Home > News > A code update and a ‘max v min’ upgrade

In the next few days, most likely on Friday, we will be releasing a minor update to lenses. It’s a very gentle release in that most of the update exists deep in the guts of Squidoo code and won’t be noticeable to lensmasters. It’s another part of what Gil described earlier as our refactoring project: “Our engineering team has been working on a series of code improvements called refactorings. The goal is to make our 5 year old code base faster and more maintainable, and to prepare Squidoo for long term growth in the future.” While this planned update has been rigorously tested in advance, HQ will be keeping a keen eye out for any unexpected bugs we might create.

The update also carries with it an upgrade to our ‘Min’ lens template, which will be modernized to match our ‘Max’ template. We do this a few times a year (as you can see here and here). This is how our FAQ explains Min vs. Max:

“In the Workshop for each of your lenses, in the ‘Other Settings’ section of the sidebar you will see a check box that says ‘Max out this lens!’ When selected, this “maxes” your lens. That means your lens is opted-in to participate in new features and experiments we release to try to make lens layouts ever better. It also means you are allowed to use our colorful lens themes to personalize the look and feel of your lens.

When unchecked, your lens will display in “minimized” version. We call this ‘Min.’ Min lenses don’t get to use lens themes, and are considered opted-out of most new things we try in the sidebars and layouts of lenses. Every few months, after we’ve learned from the Max lenses and decide that a feature or tweak should be permanent, we upgrade the Min option so that it inherits all the Max styling. (But Min still doesn’t get themes). It’s kind of like re-setting the playing field, so we can then start experimenting with Max lenses again while Min lenses stand still.  We will always let you know before we upgrade Min lenses.”

So without further ado, this is that promised heads up. As before: After this update, as Squidoo starts experimenting on new lens layouts and sidebar structures again, Min will once again become the safe haven for cautious lenses that would rather opt out from future Max improvements.

You can change your Max or Min settings at any time.