February 3, 2006
@ 02:59 AM

One of the things I have learned about shipping software is that no matter how much work you put in beforehand, you're going to have to make some changes (fix bugs, tweak code, etc) after your software is actually in the hands of end users. Last week's update to MSN Spaces was no different.

Mike Torres talks about some of these changes in his post Some updates (and a new feature!) where he writes


We updated some things today; every one of those things was based on direct feedback from you guys.
 
I want to comment on just a few things quickly...
  • We have a new feature: the Windows Live Favorites Beta module.  OK, OK.  I know what you're thinking... "Didn't you guys just release a bunch of new features last week?"  Yes...  Yes, we did.  But we wanted to use this opportunity to introduce yet another cool new and exciting feature.  Don't know what Live Favorites is all about?  Check it out here - and then add the module to your space to share your bookmarks with your friends... or the world!  Bill has a complete overview on his space.
  • Links in the RSS feeds didn't point to the actual entry, it pointed to the blog page and now it points to the entry like it should have.  Hence everything is probably unread again in your RSS reader :(  But, it's FIXED for good! So if you were wondering what's up, that's what was up.
  • Overall performance and stability improvements.

And the kicker...

  • Comment ordering is back to the way it was before.  Thanks for all the feedback; I really didn't like it either.  When you're used to something, sometimes it's just better not to touch the thing.  Of course, there will be people who don't like it the "old" way either!  But that's a risk we're willing to take at this point to make sure the other 99% of you are happy again.  Thanks Eileen, Tony, Becky, and others who made this happen :)

There were also about a dozen or more fixes here and there...


What about Photos?  We're also working on some simply outstanding stuff here... but this work will take some more time.  Rest assured, we hear you loud and clear about Photos.  So we think you'll really like what's coming up!


One of the reasons I like Web-based software is that we can ship bug fixes to our users quickly without having them deal with installing patches, updates or downloading new installers as is the case with desktop software. I love the Web!!!

PS: Mike is right that there are some cool improvements to photos being planned for the MSN Spaces service.


 

Friday, February 3, 2006 3:31:06 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I'd REALLY like to see a calendar module like you have here on your 25hoursaday blog that shows on what days there were posts and lets you click to get just the posts from that day. I'm impressed with the recent pace of improvement on Spaces though, keep up the great work!
Friday, February 3, 2006 4:21:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
What's the favorites module supposed to do? I just turned it on for my blog, but it just comes up empty. I have a Live Favorites account with a bunch of favorites in it. But, they don't appear in the module on my blog.
Saturday, February 4, 2006 3:27:34 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
@Pedro: It only shows your "Public Favorites". If you go to http://favorites.live.com you will notice that there is a second tab labeled "Public Favorites", these are what will show in your blog. I'm constantly getting "Your request cannot be completed at this time. Please try again later." messages but if I refresh a time or two it generally works. To make your favorites public there is a checkbox in the properties that you need to check. Just right click on the favorite, select "Properties" from the context menu, and check the "Share this favorite" box. Hope this helps.
Tuesday, February 7, 2006 6:29:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Yep, that did it. Thanks.
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