Running-Log.com blog

Google puts Running-Log.com back at the top of the search results

2008-06-14T15:54:00.001-07:00

In the last post, I wrote about Google removing Running-Log.com from its search index. After fixing the root cause and waiting a few days for things to straighten themselves out, if you search Google for "running log" you'll see Running-Log.com at the top of the results again. Of course, this is very important in terms of getting more users to the site so I'm very happy to see that my earlier pessimism about the chances of being put back at the top of the results was proved to be wrong.

Running-Log.com removed from Google's index

2008-06-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

When I moved the site to a new web host, I got complete control over the server it was running on. There was a risk that I would mess something up, but I felt that the benefit of having complete control over the environment the site ran in was worth the risk.

Unfortunately, I did mess something up. If you search Google for "running log", Running-Log.com doesn't appear in the results. At all. For the past seven years it was consistently #1 or #2.

It turns out that the web server was reporting an internal server error for a file that search engines depend on, robots.txt. Google stopped indexing the site at this point and after a while just gave up on the site completely. You can see this from this chart of data downloaded from the site (courtesy of Google Webmaster Tools):

I've resolved the issue with robots.txt but I really don't know how long it will take to get the site back into Google's index. Hopefully it will just be a few days. I really doubt that it will be placed back at the top of the search results, but time will tell. In the meantime, if you enjoy using the site and have a blog or website yourself, please consider linking to www.Running-Log.com.

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.8

2008-06-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

15: Add forums

Private forums have been added for teams. Public forums will be coming in the future.

225: Add teamid to links in recent workouts

Clicking a link in the "recent workouts" section of the teams page didn't show a link back to the team on the workout's page. This should make navigation easier.

226: Improving the Calendar - Difficulty in updating the Team details

Updating team details was broken. Now it's fixed.

Produced by FogBugz

email issues

2008-05-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

It appears that the site is having some email issues. Some users aren't receiving the registration confirmation and forgotten password emails. If you're having this problem, please email me: branton@running-log.com. I'm working to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Update: I believe I've ironed out the issues. If you still aren't receiving email, please let me know.

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.7

2008-05-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

148: Running-Log.com doesn't work with Safari

I changed servers for a number of reasons. One of the primary ones is that the setup I had previously had issues with Safari. All of the site's functionality should now be working in Safari.

197: Add a confirm email box on the registration page

I was getting semi-regular delivery failures on the account registration emails. Adding a confirm email text box to the registration page should catch simple typos in the signup process.

198: Missing </i> tag on teams page

Fixing some bad HTML on the teams page.

199: Explain what "Public" means on the account page

Provides an explanation of what checking the "Public" box on the account page actually means.

201: Workouts without titles don't get linked to in "recent workouts"

On the team page, there's a list of the most recent workouts along the right side of the page. If a workout didn't have a title, there wasn't a link available for that workout.

Produced by FogBugz

Site is back up

2008-05-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

The site appears to be back up and running. It's now running on a new web host so it's possible that there are some kinks in the system. If you see any, please be sure to let me know by leaving a comment or emailing feedback@running-log.com.

Taking the site down for maintenance

2008-05-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

The main site should be going down soon for maintenance. It should be up by morning.

I'm attempting to move to a different server which will solve a number of issues.

Site doesn't work with Safari

2008-04-28T03:20:00.001-07:00

I'm aware of the issue where navigating the calendar doesn't work while using Safari. Many of the team administration functions will be similarly broken.

The problem appears to be an issue with the server configuration I've got. Others appear to have the same problem. I'm currently investigating moving to a different host for a variety of reasons, this being one of them.

It is on my radar and I'm trying to fix it.

Update: Safari should now work!

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.6

2008-04-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

17: Add teams

Teams are back! Teammates can view each others' logs and shoes. Let me know what else you'd like to see in this area.

114: crew

Added several new exercise types: crew, weights, and other.

116: March Display

Fixed a bug where the last days of a month might be cut off, as happened in March.

187: Security update

Security update.

188: Tweak ads

Tweaked the ads on the site. I know they can be annoying, but I'm trying to make the site self-sustaining and the ads useful.

Produced by FogBugz

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.5

2008-03-24T01:17:00.000-07:00

74: activity dropdown menu

You can now enter more than just running. Email feedback@running-log.com if there's an exercise type you'd like to see added.

78: Implement classic blue color theme

Had a few requests to bring the old color scheme back.

Produced by FogBugz

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.4

2008-03-10T02:53:00.000-07:00

2: Add RSS feeds for logs

If you make your log public, you can provide a link for people to subscribe with RSS. Whenever you update your log, people will be notified by their news readers.

49: Add heart rate back to workouts (intervals)

You can now record your average and maximum heart rates to your workouts.

65: Update the home page to have more relevant information

Gave the home page a facelift. This should continue to evolve as features get added.

66: Update CSS to make the site look better

Gave the site's overall look an update. There will be more changes but this should be sufficient for a while while I focus on new features.

67: Add a login box to the homepage

No more hunting for the login link -- you can now login directly from www.Running-Log.com.

57: Add public logs

You can now make your log public, allowing others to view your training.

60: Update the ads to be better located / targetted

Changed the ads positioning and content in hopes of getting them to be more relevant and useful.

(If you hate ads, I'm sorry. I'm trying to get the site to be self-sustaining.)

64: Update the "view workout" partial to hide nil fields

The "view workout" page (both on the website and in the RSS feed) has been cleaned up to only show fields that you've recorded. If you don't track your heart rate, for example, you won't have to look at empty fields.

68: Update the "forgot my password" page

Fixed some layout bugs on the account management pages.

69: Update the look of the shoes page

Updated the look of the shoes page.

Produced by FogBugz

Happy with the trigger finger

2008-03-08T01:01:00.000-08:00

One of the problems that people have been running into on the site is getting registered. Obviously this is a high priority problem for me to fix. In order to register, you must confirm your email address by clicking on a link sent to your email address. Unfortunately, the link wasn't clickable in many email clients.

So tonight, I sent out emails to all the unverified accounts asking them to copy and paste the link into their browser's address bar. As soon as I was done, I hit myself on the head and said, "You should've reformatted the links before you sent all those emails so that they are clickable!" Oops.

I've made that update. All the emails you get from now on from Running-Log.com that require you to follow a link should now be clickable. I apologize for the headaches and confusion.

Setting up Source Control

2008-03-06T03:29:00.001-08:00

Tonight I didn't write any code, but I worked on establishing some important infrastructure. I'm now working in a source control environment. This is important for several reasons. It allows me to track changes I make, revert changes if I decide I've messed something up, bring other developers on board and share code, and easily sync code to the web server when it's time to update the public site. It took a while to get setup, but it will be well worth it in the long run.

For anyone that's interested, I'm using hosted-projects.com to host a Subversion repository.

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.3

2008-03-06T03:27:00.001-08:00

30: Add weather back to workout

Due to popular demand, the weather field has been added back to the workouts.

34: Comments get truncated

A bug was causing all text after the 255th character to be lost in the Workout's comments. This has been fixed and you should be able to type as much as you want now.

40: Move weekly totals to a column off to the right

Trying to make the calendar view more meaningful, the weekly totals have been moved off to the right in their own column.

44: Add <br /> tags where line breaks are to preserve formatting a bit.

Adding some HTML markup to preserve new lines in a workout's comments. They weren't being shown before so three paragraphs, for example, would appear as one.

29: Show average pace in "View Workout"

Due to popular demand, the View Workout page now shows your pace.

Produced by FogBugz

Release Notes - Running-Log.com: v0.2

2008-03-06T03:18:00.000-08:00

20: Improving the Calendar - Allow users to show distance in kilometers

You can now change the units that the calendar shows your workouts in between Miles and Kilometers.

26: Add Google AdSense / PayPal Donate items to layout

I'd like to get the site to pay for itself, so I added some ads and a link to make a donation to cover costs.

31: Update the calendar when the menu changes without requiring a button press

Removed the "Change" button to navigate between months in the calendar. Now you can just select the month you want and it updates automatically.

24: Calendar is hard to read until a run is logged

I added some spacing in each row of the calendar so that it's easier to read when there aren't any runs for that week yet.

18: Maintain month selection between page loads

The calendar now remembers the last month you were looking at. In addition, whenever you enter or edit a workout you'll see that workout's month the next time you go to the calendar.

19: Add a "back" link after creating a workout

I found that every time I added a workout, I had to search around to get back to the calendar. Now there's a link right on the "View Workout" page.

Produced by FogBugz

opening shop

2008-03-06T03:10:00.000-08:00

I've been posting updates to Twitter, but the 140 character limit was holding me down. What can you expect from this blog?

Release notes whenever I update the site. You can stay informed about what is happening now.
Information about future plans. You can stay informed about what will happen in the future.
Comments. If you have any thoughts about the posts, please feel free to comment. (I'll probably moderate them to keep them on topic, if necessary.)
Occasional geeky development commentary. I'll likely write about adventures in coding now and then.

Feel free to leave a comment if you think I've left something out that I should write about.