On February 4, 2022, at around 6:30-7 pm (EST) TinglyTube suffered an approximately 10-hour outage until it was brought back up around 5 am today (February 5, 2022), but how and why did this happen?
Well, while TinglyTube has a small but incredible development (and engineering) team, they are mostly off on the weekends unless specifically called in, leaving me (JJ15ASMR, Co-Founder, CEO, & CTO of TinglyTube) to be the "first responder" to any issues that arise on the backend of the site before our development team is called in to assist.
And there's usually never been an issue with it being that way, however, it relies on me to be awake during a majority of the day and constantly checking in on TinglyTube as I usually do. However, my second semester of high school started this week which has required me to start waking up much earlier again than I was during break (I go to online school which makes it better though :) because of this, I've been getting quite tired in the evening's unless I force myself to stay awake until a more proper time to fall asleep, but considering it's a Friday with nothing else I need to do, I decided to lay down for a minute, but setting no alarm for myself, that turned into a full 10 hours of sleep... all while TinglyTube went down shortly after.
And remember what I also said about needing to also constantly check in on TinglyTube? Well, that's a very important part of the equation because we don't have any server monitoring system in place to automatically check and notify us if something is down, not responding, or not working. Which should be in place, and is my fault for not. The closest thing we have in place is Munin, which is a simple open-source resource and network monitor, it doesn't alert us, but it does track and create graphs representing resource and network usage, which is how we have this graph showing our shameful downtime gap:
As said before, this is my fault completely as TinglyTube is my passion and I am responsible for making the big decisions regarding it which include how our infrastructure is set up and monitored. And I am extremely sorry to the TinglyTube community and our team for this horrible mistake of not having a monitoring/alert system in place.
Obviously, an apology is not the only thing needed to make this right, something also needs to be done to prevent this in the future, so as such, a proper monitoring and alert system have been set up this morning that will notify I and our development team through a variety of ways (email, SMS, & phone) in case of a future outage or other issue(s) so that they be fixed in minutes not hours.
As for "why" this happened, we're not entirely sure yet, there are so many moving parts that play a role in making TinglyTube work that could have malfunctioned or possibly been overloaded, but the biggest priority was getting things back online, which was actually quite simple in a way because all that was needed was a forced restart of our server, and things were back up and running within about 20 minutes once everything started back up again. We are investigating to find the root cause though because if it's something we can also fix and prevent in the future, we will.
If you have any questions or concerns about the downtime/outage, please contact us via our Support/Feedback form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
- Jacob Daniel (JJ15ASMR) Co-Founder, CEO, & CTO.
Last month we finally introduced the ability to add Custom Thumbnails to your videos and we're excited to announce a super amazing update to the custom thumbnail feature!
Maybe you're not sure what image editing software you need, how much it will cost, and how long it will take to learn the ropes of it, well, wonder no more! You can now create an awesome-looking thumbnail without ever leaving TinglyTube or downloading any software using the NEW Canva button!
For those who aren't aware, Canva is an amazing (and free) graphic design platform that allows anyone to create almost any kind of design in minutes using a large repository of professionally created templates, graphics, photos, backgrounds, and more (which includes uploading your own images)!
Once your video is successfully uploaded, you can go to the "Edit Video" page for the video you want to add a custom thumbnail to by clicking/tapping your username at the top-right corner of the site (or the person icon) and then selecting “My Videos” from the dropdown list, and then clicking/tapping the "Edit" icon under the video (for in-depth instructions on this with screenshots, please check out our Custom Thumbnails help article here).
Once on the Edit Video page, scroll down and under the "Upload a Custom Thumbnail" file input, you'll see the beautiful purple "Design on Canva" button, give it a big ol' click, and the Canva 'studio' will launch.
Once in the studio, use the menu on the left to access a variety of design elements (such as graphics, photos, and text) or upload your own images, you can also select a pre-made template that you can tweak to 'fit' your video, once you're done with your masterpiece, simply click/tap the "Use as Custom Thumbnail" button to the top-right of the studio and within seconds your design will be exported back to TinglyTube, then hit the "Save" button on the Edit Video page and your Canva design will automagically be added as your video's custom thumbnail!
Note that you will need a Canva account to create a custom thumbnail using the Canva button, if you don't have one already, you'll be prompted to create one when you click on it, it's quick and you'll be able to get right to creating your custom thumbnail as soon as you create an account. Also, while most design elements and templates are free, some are "Pro" which requires a paid Canva account (which is not mandatory).
We hope that this update allows even more creators to create great-looking custom thumbnails with ease.
If you experience any problems while trying to use the Canva button, then please let us know using our Support/Feedback form, we're always ready and happy to help you!
