Anyone else have problems logging on or viewing?

Yes. Sometimes I get a message saying we cannot proceed. You cannot make another post at this time try again in a few minutes. That happens all the time. I don't even have to be trying to post. I sent a email to the company but I haven't heard anything back yet. It gets pretty annoying when I am trying to read different topics. /images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
A lot of people are having problems, but not me. I feel like a freak lol all lonely on LHCF /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
So have I since Sunday evening. Anyone received a response from any moderator? Wouldn't they get any notice of planned system outages,upgrades, or reason for the malfunction?
 
I've been having problems the last 2 days!!! I thought it was just me, so I'm so glad to see this post. It's doing all sorts of crazy things. I even called Tech Support and they had the same issues, which let me know it wasn't just my computer. I thought my company shut access to this site down for me, and I was going NUTS!!! You never know how much you depend on it until you can't use it anymore /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I hope we're all fixed now...
 
me too! I was so scared b/c my boyfriend said he did something to my computer to block my "hair porn". He said he was tired of me being up here all the time. And me being the gullable type and computer illiterate believed him and I panicked. That was a mean trick /images/graemlins/spank.gif
 
Ladies, try emptying out your cookies. If you're using internet explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, click on Delete Cookies, then click on Delete Files. Then you'll still have to get into the site by bypassing the normal www.longhaircareforum.com. Click on History and then expand the Longhaircareforum link. It will show the login page (hopefully). If not, it will show the logout page which will have the login name and password boxes available. You'll be able to get on using that. Old links will work as long as you clear out the cookies and temp files.
 
Just to reply to some of your comments if I may.

The reason that we had some issues lately was because we moved the forum to a new dedicated server. Downtime was inevitable since the move was not as smooth as it should have been. This is mainly due to the fact that our database contains more than 700000 posts. Usually this is not a problem but restoring the database took more than 2 hours simply because the box was being hammered by requests for the forum.

The server itself is a computer. It has its limits and while it is capable of coping with even the peak demand that we have recorded so far on a daily basis, it cannot handle excessive demands. Let me explain - and this has happened a lot in the past so I am compelled to say this.

The forum works. Everyone is happy. When something goes wrong - and it does at times - then we have three kinds of users:

User A looks that there is a problem. Acknowledges the problem and decides to visit the site 5 minutes later.

User B looks that there is a problem. Ignores it and hits the F5 button so that the page refreshes. Nothing (of course) comes up and the user hits the F5 again and again and again until the user acknowledges that there is a problem so the user decides to visit 5 minutes later.

User C looks that there is a problem. Ignores it and hits the F5 button so that the page refreshes. Nothing (of course) comes up and the user hits the F5 again and again and again and again and again and again... while at the same time calls their ISP to look if there is a problem with their line, sends emails to the admin team of the forum and continues to hit the F5 button again and again and again....

Now I don't know which user you are and frankly I don't care. You can be anyone or none. My point however is that if you don't acknowledge the fact that sometimes problems do exist and do happen (Murphy's law) and that we have to wait them out, then you are making things even worse.

To put this into perspective. While the restore of the database was in place - yesterday that was - I noticed that the server was getting an increased load of requests. So I checked and saw that the restore was being delayed since the server had to allocate resources to serve those requests. A bit of investigation revealed approximately 150 dead requests for the long hair care forum, which the web server had started to serve but the user cancelled it by sending another request. Particularly interesting was one IP address which had 75 of those requests in a matter of minutes. And before you ask it was not an office. I wonder what that keyboard must have suffered with all that F5 hitting going on.

Today I woke up (and yes it is 04:22 in the morning now) because there was a server alert. I went and looked and it is the same thing. The server was loading the forum at 105 seconds which is ridiculous. Usually it loads at 2-4 seconds. Looking at the server the same thing happened. And guess what: the same IP appeared not at the top spot (there was another one with 81 requests) but still high up.

If the board misbehaves or slows down or whatever you want to call it, it is maily by abuse and nothing more. I would hate to have to ban IPs and subsequently members due to abuse so that I can preserve this community - but trust me I will do it if I have to.

I read all the emails that are sent to the admin emails. I also read all my PMs. I do not reply because I would have to copy and paste the same stuff over and over again and that would be a waste of my time and of course more downtime for LHCF since I would be replying to emails and not attending to problems.

Just some comments so that you all know what the score is. I don't know if I pissed someone off but I'd rather do that and be blunt than say bull.
 
Then to alleviate the problem you should PUBLICIZE WIDELY when you plan on doing some type of maintenance. We're not idiots or addicts. I think if you tell us not to hit the site because it is critical to your success that we wait, we can control ourselves enough to make that happen for you. Don't treat us like imbeciles because we don't know your game plan. We love the site and it is frustrating when we cannot get on and don't know why. It's a natural response for me to keep trying when I don't get in - kind of like calling a busy number repeatedly until you get through. Weird? Whatever!
 
Wow, that post was a little more scathing than mecessary don't you think? Especially considering we PAY to be able to hit "refresh" as many times as we want, it's not a matter of not getting that there's a problem, it's a matter of expecting something to be there when you pay for it.
 
That is extremely thoughtful of you Renee and thanks for pointing it out. Next time I will make sure that you all know when something will be done and yes you are right on the forum move I should have posted well in advance so that you all are patient and wait it out.

However that happened yesterday. How do you explain today's slowness i.e three hours ago?

The benefit of calling a number when it is engaged is that you can call and call all you like but you don't let the one that is having the discussion suffer - with servers it is different as I explained in my previous post.

I am not treating you like imbeciles, addicts or idiots. I am just stating facts. If you don't like it so be it. If you feel like it then so be it again.

Whatever? I don't think so since I probably care about this community as you all do perhaps even more. Otherwise if it was "whatever" for me I could have easily ignored the server alerts and simply let the board go to pieces. Kind of makes your day waking up at 2:00 doesn't it?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Renee said:
Then to alleviate the problem you should PUBLICIZE WIDELY when you plan on doing some type of maintenance. We're not idiots or addicts. I think if you tell us not to hit the site because it is critical to your success that we wait, we can control ourselves enough to make that happen for you. Don't treat us like imbeciles because we don't know your game plan. We love the site and it is frustrating when we cannot get on and don't know why. It's a natural response for me to keep trying when I don't get in - kind of like calling a busy number repeatedly until you get through. Weird? Whatever!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm glad a asked. A "We updated our system and still received requests and slowed our upload time," would have been cool too. Yeah I know it's your site and you can do or say anything up want. Listen, you have a site for women to grow their hair long and your talking about excessive f5. Yeah right.
 
Like I replied to Renee it was my fault I should have thought about that earlier and posted something like what you suggested.

[ QUOTE ]
zanzibardotcom said:
Listen, you have a site for women to grow their hair long and your talking about excessive f5. Yeah right.

[/ QUOTE ]
Can you please elaborate on this one? I don't quite get what you mean.
 
I really appreciate all that goes on behind the scenes to ensure that when I hit that bookmark, all of my friends are there. Sorry if something I said gave you another impression.

In the past 10 minutes or so, I've typed and retyped many things but I'll just chalk your nasty attitude up to fatigue and wish you the best of luck dislodging that bug. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

No one here means you harm. Sorry you had a lousy day.
 
Renee you misunderstand me. I am not pissed off or have a grudge or anything else. It is just the way I talk/write which is to the point. There is no hidden agenda behind it or sarcasm and when I wrote that I thank you for pointing out that I should have said something I did mean it.

In my home country we say that all good and bad things come in three's. Well this was the second time this year that I had to wake up for the board and the year is ending in three weeks so I guess I will escape that /images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Banning someone for hitting F5 on their own keyboard? /images/graemlins/nono.gif Sure, that make a lot of sense...especially when everyone already knows what going on behind the scenes. /images/graemlins/spinning.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
dimopoulos said:
Next time I will make sure that you all know when something will be done and yes you are right on the forum move I should have posted well in advance so that you all are patient and wait it out.


[/ QUOTE ]
That would be a good start. /images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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