Server Issues the Past 48 Hours

[Roland St. Jude]

Attention mods, admins and Mr. Berlew. Aka the giant.

These server, site, page loading issues have becomes so bad that folks have started leaving, folks are stopping various activities, and none of that is good for Gitp at all, can some or alll of you please find and fix these issues

I just mentioned a few posts above yours that we're aware and doing our best to fix the issues...

Sheriff: Thank you for all the reports and for your patience while we deal with this issue. I suspect that Rawhide has the information he needs, but by all means, feel free to continue to post here.

I don't have any additional information for you about the whys and wherefores, though any technical information filtered through me would come out like "gremlins in the flux capacitors" anyway. We're glad that you care enough to be bothered and sorry that the issues are interrupting your regularly scheduled Playground activities. We're working on it.

[Palanan]

Site behavior has been all over the map the past 24 hours. Yesterday at this time it was taking a minute or more to load each page; for a brief time later it seemed to be loading smoothly, then back to long pageloads later last night.

This morning is more of the same—long pageloads with unpredictable moments of almost ordinary loading times. Currently it’s taking 20-30 seconds to move between pages, and at this point I’m finding it too erratic to reliably use.

.

[Segev]

I know Roland doesn't know directly, but I am curious if this is a hardware or software limitation or problem, and if there is anything the community can do to help, either with technical expertise or with helping to fund upgrades or the like. I know running a web site with this kind of traffic can be expensive.

[IthilanorStPete]

I know Roland doesn't know directly, but I am curious if this is a hardware or software limitation or problem, and if there is anything the community can do to help, either with technical expertise or with helping to fund upgrades or the like. I know running a web site with this kind of traffic can be expensive.

I'm also curious about this. Speaking for myself, I can't contribute financially at the moment, but I've got some background with sysadmin stuff that might be applicable.

[Buufreak]

The forum has brought me joy over the decade I've been here. I would be happy to throw $20 their way if I knew it would help.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Let’sGetKraken
Rich Burlew does have a patreon that collects approximately $6000 USD (minus fees, I assume) each month for server maintenance, after the issues with the server a few years back. I'm wondering if that's insufficient for the traffic this site gets - if so, I think the community would be happy to contribute a bit more.

If I’m reading the member list correctly, there are about 75,000 members signed up. No idea how many of those are active, but even if it’s only a tenth of the total member list, and each of them contributed $1 per month, that would more than double what the Patreon is generating towards website maintenance.

Originally Posted by Buufreak
The forum has brought me joy over the decade I've been here. I would be happy to throw $20 their way if I knew it would help.

Joy is a bit of a strong word for me, but I would absolutely match your $20 if I could be sure it would help.

Originally Posted by IthilanorStPete
Speaking for myself, I can't contribute financially at the moment, but I've got some background with sysadmin stuff that might be applicable.

At this point we have over a month and a half of fairly detailed realtime commentary on the server’s behavior. I’d think that would be enough for those with the knowledge to make some informed guesses about the underlying cause.

And if not, the community could probably organize a finer-grained sampling effort if that would be helpful.

[Roland St. Jude]

There's always buying merch or the Patreon linked on the left side of the page. But I'm not going to represent how much of that goes directly to forum technical maintenance or promise that it will help (in the sense of solving the current issue more immediately). But in general, I do know that those are the methods of direct support for OOTS and therefore also GITP.

Sheriff: Beyond that, let's try not to get into Rich's business too much here. When people start speculating about his income, expenses, business model, etc., it always ends poorly. I understand people want to help and many of us are natural problem solvers, but let's not go down that road here on the Forum.

Also, I'm sure if Rawhide is looking for technical assistance, he can post here and build a dream team of Playgrounders, but let's wait until he throws up the bat signal.

[Let'sGetKraken]

Understood, apologies. I think for many of us, this forum is home to a variety of games we love and valuable discussions, and seeing these issues continue with minimal communication from those working on it and no end in sight (though I understand it's being worked on and I do appreciate what information you can provide) is frustrating. I think most of us wish we could help it get back to the status quo, which was what I was intending - I won't bring it up again and I definitely didn't want to start a speculative discussion on the Giant's business and financials.

[Palanan]

Slogging, glogging and clogging at approx. 10:00 am EST.

Lighter dragging now at 3:00 pm EST.

[SwordCoastTaxi]

This problem is approaching two months' time The lack of communication from admins just adds to the frustration. What is the problem and how close is it to being solved?

[Palanan]

Pages are taking from 15-30 seconds to load at approx. 8:45 am EST. Problem is intermittent, unpredictable, and seems to be getting worse, again.

At this point almost every game I’m in has been put on indefinite hold owing to server issues. As others have noted, we are close to a full two months of this situation, which is the worst I can ever recall in a dozen years of forum participation.

[Gnomes2169]

So things are getting reliably worse on my end. I'm getting 1-2 minute load times per page regardless of what time I'm logging in at this point, and I'm working nights in the USA (as in, 7pm-~9am CST) so I'm assuming that it doesn't have anything to do with forum traffic. Would be nice to know if the problem has at least been identified.

[Rawhide]

minimal communication

We've already communicated everything there is to communicate, there's nothing more to say other than repeating what we've already said. The staff are aware of the slow-downs, Rich is aware of them, we're constantly monitoring the situation and minimising it when it happens.

[Palanan]

With the utmost respect, what many others have been asking is whether there is any idea of the cause of these issues, and whether there is any timeframe in place for their resolution.

If staff are taking effective action to minimise the problems, then that does suggest there is more awareness of the cause than has been shared thus far. We are all invested in helping the Playground run smoothly, but much of our frustration stems not only from the issues themselves, but from that helpless sense of not knowing what’s going on or when it might end.

After two months it’s hard to see what could be lost by sharing this, and there’s a world of goodwill to be gained. We all appreciate the efforts that are being made, but including us in a broader understanding of the situation would go a long way towards reinforcing a sense of community among members and admins alike.

[Rawhide]

It would appear this thread has run its course. I had hoped to keep it open to receive updates on when the server was running slow.