The site has been unreachable for the past 2 days.

Funny really, I just posted a bid for the first time in like 2 months too.

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

“ New Portfolio Feature

We have added a portfolio feature to ScriptLance. Programmers can now display their skills and previous work by uploading graphics and other samples. Buyers can conveniently browse portfolios to learn more about the freelancers that bid on their projects.

Note: Freelancers, please make use of the ScriptLance profile and portfolio features instead of providing links to your website. Links to websites that contain contact info are considered a violation of the terms of the site. As the profile features improve we will soon begin to enforce this rule more strictly. Thank you.”

I have started to think that there are too many cheap programmers making it tough to get the price required to do the job. I will keep monitoring ScriptLance but am not sure when/if I will bid for a while.

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

This feature will help buyers manage their projects on ScriptLance.

P.S. More site updates are coming soon.

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

It is now possible to create a project, save it, and publish it at a different later date.

This feature strikes me as a useful addition to the every growing list of improvements ScriptLance has been adding to their site over the past few months.

I agree with one response to the forum post, that states it would be great to add this feature for programmers who are posting a private message. I know sometimes I start to respond, or write an introductory message, and get pulled away in the middle. It would be great to be able to save the message and return to it later for proof reading or adding additional information before posting.

Read what Rene posted and the other responses here!

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

SL once had captcha but it was via third party and many people complained about it so it was removed.

Do you think it should be integrated into ScriptLance once again?

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

(the captcha script listed here has not been used on SL. It is merely a link to a good captcha script.)

Have a read and let me know what you thing…

“I often see programmers complaining on the forum about unrealistically low bids and insensitive buyer demands. It is difficult to change this behavior while maintaining ScriptLance’s open and easy to use system.

But I do have one idea that programmers might like:

Fair Trade certified projects. Buyers could select this option when posting their project. If after review of their description they are approved (by staff, or a select committee of programmers, or all programmers, that is something to decide on), a special icon will appear next to their project. The Fair Trade icon could attract better programmers, so buyers might be willing to abide by its rules.

Conditions for buyers to receive the status might include not making demands about price and not limiting bids to geographic or racial groups.

What do you think about this idea?”

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

The connection was interrupted

The connection to www.scriptlance.com was interrupted while the page was loading.

* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.

* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer’s network connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

Anyone else having issues?

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

“ScriptLance went offline at 6:00 PM EST on Saturday (May 31st, 2008) due to a fire at our ISP. No one was hurt, no servers were lost, and NO DATA was lost. They are currently working on restoring full power to the data center. 9000 servers and countless more websites are affected by this outage. Luckily this happened on the weekend.

2 of our servers were affected by this issue. Our main server is now back online, and running this site. Our mail server still remains offline, but we have moved mailing tasks to another server for now. Some people may still have issues connecting to the site or receiving mail due to DNS issues related to this incident. That should resolve itself in short time.

While we certainly could not have predicted or prevented the fire that caught in one of our ISP’s data centers, I admit there are things we can do to prevent such a long downtime in the future, including:

• Find out more about the cause of the fire. If it turns out to be due to negligence by our ISP, you can believe me that we will be looking for a new one.
• Setup a better DNS system so that we can more quickly redirect traffic to another server, and at least provide information to customers, which you deserve. I apologize for being unable to communicate this downtime.
• Acquire mirror servers in another geographic location, so we can quickly move ScriptLance in case of such an emergency. The backup files we stored proved to be insufficient in this situation.

Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. We hope you continue to choose ScriptLance for your programming projects.”

Thank you Rene for letting us know what happened and what you are planning to keep it from happening again.

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

ThePlanet.com - Host of ScriptLance.com and one of the largest hosting companies around today - lists the problem as:

“Today at approximately 5:45 p.m., a transformer in our H1 data center in Houston caught fire, thus requiring us to take down all generators as instructed by the fire department. All servers are down. ”

“On Saturday, May 31st at 4:55pm CDT in our H1 data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room. Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost.”

How can something of this magnitude happen to a top hosting company? If it can happen to them, can it happen to you?

I am not here to point fingers; merely to bring out that no matter how large or small you are, you are not immune to problems of some sort.

That said, what types of back up plans would you suggest for The Planet or any other hosting company.

Are you a host? What do you do to be certain that something like this will not happen to you and your customers?

- Mike
- mjfdesigns

I accessed it myself, clicked to manage my account and read the following…

ScriptLance was down due to small fire at our ISP. No data was lost. We are now just fixing a few small things and then ScriptLance will be full operational again.

Looks like all will be well soon.

- Mike
- mjfdesigns