Sat Nov 02, 2013 7:46 am
#83988
It may seem like I've been quiet the past several days. Busy busy busy. In the run-up to Halloween I would be lucky to sleep for an hour at a time. There's just that much to be done. But after a recovery sleep of about 15 hours, I'm ready to jump back into it and start catching up with you all.
I thought I'd give a recap on the state of things, to let you know where I've been and how things stand in ZP land.
Forum:
I'm way behind on reading your forum posts. I've especially been avoiding the Carving Stories & Photos section, because I wanted to view them when I could give them proper attention and comment on everything without rushing. So please stick around and get ready for a lot of replies from me.
Emails:
By now I've handled most of the customer service emails from Halloween. Considering the amount of traffic the site experienced, the amount of people asking for help was relatively small. And most questions had to do with user error (mistyped email when joining, printer not installed correctly) rather than any issues with site performance.
As for the more personal emails, those I will be catching up on next. Many of you emailed me to share stories of your Halloween, show off your photos, ask general questions not related to your membership, make requests for next year, or tell me about your completed minion missions. It might take me several days, but I'll be replying to all of those eventually.
Web Server:
There were no widespread technical issues. I'm happy to report that for another year, this site's server ran smooth as silk through the high traffic times. Our servers' capabilities were well underutilized in fact. Which is a great feeling, knowing that we have that safety net and could handle even more traffic if needed.
Patterns:
I'm excited to say that we hit the milestone of 3 million patterns printed! The threshold to that total was reached, appropriately, on Halloween night.
Overall, I'm really happy with the patterns released this year. I also think the 2013 V.I.P. Patterns are a pretty strong collection. I finally delivered on a few long-requested characters. Although there are plenty of popular requests still to do. Leave them wanting more, right?
Well, I can tell you that I had about 5 patterns near completion that I just didn't get done in time. Up until Halloween morning, I still held out hope that I'd find time to upload them.
And I had maybe another 20 ideas considered or started, which I would have loved to finish as well.
Rather than just beat myself up about that, I just might have to release a few of these in November or December. Even if you don't have pumpkins left, I'm assuming you won't mind these post-Halloween releases?
My Halloween:
I wish I could have done more, but at least I know what to expect so I've gotten pretty good at managing my time and expectations. I was able to to fit in things like a concert, some Halloween shopping, some movie watching (even if I watched while I worked) and of course, pumpkin carving. Carved 5 myself, and had about 15 in our display with the help of my family. I received some nice gifts (and gave myself a really nice gift). And I completed my costume to satisfaction, in time for my Halloween party. I'll share photos of all of this soon.
Recap:
Traffic to this site dies down immediately on November 1st. But I hope you diehards will stick around, at least for a little while. There will be updates to things like the contest, galleries and minions pages. A few more patterns, and maybe some spooky winter holiday downloads. Halloween isn't just a day, it's a way of life.
I thought I'd give a recap on the state of things, to let you know where I've been and how things stand in ZP land.
Forum:
I'm way behind on reading your forum posts. I've especially been avoiding the Carving Stories & Photos section, because I wanted to view them when I could give them proper attention and comment on everything without rushing. So please stick around and get ready for a lot of replies from me.
Emails:
By now I've handled most of the customer service emails from Halloween. Considering the amount of traffic the site experienced, the amount of people asking for help was relatively small. And most questions had to do with user error (mistyped email when joining, printer not installed correctly) rather than any issues with site performance.
As for the more personal emails, those I will be catching up on next. Many of you emailed me to share stories of your Halloween, show off your photos, ask general questions not related to your membership, make requests for next year, or tell me about your completed minion missions. It might take me several days, but I'll be replying to all of those eventually.
Web Server:
There were no widespread technical issues. I'm happy to report that for another year, this site's server ran smooth as silk through the high traffic times. Our servers' capabilities were well underutilized in fact. Which is a great feeling, knowing that we have that safety net and could handle even more traffic if needed.
Patterns:
I'm excited to say that we hit the milestone of 3 million patterns printed! The threshold to that total was reached, appropriately, on Halloween night.
Overall, I'm really happy with the patterns released this year. I also think the 2013 V.I.P. Patterns are a pretty strong collection. I finally delivered on a few long-requested characters. Although there are plenty of popular requests still to do. Leave them wanting more, right?
Well, I can tell you that I had about 5 patterns near completion that I just didn't get done in time. Up until Halloween morning, I still held out hope that I'd find time to upload them.
And I had maybe another 20 ideas considered or started, which I would have loved to finish as well. Rather than just beat myself up about that, I just might have to release a few of these in November or December. Even if you don't have pumpkins left, I'm assuming you won't mind these post-Halloween releases?
My Halloween:
I wish I could have done more, but at least I know what to expect so I've gotten pretty good at managing my time and expectations. I was able to to fit in things like a concert, some Halloween shopping, some movie watching (even if I watched while I worked) and of course, pumpkin carving. Carved 5 myself, and had about 15 in our display with the help of my family. I received some nice gifts (and gave myself a really nice gift). And I completed my costume to satisfaction, in time for my Halloween party. I'll share photos of all of this soon.
Recap:
Traffic to this site dies down immediately on November 1st. But I hope you diehards will stick around, at least for a little while. There will be updates to things like the contest, galleries and minions pages. A few more patterns, and maybe some spooky winter holiday downloads. Halloween isn't just a day, it's a way of life.
)
