Loading and/or speed issues

[DeTess]

I was having the same sporadic issues (either very slow, 500 internal sever error, or in-built 'forums are down' message) today as well, though I didn't check exact times (though there where some issues at around 2PM). I'm using google chrome, from the Netherlands.

[LaZodiac]

Every so often when I post the post goes through all fine and good but I'm not actually taken away from the "reply to thread" page.

[Zetakya]

I'm also experiencing heavy but somewhat inconsistent slowdowns - sometimes it takes 30 seconds to load a page, sometimes I get a 500 Internal server error, sometimes it loads instantly, as of the posting of this message.

Grey Wolf

Same. I also sometimes get "Server is busy" pages.

[DataNinja]

I've been personally having slowdown and 500 errors throughout today, including as I was attempting to post this. I'm in BC, Canada (PDT/GMT -7). Device is a laptop, and the troubles were in both IE and Chrome. Issues didn't tend to last more than around two minutes at a time, I think.

[Tawmis]

Same. 500 error. Everything's really slow if it does load (I'd say this page took about 3 minutes to load).

EDIT: Now, 15 minutes later (1:50am Pacific Time) it's zooming fast again.

[snowblizz]

I was having the same sporadic issues (either very slow, 500 internal sever error, or in-built 'forums are down' message) today as well, though I didn't check exact times (though there where some issues at around 2PM). I'm using google chrome, from the Netherlands.

Same here today.


Around 1100 - 1300, GMT+2. It's now 14:38 and works.

[Vinyadan]

The forum has been returning a 500 Internal Server Error (nginx) page numerous times in the last 12 hours, over different machines and operating systems.

[Typewriter]

Starting about 40 minutes before this post is being made the forums started moving incredibly slowly. ~60 seconds per page load.

[WurmD]

for me as well. Slow and often 500 Internal Error

[Typewriter]

I wasn't getting the 500 error before but am now. It's coming along with an NGINX subtitle. I don't know if something in nginx is causing the issue or if it's simply what's throwing the error on behalf of a slow connection.

[Segev]

I, too, am getting major slowdowns. But more often than not, "500: internal server error" messages. Sometimes I get giant in the playground's "server is busy" thing instead, but that's actually rarer than managing to get the page to load properly.

I'm having issues on a computer with chrome and on my iPhone with safari, so I imagine it's something server-side. All the "is it down or just me" type sites say the forums are up and running with good response times, which is interesting. I'm in the US, and generally have excellent internet connection.

I hope it's not a hardware issue. Maybe it's just a lot more people using it due to people being home from work?

[WhismurWanders]

I've been getting a lot of slow loading pages and 'Error 500: Internal Server Error' pages on a Windows 10 Desktop with Opera. EDIT: In Germany, Central European Summer Time.

[RickDaily12]

I'm also experiencing heavy but somewhat inconsistent slowdowns - sometimes it takes 30 seconds to load a page, sometimes I get a 500 Internal server error, sometimes it loads instantly, as of the posting of this message.

Grey Wolf

I've had nothing but issues along these exact lines for going on probably 18 hours now. I'd estimate 90% of my attempts were foiled by that 500 internal error, 5% was painful crawling slow loading, and the remaining 5% it would load nornally. Only once has the forums told me that "they were too busy" for use, a couple hours ago.

I use Google Chrome, on my laptop and phone. I live in Winnipeg, Canada, in the Central Timezone (CDT, GMT -5).

EDIT: Now like magic, I suddenly don't have loading issues, but I'll let you know if they come back.

EDIT 2: They've been back for about 3 or so more hours now and it's taken me this long to edit this post (while fighting another dozen 500 internal server errors) and about 10 minutes of waiting.

[SirNibbles]

Currently: super slow loading/server is too busy, try again
An hour ago: Unable to load anything: server is too busy or 500 error.
Approximately 14 hours ago: Extremely slow, often requiring multiple attempts to get a page to load, 500 errors.

Location: Eastern United States.

[uncool]

Edit - moving to more appropriate thread

[DoctorFaust]

I'm getting slow downs as well. Anywhere from 20-40 seconds loading time per page. Been happening for maybe the last hour. Located in Iowa, CST.

[uncool]

Originally posted in the more generic 'bugs' thread:
A few hours ago, I started getting HTML 500 "Internal Service Error"s; afterwards, the forums have been slow to load, though the other pages (front page and comic, at least) have been fine.
eta: I got a 500 error when trying to post this [in the 'bugs' thread]; the post went through, but I had to reload to see that.

It's now working fine.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I've been getting the really slow load times, as well as "Error 500" and "Server is busy" messages, again. I'm really hoping that this is somehow the fault of my wifi.

[Segev]

It started working alright for me again around 6 pm CDT last night. Still seems to be working.

Did you guys fix something, or did it pass on its own? If you did, good job and thanks! I really do appreciate this site.

[RickDaily12]

Problem seems to be fine now.

[Rawhide]

There was an incredibly high spike of well over 5000 more guests (not logged in) on the forums than there usually is. This is unusual behaviour. After increasing the threat detection level on Cloudflare (we were running it pretty low to minimise false positives requiring CAPTCHAs), this dropped back down to usual levels of guests.

Read into this what you will.

[DataNinja]

Your diligence is appreciated! Everything's been running smoothly now.

[Palanan]

I've been having tremendous difficulty accessing the forums over the past few days. More often than not I'll click on a thread and get a 502 error, "bad gateway," and a graphic telling me that my browser is fine, Cloudflare is fine, but there's a problem with the server.

This doesn't seem to be happening to other people, since I can see the ongoing activity in the current threads--I just can't get into the threads themselves. It's a little better for the moment so I wanted to report it while I could.

This is the only site where I'm receiving the 502 error--every other website I've tried is working normally for me. No idea what the issue is.



EDIT: The issue seems to be alleviated when I'm logged in, but when I log out the issue remains just as bad as it has been. I usually browse offline and only log in to post something, so if most users remain constantly logged in they may not see the same issue.

EDIT 2: I can't view the site at all unless I'm logged in. When I log in, I get a warning from Cloudflare that the site is offline. More clicking and retrying gets me in, but a) it's a hassle, and b) I've never had to log in to view the site before. Not a change for the better.

EDIT 3: It's becoming more difficult to log in. Just tried and it didn't take for the first a couple of times--I have to keep retrying and resending.

No other site is giving me this behavior, and the 502 Bad Gateway notice keeps telling me it's a problem with the server rather than my browser. Wouldn't mind some feedback on whether there's a fix in the works or if this is the new normal.

EDIT 4: Still virtually impossible to browse the forums normally--I can usually move between subforum pages, but whenever I try to open a thread I'm hit with 502 Bad Gateway. I've been seeing this page a lot the past few days.

The only way I can navigate the forum is when logged in, which has never been the case during the past nine years that I've been on the Playground. From the lack of other comments I'm guessing most users aren't seeing this, but the Bad Gateway page keeps insisting it's a problem with the forums rather than me.

Even when logged in I still sometimes get the Bad Gateway page, so it's still not reliable, at least for me. Even though Bad Gateway says it's not my fault.

[Rawhide]

Palanan: I'm not experiencing any issues whatsoever, even when using a VPN server to test from different regions, and no one else is reporting this issue.

Could you try clearing your browser's cache? Maybe it has cached some of the error pages.

[Palanan]

Well, after five days of increasingly dense cloggage, with Bad Gateways at every turn, now it seems to have cleared up.

I cleared the browser cache early on, so I don’t think that was the issue. Not sure what was, but it's working smoothly now.

[Tawmis]

Seeing some slowness today.
No errors however.

[Palanan]

I am once again receiving the dreaded 502 Bad Gateway error. This started about 11:30 pm EST and continues this morning. No matter where I try to navigate on the site, when I try to open a thread it gives me a Bad Gateway and claims there's a problem with the giantitp.com server. Once again, this is only occurring with the Playground; no other site is affected.

I've tried clearing my cache countless times, but it makes no difference. Not sure what's going on, but whatever happened at the start of last month seems to be happening again.



EDIT: These issues have persisted throughout the weekend and show no signs of improving.

EDIT 2: The issues are continuing through Tuesday 5-19, progressing the same way they did before. It's impossible for me to view the site without logging in, and even then I'm having to try several times. I keep getting logged out and have to log in again, and 502 Bad Gateways are everywhere.

Clearing the cache makes no difference whatsoever. Not sure what the issue is, but it's clearly getting worse.

EDIT 3: Issues persisting and continuing to become worse. I can't browse the site unless I'm logged in, which never happened before these issues began, and now it takes me several tries to log in. Just now I tried logging in three times and was insta-kicked-out each time. Even when I'm logged in I keep running into Bad Gateways and other issues.

This isn't happening to me on any other site, and as I've mentioned above, clearing the cache has no effect.

EDIT 4: Situation has persisted for nearly ten days now. It would be nice to have some response from someone here.