DVDprofiler.com down? (1 Viewer)

[Kyle McKnight]

I use profiler, but rarely update it. Does it make any of you paying customers upset that their "temp. unavailable essage, check back in a few minutes" is flat out lying?

 

[Joel Vardy]

I quite agree. The GUI and the organization that is performed based on their design is the IP that I was talking about. Just because we collectively contribute data to the database doesn't make us the 'owners' of the design that organizes it. IVS has every right to look at their business model and restructure their 'value proposition' to reflect the manyears that went into this design and development as well as the perceived value in the marketplace of their creation. The fact that this would 'tick off' many of the users is the tradeoff that they need to factor. If they persist in providing this service essentially for free (I don't consider the $25 contribution as anything but a token) then we need to be be a bit more understanding that they probably have a 'day job' that puts food on the table and this endeavor is more of a hobby and one of the great finds available to the HT community.

Joel

 

[RAF]

Let's just say that the longer this outage continues, the more ridiculous that message becomes. While I realize that there are obviously some serious problems at the IVS site (or at the host, or whatever) the least they can do is be a little more straight forward with a rough estimate of the time frame involved.

On a personal level, I'll ride this out until the weekend (like some others here) and then start looking elsewhere for my future DVD database needs. With DVD Profiler's CSV export capabilities I'd imagine that it wouldn't be that difficult to find another product that can import what I already have. Heck, I already do this to get DVDs into my PalmPilot (via DBMobile Lite) so it's not like DVD Profiler is the only game in town.

I wish IVS well, but if the outage continues more than a week I'm looking elsewhere. And I would also expect that any future outages would not be as long as the current one. Stuff happens, but people learn from it. And even though I was an early adopter of DVD Profiler and think that the $25 lifetime fee was one of the great bargains out there I would be amenable to some yearly charge if it would guarantee performance. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that this business model would work since (a)Not everyone has a huge collection like I do and (b)there are other options out there that don't have a yearly fee.

Let's hope that IVS is up and running again soon.

 

[nolesrule]

Geeze. Down for a few days and everyone's talking doom and gloom? I am shocked by the amount of impatience by many in here. Do you want it fixed quickly or fixed correctly?

As a person who makes a living dealing with computers and the Internet, I guess I have a little more experience and patience with these types of issues than most.

The fact that there is a message on the site at all is a very good sign, because it means that they have a running server.

Considering they need to guarantee data integrity of tens of thousands of DVD titles before they can go live again and the fact that IVS is not the hosting company and has no direct control over the repair of the server, I'm going to give them a good month to get it up and running.

I bet the IVS website could be live right now if it weren't for the database and the MyProfiler data. But the website isn't the core feature of the product.


The only thing I have an issue with is the maintenance message. They should change it to reflect the truth. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that it's a canned maintenance page and they are too busy to change it right now because they are trying to get everything back up and running.

 

[David C Lin]

Something has changed on their web site, I think. Their 'temporarily unavailable' message now loads properly on my Netscape 7.1. It wasn't loading on my Netscape 7.1 before and I had to use IE6 to check for message.

 

[Marc Colella]

I've used this service for 3+ years and it's been very useful for me. I never paid a cent to use it, so I can't really complain about any down time.

If it were to go away permanently, I'd be dissapointed - but I can make other arrangements for cataloging my DVDs. Life goes on.

However I can understand those paying customers being a little upset - but I'm sure it'll be back up and running soon.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

It’s been a week now. Time to do something and move on. Anyone recommend any other DVD listing software? Which one is able to import the DVDProfiler list? (and with pics!) (Through anything, txt cvs, xml). I mean something that has been tested and really works and not speculation (in importing).

 

[Tony_Faville]

Man, some of you guys are an absolute trip and I for one am totally envious of your lives. You have so few concerns in life that you are free to go into complete and total panic mode because DVD Profiler is down. I can only wish and dream that my life was so trouble free that I could fret over something as trivial as a piece of DVD collection software.

I congratulate you on having your live's in such perfect order.

Sure, I wish it was back up but dang, life does go on.

 

[StevenF]

Well... it has almost been a week (I used it early on Thursday). I would think that most companies/people that run a dedicated service/website would be able to fix most problems within this time period. They should have atleast sent their -PREMIUM- subscribers a letter of what was going on with a time frame of when the problem would be fixed. I'll sweat it out through the weekend, but past that... I think I might have to go with another service/program. I am worried that if this or something else happends again that it will fall into the same situation of delays and problems. This is not a complaint or rant, but just an observation. I mean if I ran my business/service this way... I would loose all my customers and wouldn't be in business. You have to remember that it is still a buisiness and they have charged for the use of their services.
It also seems that with such a popular program that they might come up with a way to cover their costs of having a full time webmaster. Charge more for the program or a yearly fee, sponsors... something. The program is good enough to market and seems to have a lot of devoted followers. Atleast those are my opinions. Let's hope they get it back up and running by this weekend.

 

[Robert Spalding]

oh for gods sake people calm down! this is not the first and won't be the last time their website has been down.

 

[RAF]

O.K. Let's put everything in perspective here. I see the tone of this thread potentially turning ugly and I ask you to stop and think before you write so that this discussion stays on course.

The fact of the matter is that the DVD Profiler site is currently down and there appear to be some issues regarding the ambiguity of the "please check back in a few minutes" message that has been up there for five days or more. DVD Profiler is a great little program that really relies on the web site for full functionality. Without this, it becomes less convenient to use.

I really didn't see any ranting and raving about the site being down but merely an exchange of messages among members wondering about why and the time frame involved. Comments such as "calm down," "I'm shocked," and other mention of attitude and people's lifestyles serve no purpose other than to pour fuel on the fire and they invite further retorts.

Many of us here are either in the computer "business" or have more than a cursory knowledge of the workings of storage, ISPs, site hosting, etc. either professionally or as an avocation. So, yes, we understand that "stuff" happens and because of this there will be occasional outages. That said, as the length of this outage grows, the problem becomes more acute to some people. Personally, I think that 7 days is a reasonable amount of time to fix whatever problems are there and if not, then IVS is either with the wrong provider or they don't have the resources necessary to maintain their obvious growth. That's a decision that only the principals of that company can make.

On the other hand, I don't consider a month to be a reasonable amount of time for the matter to be resolved. As someone pointed out, that's no a way to run a business - even if it's a "side" business - and expect to maintain a loyal customer base. We're not talking about a humongous database here but something that's dealt with by many, many companies on a daily basis. If the IVS resources are stretched so thin that a total hardware failure cripples them for a month then they have to re-visit their business model and adjust accordingly. Sometimes a company outgrows its ability to perform and at that point they have to decide whether to increase capacity or to call it a day. That's just the nature of business. Trying to limp along with limited resources not only makes them look bad, but does a disservice to their customer base.

I repeat once again - I wish IVS well and I hope that they have the resources and fortitude to get over this obvious hurdle. They have a great program in DVD Profiler and I rely on it for my cataloging needs - perhaps too much in light of recent developments. However, I'm not losing sleep over the matter and life will, of course, go on with or without DVD Profiler. And one thing that I definitely take away from all this is not to place all your eggs in one basket. Have a backup plan. Let's hope that IVS learns the same lesson.

 

[Andrea W]

It still doesn't load right in Mozilla Firefox. I have to use IE6 to check it...

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Well said Robert!

I'll only add that I truly feel sorry for the folks at InterVocative. Their service outage could not have come at a worse time. The recent NYT article on DVD cataloging surely created tremendous interest in many of the programs listed in the article, of which DVD Profiler was included. Unfortunately none of them would have been able to access the site and have probably already given up and are likely looking elsewhere for their DVD cataloging needs. This is a huge lost opportunity for the folks at InterVocative as I feel DVD Profiler is the over-all best of all of the cataloging software mentioned in the article.

I looked at all of the following programs, and for my use, DVD Profiler was easily the hands down winner:

Link Removed
DVD Collector
DVD Profiler
DVD Register
DVD Tracker
Guzzlefish
ReaderwareVW

If, however unlikely, DVD Profiler permanently shuts down I'll have to make a change. While it is true that DVD profiler works fine as a stand-alone product, but this also means I would have to input all the data for each DVD I add - and I simply do not have the time for this. In fact, its because of that I sought out a DVD cataloging software in the first place.

I'll wait another week before considering a change, but I have to say the lengthy outage with no other information being offered than "DVDProfiler.com is temporarily unavailable as we perform routine maintenance. Please check back in a few minutes.", is quite unsettling. I've used DVD Profiler for years and there is nothing "routine" about this.

I also know they have a database with all of the Platinum Registered Users, and it would take all of five minutes to write quick email letting us know the problem and when they really expect the site to be up and running, rather than get everyone upset from trying to access the site - as they have instructed "every few minutes"...

DVD Profiler is an excellent program and I certainly hope the folks at InterVocative can resolve what ever "routine maintenance" is causing this service outage, but the way they have handled it so far is hardly reassuring.

 

[Jon_Skiffington]

Well spoken, Robert.

As a paying customer (and yet another with some experience with computers and the internet), my biggest concern isn't that the site is down; that stuff happens. But I would like an update, either on their website or via email stating A) The general nature of the problem, B) What they are doing to remedy it, and C) When they are estimating a fix.

As one who's worked doing technical support in the past, I've learned that customers don't like hearing that something is broken, but they absolutely +hate+ something being broken and not being told about it. Even if the nature of the update is "We still don't know what's wrong, but we'll send you an update by 9:00 tomorrow," it's still better than waiting in the dark for the better part of a week now.

Apparently this is a side business to IVS; that's fine. I only paid $25 to use it, so I don't expect six sigma uptime. But this has gone on far too long without a status update, and that concerns me.

Just my $0.02,

Jon

 

[Citizen87645]

The source code for that page lacks lacks doctype and meta tags. I don't know anything about Firefox, but it may be picky about such things.

 

[StevenF]

I agree with both Robert & Jon. Like I said earlier I am just worried that if this or something else happends in the future
that they will handle it in the same fashion with delays and no updates. I understand that it is a SIDE business, but it is still a BUSSINESS. If it was your baby, would you have handled it in the same manner? I think we all just want a true and honest answer to what is going on, which isn't a demanding thing to ask.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Didn't some of the guys show up here and post a few days back?

HTF has been down for days at a stretch before; how do y'all react when that happens?

That page looks to me like a little default 'website is administratively disabled' page that they've probably forgotten is even there, something along those lines, as opposed to the deliberate attempt to lie to the public that some of you seem to be making it out to be.

 

[SebastienLX]

I personnally find this whole situation unsettling, but then, I can understand. Restoring a database, depending on the OS/software used can be quite a daunting task, and who knows, they might be taking this time to do a couple upgrades to the whole system.

The ONE major gripe I have with the software as of now is that I just had to reinstall Windows, andI lost the local database, so DVDProfiler keeps trying to get online whenever I try to do anything. Even just restoring my old database was a pain because of the missing online server, well that and the fact that I didn't backup the covers thinking it could just redownload them in case of a crash.

Let's just hope for the best, they'll be back, I just hope it not too far away. In the mean time, I still have my DVDaficionado account, which I started with and decided to still keep updated because the online portion of the collections that friends can visit is better on DVDaf than DVDprofiler IMO.

 

[Jeff_HR]

Perhaps those of you who are really impatient should go buy a database application & start designing your own version of DVD Profiler while your are waiting.

 

[dpippel]

Other than an apparently broken image link the "check back in a few minutes" page loads just fine in my copy of Firefox v.8 under WinXP Pro.