[subego]

Might only be on my end, but over the last couple days the forum server started randomly dying.

[reader50]

I haven't seen anything. But haven't been online much for the last few days, so I could have missed the big party.

[Thorzdad]

The only thing I ever notice, in terms of slowness, is some threads taking a looooong time to finally load. I’m pretty sure it’s someone’s signature image trying to load and failing.

[subego]

I get that on almost every page. I’m getting it on this page right now. I also get it on pages with no sigs.

With that, the rest of the page still loads. This was full dead. No response from the server at all. Again, could be on my end. Hasn’t happened since I posted this thread.

[andi*pandi]

well, you fixed it.

[subego]

I didn’t. It just happened again.

[Thorzdad]

That’s gotta be on your end. I’ve not experienced anything like that.

[subego]

The only thing which makes me think it’s possibly not me is it only happens here. Other sites load fine. Still could be me tho.

I should add, it’s fairly intermittent.

[Waragainstsleep]

It was pretty slow for me yesterday. It seems fine today. Though the blue Safari loading bar is only one third along and not really going anywhere. Page is all here though.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

It was pretty slow for me yesterday. It seems fine today. Though the blue Safari loading bar is only one third along and not really going anywhere. Page is all here though.

Yeah. That’s the bug Thorzdad’s talking about.

[OreoCookie]

I had problems loading the forums yesterday, too. Various 5xx errors.

[subego]

Had it happen on my phone, and since I was next to my iMac I checked there. Same thing. No visible response from the server. Extra data point is I’m not logged in on my iMac.

So, not a problem with a specific device or related to login state.

[reader50]

I'm still trying to catch it. Nothing unusual yet.

[reader50]

Has this gone away?

We discovered that old sigs hosted on homepage.mac.com are dead, and cause endless page load activity in some browsers. Not mine, apparently Firefox learns to exclude failed image links.

Credit to Thorzdad for tracking this down. I never saw anything, so had no starting point.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

The only thing I ever notice, in terms of slowness, is some threads taking a looooong time to finally load. I’m pretty sure it’s someone’s signature image trying to load and failing.

*raises hand*

Thanks for the heads-up on that one. Apologies to all the regulars for the inconvenience.

I've also seen the server errors occasionally. Weird issue.

[subego]

Both issues appear to have been cleared up on my end. Thanks!

I’m still flummoxed by how the sigs were causing issues on pages with no sigs.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by subego 

I’m still flummoxed by how the sigs were causing issues on pages with no sigs.

That’s how we realized it was a sig issue. A sig was supposed to appear, but the link was dead, and the server kept trying to get it until it finally timed-out. And, so, no sig appeared.

[subego]

That’s what’s confusing me. Sigs are only in threads, and I was still having the problem on pages not in a thread, like the main forum page.

Likewise, I had it occur on pages where all the sigs properly loaded (e.g., this thread when it only had you, reader, and me as participants).

[Demonhood]

It was a handy reminder that my sig was broken, so...thanks?

[Spheric Harlot]

The "503 service temporarily unavailable" message is unlikely to be related to signature images timing out, is it?

[reader50]

5xx errors are server-side. The hosting server may have been at capacity. Considering we're being hosted without ads today, I won't worry about that one. Unless it became frequent.

[Laminar]

We're...back?

[reader50]

I think something expired, like a site redirect. Not sure.

We reached out to the owner last Saturday, but it looks like that email address has been dropped. We had to track him down, which took a few extra days. Amateur detective work. We reached him this morning, and it got fixed almost immediately.

[shifuimam]

who's actually paying for this now? what is the monthly usage like?

maybe we need to have a donations pool to pay for hosting and look for something more cost-effective.

[subego]

Someone will fill in the blanks, but from what I understand, we’re piggybacking on the AppleInsider forum.

This only happens when they make some big server-side change. Since we’re an afterthought, stuff gets broken.

[Thorzdad]

I’m pretty sure we’re on a separate, so cheap it’s probably criminal, server. As far as we know (so far) there was no server update.

I think it was supply chain problems. Hamster feed didn’t get delivered on time.

[subego]

Are the ads new?

I hadn’t seen one in years.

[reader50]

The owner pays for hosting. I think we're on a really cheap host somewhere, but I've never heard the details.

We were told that any continuing ad revenue from the News side would support us going forward. Our own ads were disabled on the google side for some reason - I never got into the account to see why. Maybe they didn't like some thread or other. Years ago, we had to disable ads on the hot babes/hunks threads to satisfy google, so maybe it was some really old picture thread this time.

Our on-site ad code hasn't been altered all this time. And since the outage, I'm seeing ads too. Clicked on a few for good measure - we have tiny revenue again. That's probably the best plan today, as the News side has an expired cert - very few people will be loading it.

[subego]

I look forward to determining what will make our new sponsors most regret their decision.

[Thorzdad]

Ads? What ads?

[andi*pandi]

I turned off adblocker just to see. Mostly some shady-looking "download PDF manuals" which no one should ever click. They do appear to be coming from the google ad server.

[reader50]

They are coming through google - we only have ad code for them.

I'm seeing the PDF people, assorted Steam game links, garden sheds, small business loans, CoralDraw, several others. Including a Mac-specific software package yesterday - though I managed to forget what it was exactly.

The PDF people appear to offer product manual downloads.

[subego]

I got an ad for a movie theatre in Missouri.

I have officially boycotted it.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Years ago, we had to disable ads on the hot babes/hunks threads to satisfy google, so maybe it was some really old picture thread this time.

Who's getting cancelled over that thread??

[subego]

Got a what appeared to be a mail-order bride ad. Do we care at this point?

[reader50]

We'd need to know if it's for real, or a scam. Order one, and let us know how it goes.

[subego]

I’ll have to wait until the supply of Amazons goes back up. Right now they seem overstocked with war-zone models.