Is this supposed to happen?

[Outofcharacter]

Last Monday, my site went up. However, it seems to be lacking something rather important.

http://outofcharacter.comicgenesis.com/

The preview comic I had to sent is missing; I had understood that it'd be shown as the site's first comic. Also, the date is weird (I like how it thinks December 0 is a Saturday). Note that it was like this before I even touched it.

The e-mail said that the site might take two to five days before it became visible, so I assumed that was why the comic was AWOL and decided to wait it out, since I wouldn't have time to work on it until the weekend anyway. So, on Sunday, I checked it out again, and it was the same. Now I'm not sure if that's supposed to happen.

Yesterday, I found the wiki down and stumbled around blindly as I tried to make things right. After a few hours of such stumbling, I finally figured out how to change my password and log on to siteadmin (thus setting some of my comic's info, which I believe allowed the banner to appear - I think even it was absent before).

I tried firing up a FTP client (SmartFTP) to check it out. According to the tutorials, there should be a first comic in the /public_html/comic and... um... something related to it on /public_html/d. There's nothing.

I couldn't FTP a new comic into the site either, but I can't tell if it's because of the fact that I don't know the first flipping thing about FTP clients. That's probably for the better, as the second comic is numbered and I'm not sure if it'll end up as the second or third comic anyway. (I don't like the sample comic I sent enough to resubmit it as the first comic, but don't dislike it enough to delete it if it's already there either.)

Now, since I can't upload a comic, I can't tell whether the site is working, or even if I'm FTP'ing to the right place (I tried siteadmin.comicgenesis.com yesterday, as I saw somewhere on the forums, and outofcharacter.comicgenesis.com today, after reading the wiki; both worked, but there were no comic files and I couldn't upload.) I thought that I should post in here to see if what was happening was normal, in case it's not and I'm unwittingly destroying the Internets as I try to post my lame comic. Is this normal? If not, can someone tell me just what exactly is happening?

[Germish]

Im having the exact same problem and I can change barely any of the settings, I keep getting told I dont have access or that there's a bad gateway.

[Dr Neo Lao]

outofcharacter: First off, the Wiki is back on-line (at the time I post this!) so a good idea would be to take a look at the Tutorials page if it's still available when you read this.

Second: on Comic Genesis, you name your comics according to the date that you want it to display on. So the comic fro christmas last year would be named 20061225.jpg (basically, YYYYMMDD where Y = year, M = month and D = day). If you name your comics 1, 2, 3, etc then you won't be able to take advantage of the benefits of AutoKeen (the automated software that manages your comc for you).

If you want to 'test' your comic, you can create 5 simple comics (they don't have to be good, just as long as ou can tell which is which) and name them for five consecutive days from last month. Upload them to your account and wait for your comic to update. Once you have those five working, you'll then be able to delete them and upload the proper comics later.

Now, if you haven't already done so, go read the SmartFTP tutorials so that you can get a rough idea of how to use it.

On your computer you should have one folder to be the 'root' folder for your comic. I'll assume that it's called OOC (Out Of Character). In there, create two folders, one called public_html and one called workspace. In the workspace folder, create a folder called comics.

Once your comics are ready to be uploaded, keep them in the comics folder and upload them to the comics folder in the workspace folder in your account. This may seem confusing, but it'll make sense once you start uploading things.

Germish: at which stage are you getting that message?

[Germish]

hm...it tells me I dont have access when I try to go to siteadmin and it gives me a 502 bad gateway error when I click where is says Edit "Germish" and when I try to upload things using FTP it tells me: "553-Can't open that file: Permission denied 553 Rename/move failure: No such file or directory :" or just "553 Rename/move failure: Permission denied : "

[Outofcharacter]

Thanks, Dr Neo Lao, for the response. I already knew that the wiki was up, which made me think that I was at least somewhat right. Thanks specially for the SmartFTP tutorials, I hope they'll allow me to understand just what the heck is going on. From your post, it seems I need to create folders in my computer that match the names of the folders on the site? Maybe I'll understand after I read the tutorials (which I'll do once they load - tutorials in flash? The heck?)

However, my two most pressing concerns were:

1) From what I read on the sign-up, the sample comic I sent would be automatically put up as the first comic. It's not. It's also not appearing on the folders I saw through SmartFTP. Is this normal? Will that comic reappear later on to haunt me?

2) Am I FTP'ing to the right place? I tried siteadmin.comicgenesis.com and outofcharacter.comicgenesis.com. Are both valid?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: After watching the tutorials and reading SmartFTP's troubleshooting, I now know what is going on. The errors I'm getting are a 550 SIZE error, which according to SmartFTP's help site shouldn't stop the file transfer from happening, and two 553 errors, one about "Can't open that file - permission denied" and one about "Rename/move failure - no such file or directory", which according to the help files are problems in the receiving server. Bottom line, I still can't upload anything. Is this a problem with the server, or am I doing it wrong? (I was uploading to outofcharacter.comicgenis.com, not siteadmin, if it matters.) (EDITY: Well, now I tried siteadmin as well, to the same effect.)

[Shu]

Hi. I'm having a similar, if not same, problem.

I just got my site like one week ago. I havent tried uploading anything until now as I wanted to work on the site layout and stuff. Anyway, when I was trying to upload to my images folder I kept getting a "The server does not believe you have permission to perfom this action" kind of message.

I tried to use the web-FTP but when I uploaded nothing happened. I checked the messages and I got the same message. No permission.

I'm not new to FTP and I'm pretty sure I know how to use it since I've had it for a while (I'm using Fetch FTP 4.0.3 for Mac). It's also been more than five days since I've gotten my account. I can properly log in into my FTP and the siteadmin.

I also do not have my first page on my webcomic and I don't believe it's in my comics folder... I'll have to check again. But it wasn't YYYYMMDD named yet since I just sent it as a preview.

[Dr Neo Lao]

• You should always use ftp.yourcomic.comicgenesis.com when you use ftp to connect. After all, you're trying to put stuff into your comic. (And obviously you replace "yourcomic" with the name of your comic)
• Permissions seem to be a bit screwy for some people. Some cannot get into siteadmin, some can get into siteadmin but get permission errors and some can use it fully. Not sure why or how to fix.
• It makes thibngs easier for you if you have the same folders, in the same places as a copy on your computer as how they appear in the account. This way, you move comics from the comics folder on your computer to the comics folder on the server, you move images from the images folder on your computer to the images folder on the server and so on. If you have all your files in one folder on your computer then it'll make it harder for you to tell if you've put files in the wrong place when you look at the files on your server.
• The sample comic should have shown up on the first day that you could see your comic site. If you can get a look at your files in your account via ftp (but without changing anything) then you should see a file marked outofcharacterDATE.jpg in the public_html/comics folder and a file marked DATE.html in the public_html/d folder. I know that there is a file marked index.html in the public_html folder because that's the one we see now.
• Can you get into siteadmin?
• It looks like you are both having the same problem: can get into your comic via ftp, but once inside you are told "no touchy" by the server. You may need to bring it to the attention of someone higher up and see if they can work it out.

[Kisai]

Just a quick check, are those that are having problems any of the below?

| user_id | user_unixname | timeentry |
+---------+--------------------+---------------------+
| 23315 | lightbringer | 2007-07-16 01:39:26 |
| 5636 | surrealkins | 2007-07-16 01:43:07 |
| 10209 | reasonedcognition | 2007-07-16 03:24:45 |
| 21999 | paralleldementia | 2007-07-16 04:03:15 |
| 25472 | totallybs | 2007-07-16 04:07:19 |
| 21939 | legion | 2007-07-16 08:10:45 |
| 23857 | tacomf | 2007-07-16 17:30:25 |
| 14789 | yosh | 2007-07-16 19:27:10 |
| 19273 | lunaticrage | 2007-07-17 05:53:51 |
| 22605 | prismatic | 2007-07-17 10:19:51 |
| 23488 | aldus | 2007-07-17 11:15:41 |
| 883 | fergoandenrique | 2007-07-17 15:11:47 |
| 25856 | randomosity | 2007-07-17 15:26:58 |
| 20376 | ezra | 2007-07-18 02:11:04 |
| 1159 | lcd | 2007-07-18 18:08:54 |
| 26493 | yield | 2007-07-18 23:28:43 |
| 25735 | crunchyoutside | 2007-07-19 06:22:50 |
| 22827 | vinnied | 2007-07-19 08:11:08 |
| 7569 | hellsing | 2007-07-19 19:08:16 |
| 23848 | omg | 2007-07-20 03:20:46 |
| 14952 | monkey | 2007-07-20 09:04:12 |
| 22624 | panic7 | 2007-07-20 12:53:58 |
| 1284 | zeera | 2007-07-20 13:25:46 |
| 13618 | fullcircle | 2007-07-21 03:25:14 |
| 25236 | bloeninja | 2007-07-21 21:36:44 |
| 23494 | darwin | 2007-07-23 04:53:08 |
| 626 | faces | 2007-07-23 05:06:43 |
| 23469 | mikethemulletthing | 2007-07-23 05:35:32 |
| 17478 | nanda | 2007-07-23 06:52:08 |
| 672 | raeofdarkness | 2007-07-23 17:35:46 |
| 19315 | psitech | 2007-07-23 18:13:53 |
| 25710 | sff | 2007-07-23 19:23:31 |
| 26486 | germish | 2007-07-24 05:29:24 |
| 16505 | talesofpylea | 2007-07-24 12:40:16 |
| 9420 | hootoo | 2007-07-24 15:38:43 |
| 21417 | cobc | 2007-07-24 17:03:04 |
| 25528 | madman | 2007-07-24 21:35:43 |
| 25802 | everythinggoes | 2007-07-25 00:40:31 |
| 8369 | dimbulbcomics | 2007-07-25 02:50:32 |
| 10116 | sharingauniverse | 2007-07-25 07:19:53 |
| 25172 | cameocomic | 2007-07-25 09:08:21 |

| comic_id | comic_keensubdomain | timeentry |
+----------+---------------------+---------------------+
| 24615 | lightbringer | 2007-07-16 01:39:26 |
| 5636 | surrealkins | 2007-07-16 01:43:07 |
| 10202 | reasonedcognition | 2007-07-16 03:24:45 |
| 23297 | paralleldementia | 2007-07-16 04:03:15 |
| 26770 | totallybs | 2007-07-16 04:07:19 |
| 23238 | legion | 2007-07-16 08:10:45 |
| 25157 | tacomf | 2007-07-16 17:30:25 |
| 14722 | yosh | 2007-07-16 19:27:10 |
| 20314 | lunaticrage | 2007-07-17 05:53:51 |
| 23905 | prismatic | 2007-07-17 10:19:51 |
| 24788 | aldus | 2007-07-17 11:15:41 |
| 883 | fergoandenrique | 2007-07-17 15:11:47 |
| 27154 | randomosity | 2007-07-17 15:26:58 |
| 21522 | ezra | 2007-07-18 02:11:04 |
| 1159 | lcd | 2007-07-18 18:08:54 |
| 27791 | yield | 2007-07-18 23:28:43 |
| 27033 | crunchyoutside | 2007-07-19 06:22:50 |
| 24127 | vinnied | 2007-07-19 08:11:08 |
| 7562 | hellsing | 2007-07-19 19:08:16 |
| 25148 | omg | 2007-07-20 03:20:46 |
| 14885 | monkey | 2007-07-20 09:04:12 |
| 23924 | panic7 | 2007-07-20 12:53:58 |
| 1284 | zeera | 2007-07-20 13:25:46 |
| 13617 | fullcircle | 2007-07-21 03:25:14 |
| 26534 | bloeninja | 2007-07-21 21:36:44 |
| 24794 | darwin | 2007-07-23 04:53:08 |
| 626 | faces | 2007-07-23 05:06:43 |
| 24769 | mikethemulletthing | 2007-07-23 05:35:32 |
| 17410 | nanda | 2007-07-23 06:52:08 |
| 672 | raeofdarkness | 2007-07-23 17:35:46 |
| 20356 | psitech | 2007-07-23 18:13:53 |
| 27008 | sff | 2007-07-23 19:23:31 |
| 27784 | germish | 2007-07-24 05:29:24 |
| 21818 | talesofpylea | 2007-07-24 12:40:16 |
| 9413 | hootoo | 2007-07-24 15:38:43 |
| 22715 | cobc | 2007-07-24 17:03:04 |
| 26826 | madman | 2007-07-24 21:35:43 |
| 27100 | everythinggoes | 2007-07-25 00:40:31 |
| 8362 | dimbulbcomics | 2007-07-25 02:50:32 |
| 10109 | sharingauniverse | 2007-07-25 07:19:53 |
| 26470 | cameocomic | 2007-07-25 09:08:21 |

[Kisai]

if your name was on the list, you used Kelly's quickadmin and broke your comic.

If you used it, manual triggering an update stopped working since the dispatcher didn't recognize the command. So it was skipped. I've cleared this.

[Germish]

thanks, as far as I can tell it works now (I can upload stuff anyway)

_________________________
EDIT: yep it works, thanks a lot ^^

[Shu]

• You should always use ftp.yourcomic.comicgenesis.com when you use ftp to connect. After all, you're trying to put stuff into your comic. (And obviously you replace "yourcomic" with the name of your comic)

Okay, I used that to connect on ftp and it worked! I was able to upload without problems. Thanks!

[Outofcharacter]

Well, my name was not on that list, I didn't use any quickadmin that I can think of (although I did go to some outdated admin sites, since the wiki was down and Cadet's info seems to be outdated), but whatever was wrong with my page is now fixed and I have been able to upload the comic I wanted. My sample comic is missing, but that is probably for the best - I had already changed the second comic's number so that it's now the first. They will never know.

A big thanks to everyone who helped. I hope I can take it from here.