I rolled some changes to Gridjit today that should further enhance Gridjit’s security. This is a routine enhancement and shouldn’t have any effect on the UI.
If you notice any weirdness, please email support@gridjit.com. Otherwise, enjoy!
Today I rolled a biggish update to Gridjit.com that should make it more enjoyable to use. The big new features are:
Integration of FriendFeed Likes, Comments and Rooms
In the first screenshot below, you can see the new menu system that allows Gridjit to support additional network features from services like FriendFeed and Twitter (with more to come).
The next screenshot shows something I’ve been wanting in Gridjit for a long time - a startpage-like view of all of the rooms I am a member of with, of course, the ability to drill into each room.
Twitter Replies
Finally, a feature long lacking in Gridjit is the integration of Twitter replies. I have further enhancements planned here, so stay tuned.
Some smaller enhancements (due to popular request):
Also, I made some minor performance and other tweaks on the backend. It’s been a good week.
Let me know if you experience any issues with the new changes. Enjoy!
One source of many issues since Gridjit went into Alpha has been around incorrect username / password / remote key combinations when adding Twitter and FriendFeed services.
Today I released a simple feature (present in pretty much all clients) that attempts an authentication check with FriendFeed and Twitter before accepting the credentials. This is one of those things that should have always been in there and am finally getting to it now.
Hopefully this will make using Gridjit easier!
It’s been awhile since I’ve released any new UI features as I’ve been spending most of my time working on Gridjit’s backend technology. However, due to many requests, I’ve released some new UI features that should make managing your account easier.
To access the account settings screen, click on the new “Settings” link next to your name in the upper right-hand corner:
You’ll see a screen that will let you change your username, password, email address, privacy settings and, if desired, will allow you to delete your account.
Enjoy!
Rob Diana, writing for Mashable, has a good post today about the software development cycle and the massive trend of Beta services on the web. I’ve also noticed a growing trend in Alpha releases and it sounds like Rob has too.
Because I released an Alpha version of Gridjit, I thought I would provide a different perspective and talk about why I released Gridjit as a private Alpha.
The earliest users of Gridjit will remember it as a very simple visualization tool for Twitter. It hasn’t strayed far from that original vision but its feature set and design have been significantly enhanced in the last few months. I was planning an Alpha release for this summer when Twitter disabled a very important feature of their API with little warning, rendering the then current version of Gridjit completely useless. Within a few days, Gridjit’s most loyal users were asking me on a regular basis when the new version would be ready. Even though Twitter’s actions were beyond my control, I felt responsible for maintaining Gridjit’s service and so I delayed the addition of some planned features and released the Alpha.
There were a few other reasons I decided to release a private Alpha.
The most important reason (other than the one mentioned above) is that it just doesn’t make sense for me to develop software in a vacuum. The positive response that the Gridjit Alpha has received so far has convinced me that there is value in the product and that it meets a need. I’ve received invaluable feedback (and bug reports) from users telling me things I wouldn’t have seen for a long time. In return, the group of people who are willing to put up with some bumps along the way get early access to a great service (I’m told) and have a lot of influence over how that service will turn out.
Another reason, one that may not apply to everyone, is that doing a private Alpha lets me make sure the system will perform well for existing users. Because Gridjit is not funded by outside investors, I have to keep it running using resources from the other half of my business and that means that I have to make sure I can work on it when I have the time. By limiting access in the early stages to a small group of people, I can respond quickly to their needs and gradually build up the automated systems necessary to allow more people in, in a way that scales for me.
Downsides to this approach do exist.
I wasn’t able to do a Muxtape or Laconica style release with tens of thousands of users overnight. Maybe I will try this with a different app or an evolved version of Gridjit later (another advantage of doing an alpha - you get to do a better beta release). And in many cases, this sort of grand entry does seem beneficial.
In the case of Gridjit, however, it started with and is ultimately software that I built because I needed it. So I’m ok with letting it grow over time and if it has a ton of users a few months or years out, then all the better. 
A much-requested feature has been to display Twitter timestamps on the Twitter view within Gridjit. I just rolled this feature now. Please let me know if anyone experiences any problems.
I have turned on the ability to post, comment and like again from Gridjit. I apologize for the time that these features were down, but in the meantime, Gridjit has become much more robust behind the scenes.
Please let me know if you have any problems.
I am happy to announce that the necessary changes to prevent problems like yesterday’s are complete.
I’ve decided to hold off on rolling them to the production server tonight because I want to be there for the first few hours (I’m on Japan time and it’s getting late here). So, the new changes will go out tomorrow.
Thanks again to everyone for their patience as I take these extra precautions.
Earlier today, FriendFeed emailed me with a report on multiple comments with the same content coming from multiple users and it had been tracked back to Gridjit’s IP address.
I immediately shut off all of the interactive services as a precaution so I could perform an extensive security audit. After a day’s worth of research, I have figured out what happened and it wasn’t a security issue. It was a bug in the code that caused the multiple posts based on certain query patterns.
I apologize for this issue and I am taking steps to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.
On a positive note, I had the opportunity to dramatically improve the security and auditing functions of Gridjit. I’m in the process of working with FriendFeed to get Gridjit’s API access restored and hopefully all will be back to normal sometime tomorrow.
I’ve contacted all of the users who I know were affected to let them know what happened. Apologies again.
Due to some issues that came up early this morning, I have turned off the ability to post statuses, comments, likes from within Gridjit. I have also temporarily disabled access to the account management screens.
I know that’s pretty much everything you can do from an interactive standpoint within Gridjit, but I want to ensure that the system remains stable while I work on these issues. So for now, you can use Gridjit to visualize conversations and as soon as the other features can be re-enabled, I will do so.
From a timing perspective, I currently estimate that I will be able to turn these features back on in the next day or two. If anything changes, I will provide updates here.
I apologize for the inconvenience and I hope to provide additional details later.
