BlogMad, a blog exchange service in beta testing, blew away their databases today and this blog, and my account, were one of the unlucky ones to have everything reset to zero.
BlogMad support tells me there is no way to restore the lost settings.
All that surfing gone.
All that “ranking” gone.
All those earned credits gone.


It’s as if we never existed. Sure, BlogMad is in beta — but there is a
base expectation from end users that even if everything blows up
BlogMad should still be able to rebuild what was lost via a system
backup from the last day’s automated backup and so you’d only lose what
you did in the last 24 hours. It seems the last backup BlogMad has is
one from 20 days ago. You can live a lifetime in 20 days on BlogMad.

If you want to be BlogMadding again you have to set up everything again
from nothing and support will try to determine where you were before
the explosion.
I won’t be BlogMadding again any time soon!

36 Comments

  1. Boy, it’s always something in the blogworld isn’t it? I seem to have to deal with several issues on my blog (usually some plugin screwing something up) every week. Right now my gravatar is not showing up but everyone else’s is 🙁 I did however get an email over the weekend saying something about how my site disappeared off of blogmad and it had to be reactivated but when I looked it seemed fine. Sometimes I just don’t want to bother with all the extra stuff like blogmad and blogexplosion and just do my own thing.

  2. Hi Robin!
    I think you are very wise in this matter. It is so easy to get caught up in advertising and promotion of a blog and then you lose site of your blog’s mandate: Affecting other people in a positive manner.
    I did not get any email from BlogMad about the problem. Lucky you!

  3. Well, life, at least for me, is overwhelming enough as it is. I just try to visit blogs I like everyday and post when I can. On weekends I like to do a little blogmad or BE if I can. If I promoted my blog more I might get more comments but I’m starting to think the majority of people out there visit and read posts but don’t always comment, people tell me all the time they read everyday but just don’t always comment. Anyway, I just try to make life simplier whenever I can because believe me I’m very good at complicating it 😀

  4. I’m with you all the way, Robin.
    Lots of people read.
    Few people step forward to comment.
    When registration was required here to comment we’d have 3-5 new registrations a day but those folks would never post a comment. It was strange! Why register if you don’t plan to comment? You don’t need to register to read.
    😀

  5. People do strange things.
    I like to make a point to comment, I like people to know I’ve read their post. I don’t always have something interesting to say but I’ll just let them know I enjoyed it. I suppose it’s like blog etiquette or something, like driving, you just try to be courteous to others so they’ll show you the same back but it doesn’t always happen. Sorry if I’m not making a lot of sense, my head is a little fogged today.

  9. No wonder I can’t log-in today to surf and get some points. I thought there was some error with my passwords. And now, I end up surfing with BE and came across your site. Thanks for the info,

  11. Well I’ll bet all new sites have had it. I know when BA started their database got corrupted twice. Just one of those things.

  17. Tell me about it. I had to rejoin completely. Thankfully I had just joined the day before last so I didn’t lose very much like most users did.
    I’m actually surfing it in another tab *sheepish grin* It seemed to work really well for my blog hit count so I’m going to retry it. If they bomb out again I’m kicking them in the shin and never looking back!

  19. Yeah I was wondering what had happened!!
    Funnily enough, I only joined Blogmad yesterday!! And even then I used (wasted) all the credits I had gotten for joining playing that bloody hangman game. So I guess I am one of the lucky ones – I didn’t have much to lose.
    Very slack of them not to do backups. They should give everyone a bonus or something who lost credits (although that wouldn’t be very fair with people like me who didn’t really lose anything & don’t deserve a bonus).

  21. Hey,
    I’ll explain what happened.
    The databases corrupted, and it turned out it wasn’t backing up as it should’ve.
    But, if you email support@blogmad.net with rough estimates of what you had before they’ll restore it within time!

  23. diff K —
    Ouch! Believe me I feel the sting of logging in and finding nothing. BlogMad is different than the other exchanges where you are required to be active and participate if you want credits and ranking so when they erase all traces of you the end result is a feeling of wasted time and energy. Who wants to start again from zero?

  24. Kirstin —
    Yes, you are certainly lucky you didn’t lose much.
    I agree everyone in the Beta should be given Killer status and 1,000 credits by default for this fiasco. It should not be on us to prove what we earned or the ranking mask we wore.

  25. I emailed them with what I thought my rank was and they restored it immediately. It’s a hassle, and I sure hope they back up more often than that from now on, but I’ll stick with them. I surf across all the traffic exchanges, so it’s just one of many. If one’s down, I just keep on surfing. What really messes me up is when Blogger is down.

  26. Hi Joe —
    I know you work for BlogMad along with Paul.
    I wrote to Ian before I posted my article here so I already wrote to support and the response I received was rather lukewarm and all the responsibility was placed on me to get my numbers restored. I have no idea how many credits I had and I really don’t remember what ranking I was at but I was far beyond the minimum for Killer.
    BlodMad needs to get better backup systems in place. As hterry said, databases corrupt and there should be several levels of anticipatory emergency systems in place to avoid a complete loss of data as happened over there.
    Here are some other suggestions for success.
    1. We need to be able to buy credits. The way BlogMad is set up right now you have to click on really tiny number that wears on your hand and wrist hour after hour. That means the only blogs you see all day long are created by people who have all day to waste clicking on numbers or playing games. You need to give people who have a life a way to get more action on BlogMad and that doesn’t mean auctioning off credits like Paul is suggesting in the forum.
    2. Auctioning off credits is a bad idea. You are pitting customer against customer and that makes for bad feelings especially if you will limit the number of credits available and limit the window for bidding.
    3. If you’re worried about your 1:1 ratio — though BlogAdvance now offers the same ratio — and paying customers trumping the all-day-clickers, reduce the rate of those who pay for credits to something other than 1:1. That’s backwards from the way most businesses work — if you pay you get a sweeter deal — but if it is important to retain your “We are the people who click all day” Socialism over the merits of a free market then so be it but I didn’t appreciate BlogMad being the only blog exchange I frequented that didn’t give some relief to those willing to pony up real money to be released from click monotony.

  27. Dirty Butter —
    I’m glad you are restored.
    Soon everyone will claim they had 8,000 credits and the top rank and then what will BlogMad do?
    Will they accuse people of lying when they can’t prove they aren’t?
    It’s a ridiculous proposition to have a business telling its customers to tell them their earned value because it opens up the entire system to corruption and opportunities for an unfair advantage even if people just split for the middle to gain a surf advantage.

  28. David, if you provide an estimate, they’ll do it.
    I do not work for BlogMad, I was simply a private beta tester and I’m a moderator on the shoutbox, IRC channel and forums.

  30. Hi David,
    As Joe mentioned in his comment, we were caught off guard by the database not being upto date. We had been experiencing some downtime to the site due to a high database load and changed a few settings. This in turn killed our backup routine without us knowing.
    We do have a strict backup routine (off site backups every 2 hours), but we were unaware that the backups being made were of old data.
    Unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to trust what the members tell us. It would also be completely backward of us to call all our members liars after they have been affected by something they have no control over. And yes this does leave us open to fabrications and exagerations of member status, but again, we are not in the position to call people out on it.
    We are investigating methods to allow users to buy credits. As we are based in South Africa most online payment solutions don’t acknowledge us as being able to receive money. This is proving to be the main hurdle we are currently trying to jump.
    We are in no way making excuses and trying to shift the blame for this and I do apologise for the inconvenience you have experienced due to this hiccup in the beta stage.
    Regards,
    Darryl

  31. I’m glad I didn’t spend a lot of time clicking only to lose all of my credits.
    I should check my account though because I had some people sign up and I get referral credits from their surfing.

  34. DoctorMoo —
    I appreciate the update but I am left wondering why your emergency backup systems were not being routinely tested as a primary effort of your day.
    Your inability to accept payments shapes your service in a negative way for me.

  35. Chris —
    I think you were smart not to invest too heavily into BlogMad since it is now proven undeniably unreliable and it is still in beta where more problems are certain to happen as part of the discovery process.
    I didn’t go the referral route — but I can see how that could be devastating to your credits count if you haven’t been closely tracking your earnings!
    Good luck!

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