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Development Update 10/22 Hey! This journal is updated through the week! So check every so often. Some hot issues that we're working on this week: Site Is Slow For You? Posting Bugs UPDATE 10/25 Working out some gremlins in VJ. We think we've got them licked, but we're keeping a close eye on them. UPDATE 10/23 Woot! We announced VJ and Cash Shop, which are the two features I was vaguely hinting at below. Both will be very cool. Also: we fixed that strange forum post bug today, so as of now your posts should not be mysteriously truncating. Also clearing up some misconceptions: yes, the Gaia Cash Shop items will be tradeable and sellable in the marketplace. I expect the price of them to drop substantially over time because a) there are more people that have access to Gaia Cash Shop than to Target, and b) the supply of them is essentially infinite. So, if you don't have the extra money to spend, just wait a while... and make some gold... and you'll be able to buy it on the market soon enough. Bugs We're Working On This Week The forum bug that was causing some messages to get truncated will go out in the Tuesday patch. Among other things, we plan on fixing a problem related to ads being served to donators and yet another speed problem, which should hopefully take care of the problem described in this thread, and should also make the site faster. Changes to the forum post form are also due either this week or next. Everyone Getting Sick It seems like a wave of sickness is moving through the development group. It all started with the flu shots. True to form, most people that got the flu shot started to get the flu. Now the sickness has mutated and reverberated back and forth, and it probably isn't being helped by our Halloween decorations. Whether by psychosomatic propagation or very real viruses, I've got a killer headache at the moment, so I'm hoping I'm not the next to fall prey! In any event this update is a little short, and I'll beef it up later in the week. Hacking and Scamming We've made a couple of changes to make it harder for hackers and scammers to do their thing, and we're making a few more changes, some of which won't be visible to legit users but will be very noticeable to hackers and scammers. Also, we're adding some more people onto the hacking queues to try and bring down the wait time. But never give out your password. Let me restate: NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD. Anyone legitimate won't ask for it. I don't care if they appear to have official Gaia banners, what color their name is, if they spelled everything right, if you've been threatened with banning, it doesn't matter -- if they ask for your password, it's not legitimate. Community Interaction We are rolling out some stuff in the next two or three weeks that should help in funneling information from the users and back to the users -- more details to follow! Cool Stuff I hate to say it because something often comes up at the last moment, but cool stuff is planned this week, including: an amazing new way to interact with your friends, and some astonishing new items in a new venue!

Posted by: Panagrammic Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 05:38am

Read my journal!

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dBEf-GAEc-18E-BBAf
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Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 05:45am


	Love your updates as usual. Whoot! Quote: We are rolling out some stuff in the next two weeks that should help in funneling information from the users and back to the users -- more details to follow! awesome!

Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 07:11am


	new items in a new venue?! Does that mean new shop? Cause I always love expansions that require NPCs to appear... or new maps to be available.

Shiarka Jonless
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Smaddy
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Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 07:40am


	Thanks for the info. The best way to fight sickness is lots of Vitamin C, and washing your hands often! Hope you dont get sick.... but it is that time of year. It's always good to hear that communications between users and Staff is going to open up even more. I'm curious to see what happens. It's also great to hear more preventative measures are being taken against hackers & scammers. Has the Staff ever considered using a program that detects a password's strength? I've seen it on a few other sites -- when you register and input your password, it gives you a measurement of strength, and it forces you to use caps & lowercase letters and numbers. Then again, I know little about programs and implementing them on a site, so I don't know how difficult it would be. I also always wondered if it would be possible to implement a system where you had to confirm name changes, and password changes through the email you used to register to Gaia with. Of course, there would need to be a warning, so people could change their emails in case they use an inactive account. I only suggest this because so many people get hacked, and I think it's far too easy for a hacker to go in and change the person's name, email, password, etc and lock them out of their account. New items in a new place? Exciting, new items are always good.... and we still have Halloween to look forward to, too! 4laugh

Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 07:48am


	@Smaddy: Yes, we've considered something like that, and it's even on a fix list somewhere (but maybe not for a while). Although in all the hacking cases that I've looked at, it was a phishing site or someone fell for a fake PM -- that is, the inherent problem isn't the strength of the password, it's the fact that people are giving them out!

Panagrammic
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Blaze-kun
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Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 07:58am


	Something that kind of irks me is that the staff seem to never notice this forum: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/bug-reports-technical-support/f.47/ When there is a site-related issue that is bothering a user, the only thing to do is make a thread in the feedback forum and keep bumping it and bumping it.... and hope that someone important (someone who can effect change) reads it.

Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 12:14pm


	My one thought I've always had about the password protection thing is something along this line. There are three real main points where anyone has to use their password on gaia. 1. One is to, of course, gain access to ones Account. 2. Another is Trades through the bank. 3. And third coincides with Trading, which is the Marketplace. Personally, I feel like gaia should implement a thing where Trades/Marketplace have a different password from a users account password. Which I personally think would help out, coinciding with the password strength thing and preventing a user from using the same password for trades/marketplace. Which would make it, I think, harder for someone to take/sell through the marketplace if someone manages to gain access to someone else's account. Leaving the person having unauthorised access to someone else's account to sell stuff back to the store, where I think would make it easier for said items to be recovered. If that makes any sense at all, it is 4am in the morning after all, so you'll have to excuse me. sweatdrop Anyways, cool new stuff is always fun. I wonder what it is? ninja

Aeolusis
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Infamous
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Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 04:03pm


	I thought we interacted enough? XDD There was a discussion in the GCD about using Instant Messaging programs to talk with other users. I can't wait to see what the new way is. More shopping is on its way? Woo! <3

Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 04:16pm


	How much you wanna bet all that cool stuff is going to be pushed back for weeks? ninja sinical ninja ninja ::sigh...:: I'm bitchy today....

Elijah Frost
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Hearts Pebbles
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Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 05:02pm


	foams at the mouth More information?? You must tell me more, as I've made it my life's goal to do such a thing! Also, because you haven't been visiting us in the thread. It makes me a sad Hearts. emo O ya. And please feel better soon! I might be a wee bit upset that I haven't been getting any answers out of you (You devs are a tight lipped bunch!) but that doesn't mean I want anybody being sick! So don't do it! Don't get sick! scream

Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 07:15pm


	looks at the Cool Stuff eek I want!

Cid High-Wind
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XDvandalDJ
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Commented on: Tue Oct 23, 2007 @ 10:48pm


	I'm anxious to see what your hints turn out to be... oh so anxious.

Commented on: Thu Oct 25, 2007 @ 07:18pm


	Do you have any open source program where experienced PHP programmers like myself can fix our "favorite" bugs? I'd like to take care of the 'botting risk in wordbump so that its rewards and exchanges can be turned back on. BTW, My resume, LinkedIn profile and dot-com enterprise (a PHP site I programmed myself) are online and can be Googled from my real name in your DB. "I may be pissing into the wind, but if I keep my enemies behind me and aim carefully, I can still rain on their parade!" -- Uncle Jeff

Uncle Jeff
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Jaysoko
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Commented on: Fri Oct 26, 2007 @ 01:19pm


	Quote: @Smaddy: Yes, we've considered something like that, and it's even on a fix list somewhere (but maybe not for a while). Although in all the hacking cases that I've looked at, it was a phishing site or someone fell for a fake PM -- that is, the inherent problem isn't the strength of the password, it's the fact that people are giving them out! Seriously, if people are stupid enough to give them out when it says DON'T GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD all over the site, they deserve to be scammed. They need to learn to not do those things, and not rely on the site to protect their accounts. Quote: Community Interaction We are rolling out some stuff in the next two or three weeks that should help in funneling information from the users and back to the users -- more details to follow! Please tell me that doesn't mean making a feature that was once useful and flexible into something limited and generic, or some stupid new post checking thing or something else that's utterly useless? Or some sort of censorship? Oh no, I'm turning into a GCDer! gonk But seriously, please tell me it isn't something stupid.

Commented on: Fri Oct 26, 2007 @ 05:29pm


	Gaians are lazy and its too many of us for us not to have jobs. The Job Movement. We need Support! The reasons. 1) More gold equals more options to buy and to upgrade are Avatar's 2) More mini games like (Gaia Cafe) (Like diner Dash) 3) More friends or Co-Workers 4) More Clubs to Join 5) More reason to Log on Gaia. Gaia is big but we could become bigger. I also like to say good job with the recent updates. Good Work and thank you for taking some time out to read this.

Oshega
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Maril
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Commented on: Fri Oct 26, 2007 @ 09:15pm


	Quote: I hate to say it because something often comes up at the last moment, but cool stuff is planned this week, It's the end of the week, where's the cash shop?!? whee (couldn't resist xd ) Seriously though, I love the idea, and can't wait till it comes because I'm horribly impatient and even more curious xd crosses fingers that it comes out later today

Commented on: Sat Oct 27, 2007 @ 04:57pm


	I'm happy for VJ but the only gripe I have is the searching engine thingy machig. Can't seem to get a specific vids for my playlist. Hope that it'll be worked on sometime later. Can't wait for the cashshop. ^w^

Green Pendant
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