Updated: the gallery is now working too. Yeah!

Um, hi! Been a while, hasn't it? Yeah, about that...

Over a month ago, I purchased a new domain name to begin an expansion of the NaughtyMerrick.com website. When attempting to attach the domain to my hosting account, something went wrong on the back-end of the servers, and cPanel started spitting out error messages. Really confusing, strange error messages.

I asked Makal for help but he was stumped. I asked the guy who coordinates my hosting for help, and he was stumped. But he said he would work on it. Eventually I just went over his head with the issue and started working directly with the Lunarpages server admins. And finally, overnight, the issue was resolved. Sort of.

Of course, being corporate tech support, they feel obliged to go "above and beyond" in the name of servicing my... *ahem* issue. This means that they took completely unnecessary actions that made my job of recovering from the month of downtime that much more difficult. But hey, at least you can see this.

As it stands, galleries are down. This is because I am busy behind the scenes transferring files and rearranging permissions to point to the right subdirectories. Technical jargon, mumbo-jumbo, all that jazz. I'm working on it, and it's getting fixed--hopefully that's all you need to know.

You know, guys, I am really, truly, really fucking sorry about this last batch of downtime. Wish I could relay in polite terms how frustrating it's been for me. I hate waiting for other people to fulfill their obligations so that I can fulfill my own. I hate being let down when I give people the benefit of the doubt. And I strongly dislike tech support (except Makal, of course). Through all of this I was considering switching to yet another host but god, that'd be what, 3 hosts this year? At the least. And another week of setting up databases to make everything work right. At least this time I knew that my data wasn't lost, and thus I never gave up hope. Sorry for this being such a pain.

On the upside, now that NaughtyMerrick.com is back online, I can start back down the road of progress. Woo, progress! Like I said, I've got some expanding to do... but before I even revisit the HTML I've had sitting in the wings I am diving head on into the Gallery issues. And I'm gonna kick their butt.

Oh, and be aware: after months of speculation and hazy memory, I've started to get previews from the shoot with TwistedMonk back in August. And oh. my fucking. gawd. Y'all are gonna flip over this shoot. ;D Soon my pretties, soon!

Labels: admin, gallery, server, website

I just uploaded a set of pictures taken just two days after the recent motorcycle accident... you'll find it right at the top of the Members Only gallery! It's a pretty simple set, given that every picture is of my backside since that's where the bruises are. So if you like girl butts, bruises, or me (and you're here so I know you do! ^_^) then DO check out these new pics!

Now available to Members Only: Fresh Bruises, 23 images

And if you think that bruise is colourful, just wait until you see the followup set, Fishnets 'n' Bruises. This "minor discolouration" has nothing on that wicked hematoma!

Yes, I like bruises. I am weird like that.

Labels: bruises, butts, gallery, photos

So, here we are, the end of June 2008, and I'm almost ready to reopen the site *officially*.

Yes, I've been trying to recover from my previous host's server crashes this entire time. Okay, some of the time has been spent sulking about how fucked up things kept happening, but I'm over that now.

The last step before allowing new sign-ups is getting the Members Only gallery back up to par with what it had been right after the server crash, during my first "recovery"... that is, before my hosts fucked up my account some more. I think they probably /spit on the server box for good measure, I'm not sure. But I'm now officially done with those fucktards. I think the fastest response I ever got from their support department was in closing my account; they are just today getting back to a voicemail Makal left last Thursday regarding how to cancel the billing, so obviously they are uncoordinated on top of being incompetant! Huzzah.

Anyway, over that. I'm just working on uploading past photosets for now, and getting the gallery layout to look how I want it. Meta info like date shot and set summaries will be done once everything's uploaded. Then it's back to nothing but new sets, baby! I cannot wait. :D

July 1st is in a week; I might hold back until then, and make it my Official Grand Re-Opening Extravaganza!!! or something like that.

Labels: gallery, server

Yes, new gallery--singular, not plural. Last week some issues popped up regarding the management system for the gallery (called Gallery2) and in my researching how to fix it, I realized that it was time to finally implement a change. The extent of this new Gallery2 installation has yet to be visible, but the project is going very well. :)

In the meantime, links on the Pics page won't be working, as they are pointing to an old system that isn't online anymore. It'll take me a bit longer to integrate this new install with the current layout, but I'm thinking it'll be sweet when it's done. :D The address for the Members Only gallery hasn't changed though... www.naughtymerrick.com/members/gallery!

The biggest change you'll see right now? A much prettier layout and navigation for browsing those sexy pics. Even though I'm not entirely done tweaking all the settings, I'm going to go ahead and reopen the gallery for members--as long as you guys bear with me over the next week while things get settled! xox

Labels: admin, gallery

So, over the weekend one of the MySQL databases for the Members Only gallery went down. I contacted our host and got that fixed right quick, and the problem inspired me to do some needed technical maintenance on the gallery (and I found a neat new skin to use!). During my initial perusal of what needed to be done, I saw that there was a new version of the core module for the Gallery2 installation, which is logically the first update someone would do during tech maintenance.

But--surprise of all surprises--something went wrong. Even though I was using the upgrade method that the Gallery2 website says is the most reliable and thorough, something had to go wrong. And I could contact our host again, or I could use the weekend to reinstall the whole thing and do a certain upgrade project I've been thinking about for the site. And you know how I can be... once I conceive about how something could be better, it will never be good enough until then.

If everything goes right (and of course, it will!) gallery navigation will get better and more intuitive, and I'll be another step closer to bringing this site to a point where I can get back to producing content instead of thinking about how it needs to be improved. And that's good!

Labels: admin, gallery