Why did the forums crash?

[Frisbeeteria]

How about we wait for an official statement from the Mod and/or Techies before making wild assumptions?

The mods don't have any information on this. [violet] was notified fairly quickly, and one of the mods tweeted about it on our official page, but that's all we know.

One likely possibility is that something happened at our host site, and they took the forums down, fixed the problem, and brought them back up. None of the active admins are online or have mentioned anything, so that's the most probable.

A rogue moose?

Of all the speculation in this thread, this is actually more probable than most.

[Hobbesistan]

The forums were down!!! Anarchy!!! Baseless speculation!!! More anarchy!!

[Charlia]

The forums were down!!! Anarchy!!! Baseless speculation!!! More anarchy!!

XD


Seriously though, it was whatever it was, and guessing won't change anything.

[Ethel mermania]

How about we wait for an official statement from the Mod and/or Techies before making wild assumptions?

The mods don't have any information on this. [violet] was notified fairly quickly, and one of the mods tweeted about it on our official page, but that's all we know.

One likely possibility is that something happened at our host site, and they took the forums down, fixed the problem, and brought them back up. None of the active admins are online or have mentioned anything, so that's the most probable.

A rogue moose?

Of all the speculation in this thread, this is actually more probable than most.

while we all like a rogue moose attack, is there going to be an answer given or is it a, "Your not paying just deal with the outage", kind of deal?

[Phydios]

while we all like a rogue moose attack, is there going to be an answer given or is it a, "Your not paying just deal with the outage", kind of deal?

Fris said less than 24 hours ago that the mods had no idea what happened. I'd be willing to bet that they still don't know, or at least they don't know enough to tell us yet. I'm guessing they would tell us something if they could, but I don't know for sure.

[Lockdownn]

Any word on this?

[Frisbeeteria]

Any word on this?

No, and it's totally unimportant. They went down. They're back up. Why are you pursuing this?

[Ethel mermania]

Any word on this?

No, and it's totally unimportant. They went down. They're back up. Why are you pursuing this?

We are curious, so much for transparency eh?

[Frisbeeteria]

We are curious, so much for transparency eh?

How many different ways do I have to say this?

I don't know what happened. Neither do any of the other mods.

Admin hasn't posted here, probably because they didn't cause it or fix it.

Also, who ever said we offered transparency? We've never made any bones about the fact that there is stuff in this game you'll never know as a player.

[The Agnostic Collective]

So long as there is no fallout from the cause, why is irrelevant.

[Ethel mermania]

We are curious, so much for transparency eh?

How many different ways do I have to say this?

I don't know what happened. Neither do any of the other mods.

Admin hasn't posted here, probably because they didn't fix it.

Also, who ever said we offered transparency? We've never made any bones about the fact that there is stuff in this game you'll never know as a player.

We don't know yet, is a fine answer, if it's the truth.

This site has claimed for years that your processes are open to the user, in terms of how decisions are reached, and how things are done. Now to be fair, I think for the most part, you guys do a pretty good job of it. Whether it be a moderation decision, a dying hard drive, or reporting of a rogue moose attack. Which is one one of the reasons the failure to disclose here is kind of surprising.

[Mousebumples]

We don't know yet, is a fine answer, if it's the truth.

My understanding is that the answer is "We don't know." Full stop. If it's fixed, and there's no continuing issues, why does it matter why the forums were down? Why should admin spend valuable time that could be spent coding XYZ thing investigating this when Things Are Working?!

[British Empire Strikes Back]

We don't know yet, is a fine answer, if it's the truth.

My understanding is that the answer is "We don't know." Full stop. If it's fixed, and there's no continuing issues, why does it matter why the forums were down? Why should admin spend valuable time that could be spent coding XYZ thing investigating this when Things Are Working?!

Because, what if the site was hacked and personal information was revealed? If a DDOS occured, knowing the cause could help prevent another attack. Now, I am not going to give the admins advice. But; I think it would be appropriate to investigate the cause of the crash as much as possible.

[New Carloso]

Damn snow camels at it again

[Mousebumples]

My understanding is that the answer is "We don't know." Full stop. If it's fixed, and there's no continuing issues, why does it matter why the forums were down? Why should admin spend valuable time that could be spent coding XYZ thing investigating this when Things Are Working?!

Because, what if the site was hacked and personal information was revealed?

Is there any reasonable expectation that that happened? The last time personal information was revealed, the site (and forums) weren't even down at all, to my knowledge. The fact that forums were down in no way increases or decreases that possibility. Seriously, where is this speculation that that's the reason coming from? Is there any fact there, or just needless fear-mongering?

[Reploid Productions]

Because, what if the site was hacked and personal information was revealed?

Pretty sure we woulda heard from admin by now if that was the case; and the only personal information that could have been obtained via the forum is a list of IP addresses and possibly email addresses for those that included one.

The most likely scenario is not hacking, but probably a vastly more mundane problem such as the already theorized "hardware failure that the hosting company already fixed" or the even more mundane "forums got hit by a spike in traffic that lagged them to unresponsiveness for a bit." While not common, it can and has happened from time to time, whether from a legit traffic spike or a DDOS attempt. (Which, again, is not "hacking," it's simply sending tons of activity at a server to try and exceed its ability to cope with the load.)

[Chinese Peoples]

Why did the forums fora crash?

*nod*

[Ethel mermania]

We don't know yet, is a fine answer, if it's the truth.

My understanding is that the answer is "We don't know." Full stop. If it's fixed, and there's no continuing issues, why does it matter why the forums were down? Why should admin spend valuable time that could be spent coding XYZ thing investigating this when Things Are Working?!

Seriously? To prevent it from happening again. I am not a sys admin now, but when i was, a forensics report was always part of the process when a server went down. Especially for 5 hours

If i gave your answer to anyone I ever worked for i would get chewed up on side and down the other..

[Ethel mermania]

My understanding is that the answer is "We don't know." Full stop. If it's fixed, and there's no continuing issues, why does it matter why the forums were down? Why should admin spend valuable time that could be spent coding XYZ thing investigating this when Things Are Working?!

Because, what if the site was hacked and personal information was revealed?

This ain't the irs, they don't have a lot of personal info on the user base that isn't already available. They don't even have real names.

[The Mediterranean Republic]

We're getting reports the forum is down. We've lost connection with the outside world.

OMYGOD PUT US AT DEFCON 2!!! WE'RE IN TROUBLE!

[United RussoAsia]

*eye roll*
It's fine, I'm sure.

[Ethel mermania]

Because, what if the site was hacked and personal information was revealed?

Pretty sure we woulda heard from admin by now if that was the case; and the only personal information that could have been obtained via the forum is a list of IP addresses and possibly email addresses for those that included one.

The most likely scenario is not hacking, but probably a vastly more mundane problem such as the already theorized "hardware failure that the hosting company already fixed" or the even more mundane "forums got hit by a spike in traffic that lagged them to unresponsiveness for a bit." While not common, it can and has happened from time to time, whether from a legit traffic spike or a DDOS attempt. (Which, again, is not "hacking," it's simply sending tons of activity at a server to try and exceed its ability to cope with the load.)

Gameside was pingable and tracable, and the response times were pretty good from two different providers. Forum side was dead. Dead hardware is a very reasonable theory. Again the thing that surprised me, is you usually tell us what happened. dead hardware is a fairly easy to diagnose item, and you didn't tell us that.

[Kryozerkia]

Pretty sure we woulda heard from admin by now if that was the case; and the only personal information that could have been obtained via the forum is a list of IP addresses and possibly email addresses for those that included one.

The most likely scenario is not hacking, but probably a vastly more mundane problem such as the already theorized "hardware failure that the hosting company already fixed" or the even more mundane "forums got hit by a spike in traffic that lagged them to unresponsiveness for a bit." While not common, it can and has happened from time to time, whether from a legit traffic spike or a DDOS attempt. (Which, again, is not "hacking," it's simply sending tons of activity at a server to try and exceed its ability to cope with the load.)

Gameside was pingable and tracable, and the response times were pretty good from two different providers. Forum side was dead. Dead hardware is a very reasonable theory. Again the thing that surprised me, is you usually tell us what happened. dead hardware is a fairly easy to diagnose item, and you didn't tell us that.

We were not informed as to the "why". Without that, we cannot tell you.

[Mousebumples]

Pretty sure we woulda heard from admin by now if that was the case; and the only personal information that could have been obtained via the forum is a list of IP addresses and possibly email addresses for those that included one.

The most likely scenario is not hacking, but probably a vastly more mundane problem such as the already theorized "hardware failure that the hosting company already fixed" or the even more mundane "forums got hit by a spike in traffic that lagged them to unresponsiveness for a bit." While not common, it can and has happened from time to time, whether from a legit traffic spike or a DDOS attempt. (Which, again, is not "hacking," it's simply sending tons of activity at a server to try and exceed its ability to cope with the load.)

Gameside was pingable and tracable, and the response times were pretty good from two different providers. Forum side was dead. Dead hardware is a very reasonable theory. Again the thing that surprised me, is you usually tell us what happened. dead hardware is a fairly easy to diagnose item, and you didn't tell us that.

Yes. Because we don't know what happened. More than likely admin was away over the weekend (I know I was gone all weekend) and since things were fixed, investigation into a Fixed Problem was deprioritized in favor of working on Active Problems/Solutions. Not the way you apparently work at the job(s) you get paid for, but for a bunch of volunteers, I think we're doing just fine.

Anyhow, I don't see how leaving this thread open really serves any further purpose as we've established fairly exhaustively that we lowly mods don't know what happened. If Admin knows what happened and cares to enlighten the masses, they can post in the now-locked thread.