Note From The Administrator

By This Is Hell Admin in Uncategorized with 40 comments
03
Apr
2010

Yo! Over the next couple of days This Is Hell may experience errors. The new website is far more robust than the older site and requires thorough testing. Email admin@thisishell.net any site errors you’re experiencing or leave a comment here.

Known Problems

  • Speed Issues
  • Error 500 permissions issue
  • iTunes link is broken due to domain switch. HOT!
  • Mobile Formatting option at bottom of page does not exist.
  • Events listing not sorting by date
  • Sharing to Facebook dropping title. FIXED: 2010-04-04T17:14:38+00:00
  • Currently author archives do not display the author profile, picture and bio.
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  • thisishelladmin

    Received these issues…
    Its working, better now.
    Still kinda slow loading. I am hitting it from doing a google search on “this Is Hell.net” and then hitting links and refreshing pages from the google results. Navigating the site internally seems a little shaky, slow and irregular page refreshes.
    Shopping cart seems to work good, wish the shirt had a logo on the back, $27.99 ?!? geez…
    The comments are a not what I'd expected. Thught it would be more wordpress like. Tweetmeme seems to be up, I think I tweeted,,,
    Date on Home sez Apr.1., Really like the design though. The branding is pretty hot.
    Does anybody really use Rss?
    Good work.

  • rob

    nice work.. really nice.. does the show the justice it deserves.. cheers

  • Mike C.

    Wow stickers and t-shirts! I think the new site looks great. It makes you guys just that much more legit. I'm the P.I.T.A. (pain in the ass) who always bugs you guys about the podcasts. I know you have a live audience and a big antenna (Chuck has told me so in various emails). But I'm hoping that along with the new site you guys take into consideration your time slot and how many people now do their listening to programs via a podcast. More shows now have more downloaded podcasts than actual live listeners for the program. It's just a reality of the way things are. So the P.I.T.A. is just hoping you take this into consideration and take the saving and posting of podcasts a little more seriously. I will continue listening and directing people towards the show. Looking forward to my trucker hat!

  • Mike C.

    I just donated $ to keep the site up/running/maintained. I hope others who enjoy the site, Chuck's work and the podcasts will do the same… Damn today's show is all ready for downloading, Bravo!

  • adamduracz

    Love the new site!

  • http://m50.net/ m50

    great new website, keep up the excellent work

  • chris

    Definitely need to get the iTunes podcast issue fixed. Love the show!

  • Jeff Goll

    Cannot download podcast from Apr.10 show. I use Mac.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3NVL3J345YO23LKACUD2RNFTSE Michael

    May 15th This Is Hell podcast will not download.

  • thisishelladmin

    Michael, please try it again and if it doesn't work email admin@thisishell.net and I'll send you a direct link.

  • Frank

    Since it has always been some sort of an issue for you guys upping the show for download, I am pleasantly surprised that this time it is just the iTunes-link ;)

    FOR ALL iTunes USERS HAVING WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS:
    for the time being, the 'RSS PODCAST'-link ( http://www.thisishellradio.info/?feed=podcast ) can be subscribed to using iTunes.

    Thank YOU thisishelladmin for the new site!
    Although according to my taste the site could do with less social network buttons…have you considered flattr-buttons yet? ( flattr.com )

    Greetings from Berlin, f

  • Marco

    The site as well as the RSS podcast feed has lately begun asking for HTTP authentication — three times per page for the web site.

  • Aldenster

    Oh No! The 'Zinterviews' aren't working! I've tried for three days and the problem is still there. It won't fully load :-( I've tried previous podcasts and they work! Hope this is corrected soon!

  • Lucy85

    The pop up player isn't working.

  • TBGB

    Neither the podcast, nor the poop up player has worked for the last three(3) weeks. I really want to hear the Zinterviews!

  • MB1036

    The show still isn't available on i-tunes. Any update on when this problem will be fixed?

  • Rasturino

    It is too difficult to find earlier podcasts in the podcast archive as compared with the old site. Search for a podcase on the old site and you only needed to scroll through all podcasts in a year. The new site lists 1 or 2 podcasts at a time in seemingly random fashion. I never know what date I’m looking for; I only want to scroll through podcasts, starting with a recent date and working backward in time from there. This site is too difficult & time consuming for that type of browsing. Thanks from an annual contributor.

  • db

    i am not a techno-jock by any means, but i can not find archived shows to listen to. I was able to do this before the site changed its look/feel.

  • Airouh45

    link to 10/30 podcast is broken. Error 404. I really enjoy listening to the podcasts. Thx

  • Airouh45

    Links to Saturday This is Hell are broken. Help please.

  • OB Bob

    sure everyone knows 11/13 link is bad on itunes……… any idea when it is going to be fixed

  • I live in my mom’s basement

    …and I can post a podcast. Why can’t you?

  • jerusalem radical

    can’t download, can’t receive podcast. can’t find archive, am i stupid or is your site stuck?

  • http://thisishell.net Admin

    Rasturino, if you noticed on the side of the website there is a section called Archive. This is where you would go back and see each post for each year and each month. The old method of scrolling through every single episode in a yearly fashion is gone and wont be coming back ever. However I believe going to through each month which only has roughly two or three pages per month is a suitable method of finding something.

  • davidskalinder

    Not two or three pages, unfortunately. Try finding the show from May 1, 2010, for example. The number of pages varies by month depending on how many news items were posted, but finding anything early in a month takes a long time, even assuming you already know what date you’re looking for. (Although four posts per page instead of two does make it better — thanks!)

    As more shows get archived on the new site, I have to agree with those who want a way to browse through the full text of many show descriptions, and only show descriptions, without too much navigation. The yearly archives were a great way to do that and I’d love to see something on the new site that provides similar functionality.

    Heh, sorry to be a pain by switching so glibly from correspondent to moaning podcast listener… Give a shout if there’s any geekery I can lend to help…

  • ChuckCheese

    This new website blows!  The links for shows doesn’t work. The link for your past website doesn’t work. There are only two links to a podcast for the whole year of 2011 and one of them is a best of.  I wanted to check how many hours you’ve broadcasted this year (I’m figuring less than fifty) and I can’t even do that. Another week passes and you are a no show.  I was a huge contributor to wnur for years and this year I gave nothing because of your poor performance last year and this year. I’m tired of hearing excuses. I’ve heard Terri Hemmert on wxrt sound like she was on her death bed for days in a row. She’s made it to work in a taxi. You’ve got to get it together!

  • ChuckCheese

    This new website blows!  The links for shows doesn’t work. The link for your past website doesn’t work. There are only two links to a podcast for the whole year of 2011 and one of them is a best of.  I wanted to check how many hours you’ve broadcasted this year (I’m figuring less than fifty) and I can’t even do that. Another week passes and you are a no show.  I was a huge contributor to wnur for years and this year I gave nothing because of your poor performance last year and this year. I’m tired of hearing excuses. I’ve heard Terri Hemmert on wxrt sound like she was on her death bed for days in a row. She’s made it to work in a taxi. You’ve got to get it together!

  • davidskalinder

    Note that you can find podcast files at http://files.thisishell.net/mp3/, even if they aren’t linked from the main page.  You can also check the backup site at http://davidskalinder.com/hell for missing recordings — that fills a few gaps so far this year and should be even more reliable in the future.

    Obviously neither of these is a complete solution since they don’t have the show descriptions (and of course they won’t do any good for show that aren’t recorded in the first place!).  But between those two links, you should at least be able to get the podcast files fairly reliably (and even more so from now on).

  • davidskalinder

    Hmm, first link was broken, it should be http://files.thisishell.net/mp3/ .

  • Jterpian8984

    I’m a big fan and longtime listener, but I’m afraid I must agree with many earlier posters that this site is not only broken, but poorly designed and amateurishly organized. The old site was so much better. You should have left well enough alone by sticking with the old design and just fixing whatever problems you had. 

    My main purpose for coming to this site is to find old podcasts. On the old site, they were organized neatly and logically, in reverse chronological order, in an archive with descriptions. One could scroll through them, looking for names and subjects of interest. It worked just fine and I often enjoyed listening to old shows I had either missed or wanted to hear again.

    With all due respect, you need to acknowledge that the redesign of this site is a failure. Let’s set aside the unacceptable level of merely technical problems: non-functional links, slow loading, etc. This new site is simply difficult to navigate. Whoever designed it seems to have given no real thought to what users are looking for when they come here.

    For example, apparently there is no longer a separate podcast archive. Now the shows are just thrown in with everything else. “Nine circles of hell” are fine, but it makes no sense to intersperse them with the links to old shows. One is forced to scroll forever, page after page, to find even a few shows. I have given up on it.

    It is also too difficult to find viewer comments. Where are they? One finds links to random comments here and there, but where is there no longer a message board, a single page where once an survey what people in the listening community are saying?

    You need to give some serious thought to what old, new, and potential listeners are looking for, and to how they use this site. People are busy nowadays and they don’t have time to struggle with a poorly designed site like this. Your problem is especially serious given that this site is the only place where people outside Chicago can experience your show.

    I’m sorry to say this but I can no longer recommend this site to non-Chicago friends. That breaks my heart, because I strongly believe that this is a radio show that everyone should hear. It deserves, and is in urgent need of, a decently designed website. 

  • Jterpian8984

    I must add that in your link to irregular correspondents (which, like so much on this site, is apparently broken), it would be a good idea to identify them by their actual names, since that is how they are introduced on your show. I listen to your show every week, but I have no idea who “Open My Eyes” is.

  • Amy Goodman

    Mr. Skalinder you seem quite computer savvy, any chance of helping Chuck on the website?

  • Amy Goodman

    Mr. Skalinder you seem quite computer savvy, any chance of helping Chuck on the website?

  • Concerned Citizen

    Ah-men brother!

  • davidskalinder

    I am pretty good with the machines, but I’m not really a web designer, which I agree is what the site needs.  Also, I think it’ll take a concerted effort to get it done, and AFAICT all the pieces haven’t aligned yet — someone will need to work with Chuck and the producers fairly closely to get a site that’s not only easy for visitors but also easy for them to update and maintain.  (I get the idea that that was what was behind the decision to go with WordPress in the first place, but obviously it could have been implemented better.)

    I think for the time being the best solution is to fix what we can for now — I’ve tried to make it so that recordings are available at the very least.  And hopefully now that new producers are becoming regulars the team will have a chance to huddle up and make a plan that somebody like me might be able to help with.

  • davidskalinder

    Incidentally, I also agree that the best solution in the short term at least is probably to switch back to the old site.  Of course I’m not sure what migration issues might now arise with that, or if there’s some killer flaw that means the old site won’t work anymore.  And for all I know it might have been a huge PITA to update it every week.  But from a visitor’s perspective, that thing was simple, robust, and very easy to navigate, despite being a little funky looking.  So it seems like it might be a good backup solution until something snazzier is sorted out.

  • davidskalinder

    Incidentally, I also agree that the best solution in the short term at least is probably to switch back to the old site.  Of course I’m not sure what migration issues might now arise with that, or if there’s some killer flaw that means the old site won’t work anymore.  And for all I know it might have been a huge PITA to update it every week.  But from a visitor’s perspective, that thing was simple, robust, and very easy to navigate, despite being a little funky looking.  So it seems like it might be a good backup solution until something snazzier is sorted out.

  • davidskalinder

    Hey, you know, I just now noticed that the RSS link for podcasts, http://thisishell.net/?feed=podcast does look pretty complete and gives full descriptions of all shows since April 2009, all on one page.  (It’s an RSS feed, so your browser may only show the first few lines of each description, but the full text is there.)  Of course, if the mp3 file itself isn’t there, then you’re out of luck (although you could check my backup manually for recent shows).

    But that now looks like the easiest way to find podcasts that I’ve found by a mile.  (If only it wasn’t hidden under the “Any podcatcher” link!)

    I may even be able to build that into my backup site to get a full list with descriptions…  Probably won’t happen for a little while, but that page is much, much tidier than wading through every WordPress post…

  • Robert

    “Shows” not available at all.  Please find a way to make all your shows available (maybe separate web site?  because most shows haven’t been available on the new site).  Chuck’s interviews are the best and they’re terribly important in this age of USA being ruled by oligarchs.  We need to hear these interviews and share them with our out-of-town friends. 

  • davidskalinder

    Hey Robert,

    You’re right that the podcast situation is a bit rickety, but if you read down this thread you’ll see that there are some workarounds.  Chuck’s missed a bunch of shows due to health issues, but nearly all of the shows that were broadcast are available if you look in the right places.



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