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I'm all for whatever it takes to keep this a safe site for everyone and especially our young people as they are very special to us here.
Just want to say Thank You for all the time and effort you all put into making this a safe haven for all of us.
Poodlelady
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Posted 02/12/2009 10:04am
Author: poodlelady
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I do not understand completely but then when I start doing the new things they become clearer.
Old dogs can learn new tricks, it just takes a little longer.
All of you work so hard at keeping us safe from those that would cause harm or hurt.
Bless you!
KraftyKatz
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Posted 02/12/2009 11:50am
Author: kraftykatz
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Hello Everybody,
@poodle: Thank you 
@reborn: Yes, a number of other social websites have copied features we have put into place. A large number of them are trying very very hard to duplicate our AAIMS (Autonomous Artificial-Intelligence Monitoring System) (pronounced: aims - as in aiming a gun), which is our system for processing new content to make sure it does not contain anything unacceptable. But, all of the changes address in this announcement are things that are already in place elsewhere. With maybe the exception of some new idea we might come up with on how to do an adult validation system... but at first we'll just be using a method others are already using.
@krafykatz: Not to worry, I don't understand most of it either 
Thanks all,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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Posted 02/12/2009 04:53pm
Author: abelajohnb
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Hey John,
Just wondering...
I was re-reading the part about minors and groups and I have a question. If a minor is currently the member of a group which is run by and made up of adults, does that mean they could eventually no longer be a part of that group? Or is that one of those haven't figured out the details yet sort of thing?
K 
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Posted 02/13/2009 03:13am
Author: kreynolds
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Hey kreynolds,
At this point I think that is going to fall under the "ummm, I've got no idea" category...
To be honest, I had not even thought about the situation you presented.
So, let me hem haw for a moment or two... brb...
Ok, I'm back... went and made myself a couple of casadias and thought about this...
At this time there is no personally identifiable information within the CB Groups other than the persons usersname and their avatar.
Now, that does not account for published comments within the CB Groups... BY minors...
Sooooo... that's something I'm going to need to thinking about for a few more minutes... brb while I eat my casadias...
Mmmmm, good stuff!!!
Ok, I just finished thinking this through.
As I see it, I am going to have to say...
Ask me this question again next month. Because right now I just don't know how this whole change of minor-protected-content is really going to go-down... there's way to many unknowns to really answer this question at this time.
Sorry,
John
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Posted 02/13/2009 04:09am
Author: abelajohnb
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Hey Everybody,
A rather big change is going to be made with the change-over to the new Friends/Contacts system... and while it will not affect 99% of our membership, we want to give a heads-up for the other 1% of you out there that it will affect!
The big change (a big change within a bunch of big changes) is that we are drastically reducing the total amount of friends that people can have!
Here is how the limitation on total friends presently exists:
Free Accounts = 10 total friends
Premier Accounts = 800 friends
Gold Accounts = 2000 friends
Here is what the change of limitations of total friends will be once the new system goes into place:
Free Accounts = 10 total friends
Premier Accounts = 100 friends
Gold Accounts = 200 friends
At this time less than 0.1% of our members have over 100 friends, so even for those who are Premier/Gold Members, we do not feel this change will be too drastic for you.
I spent the better part of today cleaning up my own friends list. I had over 3,500 people in my friends list. When I was finished cleaning it up, I had less than 50 people in my friends list. Now, I probably removed a few I shouldn't have by mistake... but even given that fact, I really do doubt I would have more than 50 people in my friends list.
So, to put a limit of 100 for Premier Members I feel is an acceptable amount of people to have in your friends list. I really do not see how a person could keep track of 100+ people... I just don't.
So, for those of you that are uber-friendly and just gotta have your massive friends list, you'll either need to become a Premier Member... or if your really really serious about having more friends that people I know... you'll need to become a Gold Member.
A couple other changes that will be put into place is the total amount of friends/contacts within each of the four sections (family,closest,church,professional). We are now going to be limiting each section to a max of 10 friends/contacts.
We are putting these changes into place because (a) they just make sense to us, (b) they will help keep the website more conformed to how everything else works, (c) keep everybodies friends/bio pages loading quickly, and (d) because based on our review of everybodies friends list, those high numbers we had (800/2000) were just not realistic.
Ok, let the flames begin.
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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Posted 02/13/2009 05:09am
Author: abelajohnb
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Opps, I forgot to mention...
I are also doing away with the whole "friends settings" feature that NOBODY is actually use.
You know, that part that allows you to set the age, gender and location of those who are allowed to contact you.
Oh wait, you probably don't know... because just about nobody uses them. lol
So, yeah, no reason to have a feature that almost nobody uses... so, it'll be going bye-bye.
Now it will just be a simple "invite -> accept/deny".
You know, like it should be.
This was a serious case of over-thinking things... and time to get rid of that over-thinking.
John
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Posted 02/13/2009 05:12am
Author: abelajohnb
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I regularly go through my friends list removing anyone that has not logged on in 200 days. The list seems to stay around 70-75 friends. Don't think the changes are going to be a problem for very many.
KraftyKatz
drinking tea
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Posted 02/13/2009 01:41pm
Author: kraftykatz
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Hello All,
@alight... almost had me on the floor from laughing so hard LOL.
@kk: Yeah, that's a really good idea. Although 200 seems a bit high to me. When I was doing my purge I figured if they hadn't been to the website in 45 days, I probably shouldn't expect them to be around soooo much to warrent being on my personal friends list.
Ok, I have just sent out a private message to those people that will be affected by this.
For those wondering, here are the people with the most friends:
elizabeth 585
clayonmyeyes 365
youaregolden 342
allforhim 209
happytoberestored 116
iraqivetsgtret 72
The first two haven't logged into the website in MONTHS... so, I'm not worried about them all that much.
youaregolden and her mother allforhim, are going to have to seriously wack down their total friends 
happytoberestored is a Gold member so she's safe at 116
iraqivetsgtret is knocking at the door
Oh... I have REALLY GOOD NEWS everybody!!
Last night, technically this morning for all of you, before I went to bed, I figured out a way to do a merge !!!!!
Weeeehoooo!!!
So, that means that nobody will have to rebuild their friends/contacts list!
You'll just have to run a short "merger" (part of the website) that we will activate when we get ready for the transition from the old system to the new system.
I realize all of this is a lot of craziness for everybody, but in the end, it will be worth it. This new friends/contacts system ROCKS!! In fact, I like it so much I'm going to start using it in my other popular websites!!
Ok, I am going to be doing further/final testing on the new friends/contacts system all day today, so I suspect that by tomorrow (saturday) we will be making the transition from the existing system to the new system. For all of you, that will involve a one-step process of visiting the "merger" page of the website. Once you do that, your old friends system will get disabled and your new one will be enabled - along with the transfer of your friends from the old to the new.
Or, I might just shut down the ability to add new friends for an hour or two tonight, and we'll do the merging from our end. This would probably be the better course of action... it'll just mean nobody will be able to add/edit/delete/remove their friends while we are doing this.
Anyway, that's all I've got to share for now. Time for me to go cook some McCANN'S Steel Cut Traditional Oatmeal -- Mmmmmm!!
John
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Posted 02/13/2009 06:00pm
Author: abelajohnb
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Greetings from the telemetry Ward,
Great ideas and execution John on this friends stuff. Much better than the NBC version which ran for years.
The new page looks clean and crisp and flows with blogs page. You better watch out or this site is going to become so COOL everyone will want to copy it!!
thanks for figuring out the merge thing so quickly and if you can do it from your end, that would be great.
Well, back to watching the Heperin drip, life is so exciting up here on the 4th floor (not the 7th where the, well you know whos are).
B2Y
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Posted 02/13/2009 06:58pm
Author: blessings2you
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Many thanks to the Technical Team, for all the work that you put into this fantastic website. May God indeed bless you, as you labour on for Him.  
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Posted 02/14/2009 02:36am
Author: mumbly
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OK, I have been busily deleting friends, not hard but tedious. Geez most people hadn't logged in for over a year and some almost two! I'll have to pay more attention. I am so glad you worked it where we can merge instead of start all over again and I appreciate the security put into place, as I have young children getting close to that critical age. I am going to pare it down to less than 100 do I can still make new friends  ! Old Girl Scout that I am.
Blessings!
Andrea
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Posted 02/14/2009 03:57am
Author: allforhim
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Hey All,
Ok, I have got the merge completed.
I am now going to begin the process of updating the profile/bio page to have it use the new contacts system.
After that will be getting all of the links changed.
After that will be setting up the new "invitation" system.
After that will be re-activating the "invitation" system, which I disabled a few hours ago to prevent any issues from pop'ing up during the transition.
If all goes well, I should be done in about 2 more hours. (hopefully most of you are sleeping right now)
I will update everybody as I move through this process.
Thanks,
John
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Posted 02/14/2009 04:56am
Author: abelajohnb
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Ok, I have just finished up four major things:
(1) All members profile/bio pages now show the NEW Friends/Contacts system!!!
(2) All members profile/bio pages now use the new Friends/Contact system for their "My Wall".
(3) You can now view all of a friends friends/contacts!! Note that people can only view your FULL friends-list IF they are your friend! Unlike before when we showed all of your friends to everybody, we know only display your entire friends/contacts list to those who ARE your friend!
(4) The link at the top of the website now points to /contacts/ instead of /friends/ We will leave the old system /friends/ in place for a week or so to allow everybody to have access to their old friends-list, for whatever reason they might need it.
Please report any feedback from these changes.
Next I will be getting the "invitation" feature working again... be back when I'm done with that!
Thanks,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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Posted 02/14/2009 05:57am
Author: abelajohnb
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Really like the new look of my friends page. It is so easy to read ans navigate. You are right 200 days is a lot, maybe I should cut back on the number. Three months or 90 days may be a better number.
LOVE the changes so far.
KraftyKatz
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Posted 02/14/2009 06:32am
Author: kraftykatz
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Ok, last major update before I take a break...
I have now gotten the entire "invitation" feature re-activated.
I had to complete rewrite the whole thing from the ground-up, so, it took a bit longer than expected.
So, it works almost identical as it always has...
When you are viewing the profile page of a member:
If you are already their friend you will see the button to send them a message.
If you are not already their friend you will see a button to send an invitation request. ( i am reaaaly tired so if somebody could review the text on the invite page and let me know if it makes sense or not, that would be great)
If you click the button to send them an invitation, you will have a short form to fill out.
It includes: "type" (family, friend, church, professional) and a short "message".
Than, the person who you are sending the invitation too will get a little message at the top of the website letting them know they have a pending invitation.
At which point they can either approve or deny your invitation.
Simple as that.
Ok, a few changes for those who've been around a loooong time.
The whole ability to disable the feature of not allowing friend invitations has been removed. Simply put, if you don't want people to send you invites... sorry. Just hit the "deny" button and move on with your life.
Likewise, the whole crazy schema of setting who can contact you based on age, sex, location,etc... yeah, that has also been removed. Same as above... just "Deny" if you don't want to deal with it.
FYI: When you "deny" an invitation the person who sent you the invitation WILL NOT receive a message saying you denied their invitation.
FYI2: After I get some sleep, I will update the "pending friends" page and include a section where you can see invitations that YOU have sent and have not yet been accepted/denied by the person you sent the invite too. I'm just too tired to do that tonight.
FYI3: Umm, I'm sure there is a #3... but the 5-hour drink I drank about 2.5 hours ago is starting to wear off and I cannot remember what #3 would be right now. LOL.
Ok, until tomorrow... I await everybodies feedback and bug/error-reports!!
Blessings,
John B. Abela
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Posted 02/14/2009 08:02am
Author: abelajohnb
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EXCELLENT work oh tireless hard working and relentlessly committed to making this site the COOLEST on the web one.
I am sure after everyone's feelings are sufficiently healed for being lopped off the bestest friends lists because of going down from 15 to 10, everything will be fine. Was that a technical issue--the reduction of best friends to 10?
I am so glad to have this simplified version in operation. Like all the other kabillion great changes that have come to this site in the past year or soTEN THUMBS UP, or at least TWO.
Blessings from the 4th Floor, ???? Wing.
Great Job Brother,
B2Y
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Posted 02/14/2009 09:07am
Author: blessings2you
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@sbg:
#1: Yeah, I was totally thrilled about that myself. I did not look forward to trying to explain to 9000+ members who to do the merge manually. Of course it took me two days of work to get the darn thing to work... but, it worked! There were only about 6 or 7 people that the merge script did not work for, and they were all people who've not visited CB for over two years... so, I wasn't worried about theirs working too much.
#2: What do you not understand?
#3: The "closest friends" value was carried over from the old friends system to the new friends system. So, if you had somebody marked as a "close friend" in the old one, they *should* be within your new friends system as a "close friend". Just remember, each section (family,friends,closest,church,professional) are limited to TEN friends... so if you had 15 in your old system, your going to lose five people from the merge. I have no idea how the merge script calculated which of the 5 would have gotten whacked... so don't ask. lol.
If you have found something that does not seem to have merged correctly, please, let me know and I'll try to fix it ASAP!
(asap as in... after I sleep for a few hours )
Blessings All,
John B. Abela
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Posted 02/14/2009 09:09am
Author: abelajohnb
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@b2y:
You posted while I was typing the comments to sbc... so, double posts here on my part.
In regards to the decision of going from 15 down to 10 for each of the Friend Types (family,friend,church,professional)...
It was most one of those "executive decisions" that yours truly decided to make.
I figured alight has been bugging me for the last month about not having more than 15, so, I'd counter-act with going down to ten only.
lol... no no no... that's not the reason LOL.
Um, ok, let me try this one:
Yeah, at the end of the day, I just had to make a decision on "how many for each section"... and I decided "10" sounded good.
Yes, that really is the reason. No great science or programming complications behind 10 verses 15. I just felt "10" was a better all-around number. Nothing more, nothing less.
To compensate for the change from 15 to 10, I have been writing down a list of additional Friend Types, beyond the existing four (family,friend,church,professional) types. I've got a few ideas so far. Such as "Minister, Neighbor, Youth Group, Seniors Group"... so, I am open to suggestions if you/anybody has any suggestions.
I had actually thought of allowing people to define their own Friend Types. But at the end of the day, I just figured that would cause more tech-support heartache than it would convenience.
Anyway, hope that answers your question.
Oh, and btw... what has the world comes too when a guy has a heart surgery and than later that day he's on the internet surfing around lol. wow brother... you got more strength than I think a guy who just had his heart ripped into should be having. Put the computer back in the wives purse and enjoy the lime jello and day time soap tv shows LOLOL.
John
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Posted 02/14/2009 09:22am
Author: abelajohnb
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John, thank you for all your hard work. I have one question and maybe it is a stupid question. I don't see how to add people to my friends list still like it use to be. Am I blind? Help me see John. (I only have 19 friends and would like to add more, I feel kind of inadequate compared to elezabeth at 585, clayonmyeyes at 365, youaregolden at 342, algorism at 209, happytoberestored at 116 and iraqivetsgtret at 72.) As for all the changes I say, Good Job! I realize with the changes of times and predators out there we need to protect our young Believers. I don not want to see them dropped from our site here because I believe as much as they need us older Believers, we need them too. So I'm glad you are not leaving them out without CB. Bless You Brother for your many hours of work here at CB.
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Posted 02/14/2009 10:04am
Author: gfccbrother
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I have watched more tv the past few days than the past 10 years combined. Typing here gives me relief from the boredom. Thanks and I understand your executive decision. To appease alight, how about a class of friends called "kindred spirits" aka "bestest of the bestest friends". Just a thought.
B2Y
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Posted 02/14/2009 12:36pm
Author: blessings2you
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Hello All,
Ok so I just woke up.
Actually, I'm not sure I'm "awake" yet... but I am up.
Alarm went off that told me it was time to feed the cat... and heaven help me if I don't feed the cat. 
So, probably going to answer a few questions and go crawl back in bed...
Well, unless I messed up something...
When you are viewing somebodies profile page, you should see the usual "invite friends-name to be a friend".
For instance, I seemed to have removed you from my friends list during all of this (opps, sorry)... so when I am viewing your profile page ( http://www.christianblog.com/bio/gfccbrother/ ) I see the following option:
So to add you to my friends list, I would click on the button that says "invite gfccbrother to be a friend!"... and I'll be taken to another page that looks like this:
I would than fill out the form... what "type" of friend you are (family,friend,church,professional) -- use "friend" for generic friends -- and than type in a short message.
That information would get sent over you to, and when you logged into the website, you would see a message at the top of the website that says "you have a pending friend invitation".
You go to the pending friend invitation, all of my information is shown there, along with what type of friends I think we are (family,friend,church,professional) and you see the message I wrote.
At that point you can either click an "accept" or a "deny" button.
Now, if you do not see that "invite friends-usersname to be your friend" button, when viewing their profile page... and you know they are not in your friends list...
Well, than I obviously messed up something and would need to know you cannot see it so I can try to fix it.
Thanks!
Huh??
Or I could just make it so that alight cannot add anybody to his friendslist except for me
lolololol.
hey kreynolds,
Did you notice if you go to your "all my friends" page... and go all the way down to the bottom... on the bottom right it shows the "average age of all your friends".
(ok, that really had nothing to do with nothing... just wanted to throw out that little feature to everybody lol)
Well, please do let me know, everybody, if you guys find anything "wrong" or "not working" with any of the new friends system!
Also remember that you can get to your OLD friends list by going to http://www.christianblog.com/friends/
Alrighty, hope that answers everything.
John
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Posted 02/14/2009 05:52pm
Author: abelajohnb
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I do have problem. I inadvertantly invited Mrs. B2Y to be my friend/family obviously when you had it down this morning. She never received the invitation and when I tried to invite again, it says invitation is pending. I show no pending invitations on my friends page. Any remedy? I would like to have my beloved as a friend/family.
Thanks,
B2Y
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Posted 02/14/2009 06:58pm
Author: blessings2you
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Hey Everybody,
I have been getting requests for a "purge" feature, so folks can quickly and easily remove everybody in their friends/contacts list.
I have now added that option to your "Friends" page.
It will require password verification, just to make sure you do not do it by mistake
Thanks,
John B. Abela
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Posted 02/15/2009 03:56am
Author: abelajohnb
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OK Yesterday, I tediously deleted my friends list until I was down to 97 friends. I just looked and it says I have 194 friends but I can only see 100 and I see no way to go to another page. What can I do? Because there are friends I want to keep on the missing page and those who should be deleted. Help please?
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Posted 02/15/2009 05:10am
Author: allforhim
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@allforhim,
Nothing at all that I can do to aid you in this process.
I do appologize for pushing out the merge earlier than expected (and perhaps not giving you time to clean up your contacts list).
What I will work on is a "duplicate purger" to see if that can help out. Perhaps it decided to double-up on all of your friends?
If that is not the issue, there really will not be anything I can do, other than to suggest you just start removing people in your first 100 until you get it cleaned up to where you'd like it.
@kreynolds,
I have 100% no idea what in the world you are talking about.
This blog has nothing at all to do with Groups, so, why are you rambling on about Groups in a thread devoted to changes with Security, Privacy, and contacts?
John
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Posted 02/15/2009 05:43am
Author: abelajohnb
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@allforhim
ps: the duplication fixer thingie is going to have to wait until tomorrow. after 14 straight hours yesterday pounding out the new contacts system, my brain is just telling me to take a day off. so, i'll get it into the to-do-list for tomorrow. sorry for the delay.
John
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Posted 02/15/2009 06:11am
Author: abelajohnb
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@John
In the list of friend type,
Friend
closest friend
church
family
a place to list those that are in a CB group with us.
Sorry I didn't explain what I meant.
KraftyKatz
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Posted 02/15/2009 12:09pm
Author: kraftykatz
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Thanks John, where I noticed the problem was when I wanted to invite blessing2you to my friends list because I thought he was already a friend but he was not in my list. When I am on his site it lets me send him a message like he is on my friends list already, no invitation available or needed. So maybe he is in my friends but doesn't show up. Minor clitch I guess. If you could change it, blessings2you and I would like to be friends. Thanks John. I appreciate all your hard work which I don't have a clue how you do it, but I'm thankful God has graced you with that ability. Keep up the good work, and don't forget to feed your cat. 
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Posted 02/15/2009 02:44pm
Author: gfccbrother
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@KraftyKatz,
I am not exactly sure WHY we would want to have have a list for "Group Members" within the Contacts system. A list of contacts is already within the Groups pages, so why duplicate an existing list of people?
@gfccbrother,
It looks like blessings2you is within your Friends/Contacts list. He is listed under your "Church" category/type.
If he does not show up under that category section of your friends list, let me know and we'll look into why.
@allforhim,
Going to try to get that duplication feature developed tonight. Going to be a LOT of work, so no promises I can get it finished in one day.
Thanks all,
John B. Abela
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Posted 02/16/2009 01:11am
Author: abelajohnb
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Ok everybody,
Due to abuse that we really felt our responsible members would NOT do... but ARE doing... we have made a change to the "Family" category/type.
It appears people are putting friends and not blood-relatives within their "Family" section. While it might be nice and all to think of "brothers and sisters in the Lord" that is not the intended purpose of the "Family" category - and, we suspect that those abusing this are well aware of it.
As a result, we have limited the total number of people within the "Family" Category to four (4) people. At this point in time, to the best of our knowledge, nobody at CB has more than 4 other family-members (that would be BLOOD-RELATED family members) that are also members of CB.
We have also added a qualifier within the "edit friends" page that the individual needs to be "blood related" (i.e.: anything in the drop-down-list).
Personally, I find it rather offensive that people would abuse our system in such a way... so, if people continue to abuse this feature, I will put into place a very strict system that will require authorization of family relationship. Pretty sad if I actually have to do that folks... but, I will do what I have to do to ensure the highest integrity continues to be enforced that our community has come to expect from us here at ChristianBlog.Com
For Christ's Ministry,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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Posted 02/16/2009 02:23am
Author: abelajohnb
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Process Review...
Profile Page:
To contact a member you must invite them to join your friends list - and they must approve your request.
Once (if they decide to approve your invitation request) they have confirmed your invitation you will be able to contact them.
1. Text look fine.
2. Get rid of the extra line between the two lines of text...it is easy enough to read without the extra line between them...
3. May want to add something like, "if they accept your Friend Invitation, when you return to their Profile page, the invite button will then read Send Username a message". Right now a new person may not see that they need to return to the profile page to send a message... logic would say you need to go to the My Message system instead...(Maybe at some point the Tech Support should be at the Top of the Friends listing so that it is an easy way to send them a message... thinking out loud . . . or maybe the friends is incorperated into the Inbox page somehow... anyway.)
Invitation Page:
About This Page: From this page you can send a request to iraqivetsgtret asking them if they would like to have you listed within their friends list.
Please note that the friends/contact system is a 2-way street -- If you send an invitation to be their friend and they accept your invitation you will automatically be added into their friends list and they will automatically be added to your friends list!
1. Text looks fine.
2. May want to note, "If you at some point Remove a Friend from your list, You will be removed from your friend's list at the same time.
3. May want to note that bbcode and smilies don't work here and that spaces, etc. are removed.
Categories Friends Page:
1. I sent iraqivetsgtret an invite but he didn't show up on the "Pending List".
2. It shows I have 276 friends, but it should be much less, like under 20ish. Could it be looking at friends I had at one time but removed from My list, but because I am still on someone else's list the database picked up them as still being "on" my list???
my 2 cents... .
PapaBear
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Posted 02/16/2009 06:20am
Author: greybear
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- If the minors materials is "hidden, how will it be moderated or reported on by the community if their is content of concern...the way it sounds only minors will be seeing the content so only minors will report on it, if necessary.
-See note on previous comment... also the old notes on friends are lost in the merge process...so unless I get around to adding it back in, I may forget that John keeps less than regular waking hours and that he loves unique coffees and teas...lol
I for one hope you can figure this whole deal out, not just for CB but because it could force a major change in the industry id "somebody" really get a working solution.
Not to complex and it has to stay user friendly or I think it will not be used... anxious to see what "member based calculation" will look like.
Wow, my heart just fell on the floor...dead. This will mean that some real dedicated people are going to need to step up to the plate...This is a "time hog" and will require moderation that sets personal oppinion aside and allows review purely based on the CB Global Policies and nothing else...Ugggghh. Great idea for the site, but well... ugggghh.
Agian, how will the moderating and reporting work if it is a "minor only access" information post.
I would like to see Parent Controlled set up inside the Parent account...the account would be accessed by the child's own login, but all setting would be controlled soley by the parent account...also the Parent account would need a child account history log so they can track what "content type" their child is accessing. my 2 cents.
It is sad that this is even necessary to consider...as adults we really need to figure out how to Not make this even necessary...
thats's it for now...
PapaBear
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Posted 02/16/2009 06:44am
Author: greybear
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@greybear,
Thanks for the all the comment/suggestions!
Ok, this is going to take me a bit to comment on.
In regards to the textual changes, I'll get them onto the to-do-list.
Yeah, seems to be a bug somewhere. A few people are reporting that. Hopefully can have it fixed in 48 hours or so.
I believe that is an issue that should be discussed within the Team/Moderator Group.
Yeah, forgot to mention that...
They are not "lost"... they just haven't got merged over yet. Hopefully in the next 48-hours or so.
Oh the thrill of anticipation
So do I GreyBear, so do I!!
You, me, and everybody else can say an "amen" to that statement GreyBear!
Again, an issue to take to the private Team/Moderator Group we've got.
Yes, very good ideas!!
As we get closer to the development-phase of the "Parental Control" features, we will be opening up a Discussion for public-feedback. We already know what kind of features we will implement that are being pushed on us by the laws-of-the-land, but we do not plan on stopping at just those features. We really do want to make ChristianBlog.Com not only what the lawyers want, but what our parents want!
Ditto.
Thanks again for the comments/suggestions GreyBear!
John
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Posted 02/16/2009 07:03am
Author: abelajohnb
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I do not show anyone in any list except closest friends, no church, business etc. I wanted to contact you via shout out too, but then realized that you must have had to minimize your friends list by a bunch. Anyway, blessings2you is still not showing up on my friends list. You said let you know.  Sorry.
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Posted 02/17/2009 05:03am
Author: gfccbrother
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@gfccbrother,
At the top of the website click on "friends"...
Than click on the link that says "Complete Friends List"...
Than you will see a list of all of your friends...
See if he is listed in there. If he is, you can click the edit-icon and move him to your "closest", if you so choose.
If he is not listed in your "Complete Friends List"... than there is a problem beyond anything anybody else has reported at this point.
Thanks,
John
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Posted 02/17/2009 05:40am
Author: abelajohnb
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No, he's not anywhere in my friends list John, don't worry about it. I'll just have to remember he is a friend and contact him through the loops somehow. That was what confused me, he was in my list one day and then not. However, I can still send him a message as though he is in my friends list without inviting him to be my friend. As long as we know we are friends, I guess that is all that matters.
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Posted 02/17/2009 04:48pm
Author: gfccbrother
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@gfcbrother,
That is really weird, because from what I can see in our database you and blessings2you are in each others friend list. Might be worth it to drop him a message and ask if you are in his... even though he does not seem to be in yours.
@Everybody,
We have just updated the profile page to show a message if you have reached the limit of your allowed friends/contacts.
Rather than having an invitation button (which would do no good because you have already reached your limit) we will not display the button and instead show a message that says something like: "Sorry but usersname has reached the limit of how many friends they can have."
This will keep things more in-line with how they should be.
For all of you who have reached your limit and are free members, I would love to invite you to become a Premier Member! The funds that come into CB from Premier Membership is the only income that ChristianBlog.Com has at the website right now, so it would be a great way to say thanks and to help support ChristianBlog.Com! And please remember that Donations are always a HUGE help!
Blessings to all,
John B. Abela
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Posted 02/18/2009 05:07am
Author: abelajohnb
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I'm noticing something odd on my profile page that I don't remember seeing before all the changes.
The section where it lists my comments to others' blogs, the last column says "blog author" but instead of showing the blog's author, it seems to show the last person commenting.
Just FYI. Not like you didn't have enough to do. And i love the new look and to all the pages.
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Posted 02/20/2009 04:56pm
Author: savedbyegrace
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John, Could you please clarify whether the drop down menu for friends is supposed to have 'closest friends' in it. I seem to have two closest friends without ever having had any before (don't misunderstand me, I am very grateful for them lol) but I can't find a way to add any more to the list.
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Posted 02/20/2009 05:49pm
Author: kiwibird
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@sbg: wow, you know, that bug has been that way for MONTHS... LOL. Thanks for reporting it. It's fixed now
@kiwi: The drop-down for "Type" should NOT have "Closest Friends" within it. The next option is for setting a friend as close or not (yes/no). I would say you probably had a couple of friends marked as "closest" in the old system, and you just didn't know about it. Our migration software when we merged from the old to the new would _not_ have changed whether a friend was a close friend or not.
@Everybody,
The switch to the new Friends/Contacts System was just step-one in a multi-step process that will eventually lead to our final security features presented within this blog. Please give us time to work our way through all of the necessary steps. We WILL announce each new step as we put them in place.
Thanks,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com
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Posted 02/20/2009 06:23pm
Author: abelajohnb
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Hello Everybody,
Ok I have spent the better part of today trying to get the website to be faster!
I've been working on three specific items, in attempts to get the website to load faster.
Please note that when I list how long things are loading faster, that I have a 6-meg internet connection. Those on 1.5 meg internet connections should double the times I have listed, and those on dial-up should be able to see a 5x faster load time.
So, for instance: If I say something has increased by ~5 seconds, that means for those of you on dial-up, you should see about 9-12 seconds of speed increase.
(1) The right-side of the website.
I have made some pretty serious cosmetic changes to the right-side of the website.
Most obvious will be that I've now merged all of the "General Stats" into one long section, rather than each of them being in their own little block.
I have also removed the "whos logged in today" section. That block was taking ~2 additional seconds of load-time.
I also remove the section that had all of the "x-blogs for this, x-new members, x-words today" etcetc. That block was taking ~5 additional seconds of load time.
So, total time saved by changing the right-side of the website is ~7 seconds. This will positively affect most pages of the website and REALLY help with the "home page"... which was seriously getting bogged down. Overload of information... my fault.
(2) The (logged in) "Home Page" of the website.
Without a doubt the most visited page of the website is the "home page" of the website. Once you log into the website is is here most people are directed too. It is also the place most people click to in order to navigate around the website.
Because it is so important to the general navigation of the website, it is very important that the home page loads very quickly.
However over the last few months it has started to get slower and slower - and that does not make me or anybody else happy.
So, I've been working on a new design. The biggest change that the new one I am working on (not public yet) are:
(a) I have now broken up the blog listings into two sections, "New Blogs Since Your Last Visit" and "Blogs With New Comments Since Your Last Visit".
(b) In redoing the above feature, I have moved away from displaying the blog text on the home page. At first I thought this was going to be a *major* issue, but the more I use this new home page, the more I am liking it. It loads faster, it is cleaner, and I can view more information without having to scroll so much.
I have been able to speed-up the "home page" by over 5 seconds by making these changes.
(3) The Friends/Contacts section of the bio/profile page.
This is a big one... and the main reason I am posting this...
I have discovered that by switching over to the new Friends/Contacts system, and displaying the "Family,Closest,Church,Professional" listings on the bio/profile page... that the page takes an additional 5-7 seconds to load!!
Ouch!
If I remove the "Family,Closest,Church,Professional" section from somebody that has a few friends (say, GreyBear)... his profile page will load 5-7 seconds FASTER!
(insert-a-really-big-sigh-here)
So, I'm going to be honest here folks... I'm not exactly sure what to do.
7-9 seconds is a HUGE amount of time to have to wait for a page to load.
When I pull out those friends sections, GreyBears profile loads (for me) in about 2-seconds.
When I have those friends seconds in GreyBears profile, the page loads (for me) in about 9-seconds.
So, at this point I am almost tempted to pull them out.
Or, redesign the entire bio/profile page.
Or, maybe something else I haven't thought of.
Anyway, I'm sort of bummed about this. 5-7 seconds is just totally unacceptable...
Well, I have a service to get too. I'll ponder on this more later tonight and see if I can come up with something to fix all of this.
Anybody got ideas/thoughts?
John
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Posted 02/21/2009 05:16pm
Author: abelajohnb
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Hello,
Over the weekend we have made a few changes to the Profile account of all members.
The changes are in part of our Security/Privacy changes to help with the control and protection of accounts.
Our recent changes include:
- We have now made it MUCH easier to contact a member - if you are their friend. Simply view their profile page and you will have quick access to a form to send them a message. In light of us adding the contact form to the profile page we have removed the "click to contact usersname" button that has been around for over two years. Please report any abnormalities you might encounter.
- We have now hidden from view the "Prayer Request", "Praise Reports", "My Top Commented Blog Entries", "My Top Viewed Blog Entries", and "My Recent Comments In Other Members Blogs" if none exist.
- We have now made it impossible to view shoutouts or send shoutouts to members if you are not their friend. Because shoutouts are often personal in nature we feel this is something that needs to be protected from the general public view and only displayed to those who are friends of each other. Note that when you are a friend of somebody ALL shoutouts are viewable, even if somebody who sent a shoutout is not your own friend. We see no reason to place such strict limitations on this, plus it will help expand your own friends network.
- We have moved the "Groups I'm Apart Of" above the "Recent Photographs I've Added" to help people quickly access the Groups they are a part of.
Thank you,
ChristianBlog.Com
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Posted 03/02/2009 12:08am
Author: christianblog
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I don't mind the minors' protection except for one little detail... you don't know if some of the bloggers are under 18 until you click on the blog and you are told...I am not in the habit of reading profiles before I comment... maybe I should get in the habit?
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Posted 05/27/2009 06:45pm
Author: blackrose65
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Log Into Chatroom 
that you figured out the merge!
3. So before I get my feelings hurt, how was the "closest friends" determined?
