Be Nice to Our Server
We've been getting a ton of traffic lately, especially on the reader blog, and our server has been taxed by the massive load of posts. A lot of you have written in about getting server errors after submitting a new entry. Before going back and reposting, check to see if your entry has gone up -- more often than not, it will have been recorded even if you get the error. If you don't see it, wait about 5-10 minutes for it to process. If you still don't see it, try posting again. Please bear with us as we work out these issues.
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Less unnecessary re-posting will relieve congestion.
September 2, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
This explanation of the current problem and its solution doesn't make a lot of sense.
As to the proposed cure --
Once the server returns an error call, the processing is over. The post is either up or it isn't. Obviously, checking to see whether the posting occurred is appropriate. But waiting "5-10 minutes" isn't going to change anything.
Is it?
September 2, 2008 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, as Al said, it will. Part of the problem is that there's a publishing delay because of the server load. So often it will take the servers 5 or 10 minutes to get around with republishing the site to get the new post up.
The basic thing here is that posts and comments take a ton of server load because they require the entire site to republish the indexes and archives with the new content, so all the wonderful activity is slowing things down a bit, causing errors, and generally mucking things up.
The good news is, we basically knew this was coming and already have a massive server upgrade in the works. We're scheduled to move the whole thing onto super servers come Sept. 15th.
And once it's over on the new servers? We can start building the new and improved tools we preview two weeks ago.
Fun!
September 2, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just to let you know, Andrew. On one recent attempt at posting I did exactly what you recommend. I actually waited even longer than you recommend - 30 minutes. When I came back and refreshed the page and my earlier post wasn't there, I re-wrote the entire thing (it had been eaten by the computer gremlins) and posted that. But then, when I checked to see if the new one had posted, there was the new post, but there also was the earlier one that hadn't shown up only minutes before in the refresh. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Several copies of my first post showed up, as when I had seen "Server Error" I assumed they had not gone through and re-posted. (I may now hold the record for maximum number of duplicate posts.)
So, at any rate, 10 or 15 minutes may not be enough, especially during high traffic times on the site. I hope you get that new server up soon.
September 8, 2008 1:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your efforts. It's frustrating sometimes, but only because this is a great site these days, and lots of fun and interesting discussion is afoot.
September 2, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for your efforts. It's frustrating sometimes, but only because this is a great site these days, and lots of fun and interesting discussion is afoot.
September 2, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
aw jeez. hehehe
September 2, 2008 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
This post helps, as I was experiencing much delay. Thanks for addressing it.
September 2, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is there anyway to put this post as a "sticky" to remain at the head of reader posts.
Obviously folks are not reading the instructions above the blog editor box. Maybe there needs to be something put in the instructions to grab folks attention.
I particularly liked the fellow yesterday who twice posted his apology for posting four times.
September 2, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
:laughing at self: I think that was me.
I'm embarrassed, but glad to hear there's an explanation for it on this end and it wasn't entirely a case of me just messing up.
September 8, 2008 1:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
And I should have added that I like your idea to pin this post of Al's someplace visible so that people will know not to repost despite the "Server Error" message.
September 8, 2008 1:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Chris. I like you, too. ;)
Here's something I just posted, in hopes whoever is in charge of this may see it here sooner and find it useful:
I've been getting these internal server errors every time I try to post for the last couple of days. It finally occurred to me that over the weekend, our Firefox brower automatically updated itself to its latest version... and maybe that had something to do with it.
This morning I had a very hard time logging in to my work email from home. It wouldn't go, and it wouldn't go, and it wouldn't go. I called our help desk and had a very pleasant woman on the phone for twenty minutes and was driving her around the bend, because she couldn't find anything wrong with the remote log in code.
Then it occurred to me to try to log in using Internet Explorer. And that worked immediately.
So, after trying to post my newest Palin entry and getting the same internal server error as I had gotten over and over again with the two posts previous, I finally decided to try Internet explorer... where the post went through immediately. (Although the link I'd put in one paragraph came through scrambled, due to my own lack of experience with how the software here works.)
So, if you're having a lot of server errors when you try to post here, it may be your browser, especially if you're using Firefox. Try Internet Explorer.
September 2, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doc,
It is not your browser. I just tried IE and got the Internal Server Error message.
My guess is that when you tried IE you happened upon a period lower server traffic. Good suggestion, though.
September 2, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
esp since this firefox update is a bug infested turkey.
September 2, 2008 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doc,
It is not your browser. I just tried IE and got the Internal Server Error message.
My guess is that when you tried IE you happened upon a period lower server traffic. Good suggestion, though.
September 2, 2008 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chris!!!!
September 3, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
You might want to mention that BEFORE they click on post... They should copy all of the material they have written so that if it doesn't show up 10 minutes later... They can just paste it in and re-post it instead of writing it all over again. :)
September 2, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, just out of curiosity, did you disable avatars to reduce the processor load?
September 3, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, we're getting pounded with this Palin stuff. We hope to bring back avatars soon.
September 3, 2008 9:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the explanation. Yes, this should be a sticky AND people should be better warned of the possibility of the error message. I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets concerned that a post that consumed valuable time is going to be gone for good. (Whether the post is valuable or not!)
September 3, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I posted twice because the first post was incorrectly formatted. You deleted the second (correctly formatted) post, not the first. It already had comments and recommendations. Could you please fix this?
September 3, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
It appears there's a software problem, unrelated to the server load. The URLs for duplicate content do not have matching URLs; and do not consistently fail or publish/appear. If you're interested in some other comments on these new TPM-posting issues, visit here.
September 5, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Al, Good luck with all that tech stuff. May I suggest that your existing sentence:
"After submitting a comment it may take several minutes to appear. Please only submit your comment once."
be changed to:
"Your comment may take several minutes to appear after you have submitted it. Even if you recieve an error message, please check the postings before re-submitting."
...or something like that. (BTW, your existing version contains a dagling modifier.)
Cheers.
September 5, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Al, Good luck with all that tech stuff. May I suggest that your existing sentence:
"After submitting a comment it may take several minutes to appear. Please only submit your comment once."
be changed to:
"Your comment may take several minutes to appear after you have submitted it. Even if you recieve an error message, please check the postings before re-submitting."
...or something like that. (BTW, your existing version contains a dangling modifier.)
Cheers.
September 5, 2008 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Al, Good luck with all that tech stuff. May I suggest that your existing sentence:
"After submitting a comment it may take several minutes to appear. Please only submit your comment once."
be changed to:
"Your comment may take several minutes to appear after you have submitted it. Even if you recieve an error message, please check the postings before re-submitting."
...or something like that. (BTW, your existing version contains a dangling modifier.)
Cheers.
September 5, 2008 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I did want to add my thanks, Al, for this post letting us know what's going on. Good luck on the fix.
September 8, 2008 1:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
you folks need more servers. Have you ever notice the wide aisles in the deparrtment stores empty in the middle of the summer. They're wide so that they can handle the Christmas rush. In fact they are dependent on that rush and don't want to lose the business. So they are always ready for the busiest times.
You can get servers for about $1000 from dell that will help with the load. You may not realize it but you're losing hits because your servers can't handle the load.
So the election is coming soon. Probably your busiest time ever. Are you folks going to be ready for the rush?
September 9, 2008 12:17 AM | Reply | Permalink