This week I moved http://www.slowtrips.com to the same webhost that we use for slowtrav.com - CrystalTech. We are live on the new webhost now. There are still a few things I need to check - one category (Florence GTG 2004) got messed up and I will fix it today.
Also the URLs are different - but today I will try to fix that (I set up the folder structure the same, but it is todo with spider-friendly URLs which are not working on the new webhost).
So, if you notice any of your photos or thumbnails missing, email me (Contact Us at the bottom of the page).
There was 1.5gb of photos that I had to download from the old webhost to my computer (took over 24 hours) and then upload to the new webhost (took over 36 hours).
The new webhost will be more reliable and hopefully faster.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pauline,
I thought I could get the URL thing straightened out immediately - but I can't - so I switched the domain back to our old webhost for now. So all URLs work.
When I do the switchover again it will be with a whole new domain name - http://www.slowphotos.com - since the URLs are changing anyway, might as well go for a better domain name.
There are some problems with photos that were uploaded to more than one place (which I did not think was possible - but I think it was done over a year ago). So I am deleting the duplicates.
But for now, we are back to where we were, but uploading is turned off.
For the future, we are going to change SlowPhotos so that only premium members of the message board (paid members) can keep photos there (plus contest winners). We will notify everyone with lots of warning and then will delete photos from non-premium members. (This is because it costs us a lot to run the photo gallery.)
We are still working on this - the changeover did not go as smoothly as I anticipated. There are some database corruption problems that we had before, but only came to light when we did the move. We are still running www.slowtrips.com but you cannot upload photos to it.
I have quite a few links from my blog to photo albums (and even some individual photos). Will these just automatically re-direct to the new site or would I need to do something?
Also, I know that some posts on the message board (including several of mine) link to photos on www.slowtrips.com. Are these links still going to work?
The Photo album feature of Slow Travel has been a real benefit to me. I think you are right to limit this to premium (paying) members due to the storage costs. This is one reason I was so thrilled to be able to choose a ST membership as one of my prizes. (Plus the ball cap and tote bag!)
I have updated many of the links on Slow Travel and Chris is doing trip reports and our contest winners list. I just went to the new domain - www.slowphotos.com - and there were 26 people online and Marian had uploaded a photo!! That was nice to see!!
Marta and I had to do a lot of fussing to get the site ready - turns out we had a corrupted database!!
KenC used to have one big photo album of his 2004 trip (great photos) and several smaller ones with the same photos - but the smaller ones all got lost in the transfer (there was something funny in the way they were uploaded or linked to). Same with Lorac - there were duplicate photos that got deleted. And we lost a Florence 2004 GTG category with Marian's photos. But that is it I think.
Let us know if there are any problems with your photos.
I did some rearranging of categories and got rid of the "avatars" - little photos beside the category.
Everyone will have to login again - but the membership info is all there.
Sorry about all this upheaval - but we will be much happier on this new server and this year I want to get a lot more traffic going to the photos - because they are great!! I will be linking to them more from the website.
Are we supposed to re-register? I can't seem to remember the right combination of my old user name and password (had a strange password and I had set it up so that I didn't have to remember it...) I've requested to get my info again (twice) but nothing seems to be coming...
Not urgent, but I thought if the system was up that I'd post some Umbria photos (inspired to think about the Piano Grande and Norcia) and keep working on my Swiss Walk saga...
You will need to login but you won't need to re-register. You will use username and password the same as SlowTrips. This may be different from what you used for the board since the two systems are independent. You might want to check your spam folder. I checked your email address and we have your aol email account listed. It would have been sent to that account.
Pauline, that was me who uploaded the photo as Mariam. It was one of the photos that I found missing so I re-uploaded it.
Thanks Marta. I did check my spam folder and didn't have anything, so I don't know where the e-mails might have gone... I did ask twice for my password.
But in the meantime, I tried another couple of combinations and hit the right one. So, I'm back in!
I'm glad you remembered you email and for replying back that you checked your spam folder. I think there is something wrong. I used my test account and noticed an error message when I tried to reset my password. We'll get on it. Thanks!
Marta, sorry. Something else.... I am logged in and can see "my albums" and "my favorites" (though I don't have any favorites identified. But I don't see my photos.
I thought from Pauline's earlier message that we could upload photos now. But when I try to upload photos to one of my albums using the "upload photo" choice under "Actions," I get this message:
"User uploads not allowed"
Maybe I am jumping in before everything is ready. (By the way, I'm glad to be a guinea pig and help with some user testing...)
Email is not working, so new people cannot register and old members cannot request their password.
We are working on this now and should get it fixed soon.
If anyone wants to upload photos and does not remember their password, email us (click Contact us at bottom of this page) and we will have a new password generated from our old system (which we are keeping up for now).
Steve got our email working!! This is great now that he is not so busy with his company - he can work for us here!!
If you have forgotten your password, click the Forgot Password link on the Login screen and you get an email with a link that lets you reset your password.
One of my photo albums - on Tuscany - seems to have disappeared in the transition. I am sure the fault is mine. When I set up my first photo album I created a different ID from the one I use on ST - have no idea why it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Should I re-create it or is it out there somewhere waiting to be retrieved?
We may have confused it a bit. We changed the Slow Photos member name to match their Slow Talk name for a few members. Your account was one of the ones we changed. It sounds like you were able to find your pictures which are under Castor3 now.
BTW, the other accounts who were changed to match their Slow Talk accounts are: Barb(and Art), B&j and the gang, ChrisV, chuck g, Diana Strinati Baur, Doug S & Judith G, Janet, Janie&Geoff, joywriter, Kim, Marta, MikeLastort, Robert Rainey, SarahNWalker, Sharonov, Steph, TimT, Wendy & Rob.
Don't forget you can find your photos and albums from the "My Photos" and "My Albums" link in the upper left.
One more change to SlowPhotos - any registered user, not just Premium Members, can upload in the Other Photos category. This lets everyone upload their GTG photos, prize photos, pet photos!!
Pet Photos - this category is sorted with the latest uploads first so you can easily see the new photos
I think we made a mistake when we did a mass edit on the trip reports database to change to the new slowphotos link and put a space between the http:// and the www (I see this on your links and a few other trip reports). When I click the links for your albums, I see them (IE on a PC), but I bet the link does not work in all browsers. I emailed Chris and she will check into this.
Topic Closed
