Lazeez's Corner

This was a frustrating weekend. Inexplicably, still, some people are unable to access the site. The servers are online as usual. The DNS entries for the site are configured correctly. So why some Comcast, then Earthlink and now MSN users are unable to access the site? I don't know, and can't figure it out yet. Most of the problem areas were cleared yesterday about 1 pm - as evidenced by a sustained usage spike on the site; and for a period I thought the problems were cleared. However, today, when I got to work and checked my email, there were several messages still complaining about the inability to reach the site. To help with this problem, I've added two links on the left of this blog. For a long time now, since 2002, I've owned the domain storiesonline.xxx, but since.xxx is not supported by the ICANN, normal DNS servers don't lead you to the site if you simply typed 'http://storiesonline.xxx' into your browser's address bar. The company selling t...

I've been receiving quite a bit of comments and reports about the site's new layout currently available in the beta area of the site. Some favourable, some not. The most common negative common so far is that there is nothing wrong with the current layout, so no need to change, and don't fix what isn't broken. Maybe from a reader's point of view, who's been using the site for a while and used to the current layout, nothing is broken. However, from my side, it is broken, and broken badly enough for me to put a big effort into fixing it. Each day, at least once, somebody contacts me and ask how they go about posting their stories on the site. And as often, somebody requests a feature that is already available on the site. The first issue is the most frustrating. The links to post stories are on the front page of the site, however, currently, they are low enough to require people to scroll down and look to the left of the site's home page. It seems that no one s...