quizilla's Journal

We've spent the past few weeks reading over your comments and making improvements to the new Quizilla. Here's a quick summary of what we've fixed to date.

1. Site stability
We've spent most of our time so far fixing general site stability issues and increasing efficiency. Hopefully you'll notice pages loading faster and with fewer glitches.

2. Log In/Registration Difficulties
We made a lot of improvements to this system. Registration should now work more smoothly, and changing your password and email address will work better, so you should have fewer problems logging in. Retrieving your forgotten usernames and passwords will also work better. Now, if you forget your password, you'll be able to provide your username and a reset token will be e-mailed to you. And if you forget your username, you will provide your e-mail address and we'll send you a list of all usernames you have on file.

3. Expanding and Collapsing Menus
Categories and FAQs now pop open instead of sliding open when you click on them, showing you the information faster. Most important though is that they now open.

4. Messages
When you delete a message it will now actually disappear from your inbox (yay!).

5. Chapters
Lots of weirdness fixed here...

6. Quiz & Test Editors
They will now tell you when you've done something wrong, or prevent you from making an error in the first place, instead of letting you publish something broken. For instance, you won't be able to exceed the character limit anymore - it'll just stop typing.

7. Journals
Journal comments should no longer delete random words. Journal posts are still doing this though, but they will be fixed next week.

8. Poll Creation
When using the poll creator, you should now be able to see the ³OK² and ³Cancel² buttons, which weren¹t displaying properly before.

9. Share It
We¹ve fixed some problems with how ³Share It² works but we're still testing and adjusting the way embedded content works on various sites.
Expect continued improvements.

10. Lists
Some creations with really long titles were causing list display issues.
We've eliminated this problem by wrapping long titles, so the lists won¹t look weird anymore.

11. Other
There were several issues with being able to Watch, Block and Friend some older usernames that contained special characters. This has been corrected.

We are far from finished though. We're currently working on fixing problems with publishing and missing messages. Keep emailing us your comments and problems through the Contact Us page. Thank you for your patience while we work to make Quizilla even better.

Thank you all so much for your patience during the few weeks of the relaunch. Hopefully you're finding your way around and getting used to the new tools. We're still working on a few bugs, including (but not limited to) the following:

1. Quiz character limit -

One of the biggest complaints on the old site was miscategorized content, mainly stories being published as quizzes. To combat this we added a character limit for quizzes. If you find or have a quiz that's really a story where some content has been cut off, use the Contact Form to email us a link and we can republish it as a story. If you had multiple endings, you may need to do some rewriting to make it work in story format.

2. Login issues -

We fixed a bunch of issues over the weekend involving logins. If you're still having problems, try resetting your password. Email us your user name through the Contact Form if that doesn't work.

3. Editing & publishing -

We corrected a big problem in Firefox with regards to editing, publishing and other related tasks. Email us through the Contact Form if you can't publish or edit using any of these browsers. To better help us help you, please include the text of the error message along with your user name and what browser you're using.

4. Expanding categories & FAQs -

These are opening a bit slowly right now so make sure you're not clicking on that little plus sign more than once.

5. Missing content -

It took a bit longer than we had anticipated but all of your content from the old site should now be on Quizilla. Take a look through your "Stuff I Made" page and it should be there waiting for you. The last pieces of content to come over were saved drafts which are now in the "Unpublished" section of "Stuff I Made." One note: if you had created a draft quiz it might have come over as a story. If you can't easily edit it back to a quiz, let us know via the Contact Form and we'll set it up to be reconverted. Make sure to give us the URL to the draft and what you want it converted to.

Keep in mind that homepages, journal browsing and user name search will be coming back in a few weeks, view counts from the old site will be added eventually and a new theme generator will be debuting this summer.

Please read the new FAQ carefully if you have any questions about how to use the new site.

Thanks again for all your comments and support!

Welcome to the newly redesigned Quizilla! We know change can be hard, but we're still the same Quizilla underneath -- and we hope that once you start using the new site you'll grow to love it like you always have.

Here is some important info about the site changeover:

Your content is coming! It was a ton of stuff (literally millions and millions) to move over, but it's being ported across. Please try to be patient -- the rest of your stuff will show up soon.

We know there are some bugs, so please tell us about them! You can use the contact form to let us know about any problems you're having.

We have an informative and fact-filled FAQ that we'll keep adding to -- please check it out and see if it helps to answer your questions about where stuff is and how to use the new site.

A lot of you want to know *why* we've made these changes, and we've spent some time trying to explain the reasoning behind the new design. Please check out our previous blog posts for much more information. We appreciate your comments -- positive and negative! -- and hope you will keep them coming. You can comment on this post, or you can use the contact form to email us. We will do our best to listen and respond, and will continue to adapt the site based on your comments.

Getting this new site up was months and months of hard work, so we hope you'll go easy on us and give it a chance!

Barring any unforeseen server moodiness, it looks like we'll be relaunching Quizilla any day now! The site will be down for several hours while we transfer to the new site. The address, www.quizilla.com, will stay the same so just keep checking back.

Here are some key things to remember:

• Polls and themes are not being carried over, so please save them now. There will be a new theme engine for you to create new themes, but it won't be ready right away.


• Homepages will not be there at launch, but will be brought over a few weeks later. If you are worried about not having yours for a little while, make sure to save a copy.


• Your Saved Results won't be available at launch. We have saved all the info and will be adding it all back in the coming weeks.


• Not all of your messages will be there at launch. We have over 20 million messages in the system and it's impossible to move them all at once, but we will be bringing over your most recently viewed messages first. The rest of your messages will follow soon after.


• Along those lines, some other content may not be immediately available at launch. We're doing our best to pull everything over, but it might take a little while to get there.


• View counts will temporarily be reset to zero, but they will work and they will keep counting. At some point soon we will bring over your old view counts and add them to the new ones, so you will have a complete tally. View counts have been wonky for a while, so hopefully working view counts will be a nice improvement.


• Beyond that, we'd just like to warn you that there will be bugs. Quizilla is an *enormous* site with millions of pieces of content, and there's just no way to make everything perfect all at once. But we'll do our best to fix stuff quickly. You can help us by reporting any issues you have via the contact us form.

Please check out our previous posts if you have more questions. Thank you all so much for your patience!

It's almost time for the relaunch of Quizilla. We're still ironing out a few kinks but it looks like the relaunch will happen within the next few days. Read over our old posts for more information on what will be included and keep letting us know if you have questions. In the meantime, you can save any creations that are of importance to you on your hard drive, just in case. The site will be down for a few hours while the relaunch takes place.

Quizzes as stories
For all of you that have written stories in the old quiz editor: Please make sure that your stories are categorized as stories and not as quizzes. When we transfer your creations over to the new site, any stories incorrectly categorized as quizzes are probably going to come out looking strange and cut off. You can keep this from happening by following these steps to correctly categorize your creation as a story:

1. Go to Manage Your Quizzes
2. Click on the title of the story you need to change
3. Choose STORY from the "This is a" drop down list
4. Click the Make Changes button at the bottom

View counts
Just as a warning, please be aware that your view counts will not be correct at launch. They will all be set to zero, and will start counting from there. Your old view counts will be saved and added to your new view counts. Repeat: you will not lose your view counts! It's just going to take a little longer to pull them over to the new site.

Thanks again for your patience!

The Quizilla relaunch is now just around the corner so we wanted to give you a better idea of what will be included when it goes live. You've checked out the public preview so you have a pretty good idea of the layout and how each section (quizzes, stories, etc.) will be organized. Most of your questions in the comments have had to do with customization and the "My Stuff" section. Here's where we stand:

MY STUFF - We've included a mockup that should give you a general idea of how this page will look. You'll be able to organize your content into whatever categories or folders you want. And this means all of your content no matter what editor it was written with. From here you'll also be able to edit, delete or share all your content. This will be ready when the site relaunches.

PROFILES - There's also an example of how your profile might look. You can upload a picture of yourself as well as write a little bit about who you are or what you're all about. Other users will be able to get to your latest creations and journal posts, see a list of your favorites (formerly known as picks), see who your friends are, and even see which tags you post under most often. This will also be ready when the site relaunches.

HOMEPAGES - Don't worry - homepages are staying! However, the support for them won't be ready until after the relaunch. This means that all your coding will be transferred to the new site, but it'll be a couple weeks before they show up. The reason this will take a little longer is because we’re trying to figure out how to plug some security holes they cause. Certain chunks of code (like certain Javascript functions, for example) may no longer work, which could affect a small number of homepages. If you are concerned about losing your page as it currently exists, please save a copy of it now! But homepages will be back. You'll just need to live without them for a short time while we build out the support for them.

THEMES - The new theme engine will also not be ready until after the relaunch. This new engine is a vast improvement over the current one and we don't want to launch it until we get it right. When it's ready you'll be able to create themes and apply them to all types of content, even your profiles. Created themes will also be available for other users to use and the creator will be credited. There will be a simple theme editor that covers the basics (font face, background images etc) and an advanced editor that will let you get more specific for different areas of your creations.

CURRENT CONTENT - All of your current content will be transferred to the new site. This includes your creations, journal posts, messages, friends lists, picks and home page coding. (Any content that has been previously locked by a moderator will not be transferred.) We plan for your creations to make it to the new site safe and sound, however it is a ton of data to move over and there could be some errors. If you are at all nervous about this transfer, please save a copy of your creations!

The only exception is that polls and themes will not be moved over – you will need to save those now. Also, if you included any CSS-based style tags in the "memo" field of your stories, that won’t get saved either.

OLD QUIZILLA - Once we launch the new Quizilla the current version will cease to exist. We aren't able to support two completely different versions of the same site. The url will not change. We'll still be here at www.quizilla.com. Please read our previous journal posts for even more information about the relaunch.

Thank you all for your questions and comments over the last couple of months. We appreciate all your feedback even if we were not able accommodate everyone's wishes. The new site will launch soon – and we really hope you’ll give it a fair chance. There might be some bugs or things not working right at launch time, but we’ll do our best to keep you posted so you know what to expect. As always, we will be here to answer your questions and help you through it.

In preparation for launching the new Quizilla, we're taking the public preview site down on Tuesday. You've all had a couple months to play with it and give us your feedback, which we very much appreciate. Now we need the server it was running on to finish up some final things for the new site.

We'll let you know when the new site will be up and running as soon as we know for sure. Thank you all again for testing it out for us and letting us know what you think. Later this week, we'll have a new post about what will be included in the relaunch, so check back here for more info!

This week on The Quizilla Blog: More answers to your questions, dispelling some rumors and a few clarifications.

Ratings system: Many of you have asked why we're getting rid of the ratings system and how this will affect your writing. First of all, it's important to know that the rules are not really changing. Quizilla is not a children's site and it's not trying to turn into one. Registered users are still required to be at least 13 years old. However, this does not mean that graphic sexual content is allowed. The ratings system always relied on our users properly rating their creations but unfortunately this was rarely the case. The ratings system gave the impression that all content rated T, for instance, would be accurately and safely rated. This led to many a misleading search, with often terribly inappropriate content being returned. The ratings categories of M and A also lead to the impression that graphic sexual content was allowed -- to quote many a user "why else would you have those ratings?" So without the ratings system we can very simply say that excessive swearing and sexually explicit content are not allowed on Quizilla. That's it.

Swearing and profanity: Again, our rules are not really changing. We are still tinkering with the word filter so it may be over-reacting to some things now, but we’ll be fixing it before the new site launches.

Death: We'd love to know how this rumor got started! Death and dying are still allowed to be part of our user's creations. We will not be censoring stories about death.

Original quiz editor: The original quiz editor will not be part of the redesigned Quizilla and you can read past posts for the specific reasons. The technology staff is still working on how quizzes and stories that were made with the original quiz editor will be transferred over. But they will be moved over. We'll update you on that as soon as we know anything more.

Comments: You will have the option to allow commenting on all creations types - poems, stories, quizzes etc.

I think that's all the new issues so here's a quick recap of past blog entries:

Homepages: We're still working on how to preserve them. We know you love them.

The logo: Penny the pencil monster will no longer be the official logo but she will make appearances on the site as our mascot.

Quiz layouts: The old layouts and themes will no longer work, but we'll have a new, more flexible and useful engine to help you recreate them – and you’ll be able to apply them to all types of content.

Current creations & accounts: All your current creations, including journals, comments, friends lists and picks will be transferred to the new site. We are not deleting all your hard work.

Folders & organization: You'll be able to organize all types of content into folders and categories.

Banners and images: You will be able to add banners and images to all types of content.

Search: Better, faster, more accurate.

Preview site: Right now, only users who created their accounts before December 19, 2007 can log in to it. We didn't load all of the millions of creations that are on the current Quizilla into the preview site so you definitely won't be able to find some things. Lots of features are still being worked on, "My stuff," help, search, but they will be in the new Quizilla.

Launch date: Since we still have a lot of work to do on the new Quizilla. It's still a ways away but we'll give you plenty of notice before anything changes.

Keep playing around with the preview site since we'll be adding more features and fixing bugs in the near future. Please keep your questions and suggestions coming but do read our past blog entries for more information. Thank you all for your patience during these changes. We really appreciate it!

Happy new year everybody! We're back with more answers to the questions we've received by email and in the comments to our last post. Sorry this took awhile but it was a long holiday weekend for us too. We didn't forget you and we actually did read every comment and email so here goes...

• Homepages: We really want to keep homepages. We know how much effort you put into them to make them your own. The issue is that there is *so much* flexibility in them right now that they create security holes that hackers, unscrupulous sites, and spammers are able to take advantage of. We will do our best to preserve them. We can't make any promises just yet, but we are trying.
• Profile pages: On the flip side, your profile page will be *much* more useful and customizable. You'll be able to theme your profile (set colors, background image, fonts, etc). This will allow you to be able to customize your profile almost as much as current homepages, but allows us to close those security holes we mentioned.
• The logo: We love Penny too! She won't be in the logo anymore, but you haven't seen the last of the pencil monster...
• Quiz Layouts: The way stuff can be themed is changing. On the plus side, this means that *everything* can be themed - even profiles. Themes will also be easier to create, and more powerful. On the down side, it means that existing layouts and themes won't work. You'll be able to recreate your layouts, but they will not directly move over to the new site.
• Content editors: We're upgrading the guts of the system, getting the technology to work better, faster, and more reliably. Once you get used to the new editors -- and it won't take long - you won't miss the old ones at all. Let's face it, the old editor was pretty hard to use the first time you encountered it. Think about how many potential Quizilla creators there are out there that have been intimidated or confused by the old editor, and consequently never made that quiz or wrote that story... We'd like to invite them to the party as well.
• Journals: You'll still be able to post journals and all your existing posts and comments will be moved over.
• Banners & images: You will be able to add banners and images to all types of content.
• Ratings & swearing: We removed the ratings system so that there would be one set of standards for all content. But the profanity rules have not really changed. Swearing is still allowed in your creations but shouldn't be gratuitous (swearing just for the sake of swearing) or excessively vulgar (which would fall under "sexually explicit" anyway.)
• Lemons/pornography: The posting rules regarding graphic sexual content are the exact same ones as those you agreed to when you registered for Quizilla. Sexually explicit content, including "lemons," has never been allowed on Quizilla and never will be.
• Forums: The forums will still be included in the new site, along with a software update to fix some bugs and a new look to better match the new site.
• Search: Search will be much, much faster and work much, much better.
• The "old" Quizilla: Last, but certainly not least, a lot of you wondered why we had to change the design and layout at all and if we could keep both versions of the site running. Even though the site is easy-to-use for many current Quizilla members, it's really, really hard to use for new people. In order to keep Quizilla alive, we have to bring in new people which in turn means simplifying navigation, etc. We're trying to organize it all in a way that makes sense and is both easy-to-use for existing members but also easily digestible for new ones. And keeping two sites running simultaneously is just not feasible for Quizilla, both in terms of moderation and technology upkeep.

I'm sure there are still more questions we haven't covered, so keep sending them to support@quizilla or leave comments here. Try to remember that the new site is still a work in progress and we don't have all the answers yet. It won't go live for several more weeks, so please be patient with us and try to give the new site a chance.

Looks like we've created quite a stir with the new preview site. Based on all your comments and emails, there are definitely a few things we need to clear up. The blog is here to help you all understand the changes we're making and why. So be sure to read the entries carefully since there is a lot of info we hope to pass along!

A lot of you are asking why we need to change Quizilla at all. Basically, it's old and unstable. The coding behind the scenes has gotten to be such a mess that it's virtually impossible to fix some of the biggest bugs or add new features. And even though those of you who have really learned how to use the site are comfortable with it, there are tons of people who are not and who are having major problems using it.

We'd like to clear up a few misconceptions, and answer a few questions that have popped up a bunch in the comments:

• We’re planning on moving all of your content over -- especially all quizzes, stories, poems, and other stuff you created. That includes drafts, which will be moved over into your new drafts folder. It’s pretty complicated to move all this data and will take a while, but we’ll post more in the future about how that’s all going to work.

• The new site will also give you the ability to put all types of creations into folders, including stories. You’ll also be able to edit your creations after saving them. Try to remember that this is an early preview – there is a lot more stuff coming soon!

• Also, all of your profile information will be saved – it’s just not there yet. This includes friends, picks, watchlist and messages. Communicating with your friends, keeping track of their updates, and sharing content will all be much easier on the new site.

• We’re building a brand new theme engine that will allow you to theme every type of content, and use the same themes across multiple types of content. And it will be much easier to use. We know there are concerns about how much html and css you’ll be able to use, but we’re still working on exactly how the new themes are going to work. More details to come on that one.

Change can be hard to deal with, but in the long run Quizilla will be faster and easier to use. The preview site seems difficult both because it's new and because a lot of the features you love aren't there yet. We really want to hear your ideas for how to make the new site better, and we welcome your constructive criticism.

Remember that it is still a really rough version. Lots of features aren't working yet, but we wanted to give you all a chance to comment early on. Also, none of this is happening immediately -- we still have a lot of work to do and we'll give you plenty of warning before we make the switch.

We really want to help you all through the changes and address your concerns, so please keep reading the blog and sending your comments. We’re reading them all! We appreciate that Quizilla is an important part of your lives and hope to stay that way for a long time to come. So enough with the death threats, okay?

We have a present for you! It's the brand new Quizilla, now open for a public preview. Before you look, just remember that doesn't include the whole site yet -- just the new editors and a peek at the new design. Some things will be broken, some links won't work - that's all perfectly normal. There is so much more stuff to come.

We know a lot of you were hoping we'd keep the old quiz editor, but we think we've come up with a really great way to make all types of content that should be easy for everyone to use. Each content type has its own editor - one for stories, one for quizzes, and so on. (The journals editor is still in the works.) This should help cut down on all of the miscategorized content. So please play around with them and make some things -- just note that you won't be able to go back and make changes after you save your creations.

Anything you make on the test site will eventually get deleted. So if it's something you worked hard on and want to save, cut and paste a copy of it into the current Quizilla site. This is really important because we don't want your content getting lost forever -please make copies! Things you make on the current Quizilla site will continue to be saved, and when the time comes they'll be moved over to the new site.

Not everything that will eventually be on the future site is quite ready yet. For example, themes won't work yet - we're working on a new theme editor, but it's not available for preview yet. When we launch it, you'll be able to theme all content types.

Also, no profile-type stuff will work initially. You won't be able to see "My Stuff" or messages, or profile pages, friends' lists, etc. But when we relaunch you be able to organize all types of content into categories and folders. Images too.

Last thing is that you can't register for a new account from the preview site. Use the current Quizilla for that. Only accounts registered before 12/19 will work on the preview site.

So play around with the new site and let us know what you think. You can expect a few bugs here and there - just remember that it's a preview site and we'll be working to fix those. Email us with questions or comments at support@quizilla.com. We really appreciate all of your help with this. And we really hope you like it!! - The public preview is now closed.

Welcome to the inaugural entry of the new Quizilla blog! This will be the place to come for all your important Quizilla news and updates. And the big news today is that we're redesigning Quizilla! Don't panic - it's a good thing.

We've spent the past few months rebuilding the technology behind the scenes to make it faster and more stable, plus updating the design of the site to make it much easier to navigate and a lot nicer to look at. We know there are quite a few bugs on the current site and the redesign should address most of them. We also incorporated a lot of ideas and suggestions from the emails we received from you all over the past few months. (We really do read your emails.)

We're still putting on the finishing touches, but we'd like to invite you to start playing with it when we launch our Beta version.This might be as soon as next week! Even though it's still a really early version, the Beta will give you guys a chance to check out the new design and let us know what you think. We know you'll have strong opinions, and we want to hear them. You can email us at support@quizilla.com with any questions, suggestions or comments. Now, we can't promise we'll be able use them all, but we do promise to read each and every one.

And here's just a few of the improvements in the redesign:

*There's a dedicated quiz editor, story editor, poem editor etc. This should help with all of the miscategorized creations.

*All of your content will have the same tools so you can rate, share and report content more easily.

*The relaunched site will let you create content faster, find things more easily and generally make you a happier person. :)

*Plus bunches of new features you'll have come back to find out about...

We're going to use this blog to keep you all in the loop with everything that's going on with Quizilla through the relaunch and beyond. We'll post more about what will be changing and what will stay the same. So check back in a few days for more information and specifics on the Beta launch of the brand new Quizilla!