In the seven-ish months we’ve been around, we managed to outgrow one hosting provider and we’re on the brink of busting the seams on our current setup. For this, we have our awesome (and ever-expanding) writing staff to thank, as well as you, the loyal users. We got into this for the cars, not the money, fame or “opportunity” to learn more about web stuff than we ever expected. As such, there’s been a steady stream of growing pains, and we’re currently making a big push to make the site run a lot more efficiently with a minimal impact on you, the readers.
Hit the jump for two biggies that you’ve been letting us know about.
RSS Feed:
In an effort to reduce loads on our hosting gettup, we kinda neutered the RSS feed, which generated a few um…responses on the tips line. Because we’re all about customer service, we found a better way, and we’re now running our feed through Feedburner, which keeps the load off of our (hosting provider’s) servers. Theoretically, any requests to the old feed should re-direct to the new feed, but just to be safe, your best bet is to re-add it using this link right here or clicking on the “Posts” feed button up on the left, there.
The Mysterious “I don’t see any pictures” Phenomenon:
We haven’t figured the root of this one out (it’s driving us insane), but we’ve got a couple of workarounds. First off, no one has ever witnessed this problem in Google’s Chrome browser. Being one who clings to aging technology, I can say from experience that Chrome runs a hell of a lot faster that Firefox on an old machine. The UI takes a bit of getting used to, but I’m never going back. Also, there are a few very stylish looking themes available if you’re not into the Google color-scheme.
For those unwilling or unable to make a browser switch, it seems the problem can be fixed by clearing your cache. Why? We don’t know, but it seems to work. To make your life easier, we found a Firefox plugin (here) that adds a “clear cache” button. Doesn’t solve the problem, but for a bunch of people who are cool with having to bump-start their cars or double-clutch to get into second gear, this really shouldn’t be that tough. For the one in five of you using Internet Explorer, clearing the cache manually probably works as well.
There may be some more changes coming up as far as layout and the like goes. The goal of all of this is to remove every impediment to Hooniverse being a nexus of automotive awesomeness, so bear with us.