new websnapr code

2/8/2011 6:51:34 AM

AndriaD

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Hi guys. I got an email from websnapr yesterday, telling me there is new code for websnapr; since I think the code to implement websnapr is within Mojo, not something users deal with, I thought maybe this should be brought up here; not sure if you were aware of it, since in some thread I read about websnapr, I think Joe said he isn't really wild about websnapr, so may not be following all their vagaries.

Thx,

Andria

2/8/2011 8:06:12 AM

Joe Audette

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Re: new websnapr code

Hi Andria,

I got the same email, WebSnapr has several products, the one we use is the Bubble

http://www.websnapr.com/bubble/

as far as I know the integration for the Bubble has not changed and continues to work. If it ever stops working we can revisit it.

Best,

Joe

2/15/2011 4:47:45 PM

essexman

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Re: new websnapr code

Hi

I'm haveing Websnapr problems and I'm not finding much ifo

I was using bubble - which stopped working

the links on this site say: Websnapr: update code

Is this a problem understood.

most sites I find have this problem - but this is the only discussion I have found on the problem

2/15/2011 4:52:36 PM

essexman

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Re: new websnapr code

I found a bug report for drupal - not sure if this is significant

2/15/2011 5:01:20 PM

Joe Audette

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Re: new websnapr code

Sorry, I see what you mean but my response is to dump websnapr from mojoPortal. The bait and switch ends here. It used to be something you could decorate a link with to provide a preview but the new implementation is no link at all but just javascript without an html link.

I'm sorry I ever introduced wepsnapr into mojoportal, it didn't work out great and it is going away as far as I'm concerned.

Those who still want to use it can wire it up themselves by pasting those javascript links into an html content instance in source view and adding the main script to their layout.master file.

Sorry for the inconvenience. In the web world sometimes things come along that are useful and then they go away, so it is with websnapr. It will be removed in the next release of mojoPortal.

Best,

Joe

2/15/2011 5:49:58 PM

AndriaD

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Re: new websnapr code

Well, it's good to know; it seems kinda "useless bell and whistle" in any case, but I'm curious now, are they doing something somehow nefarious? Nothing nefarious online surprises me anymore, but if there is something sinister in the "bait and switch" I'd like to know, so I can watch out for them in any other guises in which they might appear. (and what exactly makes it a bait and switch? as I said, curious!)

Thx,

Andria

2/15/2011 6:03:12 PM

Joe Audette

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Re: new websnapr code

No, nothing nefarious, just they offered a service long enough to get me to integrate it, then changed it, it was a novelty thing to begin with and it gets pricey if you have a lot of traffic. Then they changed it and want to steer you to a different service, the previous one was a mouse over for a link that showed a preview of the linked site, the new version would be disconnected from the link and but would show an image in the page without a mouseover and the image would also link. I think it is a way to get more revenue because it used to be an impression only happened when someone moused over the link, and now impressions will always happen for every link you want to show and that is how they charge.

I may go ahead and implement it since it is easy and we already have a setting for it but it will be like a totally different feature, some may like it better who knows.

Best,

Joe

2/18/2011 11:55:56 AM

Joe Audette

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Re: new websnapr code

fyi, I've implemented the change for WebSnapr for the next release of mojoPortal. I actually like the new way better in terms of how it looks and would love to be able to use it on our mojo Sites page like we did before with their no longer available bubble service, but unfortunately after being enabled for 5 minutes on this site all the images then changed to a default screen shot that says I'm over the limit for the month. They want $45/month to increase the limit but to me that is ridiculously high. I can get Netflix unlimited movie and tv streaming for $7.95/month but its $45/month for some automatic thumbnails on my site? Seems crazy. For that much I could hire someone offshore to make screen shots by hand for each of my links and make permanent images on my pages so I would only need to make images for the new sites each month. My guess is that WebSnapr is not making much money and possibly circling the drain, so they got rid of the bubble service to put more pressure on users to get paid accounts, but not many people are really going to pay that so I suspect they will go completely out of business at some point.

In the mean time, it will be available again in the next release of mojoPortal and it may be useful for low traffic sites while it lasts. It was an easy change otherwise I would have just removed it.

Best,

Joe

2/18/2011 4:11:35 PM

Jamie E

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Re: new websnapr code

Hi Joe, just wanted to say that while we don't use Websnapr, it's been pretty entertaining to watch the drama of this change-up unfold. And I agree with you 100% about that crazy $45 price point. I mean, to really put it into perspective, you can get business class ASP.NET hosting for unlimited sites at Arvixe for less than that each month!