Web site tech: Skype link image

[Half-Fast Mike]

i'm seeing a missing image today against members who have a skype contact in their profiles. Screen grab attached.

 

[joewein]

A Skype server is misbehaving:

$ wget -O msw.png http://mystatus.skype.com/smallicon/msimswil
--2012-12-15 03:51:04--  http://mystatus.skype.com/smallicon/msimswil
Resolving mystatus.skype.com... 204.9.163.163
Connecting to mystatus.skype.com|204.9.163.163|:80... failed: Connection refused.

 

[bloaker]

Stooopid skype.


I live on skype for work.uch:

 

[joewein]

Fortunately that server is no crucial portion of the basic functionality. Most Skype traffic relies only on the "cloud" of super nodes, which are user machines all over the planet. On top of that there are hosted machines at data centres to support logins and act as phone and other gateway servers, plus the website and download servers.

Microsoft has decided for Skype to rely more on hosted servers and less on user machines. Hmmm, maybe not such a smart move...

 

[Half-Fast Mike]

joewein, your kung fu is strong indeed.

I have taken out my Skype name from my profile, which fixes the problem next to my messages, but not others'.

Can vB be tasked to look somewhere else for its image? Thomas?

 

[joewein]

Skype offers two kinds of buttons, with and without status:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/tell-a-friend/get-a-skype-button/

The buttons with status are currently broken because the servers still aren't responding. The ones without status still work (see preview on that page). There are three options:

• With a little bit of PHP patching, vB could be tweaked to generate the code for the non-status version instead.
• Wait for Skype's new masters at Microsoft to fix the problem in a timely fashion.
• We follow your shining example and remove our Skype IDs from our profile. Sounds like the easiest approach!

 

[joewein]

UPDATE: Skype is now aware of the problem:

We are working at restoring the functionality as we speak. No ETA, but should be soon.

 

[joewein]

Skype appears to have fixed the problem:

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[thomas]

Brilliant, took them only five days!