Site Loading Issues since around 50 minutes ago

[reddir]

The forum was great for me over the weekend, starting Saturday morning, but suddenly maybe 30 minutes ago it got really bad starting with slowdowns worse than last week before becoming continual 'busy, try later'.

So...now it is all better and no delays or 'try later' messages... not sure when it got better.

[Democratus]

Guys, I think it's been said before that the "me too" posts are not helpful in this sort of thread.

It's quite helpful.

I wasn't sure if it was the site, my modem, my router, my cabling, the computer...

Coming here and seeing that a large number of other people were having the same issue saved me both time and stress.

[Psyren]

I wasn't sure if it was the site, my modem, my router, my cabling, the computer...

Coming here and seeing that a large number of other people were having the same issue saved me both time and stress.

You can generally rule out those other things by loading any other webpage/video/etc.

[Peelee]

Given that last time this happened there was nothing from moderators until the site went down completely it would be very nice to have some confirmation that they're aware of it and working on it, that the right people are aware, etc etc.

Spoiler: From the last time there were server issues:

Show

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: I'm leaving this open so that Rawhide can use it to crowdsource access info. But please don't use it to turn on each other, the mods, or anyone else. We're aware there are issues.

[Rockphed]

Spoiler: From the last time there were server issues:

Show

I expect the only thing most of the mods could comment on would be if there was an increase in the number of spam bots they were squashing. Even then I think somebody would notice all the spam threads. Except for Rolandbot you guys are only human after all. I'm just glad there is no mind control and I can go about my fun.

[LCP]

What Rich said is fine, and it's perfectly reasonable that volunteers for moderating forum discussions shouldn't necessarily be qualified to understand what's going on with the server issues - but there should be someone who does, and it would be nice for there to be the bare minimum of communication with the user base to tell us that that person/those people are on the job.

As it is, I can guess that this problem was cleared up by some kind of intervention rather than going away on its own, because the "buddies" panel that told me who was online is gone from my sidebar - but it would be really nice to have been told that that intervention was happening. It would be nice too to know some top-level details like whether it's expected to be a stable, long-term solution, or whether there might be more difficulties ahead. Most of all, it'd be nice to just have confidence that when we the users are having technical issues, that is getting communicated to someone with the power to fix them on a reasonable timescale.

[Thragka]

What Rich said is fine, and it's perfectly reasonable that volunteers for moderating forum discussions shouldn't necessarily be qualified to understand what's going on with the server issues - but there should be someone who does, and it would be nice for there to be the bare minimum of communication with the user base to tell us that that person/those people are on the job.

As it is, I can guess that this problem was cleared up by some kind of intervention rather than going away on its own, because the "buddies" panel that told me who was online is gone from my sidebar - but it would be really nice to have been told that that intervention was happening. It would be nice too to know some top-level details like whether it's expected to be a stable, long-term solution, or whether there might be more difficulties ahead. Most of all, it'd be nice to just have confidence that when we the users are having technical issues, that is getting communicated to someone with the power to fix them on a reasonable timescale.

Particularly given that many of us are now donating via Patreon with the express purpose of keeping the boards in good shape. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy to contribute to the costs of the infrastructure, because this forum is something I've got a huge amount of fun and fulfillment out of for many, many years, and it's only right to recognise that there are costs associated and want to give back. But on the flip side of that, while I certainly don't think it obligates Rich or anyone else to report to us, I do think it would be a positive community interaction and a considerate choice for us to be told a little more about how these issues are being addressed.

[Rawhide]

Ok, so let me get one thing absolutely positively clear. Rich held off for years, over a decade, from doing any sort of donation drive or crowd funding (without a direct return for the pledge, such as in the Kickstarter) because he was concerned that it would make people feel entitled. He was concerned they were going to start demanding to know more about his business. Please don't prove him right.

We are not, and are never going to talk about the internals of how everything runs here. This is standard, this is normal, we are hardly about to reveal the best ways to take the site down, or the specifics of what we've done to mitigate that.

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On the topic of "me toos". Jumping in to say "me too" is never helpful.

However, adding additional information, and being detailed about it, is useful to a point. It's useful for a few additional people to state that the problem is also happening to them, at this time (including timezone), that they are in this geographical region, that they are using this browser, etc. etc. (whatever information may be relevant to the issue).

However however, once it is established that the problem is affecting multiple users, additional posts that don't add new information in detail aren't helpful. So please be mindful about that.

In short:

1. Don't simply jump on to say "me too".
2. Do reply, with detailed information, to confirm the issue.
3. Don't continue to reply after the issue has been established, unless you have new information.

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Rich didn't know about the growing issues at the beginning of the year, because he was on holiday, he wasn't paying attention to the board or emails. He's no longer on holiday.