Jump to content

The Maintenance Log

  • entries
    62
  • comments
    2
  • views
    990

About this blog

A blog for GLRF website fixes, features, and issues
Read more  

Entries in this blog

glrfcentral

Status Update Blocks And Coding Updates

We have been busy in the past two months, working with a developer to enhance many aspects of the GLRF website.

 

One of the biggest changes you'll notice is the prevalence of sidebars on just about every page. In the sidebars are 'blocks' that provide helpful information for the page you are visiting.

 

At the same time, all of the widgets on the GLRF Countries page, the GLRF Athletes page, the Regattas + page, and a few others, all went black in December. We have been slowly replacing them, and it is tedious work. Sometimes the widgets that are now in place work correctly, and sometimes they don't render properly, or load completely. It is annoying to say the least. We're working on a few alternatives to fix the situation but we don't have any exact date when the whole widget situation will be resolved.

 

Please bear with us. And let us know if you encounter any problems!

 

Thanks,

 

The GLRF Team

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

We are now working closely with a developer to fine tune the All Oars Network. In the next few weeks and hopefully not months, you should see an expanded use of sidebars on almost every page of the All Oars Network.

 

The sidebars will be populated with information relevant to that page, navigation nearby, and just better usability. The first block to make its debut is the status update block which you can now see on the Network Home page. This block or slight variations will always be the first item in the right column, giving you a chance to update your status on GLRF and also to show when you have new personal messages, new notifications, when new images have been added to the Gotcha! Gallery, and when new comments have been made on images to the Gotcha! Gallery.

 

Now, about these damned widgets ... for several years, we have used them as a freebie from a third party website. They worked well, looked nice, albeit too colorful for some members' taste, and they helped tie the website together. Now that company, or its division, has been sold, and with no notice, all the free accounts went dark overnight. We have managed to get a reprieve for all of two weeks and then they will be gone for good on Saturday, 22 December.

 

We're working with the aforementioned developer to develop in-house widgets and so you should see those starting to populate the website although in a much more subdued fashion.

 

Thanks for your patience!

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

What does that mean? We're the only house in the culdesac. It means we have lots more processing power, lots more ram, and lots more bandwidth to accommodate a growing community.

 

It means our old shared hosting service can't "throttle" the performance of the GLRF website, which they did on a daily basis, because the GLRF website was colocated with hundreds if not thousands of other websites.

 

It means we can blast out our newsletters and other community updates in lightening fast speeds instead of basically freezing the website for upwards of 2 hours while the newsletter emails were sent out in bunches of 15 and then paused so that the GLRF website did not suck all the cpu from the shared server.

 

It means we can host and use any software and have unlimited files, unlike the strange policy of the shared hosting service that we could store files of any size but we could only have a total of 50,000 files ... and we were already over that at 55,000 files at the beginning of June.

 

It means we can upgrade our servers performance to more RAM and CPU with a click of a button without having to move servers again.

 

Finally, we hope it means a better performing and faster website for our community members.

 

This last minute decision was done after seeing a summer promotion for 20% off one-year prepaid hosting, and the fact that waiting and changing servers later on, with more activity and people online would complicate issues all the more.

 

Next up: upgrading the All Oars Network!

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Fixing Flash And The Hanging Script Error

An iPad2 managed to find itself into our laps this week and we saw with dismay that all of the event widgets on the landing page, all flash driven, were simply gone.

 

After some tweaking, the widgets are now visible on the landing page on an iPad2.

 

At the same time, we discovered that several browsers: safari, internet explorer 9, and chrome, all had issues with a long-running script that was causing login problems and functionality freezes on the index or landing page.

 

The guilty culprit was none other than the Twitter widget, compiled by the good folks at Twitter as a simple plug, publish, and it plays plugin. However, the lengthy time the script took to load caused the browsers to go crazy. By looping the twitter widget in via an iframe, it seems we have a workaround.

 

We're hopeful this makes everyone's user experience a little easier.

 

- The GLRF Team

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Glrf Blog Changeout

As part of our streamlining process for the overall website look and interactive functionality, we are replacing the original GLRF blog, known as Le Blog GLRF or The GLRF Blog, with a new name that betters suits its function role: The GLRF View.

 

Although the GLRF Team doesn't spend every morning watching The View (sorry Barbara), the name of the show did inspire the renaming. Think of it as a mixture of political outlook, promotion, and our take about issues in the broader rowing community.

 

Over the next month, we'll be cutting and pasting the relevant stories from the older blog to the new location, in Blogwater, the blogging feature of the All Oars Network. This move also comes as we have adjusted the settings for the All Oars Network to allow guests to have a look inside our network while preserving our member's privacy and anonymity. Guests will be able to comment on stories presented on The GLRF View.

 

One of the many advantages to the Blogwater feature is that every blog owner can decide if they want guests (non-GLRF members) to view their blog and also if commenting is permitted.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Far From Delicious, If You Ask Us ...

For several years, GLRF has effectively aggregated links using Delicious.com to offer specialized feeds for our GLRF Countries pages, for our Facing Homophobia page, and for our GLRF Athletes pages.

 

Del.ico.us as it was first known, and then transformed by Yahoo into Delicious.com, was spun off by the Yahoo media conglomerate in April 2011. The original founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, took over the company and decided to "remake" the site from the ground up.

 

So on 27 Sep 2011, all of the bundles of GLRF links, that appeared for groups, for country links, for Facing Homophobia, went poof, and disappeared like Samantha did from time to time with Mrs. Kravitz on Bewitched.

 

We're monitoring the developments at the relaunched Delicious.com but so far, we haven't found an immediate solution to the issue of aggregating links that can be displayed on the various GLRF pages. The idea of manually updating links on countless pages is so mind boggling and time consuming that all we can do right now is grasp the neck of a bottle of bourbon.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Grrr More Twitter Feed Issues

Looks like the Twitter feed widget is blank again on the GLRF Central and the GLRF index landing page once again. See our post in Aug/Sep. The issue appears to be browser-wide, meaning the feed is blank on all browsers we have tried.

 

We had a look on the twitter help section and found this: http://status.twitterfeed.com/post/11056434934/web-site-issues

 

Our apologies about the blank space! Hopefully this gaping hole won't be there too long.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

It seems that Internet Explorer 9.0 (and perhaps some earlier versions) are having a digestive issue with the Twitter Feed many websites use, including GLRF!

 

Take a look at this Twitter Help Center page, and scroll down to read the comments. Issues with the Twitter Feed and IE 9.0 are everywhere.

 

Yet, the Twitter Feed is working great for the GLRF website on FF 6.0 and Chrome.

 

We'll keep checking the GLRF website on IE 9.0 to see if there has been a change, as well as any posted solutions.

 

Our apologies for the issue.

 

[Edit] Finally, as of 08 September, the code was fixed for the Twitter feed on Internet Explorer 9.0. Just check the GLRF site on IE9 and yep, it's all working now! :)))

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

We recently changed the login settings for the GLRF website. By doing so, any GLRF website link, be it from the Cox Box Squax Newsletter, an All Oars Network email notification, or a link from a friend in an email will allow GLRF members to click, login, and directly see the item associated with the link.

 

Gone is the necessity to "land" at the main page and then chop through the jungle overgrowth to find the page, or go 'back' to the email or newsletter and 'reclick' on the link.

 

In some cases, the login display will vary, some showing the All Oars Network login page while other links will take you to the GLRF login page. Either way, you still use your OnlineID and password and you're in and connected throughout the entire website.

 

Some users may encounter the need to login twice, and that is due to cookies and perhaps cache issues. If you regularly shut down your computer, you shouldn't experience that issue.

 

We hope you find this more convenient and easy to use. For those who have enabled OpenID or Facebook Connect, you should be able to move about the GLRF website effortlessly.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

On Wednesday morning, 18 May, 2011, we replaced the navigation tabs for the 'Groups' feature on the All Oars Network, thereby retiring the old groups application, Network Now!, and bringing the new groups application, All Oars Groups, online.

 

For the past month, we have been working on the transition between the two applications, first renaming the Network Now! labels as All Oars groups, and then manually populating the new application with the groups from Network Now!

 

The new application brings with it a host of networking features including instantaneous friending on the All Oars Network, messaging, dedicated discussion forums for the groups with group page widgets that show the latest posts for each group, as well as RSS feeds. The new groups feature also has a news article feature that helps to highlight news and provides for 'liking' and also commenting.

 

When you click on the Group navigation tab, you will see 'My Groups,' a section that lists all of the groups that you have joined, as well as a sidebar that shows the latest posts from all of your groups.

 

In a show of features and capabilities, mass pms (personal messages) were sent to the largest groups notifying them of the change.

 

We hope you enjoy the new groups feature and we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Learn To Row Ambassador Programme (New)

We have changed the Learn To Row page several times and about a month ago settled on this guestbook format. The Learn To Row page is on the public side of the GRLF website and is meant to help promote rowing in the gay and lesbian community and help folks find rowing clubs.

 

The idea is that local GLRF Ambassadors, residing in their own countries, would be able to comment on the guestbook entries and help people find local rowing clubs. Sure, any GLRF member could make a comment but we wanted to give some momentum to this idea, suggested by Frank22 in Copenhagen in 2009.

 

To automate the notification process, we have set up an RSS feed from the guestbook that creates a topic in the Learn2Row Enquiries forum. To participate, all you have to do is click on the button that says 'Watch Forum,' and you'll be notified each time there is a new guestbook entry.

 

When you get the notification, you login/click on the link and you can read the entry and then click on the link below that says 'Read Full Article.' From there, just add a comment.

 

The idea is that the public can read the enquries as well as the comments.

 

Hope you like the setup and let us know what we can do to improve!

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

We're still wrestling with the Rowing Videos page and trying to get the continuously updated videos to click and play on the Rowing Videos page instead of opening a YouTube page.

 

But we did make progress on one front - GLRF CENTRAL - the video displayed there NOW shows the most recent of the updates of the videos that our fancy video aggregation system collects every day.

 

This is a small victory but it does add some polish to the front door of GLRF since any visitor, new or returning, can watch a fresh video each day, and for the most part, the videos are spot on for rowing subject matter.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

In keeping with the style and structure of the GLRF community website, we have 'home' pages for various sections, like the Gotcha! Gallery, the GLRF Countries page, the GLRF Athletes page, the Regattas + page, and now for the All Oars Network, the Dashboard keeps a running tally of new activity within the All Oars Network.

 

Our custom scripting has just been updated and appears to be working, although bcrayt01 looks like he may have gotten two birthday greetings.

 

We will continue to work on sorting the bugs but it looks like the system seems to be working well.

 

Also, we have completed the manual copying of all profile and thumb profile images that were uploaded in the old Network Now! into the main All Oars Network so you may be surprised to see your image appearing where it did not appear before.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Friending And Messaging On Glrf

As of this weekend, we have moved all the friending amongst all GLRF members to the main All Oars Network. For those looking for their friend feature on All Oars Groups, it has been disabled as we begin the process of merging the 'groups' with the All Oars Network.

 

Huh? To you it may seem like All Oars Groups is just another rower in the boat but actually All Oars Groups, in its current configuration, is an external component that is layered in to the All Oars Network, albeit less than gracefully.

 

Up until this weekend, there were two ways to friend someone on the internal social network, first called Network Now! and now called All Oars Network. The first way was to friend someone on Network Now! and the second way was to friend someone on the All Oars Forums. Now there is one way to friend someone: from the main member profiles of the All Oars Network. Confused? Just click on the navigation tab that says Members, click on a profile name, and you can see their friends, and also friend that person.

 

Similarly, we had two messaging systems in place that caused confusion. Now there is one messaging system: from the All Oars Groups, click on the link that says Send a Message to a GLRF Member or just click on Members and select Messenger Inbox.

 

We hope you'll like the greater simplicity and the added features that come with friending and messaging on the All Oars Network.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

We implemented some changes to the GLRF index page, or in plain speak, the landing page you see when you click on GLRF.info

 

For a while, when you clicked on the GLRF domain, you were redirected to the GLRF Central page. This was felt to be more informative instead of a non-informative 'front' page that did not entice web visitors.

 

Now we copied some of the content from that page and put it on the index page and took away the redirection. So now you see the non-member version of glrfcentral on the index page, with displays of current activity, banner ads, and links to some of our other website social media pages, and finally, ... and enticements to join GLRF.

 

Then, on the member-logged in page of GLRF Central, we are trying to make it more 'member useful' by transferring some of the information that was on MY GLRF. Eventually MY GLRF will be a display of your customized profile:

- your groups

- who of your friends are online

- your current messages and notifications

- notifications of comments that people have made on images you uploaded to Gotcha! Gallery

- your selected country with a link to that country

- your selected athlete pages that you are interested in and links to those pages

 

 

meanwhile, we just upgraded the fancy schmancy news aggregator that provides rowing news from around the world as well as collates blog entries, calendar events, and ... last but not least ... feeds the Rowing Videos page ... but there is some google code right now that is causing that to break.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Live From Glrf, The Network-Home

The new All Oars Network is now live and the portal to this community network is Network - Home. Its main function is to give an instant snapshot of all activity within the All Oars Network.

 

At the same time, we just upgraded most of the All Oars Network to a new version that provides a host of new features as well as some very cool modifications:

 


     
  1. Private chatting - albeit one on one but still cool. Just enter chat and right click on the person's name to start a private chat.
  2. Member Status Updates - more Facebook-like functionality that allows GLRF members to comment on someone's just posted status as well as the ability to 'Like' their status (no that does not feed to Facebook)
  3. Notification settings online for just about everything the All Oars Network offers.
  4. Better member information like who's online and who recently joined and where they are from.
  5. A powerful member profile menu in the upper right corner that helps you navigate through messages, unread replies, notifications, content you like,
  6. Commenting on someone's profile - that's different than someone's status. So someone could comment on your new location, indicated in your profile, or your recent birthday ...

 

Hope you like all the new features. Post away in the All Oars Network Q & A Forum if you are concerned or have questions.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

All Oars Network, A Redo

We're upgrading, remodeling, and reworking our internal social network, now called the All Oars Network Over the next few weeks, you'll see a new dashboard that will be our launching point for all aspects of the All Oars Network. We'll see more unified updates of calendar event updates, status updates, group updates, forum posts, and blog posts.

 

We think this makes more sense, to have an all encompassing name that embraces our group functionality (formerly Network Now!), and our forums. This is what most web visitors expect when they visit a network, groups, forums, calendars, blogs, all under one roof.

 

Although the group functionality will still appear different, we like the strength of the group system that the component brings to GLRF. All that remains is to enhance the cosmetic look for All Oars Groups.

 

Lots of work but we think it will be easier to navigate and make more sense to our members and website visitors.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

For those of you who are active users of the GLRF Personal Messenger system, you may have (or not) noticed you can add 'folders' for all assortment of subjects. You just click on http://www.glrf.info/alloars/index.php?app=members&module=messaging and in the left column box that says "folders" you just click "add."

 

Now you can drag-move messages from your inbox to a folder, or from an existing folder to another folder.

 

Very cool feature that ensures your inbox doesn't get overloaded.

 

and face it, don't we all love anything that has a 'drag' feature to it? :D

Read more  
glrfcentral

Well, it was supposed to be a behind the scenes adjustment to our GLRF membership database but as you all saw, it went out to everyone, and some are probably either mildly irritated or puzzled. For the latter, we thank you for your indulgence and consideration and for the former, we're SORRY!!!! :(

 

An explanation is in order. In the past two years, we automated the sign up process with GLRF so that members could join without the GLRF team having to manually update each and every record. When we imported all of the previous memberships from our antiquated database, some 780 in all, in May 2009, we made the strategic decision to set the Shoreside membership level to expire after one year. It was our hope that this setting, along with automated emails for renewal, would encourage everyone to update their email addresses, and to ensure everyone was still interested in participating in the GLRF community. We also wanted to ensure that personal messages sent by active members would be sent to folks who would be "responsive."

 

When the renewal date arrived in May 2010, many of the Shoreside memberships were not renewed and our efforts to encourage folks to renew were only so successful. After looking around at the social community landscape on the internet, we decided our "strategic decision" was out of step with most online communities and therefore we adjusted everyone's Shoreside membership to a lifetime status.

 

Again, our profuse apologies for the confusion.

 

The GLRF Team

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

More Regionalization

At the urgent suggestion of some GLRF members, we have regionalized the calendars and will be doing the same for the news.

 

We have now trimmed the calendars to:

 

  • North America
  • South America
  • British Isles
  • Europe
  • Eastern Europe
  • Asia
  • Ozzie-Kiwi
  • and Africa Middle East

 

We're updating all the widgets on the GLRF Country pages to properly reflect the calendar feeds and also the links to add a calendar event. Please let us know if we have missed something.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Spring Cleaning In October On The All Oars Forum

After some earnest suggestions from GLRF members, we have decided to back away from the detailed sub-forum structure in the Country categories on the All Oars forums.

 

Some made the suggestion to combine individual countries into regions for even greater simplicity but we have to respect every GLRF member's right to chat and discuss with their fellow countrymen in their own forum and language.

 

With that said, we are yanking the sub forums on the larger countries like France, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, United States, and the like. Now topics will be located in the main country forum or in a group sub forum if a Network Now! group has been created.

 

We hope this change will encourage local and regional participation while also permitting national dialogues.

 

Got some thoughts? Make a comment here or start a topic in the new GLRF Website Issues Forum

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

The GLRF website, along with thousand of others hosted by a server farm in Southern Utah, went down for almost 4 hours last night. The service outage was first noticed around 19:45h Los Angeles time, and the web site was not restored until just before 00:00h Los Angeles time.

 

A call to the hosting service indicated that Rocky Mountain Power had warned of an imminent power failure and the server farm was shut down in advance of the power loss. The power company advised the hosting service not to activate their backup generators for fear that power spikes during the outtage might damage the server farm.

 

It's great to be back online! Now how many new memberships did we miss? :unsure:

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Login convenience with GLRF privacy

 

We want you to know before you read any further that within the GRLF website, your userid is the only thing visible to all members, even with these new login connect features. At no time is your email visible so if you're on the down low, you can feel secure that you won't be tagged as 'gay' for our straight members or outted by inquisitive teammates.

 

If you wonder where your GLRF monies go, here is an example. We just installed two plugins for the membership access / glrf login code. The cost for both plugins was US$97. So a huge shout out to all of those GLRF members who either contribute or have upgraded their memberships to OnTheWater.

 

The first plugin is called Facebook Connect and it allows everyone who has a Facebook profile and who has a GLRF membership to 'connect once and forgetta about it' as Tony Soprano would say. Once you have built this Facebook-GLRF bridge, and you are logged in to Facebook, you can go to any part of the GLRF website that your membership status permits instantly and seamlessly. No more having to login to GLRF each and every time. That's pretty cool!

 

Want to build your Facebook-GLRF bridge right now? Just click this link and then click on the Facebook Connect button on the page. Let us know if you have any problems, please!!! Just comment here.

 

The second plugin is called OpenID and it seems to be a little more cumbersome. First, there is an existing issue of the icons not appearing when you click on a GLRF-protected page instead of going directly to http://www.glrf.info/amember/login.php (we have a trouble ticket in for that). Second, the OpenID does not take the Tony Soprano approach. Each and every time you want to login using one of the OpenID properties, you have to click on the button on the login page, and that takes you to the Google or Yahoo or AOL page where it asks if you agree to connect with GLRF and then ... you are logged in to GLRF. For some folks, this might still be of benefit because they don't have to remember their GLRF user id and password.

 

Please let us know what you think and if you think this is a benefit for GLRF members. We have 8 weeks to ask for a refund on the OpenID portion, which cost US$40, or the entire package.

 

Cheers,

 

The GLRF Team

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Gotcha! Gallery Now In Beta For Testing

Single Sign On (SSO) is now enabled so you can hop over and have a look and start playing around. We still have to write most of the FAQ section but hopefully our image gallery will be intuitive to everyone. http://www.glrf.info/gotchagallery/

 

Also, if you want to post some feedback or ask a question, we created a forum on ALL OARS for everyone to find answers that are not readily apparent in the FAQ section. Find it here.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
glrfcentral

Upgrades This Month

It kind of feels like the highway maintenance authority around here ... this off ramp will be closed from 10 pm to 4 am ... except not quite that bad.

 

We will execute an upgrade to our membership access script this afternoon and hopefully the file upgrades will happen over just a few minutes but you never know ...

 

Then we may try to squeeze in an upgrade to the ALL OARS message board next week and we are hoping to activate the single sign on for the Gotcha Gallery. It's ready now but we still need to embellish the FAQ section. Watch this log for details when the gotcha gallery is enabled.

 

Once the Gotcha! Gallery is launched, we will need some 'helpers' to act as moderators to ensure all the pix that are uploaded are appropriate, given that GLRF membership is open to ages 13 and up. Nothing wrong with showing a little 'cheek' but we'll have to be careful not to push the edge too far and certainly no full frontals.

Read more  
    [[Template core/front/global/tag is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Our Community Guidelines - Guidelines Our Community Terms of Service - Terms of Use Our Community Privacy Policy - Privacy Policy and ... Our Delicious Cookie Consent: We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.