The BlogShares Blog

The 5 Oldest Blogs in BlogShares

Lee — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:31:34 +0000

While doing some maintenance today I happened to glance at the ‘blogs’ database which had ordered itself by BSID. Noticing that one of them had a 3 digit BSID (we’re now into the 10′s of millions in terms of BSIDs), I wondered if it was still alive…

Unbelievably, after 9 years of being a blog, it is alive and flourishing!

So without further ado, here are the 5 oldest blogs in the game (in terms of BSID):

10,000 Birds (BSID 388 - Added 25th Nov, 2003)
rebecca’s pocket (BSID 6192 – Added 20th Oct, 2003)
Secondary School Education (BSID 8281 - Added 8th July, 2003)
80′s Music (BSID 8514 - Added 4th July, 2003)
A Whole Lotta Nothing (BSID 8906 - Added 16th March, 2003)

The first blog added to the system (in terms of date) goes to greg.org (BSID 92290) added 13th March, 2003!

No real point to this, but it’s interesting they’re still alive after all this time!

The Great Crash of 2011

Lee — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:53:41 +0000

Firstly, welcome back to BlogShares! It has been a while.

tl;dr Version (for those who hate reading long blog posts)

The game is back up
We recovered all the data
We think we fixed all the server move-related bugs
A new game (‘BS3′) is coming
4 months free Premium for anyone who was premium when we crashed
Please report any bugs/problems in The Forums

For the in-depth crash analysis, please Read More.

The Background

BlogShares is a very large, very complex game. At the front – the bit the players see – it all seems relatively simple. A few dozen screens are available to the player, and the game-play concept sits within these 30-40 screens you can access via buttons and links.

On the back end though there is a database server handling upwards of 1,000 queries per second, holding 50gb of table data, 300-odd tables and 300-million rows of information. There’s the web server, servicing Player and Non-Player requests, parsing and caching 80,000 lines of game code. And there’s the Spider server handling ‘the java spiders‘ that can consume anywhere between 5-15MBit/s of bandwidth alone.

On or around December 19, 2011, the database server crashed. This was a machine that had been in service since 2007, and it has ultimately reached the end of its serviceable life. We were placing more and more demands on it with new game tools and code, and it had run out of room to expand. Eventually, on that fateful night, it hung up its will to operate any longer and summarily crashed dead in the water.

After a couple of weeks of no news, I (Lee / The Architect) made an offer to Jay to take over hosting the game. It was clear that he no longer had the time to be able to fix and run BlogShares along with everything else going on at Santa Cruz Tech and it was likely 2011 would be the end of BlogShares for good.

This isn’t the first crash in the 9 year history of the game. This might be the 5th of any great note in terms of ‘time taken to fix’. We are always breaking it subtly when making upgrades or introducing new tools, but I don’t count those!

After a few days, Jay accepted my offer but could not immediately proffer access to the system as he was a 2-hour round trip away from the data center where the game was hosted. There was not even any guarantee that there was any data left to salvage.

Eventually he did find the time to travel to San Jose, and the database server was limped back into life, temporarily. It had a failed drive in the RAID array, and the crash had badly damaged the database.

The Recovery

With the Help of Rob / SubWolf, after 3 or 4 days we managed to get the database repaired on the injured server. It was a mix of technical skill, blind luck, and a lot of optimism. We even managed to ‘dump’ it out so we could move all the data off the stricken server. Unfortunately the complexity of databases means it isn’t as simple as just being able to copy it ‘as is’ from one place to another.

Less than 72 hours later, it appears likely another drive failed in its degraded RAID array, and the server died for good. We were lucky. We got out what we needed.

Rest In Peace, 10.0.0.2.

The BlogShares development environment dates back to 2003. Because it is such a complex beast of interconnected systems, there had always been a reluctance to upgrade any one element of the backend servers (be that software versions, operating systems, and so on) purely because of a mortal fear it would break something and we’d not be able to revert. You have to remember the average hard drive size in 2003 was just 37 gigabytes, and with game data around 50 gigabytes, RAID was a must to be able to hold it all. That meant expense. That also meant backing up was a huge issue, and it was rarely done due to the cost involved in then storing that backup.

(Today, things are much different. The average hard drive size is 750 Gigabytes. The new server has 2,000 Gigabytes of disk space on it.)

With the old setup as it was, the game couldn’t continue. We had no choice but to move it elsewhere, using the very latest versions of everything. We just had to hope it would have a “hope in hell” of running. Sure, we encountered issues along the way – some of them very time consuming to fix or patch or code around – but for the most part, it was a resounding success. As I write, we have overcome every move-related technical issue outstanding on my list.

In the end, we didn’t lose a single chip, a single dollar, or a single blog in the entire recovery effort. In emergency last-ditch-attempt data recovery scenarios we call that “probably unlikely”, and we achieved almost the impossible.

The Now

By the time you read this, the final piece of the puzzle will have fallen into place. The last vestige of the ‘old system’ – the domain name – will have been transferred, and have become active once again. The game will hopefully be blindingly fast – in comparison to how it used to be, at least – and your ‘Board of Directors’ will be visible, active, and here for you, the players.

If you find problems, be sure to point them out in the Forums (which we also have also copied over). We’ve tested extensively, but probably haven’t found every combination of play you use, or particular search queries, etc. We’ll try to reproduce the problem you experience and get it fixed as quickly as possible.

Every player that had a Premium Membership at the time of the crash will have their membership extended by 4 months from the date of re-launch. If we have missed yours, drop us a line either in the forums, or on IRC, or in the comments and we’ll get right on it.

Tell your friends. BlogShares lives! And everyone is welcome back. An email to everyone will go out in the coming days with an enticing offer for old players to return as well, now that the game is under new management.

The Future

Work has already begun on what we have termed internally as ‘BS3′, or BlogShares version 3. It’s a bit of a misnomer technically, because it doesn’t involve Blogs at all. But something far more exciting, and far more tied to the real world and thus far more useful and fun to make a game out of. It’ll adhere to the core principles of BlogShares but without the Blogs part. In their place, will be something much, much more dynamic.

In conclusion, I want to thank you all for your patience, and your positivity on the Facebook group during the Great Crash of 2011. It’s likely we’d never have persevered as long as we did without you, because on quite a few occasions the thought did our minds that we were going beyond what any reasonably sane person would do to recover data, or fix a seemingly unfixable problem.

Yours,

The Volunteers of BlogShares.

Blog SHARES

Ken — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:12:36 +0000

A couple of days back, the GIC was brainstorming ways to shift activity in the game away from cash and back into shares ownership and shares play. At the time, the total valuation of all blogs was about B$11.8 billion and the total market cap (share price times shares existing) was about B$ 960 billion. Players’ wealth had grown by B$ 4,990,450 billion in the past month, mostly from cash generated through corporate interest.
We would like to motivate you to play shares more vigorously. To start the ball rolling, we have made a small change to one of the game fundamentals that should make shares play more lucrative — we have increased the base value of blogs from B$ 1,000 to B$ 10,000. Since implementing this change, total blog valuation has increased by almost 14%. There’s good money to be made there, but it’s up to you to go find the opportunities and play shares!

Blogshares is about …

GIC — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:38:41 +0000

… a whole bunch of stuff.

Discuss.

Press Release Images

Ken — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:04:12 +0000

Please limit the size of any press release images to less than 800 pixels in width – anything more and they tend to overlap the menus and make it harder for other players to do things.

The GIC …

GIC — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:04:09 +0000

… doesn’t want the Blogshares blog to qualify for “dead blog” status. Can you give us some suggestions on how to prevent that?

Friends of the index is now taking applications!

IM — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:37:10 +0000

Friends of the index is now taking applications!
If you’re interested in earning some chips as well as building up your Karma and Sigma then you’ll want to be a member.
In order to join post a reply that you’re interested here and request membership in the Friends of the Index corp. http://blogshares.com/corps.php?corpid=16
As quickly as we can we’ll send you a PM with information on the industry you’ve been assigned as well as your contact IM.
From there its simple, just check each blog in the industry and report any that are dead or have a name change. Vote for anything that is missing and vote against anything that is no longer valid. You’ll get chips, Karma, and Sigma just as you always do. But wait there’s more!
Once you’re done send a PM to your contact IM. They will take a quick look through the industry and finish up the cleaning process, then they will pay you for your work in more wonderful chips!!!! Chip payment will depend on the size of the industry and the work performed (you’ve got to do the work to get paid in other words).
If there is a specific industry you’d like to work on post that when you express your interest and we will try and set it up for you.
What are you waiting for – sign up now.
Oh yeah, you’re free to buy anything you find while working and there are lots of values out there just waiting to be discovered.

New Game Feature

IM — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:42:53 +0000

Looking for high value blogs? Want to vote on blogs to earn karma and sigma? Don’t know where to look? Check out the new Recommendation list!
http://blogshares.com/recommended.php
The list is filled by the IMs as we come across blogs that needs to be voted, we think have the ability to increase in value, have good value and a low P/E, or just aren’t owned.
You never know what you’ll find. Right now the list includes:
* Several blogs over $100K with a P/E < 100 (some have a P/E < 1)
* $1K – $20K blogs that are unowned
* Blogs of all value that need to be voted
You never know what you’ll find. But keep in mind that the list also includes a couple of dead blogs so don’t just vote for the sake of voting (report the dead blogs and grab the Sigma and Chips)
Check back often and see what might be appearing.

An Interview With Ken Adams – GIC Chair

IM — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:37:46 +0000

Q. How long have you been playing B$?
Almost five years now, I first signed on in March 2005.
Q. What got you interested in playing B$?
I had started blogging in December 2004, and the spiders found me a month later. As I started to figure things out, I noticed a few hits from the game and decided to check it out. At first, the volume of information was intimidating, and I actually left the game alone for about 4 months.
Q. Ideas or Shares?
It depends, I play both. Shares can be a lot of fun when there are many players fighting over a few blogs, and so can competing for drops on rare or artefact industries.
Q. Why did you volunteer to be on GIC?
I really like to understand how things work, and I spent a lot of time mapping out the new ideas math. After that, I made some suggestions to the GIC and was doing some testing to help AdamF with the Dead Blog Finder. My membership on the GIC is all his fault.
Q. What’s the hardest part of being on GIC?
Sometimes, players have really cool ideas and I have absolutely no idea how to make them work. A close second is explaining to my wife why I need to spend every evening online playing B$.
Q. You are the head of GIC? How is that different from other GIC members?
Not much different, really. My role as GIC Chairman is to be the primary interface with the game administrators and BOD. And to referee the Jello wrestling matches.
Q. Potent Wind send share prices all over the place. What happened? Can we expect to see that again any time soon?
The spike from Potent Wind was an expected consequence of removing the artificial limit on outgoing link value, coupled with the time needed to settle things out in the database. At the time, we had over 7 million blogs that needed to be indexed about 10 times to fully propagate the new valuations, and that caused the perturbations.
I don’t expect to see anything like it again, but if someone has an idea that makes long-term sense with weird short-term effects, I’m game.
Q. Occasionally GIC will have a contest. How do you decide when to do this? Can we expect any new contests soon?
We don’t have anything currently planned, but if someone has an idea for a contest we’d be happy to help set it up.
Q. Can players help GIC improve the game?
Ask questions, and make suggestions. Volunteer!

Interview with Miss Melville – Lead IM

IM — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:13:22 +0000

Q. How long have you been playing B$?
April 2006. I was a very casual player; stopped playing than started again.
Q. What got you interested in playing B$?
I was looking at my stats on a blog and saw blogshares showing up and was curious. I followed the link and was intrigued.
Q. Ideas or Shares?
Ideas, duh. No offense to shares mavens, I just think ideas are vastly more interesting than shares.
Q. Why did you volunteer to be an IM?
I’m a librarian in real life. I’m interested in how things are cataloged/organized so the index was intriguing to me. I had been asked to be an IM awhile before but real life kept me from accepting. I was spending more and more time voting, modding, and killing deads, so I volunteered.
Q. What’s the hardest part of being an IM?
Sometimes it’s knowing where to start. The index is large and there is just so much to do. Fortunately, we have a team of really smart, dedicated Index Managers and we’re carving out a plan of attack.
Q. You’ve recently been promoted to Lead IM? How have your duties changed?
I’ve got more of a leadership role obviously. I’ve been called on to be the final word on something a couple of times. I expect that will continue. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have this great team of people who are doing so much to make the Index as good as we can.
Q. Are the IMs working on any projects you’d like (or can share) with your fellow players?
We have a couple of things in the works. Some of us are busy cleaning various industries that desperately need cleaning. Some of these were solo efforts (I am proud that I cleaned every single South American nation!) others are more team efforts.
What I’m really excited about is that we’re taking a holistic look at the main areas of the Index. The blogosphere has changed so much since it was first organized and we have crossover in more than one area. The hope is that we can figure out how to minimize the crossover and get a cleaner index. And then of course, to do that.
Q. Occasionally the IMs will have a contest (like “A is for Artefact”). How do you decide when to do this? Can we expect any new contests soon?
I am hoping we do have some new contests. They may be repeats of old ideas, for instance, we still have a ton of really cheap industries with no artefact.
Q. What are the traits of a good artefact suggestion? How do the IMs decide what artefact to release and when? Does Immunis just enjoy releasing artefacts in blogless industries or is he just evil?
A good artefact suggestion is well written, original, and should be really representative of that industry. Merely copying text from Wikipedia or some other site is not what we’re looking for.
How do we decide? Well, the good entries usually stick out right away. The IM looks at the suggestion thread and does some research. Sometimes the IM has a particular interest in creating an artefact by themselves. If the IM thinks it’s worth releasing, he or she checks to see how many people can build it. Why? Well, in some cases the IM who’s looking at that industry may be the only person or one of the only people who can. Unless it’s an arte that we know is going to be easily built, that IM does not release it.
My personal belief is that Immunis enjoys releasing artefacts in blogless industries and that, yes, he is evil. I say that with love.
Q. What about sub-industry suggestions? How do you decide which to add? How can a player improve the chance their suggestion will be released?
If it’s a location industry, it has to meet the population criteria – less than 15000 people and it does not get into the Index.
If it’s a content industry, it has to be something with enough blogs to merit inclusion. We’re trying to not add micro specific things. For instance, while you could say that the Beatles were an iconic group and worthy of being in the Index, we don’t need every band that every cut a record there. No Geronimo Jacksons.
A player who really wants a subindustry approved should make sure they do the research on a population industry. Find a good representative blog and write a clear, well- written description.
Q. What can players do to improve the Index?
Report deads. Suggest title changes. Vote against no longer valid industries. Let us know when you spot problems. We welcome your input!