# Does this board shut down for maintenance?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [March 18, 2002, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857 "2002-03-18T10:25:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857/1 "2002-03-18T10:25:31Z")

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At 1:40 am, PST, I was unable to get anything to load. On the old board, if I tried to access anything between 1:30 am and roughly 1:50-2 am, I got the “shut down for maintenance” message. Is that the way it is here? Just curious, not complaining.

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**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857/2 "2002-03-18T10:48:56Z")

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I got a “Database error” type of message, right during the expected maintenance time. I’m guessing that’s what it is.

Then again, don’t take my word for it, I’m not too technically inclined. But my guess is **jdavis** just left the maintenance intervals as they were.

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**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857/3 "2002-03-18T12:53:32Z")

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IIRC the board shuts down at around 4:30am EST. Just a small way to tell the East coast Dopers **Go to bed**

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857/4 "2002-03-18T15:45:34Z")

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We could check with jdavis but he is very busy right now and we’re trying not to bug him with minor requests. So without having talked to him I am going to assume that your supposition is the right one - board maintenance is happening at that time but there is no automatic procedure to switch the message board to “unavailable” mode.

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**Author:** ![jdavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jdavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdavis)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857/5 "2002-03-18T18:29:32Z")

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03:30 to about 03:45 through 04:00 the database is locked down so that we can capture a consistent backup. Due to the current hardware configuration the old system of modifying the status of the SDMB to present a “down for maintenance” screen is no longer in place.

Jerry

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-board-shut-down-for-maintenance/98857/6 "2002-03-18T20:54:21Z")

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I see. Thank you!