We need to reboot the webserver to apply some updates. It will be down for about 5 minutes. BRB!

Here’s a list of the next round of updates which are now in their final stages of testing and scheduled to go live within the hour baring any last minute issues.

• 1452 – Surgery progress bar is displayed on a newly created model’s account.
• 1535 – The browser button in the photo uploader is not proper in Chrome
• 1569 – New Contest Reliability algorithm
• 1598 – Email notification to contest winner
• 1441 – Able to create multiple blogs if clicking the “Create” button more than once
• 1505 – Validation Error – Able to enter text in the status field even after exceeding the limit
• 1506 – Improper display format in the activity feed if the status message exceeds the limit
• 1453 – Improper display format in the “My Details” section present in the profile page
• 1447 – Improper icon for status message in the activity feed –
• 1567 – Edit profile not always working properly
• 1424 – Calculated local time is incorrect
• 1667 – Redirect Urls with Photoset ID
• 1630 – Fix for Username search
• 1586 – Unable to view the photoset purchased if the model’s account is inactive
• 1588 – Application crashes when importing wishlist
• 1592 – Prevent duplicate subscription purchases
• 1641 – Deleted blog titles should not show in “popular blogs” side-panes
• 1671 – Report User not working
• 1511 – UI Issues – Message – Archive – Search
• 1445 – Profile layout issues

The new chat that I hinted at last time has been delayed for further testing.

I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure Fix-A-Flat was never intended as a way to inflate your glutes or your boobs! It’s intended use of course is for the emergency repair of flat tires.

But don’t tell that to Oneal Ron Morris, the transgender woman that is facing charges of practicing cosmetic surgery without a license, after police say she injected the Fix-A-Flat tire mender into the buttocks of her “patient.”

The injection took place in a residential setting, where Morris shot a mix of cement, glue, mineral oil and tire sealant into the woman’s buttocks, ABC reported.

WTF!?!?!??!?!?

Ladies, please. There’s a better way.

It’s people like Oneal that we have to thank for ridiculous warning labels.

We receive this question a lot, and though it is difficult to diagnose the exact issue without being present with you at your computer, there are a few basic things to ask yourself and keep in mind before attempting to upload your photos to MFI:

1) What browser are you using?

A commonality between some support requests indicating that uploading photos does not work for them is an outdated web browser: Internet Explorer 7. That browser is almost 5 years old now — an eternity in browser technology! We’re currently looking into a fix for this issue, but in the mean time I’d suggest taking a few minutes to upgrade your browser and speed up your browsing experience! I like Google Chrome and the new Mozilla Firefox is pretty great too. Both of them are free, fast, and work on Mac, Windows & Linux.

2) What is the file size of your image?

Before uploading photos to websites (including MFI) it is best practice to optimize them (i.e. resize and compress the images to the smallest file size possible without losing clarity) so that the photo will upload quickly and successfully. Files that come directly off of a digital camera are uncompressed hi-resolution images that are optimized for printing. A computer monitor has far less fidelity (72dpi) than a printed photo (300dpi), so you can safely compress the photo without any noticeable loss in quality. This will greatly reduce the file size of your photo and it will upload a lot faster.

3) What is the dimension of your image?

According to our metrics the largest screen resolution being used is 2560 pixels wide by 1440 pixels tall. But that is less than half of a percent (0.49%) of all the people using the site. Everyone else is using screens that are no wider than 1920 pixels. So if you are trying to upload those photos directly off your digital camera that are 4000+ pixels wide, it’s a complete waste of space and bandwidth. Shrinking the photo down to 1920 pixels max will cut your file size in half and it will still be fully optimized for 99.51% of everyone on MFI! Do yourself a favor and shrink those big photos. It will upload a lot faster, display a lot faster and takes up a lot less room, all while maintaining the same fidelity on a computer screen.

In a recent experiment, a lady who was having problems uploading her 4000×3000 image. It was 4,380kb in size. I opened that same image in Photoshop, shrunk it to 1500 pixels in width and compressed it for the web. The resulting image file size was… a mere 438kb. A 900% savings! It uploaded with no problem at all in the blink of an eye!

There are several tools you can use to optimize your photos. Adobe Photoshop is great, but it is expensive. Here are some free alternatives

* IrfanView (easy and fast)
* Paint.NET (powerful)
* GIMP (like Photoshop)
* ShrinkPictures.com (web-based service)

You can also find some more free online editing programs listed in an archived Mashable.com article here.

If you have switched browsers and/or resized your images but are still having issues uploading photos, please contact us via the support desk and report the problem with as much detail as possible so that we can help you try and resolve the issue. If anyone has any tips on uploading/editing photos they’d like to add, please feel free to share in the comments section below. Thanks!

We just rolled out another set of updates to the website to fix a few of the glitches.

• #1532 – “-”(hyphen) symbol appearing before the name of the photoset.
• #1530 – Hidden panes appear while loading the page (IE 8,9)
• #1542 – Bug in search for people with similar likes/dislikes
• #1564 – Photosets beyond page 1 are not visible
• #1507 – Bug when accessing ‘Has Before and After Pics list.
• #1348 – Search issue with max values
• #1512 – Likes and Dislikes – Text does not disappear when user clicks inside the textbox
• #1520 – Unable to un-friend model if model has blocked member
• #1583 – Fields are missing in the search page.
• #1539 – Duplicate buttons appear in photoset page.(IE 8,Chrome & Firefox)
• #1536 – Dropdown in search page is losing style while loading.
• #1517 – Mouse pointer should change to hand sign when placed over the button
• #1537 – The content inside the textbox is top aligned.(IE
• #1516 – Improper display of contents on my details section
• #1514 – Boob bank – Text does not disappear when user clicks inside the textbox.

We also fine tuned or release process with more automation for a better testing, staging and deployment release cycle. And we’re also working on a new version of the chat that is just about ready and should alleviate a lot of the main issues/concerns with the current version — look for that update later next week.