your MSN messages, Gmail messages, private messages within forums and also your private mails in Facebook. Technically, all of the owners of those systems will be able to view your messages. But we need you to trust us that we do not. Your trust is very important and it will be foolish of us to disregard that trust. We do not have a special webpage that will display all whispers or anything private, for that matter.

We would like to thank you for your opinions about the Whispers. Now that we have getting a newer and more powerful servers, we have also decided to try out what we call Shouters Guided Development (SGD). Where we will post up 2 or more choices and what you decide will be our very next development work. I believe this will be fun because whatever you vote on, will be created within a week or 2! So stay tuned because you should not miss out this opportunity!

Cheers,
Lasker and Elise

 

(photo by striatic)

What do you think? 0 comments received.

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Opinion: Should Whisper be really really quiet?

Dear Shouters,

What do you think? You have been shouting and whispering quite a lot of times on ShoutOutLounge. Do you think our whispers are too loud?

Since the launch of the Whisper module, we have been receiving mixed feedback from Shouters. On one side, it is said that whispering should emulate real life and if someone actually whispers to someone else in front of you, you should know about it. After all, you are looking directly at it happening. Also, it shows activities. Imagine if everyone is whispering, it would be a quiet day at ShoutOutLounge. On the other side, whispering is said to be a sensitive activity that can cause misunderstanding just by suddenly whispering to someone. Someone would be sensitive and thought the whispering is about you and all sorts of bad thoughts may occur.

So what do you think? Which side do you think is right? Let us know what you think in the comments. Just type in ‘Whispering should be private’ or ‘I like Whisper just the way it is’. Please give your reasoning behind the suggestion

Let’s say we got more votes on Whispering should be private, then we’ll change way whisper works. Whisper will no longer be displayed for the public to see, only the whisperer and the whisperee will see it. Of course, if the vote go the other way, we’ll leave Whisper as it is.

 

 

(photo by apesara)

What do you think? 12 comments received.

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ShoutOutLounge down for a while. Could it be?

Dear Shouters,

As of now, ShoutOutLounge is down and not functioning. We did not receive prior notification from Exabytes regarding the downtime but I am suspecting this has very much to do with the new Sponsored Hosting.

We’ll give them some time before sending a query over to them. So in the meantime, please sit back, relax and enjoy a moment of silence.

See you soon,
Lasker

Update: ShoutOutLounge is back up running. Hmm, there seems to be some miscommunication. Maybe the maintenance team disabled ShoutOutLounge because we have not been paying the bills to continue hosting? Regardless, we are glad it has been solved. See you there!

What do you think? 0 comments received.

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Thank you Exabytes, Malaysian Web Hosting Company

Dear Shouters, 

It is with greatest joy and happiness we announce to you that ShoutOutLounge.com now has a new home. Not just any home, but a mansion in the world of web hosting. We now have a dedicated server from which to run ShoutOutLounge. Can you feel the overflowing potential? Hundreds of new opportunities just opened up to ShoutOutLounge and we are all going to watch it rise together.

As you are well aware, ShoutOutLounge’s 2 year hosting plan has just expired on 16th of June. But behind the scene, we have tried to ask around for sponsorship for ShoutOutLounge’s web hosting. That very first letter ended like this :

You may check out http://ShoutOutLounge.com to have an idea how it is run. Meanwhile, consider our proposal and further discuss this possibility. I look forward to your positive reply.

And then we got a reply! Since then, emails has been exchanged between us and the Sales and Marketing Manager of Exabytes. Terms are discussed and ShoutOutLounge’s server requirements are also acknowledged. Then, on Thursday, 25th of July 2009, we got a final reply that ended like this:

I hereby confirm the sponsorship for ShoutOutLounge.com on dedicated server. I will recheck with Technical Department and come back to you on the server specs in a day or two and more details in terms of migration.

That night, I slept with a smile on my face

 

Moving Forward

So, what can we see after this? There may be a couple of anticipated *happy* downtime where we move everything from the current apartment to the bright new mansion of a server. And we cannot wait.

Oh, of course, we will display a couple of Exabytes’s ad too. We have discussed and decided that besides just the logo, we’ll also display the latest promotions for Exabytes’s hosting package so that all Shouters will be updated with the latest offerings from Exabytes. I am sure it is a useful information to know for those still on the fence seeking for a hosting package.

 

Thank You Thank You Thank You

I want to say Thank You to all of you who have supported us during what I would call the lowest point of ShoutOutLounge’s history. Your wishes and encouragement has, believe it or not, made me decide to write that faithful email to Exabytes. Some of you even send me some possible alternatives paid hosting plans within and outside of Malaysia. I thank you.

As for Miss Sales and Marketing Manager, if you are reading this, I want to thank you for giving a new life to ShoutOutLounge and like we said in the emails many times, this is truly a win win situation. We will make sure of it .

 

 

(photo by by fmc.nikon.d40 ( On a flickr break ))

What do you think? 13 comments received.

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ShoutOutLounge may be down on 18th of June

Dear Shouters,

3 days remaining. As mentioned in the previous post (ShoutOutLounge might be moving), 18th of June is the day our 2 year hosting plan expires. We have tried to put some plans in place in the attempt to extend the hosting with the same or different hosting company. Unfortunately, as of now, we still have not received any confirmation of a sponsorship. However, it is important to note that some conversation are going on, and we hope to reach a very exciting conclusion. *cross fingers*

But meanwhile, it is important to realize that discussion and negotiations will take time, hence this announcement. ShoutOutLounge may go down on 18th of June. We’ll keep everyone updated to the progress over here at this blog. Please check back often for the latest news.

To keep everyone on their toes, here are the 3 possible outcomes:

1) One possibility is to receive a sponsorship whereby ShoutOutLounge is given a home on a dedicated server. This means an entire server to ourselves! Imagine the possibilities, we will be able to implement a lot of super complicated features that we had to put on hold due to the current server limitations. Real Time update of your blog’s post on ShoutOutLounge is one of them such features. Oh, don’t forget Shout history too.

2) We may get a sponsorship on a shared hosting plan. This is good. This means ShoutOutLounge is given another chance for another year. We’ll be running as usual, and you can shout as usual. We’ll take this opportunity to continue upgrade and enhance ShoutOutLounge so that it’ll attract more and more Shouters. Some new upgrades will be the further enhancement of SOPhoto to include video and text-based updates. Better alert system will also be put in place on ShoutOut’s chat space. Also, pictures on SOPhoto will be embed-able on your blogs, complete with comments, highlights and more!

3) Request for Sponsorship rejected. Yes, we need to face the brutal truth that ShoutOutLounge is still unable to stand on its own 2 feet. By the end of June, if nothing happens on the sponsorship side, we’ll assume we hit this outcome. As mentioned to some of your over at ShoutOutLounge, I’ll need to wait for my June’s paycheck to come in and will start a new hosting at the best and cheapest hosting company I can find that is located within Malaysia.

So there you have it. The lowest point of ShoutOutLounge’s life. But we will prevail, one way or another. There is no where else to go but up from here.

Cheers,
Lasker

 

 

 

(photo by theakshay)

What do you think? 4 comments received.

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