Thursday 1 August 2013

Removing Social Features

I started the Carbon Diet project just over six years ago, in 2007. I do still want to do things with it as an Open Source project, but it's overcomplicated and unfocused, that complexity makes changing things harder.

So, with this in mind, I've been looking over how people are using the site.

First, not many people are; that's not a surprise at all. What is a little surprising to me is that the core features of energy purchasing and meter readings are still being used on a regular basis. Somewhere out there, some of you are finding those features useful, which is great!

The other aspect of the site is the social side. The social features built in were useful in 2007, but today they are outdated and completely unused. These days, new projects hook into existing social networks, not force people to build their own again. Not a single comment, friendship, or group has been created in the last 2 years. To me, that says we can safely remove those features.

Another feature that's not being used are the energy-saving actions. This was always a bit badly implemented, and as there is a lot of energy saving advice around these days elsewhere, we can safely remove that too.

That will clear out a lot of the more complex code within the application, and let me focus down onto the bits people are using, and which I want to explore further.

I intend to remove the social features and actions, and refocus the app on allowing users to track their direct emissions. I also want to reconsider the reduction side, adding targets (possibly via some sort of quota system).

I hope that this will make the app more useful and more usable for those of you who are using it, and maybe take it in a more interesting direction for the future.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Server move and some updates

Today, you may have noticed that the site went down for a little while. During this time, we moved servers to Appfog, using AWS in Ireland. This was partly for convenience of maintenance, and partly to keep emissions lower. We will move again when a lower-carbon datacentre becomes available that we can use with Cloudfoundry.

We've also updated to the latest version of Rails, fixing some critical security issues and paving the way for a major cleanup of the code, and hopefully some visible site changes. I intend to do a redesign, and may also clean up some of the less-popular features to focus on the main app.

You may notice your avatars have changed; if you'd previously uploaded a file to us directly, you won't have it any more. You can set an avatar now using gravatar.com.

We apologise in advance if there are any errors with the updated site; we'll be keeping a weather eye, and will fix any as soon as they turn up.