We are aware of the blank issues. About 50% of the blanks are because of issues with the site being slow loading or other issues. The other 50% appear to be good sites but still blank. For the past week, we have been in the middle of a massive overhaul of the system but we will finally be able to look into this issue later on tonight or tomorrow.

In cases where there are blanks but the site works, we will re-try them again before the 30-day full refresh.

In this specific case, it is a known issue, so once it is resolved, all thumbnails will be refreshed again.

Sorry to hear you are disappointed but we are experiencing severe growing pains at the moment. We have been working around-the-clock (literally 2-4 hours sleep each day for past 7 days) in an effort to bring on several major clients and handle the workload without bringing down the service.

Our reputation in this industry is second to none and we strive to keep it that way, but please bear in mind that no competitor in this market has seen even 25% of the growth that we've seen in just 3 short months since our "go live" launch.

We are working diligently to restore the same perfection that our members have become used to and expect from us. However, I do understand your aggravation and my consolation is that this kind of issue is not typical and will be corrected.

Best regards,

Brandon

Hey Brandon,

The fact you admit there is a problem and that you are working on it is 100% better than most services provide these days.

Go kick the blank butt and let us know when you've succeeded.

Also, as a suggestion, some kind of API feedback on thumbnail ETA would help us on the outside to not keep requesting a thumbnail that is not ready yet.

Thanks,

Steve

Quick update since this is a lingering issue...

We are still in the middle of a complete overhaul of the core functions, so getting this fixed has been a priority but still delayed. We are going to be testing soon to determine what is causing these blank thumbnails and will push the fix into the current overhaul/upgrade.

In the meantime, you will probably notice some flakyness and numerous thumbnails being regenerated and possibly even broken, if you haven't noticed that already. We are testing with live images to save time, but will refresh all domains once a fix is identified and implemented.

Thanks,

Brandon

Ok, another quick update on this issue.

After extensive testing and many all-nighters, we have completed a good, stable version of code that is even more scalable than before. This was a necessary and substantial overhaul of core coding. This major update was needed because resource limitations were compounding Internet service provider issues we are experiencing from our primary "thumbnail capture" data center.

Due to all of those problems being faced, we are seeing roughly 5%-20% blank captures, as you mentioned. The new version of code seems to be capturing at a success rate of 99.5%, even under heavy demand.

That new code has been thoroughly tested but we will continue to test, monitor, and optimize it over the next few weeks. As we phase in the new code, you will gradually see fewer and fewer of the blank thumbnails.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this incredible growth period we are experiencing!

Best regards,

Brandon

We have migrated most of the generators to the new version of our capture coding. We still have further upgrades that will happen over the next month or so, but you should notice significantly fewer to NO blank thumbnails now.

Are you seeing improvements in this area?

Also, if you cache locally, you will probably want to clear your cache of blank thumbnails and try to get the updated version. However, we are still refreshing the database for this month, so you may want to wait a few more days to get the very latest version of thumbnail.

In any case, I hope you are doing well and that you site is growing!

Cheers,

Brandon

Hey Brandon

Lately I'm noticing a lot of invalid domain images coming up for thumbnails that used to work perfectly well a few weeks ago.

I've tried the redo trick, with still no luck.

Here are three that exhibit this problem:
simplesavings.com.au
ozsmallbiz.net
banabu.com.au

EDIT: I just noticed another comment about adding them to your home page and they showed up there... but still the last two not showing on my sites

Thanks
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for pointing that out. There was a slight bug in the refresh on-demand for the following specific case:

1. where the original request was without WWW but
2. the refresh request was with WWW and
3. both requests were not an inside page but
4. an inside page existed for that exact URL with WWW

Whew... that was a tough bug to spot but the responsible line of code has been moved up to its proper place and all seems to be well.

If you see any more invalid thumbnails for working domains, a refresh should fix that right up for you this time around. If not, please do let me know. But, please post a new topic since this is not really related to the "Blank Thumbnail" issue...

Cheers,

Brandon

Hey Brandon

Many thanks for your prompt attention to that problem.

What really was a nice surprise was that you went "above and beyond" with your customer service To get a phone call in Australia from you, is unbelievably exceptional!

Thanks again
Stephen