Status Update: Much news
First, a big “Thank you” to everyone helping us out with the GoTryTHIS 2 beta and to everyone patiently waiting for their upgrade. In a lifetime of application design work, this is bigger than everything I have managed before – combined – so it is a bit of a learning experience.
Here is where we are at:
1. Schedule
Rackspace Cloud Servers (formally Mosso) had a bad run of things with several bouts of downtime, slowdowns, and various obscure things that work unexpectedly differently on their cloud hosting solution than at any other web host. This created a great deal of extra support and necessitated a lot of extra coding at the same time to combat their systems. It put us at least two months behind schedule. The good news is that they have sorted out their power issues, have added extra capacity, are looking into the other problems their system is creating for us, and are giving us several months of free hosting. Most issues have vanished, which is a promising improvement. (Despite these problems, RackSpace Cloud Servers is a great host for web applications that need to scale. So far, we have not had to do a thing for scaling to meet demands of clients.)
2. Known issues
We have a handful of known issues, which we are working hard to correct. The biggest is these random “data transfer” and “The requested operation cannot be completed because the connection has been broken.” errors within the dashboard. We are running various tests to find the causes. There is also some work being done on counting unique people (not clicks) when using an image with a GoTryTHIS link to the image. We are also investigating one server compatibility issue where links do not redirect instantly as they should. The slow link issue has effected less than five installs so far and we believe we have just identified the server environments that this happens on, which is a big step forward to solving it.
3. SetupBOT enhancements
We have been working on some changes to SetupBOT so that it can identify any problematic issues with your server configuration in advance. Now, if required, SetupBOT will tell you what to ask your web host to enable, before it does anything. (We have not added the slow links issue in yet, as we just identified the reason.)
Our aim is to make it so that every install works perfectly, first time, on any server. If it cannot, it will tell you in advance what to change to make it so. This is no small feat with such cutting-edge software and such a diverse number of servers out there, but we are getting much closer. Thank you to everyone who helped us identify compatibility issues so far. Later we plan to have SetupBOT check for conflicts with other software on your site as well as server compatibility issues, so you know in advance if a WordPress fix is required.
4. We have another programmer!
We have been looking for the right talent for months and I’m happy to announce, this week we have been training a new programmer. He will be taking over while our main guy is on vacation for a few weeks and mostly working on support and identifying the causes for the three known issues above. If all goes well, the new one will be staying on when the lead returns. Two programmers is the first step in rebuilding the bigger team I used to have working on this, with different people specializing in different areas. Want to help make that a certainty? Tell your contacts why they need to get GoTryTHIS and help get the last of the half priced ones sold. (By the way, this is a well deserved vacation. He has been working very hard and delayed his vacation to get us through those hosting issues.)
5. Free upgrade from version 1
We would like to get the issues above resolved before releasing the update, so it will happen sometime after the main programmer returns. Then we will have two programmers, Robyn, and myself to deal with support as you upgrade, no major issues, and SetupBOT identifying most issues in advance of an upgrade.
6. Sales
I have not been pushing GoTryTHIS 2 in beta hard, partially because of the hosting issues and knowing this vacation was coming up. Things have been pretty stable for a while now, with over 400 clients and many more installs than that. Still, the big push will not happen until we have a real launch, many months from now, with several new features in place and case studies back from you.
As one person recently wrote in,
“Rest assured that within some of the “insider” IM circles your tracking service is highly regarded and quite indespensible.”
So get in while you can and please help us out by promoting. Once the last of the 750 half price spots are gone, it goes off the market until the official launch. And no, it will not be half price then. Tell your friends.
Thank you,
John Reel.