Website Support Blog

WebsiteDynamics Ownership Change Notification

This is an important notice to let you know of an upcoming ownership change for WebsiteDynamics. Of note is your billing will be switched to the new owners on August 9th, 2022 in advance of the official switchover on November 1st, 2022. More details are below.

Recently, WebsiteDynamics signed an agreement with our longtime internet service provider and business partner EZProvider Networks Inc. to buy WebsiteDynamics. EZProvider has been a great partner and great friend to us, and are also people we’ve trusted to help us keep our software running for over 15 years.

The goal of the transition is to be as seamless as possible. Our support staff Sean and Jerico will be moving to EZProvider to continue providing the service that you’re used to. Our entire staff wanted to thank you for choosing us to be your website host and we wish you the best in the future. We’re confident that EZProvider will continue to be a good home for you as they have been for us, often going above and beyond what is required.

Please read below for an introduction to EZProvider, how your website may be affected, how the transfer will take place, and FAQs.

Who is EZProvider Networks Inc. (EZP)?

We have been partners and friends with EZProvider since 2003, when we launched our first website builder. Although their name may be new to you, they have provided the backbone of our network for many years, and have been a pivotal part of our operations including assisting with server migration, advising on hardware implementation, helping us prevent and mitigate DDoS attacks, and advising us on network strategies. As such, they are already well-accustomed to our technology and all of our customer websites have already been hosted through their network for almost two decades. Given our long-term partnership, EZP is the only company we felt we could completely trust to take good care of our customers. Like MeZine, they are based in Vancouver, Canada. You can learn more about them on their website, https://www.ezp.net.

How will my website be affected?

The transition to EZProvider will be seamless. EZProvider is taking over all of our server infrastructure in place, so there is no technical transition happening whatsoever, and your website will not experience any downtime or interruptions. Sean and Jerico, our support team at WebsiteDynamics who have been with us for 10+ years each, will both be moving to EZProvider to continue offering the same great support you are accustomed to. Nothing else about your website will change as a result of the transition, and there is nothing you are required to do.

Are there any changes to billing?

Your website subscription will continue normally with no immediate changes to pricing or structure, and charges related to your website will still appear as WEBSITEDYNAMICS.COM on your credit card statement. However, as there is technically a change in who is processing your payments, customers may require their banks or credit card providers to re-approve their subscription charges, particularly customers located outside of Canada. If your website subscription payment is unexpectedly declined after the transition, please contact your bank and request that they re-approve charges from WEBSITEDYNAMICS.COM. If you experience any issues whatsoever with billing as a result of the change, please do not hesitate to contact our support team who will help keep your website active while the issue is resolved.

More questions?

Please contact our support team through the normal channels, or email us at [email protected] where we would be happy to answer any questions you have about the transition.

Final Thoughts

We feel incredibly fortunate to have hosted websites for tens of thousands of customers, many of which have been with us for a decade or more. We are a small company that started in the basement of a house, and at our peak, grew to 3 offices in downtown Vancouver. MeZine is not disappearing and will continue on with other products (https://www.wysimark.com). It is with excitement and hope that we are passing you on to EZP, and we know they will take excellent care of you. We are extremely grateful for each and every customer, and wish you all the best in the future.

Website Service is Intermittent

POSTMORTEM: Websites began experiencing intermittent services at 1:05 am lasting until 6:23 am PDT. Due to a change from a minor update a few days ago, one of our systems began to have issues this morning. The issue has been resolved. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused.

UPDATE 6:30 am PDT:  All website are back to normal. Thank you for your patience. We will have a notice posted later on what happened after our technicians have more time to look into all our systems.

ORIGINAL POST:  Our technicians are investigating intermittent services on our websites. We apologize for the disruption. Updates will be posted here.

All Websites and Email are Down -- Resolved

7:20 am PDT Update - Everything is back to normal now. The outage was approximately 30 minutes.

Our Internet Service Provider has informed us that all Internet is down for all their clients due to a problem at the data centre where they themselves get Internet. Not only is our ISP down but everyone at the data centre has lost Internet. Unfortunately, this means that all websites and email are down. We will let you know as soon as we get any updates.

 

Website Service Issue

UPDATE 7:10pm PT: The issue is now resolved and websites are back up. The outage was caused by a network hardware failure at our data center, which has been replaced. Reports indicate that the outage lasted from 6:23pm to 7:04pm PT.

We are currently investigating reports that websites are unavailable. We thank you for your patience and apologize for the disruption. This post will be updated with more information as it becomes available.

Website Experiencing Down Time

9:45 am PDT - The outage on Oct 4th was caused by a specialized server which normally wouldn't cause any issues as there's a redundant back up server, but in that instant there was an additional issue that together caused most websites to go down. We are adding another safeguard in to help prevent this in the future. Apologies for any disruption. Websites were restored at 7:00 am PDT. 

8:45 am PDT - The IT Manager would like to do more detailed investigating before we post an explanation. Most likely this update will be posted tomorrow. 

7:00 am PDT - All websites are back up and operating like normal. More info on what happened to follow.

6:30 am PDT - We have received reports that websites are down. Our IT staff are looking into the matter. We'll post updates here. Sorry for the disruption. We'll do our best to resolve this as soon as possible.

Email Password Security

Our email provider OpenSRS has sent some of our customers up to 3 emails informing them to update their password for their email account. Please do not ignore these. If your password is not updated, your email account will no longer be able to send messages and will only be able to receive messages beginning August 27th. To fix this, all you need to do is change your password to one that fulfills these requirements:

• minimum of ten characters
• at least one number
• at least one capital letter
• at least one symbol or special character

OpenSRS is requiring this change to help safeguard your email account. If you have any questions, please contact our support team.

New Cookies Notice Feature (GDPR Compliance)

We're excited to announce that you will now be able to turn on a cookies notice that your visitors will see upon visiting your website. This was created to be compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the US and Europe.

What are cookies?

The goal of GDPR is transparency for your visitors so they understand that some of their information will be saved temporarily to enhance their experience on your website. A cookie file basically remembers a prior action that you want memorized as  you visit other webpages. On your website, the cookie file is primarily for saving items in a shopping cart so that a visitor can continue browsing your website without losing those items. It is also used to memorize that a person has logged into a message board, voted in a poll or logged into their express checkout account when checking out their cart (if you have turned this turned on).

How does the cookies notice work?

You may turn the cookies notice on or off anytime by going to "My Pages" -> "Privacy Policy" and checkmarking the box "Check to turn on your cookie notice per General Data Protection Regulartions (GDPR)." Then, click "Save."

Now when visitors come to your website, they will see a notice at the bottom of your pages. It will have a link to your privacy policy which you may edit by clicking on "My Pages" and then "Privacy Policy." As your visitor browses your website, the notice will stay put until they close the notice. Per GDPR, the notice will not reappear for 365 days or until your visitor deletes the cookie file for the notice on their browser. Sometimes people will occasionally delete all browser cookies which would automatically clear out the cookie notice file.

Common Questions

Can I edit the text for the cookies notice?

All cookie notices default to "To enhance your user experience on our website, this site uses cookies. If you continue to browse, you accept the use of cookies on our site. See our Privacy Policy for more information." It was intentionally set this way to broadly cover all our customers. Also, per GDPR, for the type of cookies used on your website, you do not require your visitors to specifically agree to use of your website's cookies. Instead, visitors need only be notified that cookies are used.

Can I change the color of the cookies notice?

Yes, but only if you are using an Enhanced Template and are comfortable with CSS coding otherwise please contact our support team to help you. Click on "Design" and then go to "Edit Current Template" and click on "Advanced Options." From there, you will want to make changes to the [#cookie-container] CSS ID.

How come I don't see the cookies notice?

If you don't see the cookies notice, first make sure you have turned it on by going to "My Pages" and then "Privacy Policy." Check mark the box near the top to turn it on.

If you still don't see it, it's probably because you need to clear your cookies on your browser as you've previously closed the notice. As another option, a faster way to see your cookies notice is to open a new incognito window (this allows you to browse the internet anonymously) then go to your website. On Chrome for Windows, press Ctrl+Shift+N and for Mac press Command+Shift+N. On Firefox for Windows, press Ctrl+Shift+P and for Mac press Command+Shift+P. Then, go to your website.

Will the notice appear on the mobile version of my website?

Yes. Regardless of whether you have mobile enabled for your website or not, the cookies notice will appear if it's turned on.

Updates to Templates and Dashboard

Today we have released two changes to customer websites affecting the template header editing and the dashboard. Here are the details:

Header Images No Longer Editable with PicMonkey

Due to flash approaching its end of life in browsers, the PicMonkey app will soon no longer be supported as it's flash based. As a result, this has been removed, but you can still upload customized headers to your website. If you simply need text added to an existing header and are having difficulty, please feel free to contact our Support team with what you would like done. This will be a free service.

Link to This Blog From Your Dashboard

On your Dashboard at the top right, a link has been added to this blog where you will find updates and new feature information.

If you have any questions about these changes, please feel free to contact the support team.

Website Improvements to Accommodate People with Disabilities (ADA Compliance)

 

---

UPDATE MAY 27:  All templates now have an alternate text field for the header image.

---

We're excited to announce new improvements to help you make your website fully accessible to those with disabilities. These tools will allow you to fulfill the requirements for ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Compliance. For those customers outside of the US, there are similar rules in place in the EU and coming soon to Canada. Other countries are likely to follow. Generally, they all follow the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) put forward by the World Wide Web Consortium. 

In some places, a person with a disability may be able to pursue legal action against you, so it's in your best interest to make your website compliant as soon as possible. Below, we'll go over the new tools we've built as well as some advice to help your site become compliant. 

Alternative Text for Images

ADA compliance requires all images to have alternative text (AKA alt text) that adequately describes the image. This is read by screen readers and refreshable braille displays for people with visual disabilities. As an added bonus, alt text may also help with search engine optimization if you use keywords as part of your image description.

If you inserted an image using the text editor's "add image" button, note that there's always been an option to add alt text.

However, there were some images that didn't have the option which we fixed as follows:

"Click to Change" boxes on all page layouts:

For any product images on a Catalog layout page, we have auto-filled the alt text with your product name. You may wish to change these to better suit your images to be more descriptive.

Header Image in Template Design:

This one will be released in about a week. Further instruction will be given in a future post about this.

Labels for Buttons, Text Box Fields, Checkboxes, Radio Button Options and Drop Down Menus

These labels are not visible on your website, but have been added to our code for screen readers and refreshable braille displays to read. Here's where this was added:

• catalog and shopping cart checkout process pages
• interactive pages like the blog, custom feedback form, autoresponder, newsletter, message board, polls, guest book, calendar, download and recommend site pages

New Captcha

We have switched our old captcha to the Google's reCAPTCHA tool which is disability friendly. It now looks like this:

Further Practical Advice

Here is a list of other ways you can make your website ADA compliant:

• Add captions to any videos you upload. Another option is to have a transcript of your video available.
• Make sure there is high contrast between your text color and background color at "Design" -> "Edit Body."
• Use headings, subheadings and white space to group related content. 
• Add a caption to any graphics that you post.
• Enable the mobile version of your website at "Design" -> "Mobile Site" so your website layout will be adapted automatically for easier viewing on a mobile phone or tablet.
• Provide controls for video, music or sound effects that play on your website. Note that YouTube automatically includes this.

As a final note, we recommend searching online for more information to familiarize yourself with WCAG so you can accommodate more visitors to your website.

Up to Two Hour Shut Down for Maintenance - May 16, 2020

UPDATE 8:36 AM, May 16, 2020 - Maintenance is complete. All sites are back up. Thanks everyone for your patience. Have a great weekend!

UPDATE 7:00 AM, May 16, 2020 - Maintenance has started and sites are down.

Due to electrical maintenance at our network provider's data center, we were just informed that all of their networking infrastructure will be powered down for up two hours on Saturday, May 16th, 2020. 

For our customers, this means from approximately 7:00 am to 9:00 am Pacific Standard Time, your website and email may be offline. The actual down time is expected to be 30 minutes sometime during this window, but be prepared for up to two hours just in case. Additionally, our company's website, email and billing phone line (it goes through the Internet) will also be closed during that time.

We apologize in advance for this inconvenience and we will work with our network provider to bring everything back online as quick as possible.

Thank You.