# Hmmm..the boards are truly screwy **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 13, 2001, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291 "2001-10-13T20:05:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/21 "2001-10-14T15:43:27Z")
I think **Una’s** correct-it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the “numbers” of posters on the board at any given time. What we can’t see is _how many of those posters_ are actually using the **post and/or search functions** at any given time. That is what seems to be the problem. I would offer that this problem seems to have mysteriously appeared literally **overnight** a few days ago. The root cause isn’t likely to be the incremental increase of either posters to or information on the boards. Possiblities: 1. Hampsters finally unionized, called for work slowdown. 2. With increased security nationwide, all posts/searches must now be inspected for weapons. 3. Er, uh, youse guys **did** pay the bill last month, didn’t you? 4. Hi, Opal. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/22 "2001-10-14T16:02:43Z")
**Bosda** posted about the error messages we get sometimes. But there is a fourth that I have gotten twice now. > [@](#): > > 1. Warning: The length of the needle must not be 0 in global.php on line 69 ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/23 "2001-10-14T16:11:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > Yeah, I get a hang sometimes when posting but I don’t hit SUBMIT again, I just close the submit window & I noticed things get posted anyway. > > Anthracite, Im surprised you posted about a traceroute, I always get chewed out when I do that. Good advice. I’m yet to double post. When I get a hang I hit “back” then open the thread in a new window to check that it’s gone through. **It always has.** I’ve got a response to handy’s second remark, but I think it would be tasteless. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/24 "2001-10-14T16:16:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > **Anthracite, Im surprised you posted about a traceroute, I always get chewed out when I do that.** Goddamnit, **handy** , I don’t need more people telling me or warning me about how much trouble I’m going to be in when **I’m not even in any trouble** - again! I did a search on “handy” and “traceroute” over the last year, and all I found with respect to you getting “chewed out” in those threads was on issues completely unrelated to “traceroute”. In fact, all I’ve ever seen in the searches was **TubaDiva** et al thanking people for trying to locate whether it was a routing problem or a Board problem. I think I do a decent job of trying to help things out technical-wise here, and any mistakes I’ve made in doing that were unintentional, and with the goal of trying to lend a hand. If trying to diagnose my problem via traceroute is unacceptable, I’m sure someone from the staff will tell me, and I’ll stop at once. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/25 "2001-10-14T16:36:52Z")
This works for me, when it begins its signature behavior: I submit my post, open a new window, go to the thread and open it. My post is always there, practically immediately. I then drop my recent history list in the posting window, go back to the forum, and into some other thread of interest. I understand that this might not work for some others. I have IE 6. But it seems to me that the problem is in the returning of an acknowledgment and not in the sending of the post. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/26 "2001-10-14T16:44:10Z")
**Anth** , you had a search work? I’ve had zip luck since yesterday with the search engine - time out every time. As for posts, my last one before this took seven minutes to appear. So posts are getting through - don’t resubmit. I had a double post last night and I submitted it only once. The two copies showed up eight minutes apart (during which time, of course, someone responded to the first copy). Oh yeah, proofread in the reply box. If the hamsters are upset you might want to skip Preview. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/27 "2001-10-14T16:49:34Z")
Yes, we know there’s a problem. Yes, Jerry the Tech God has been alerted. Yes, we are trying to fix it. (No, _we_ doesn’t really include me.) In the meantime, please know that most posts are going through pretty quickly, as **Lib** says. Even if they don’t show up as having gone through, they probably have. For replies to existing threads, you can refresh the page to see if your post has shown up. New threads seem to go through pretty quickly too, but they don’t show up on the forum page for a few minutes. To avoid duplicate threads, please wait ten minutes and refresh the forum page to see if your new thread has shown up. We appreciate your patience. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/28 "2001-10-14T17:31:00Z")
Well, FTR, Una, I’ve never seen anybody get chewed out for posting “ping” and traceroute results. As a matter of fact, I seem to recall that quite a few people in the past have posted “ping” and traceroute results, during inexplicable board slowdowns, and have had nothing but thanks from the administration. Perhaps Handy is thinking of something else. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/29 "2001-10-14T22:08:44Z")
Here we go again. Same slowdown and weirdness as last night starting. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/30 "2001-10-14T22:37:38Z")
What was really annoying was writing a post, submitting it, being told that it was within 60 seconds of my last one, going back to the response page and seeing that my messsage was gone. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/31 "2001-10-14T22:43:41Z")
… and that last post timed out as well, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/32 "2001-10-14T23:35:49Z")
“, I’m sure someone from the staff will tell me, and I’ll stop at once.” I don’t know why you are upset about what I said. But you can check your post, ‘UNA’ , it appears, has edited your traceroute. Whenever I claimed the board was slow I did a traceroute too & there were slow computers on the way to the board but the mods told me that wasn’t what was happening. We still could use more clarification on whats happening from them I think. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/33 "2001-10-14T23:42:22Z")
It _is_ fun seeing double-posts some 30 minutes apart, though. A pleasant feeling of deja vu, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/34 "2001-10-14T23:42:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > **But you can check your post, ‘UNA’ , it appears, has edited your traceroute.** **handy** - sorry for the confusion. **I** am Una, and I censored my IPs because I didn’t want to post them. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/35 "2001-10-15T04:02:27Z")
All hail the buffer - or something like that. My last post in GQ hung in cyberspace for 40 minutes before appearing. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/36 "2001-10-15T05:55:14Z")
You know, I’ve found that when I hit the “Submit Reply” button, it tries to load for a while. I usually get frustrated and hit stop, then click on “Submit Reply” again. Then the post goes straight through. So far, I haven’t double posted this weekend. I honestly thought it was just my connection. ::shrugs:: Now, watch this doublepost… ---
**Author:** ![Anubis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/37 "2001-10-15T12:28:19Z")
As I said in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=93037), I had a posting problem and got this message: We seem to be having a problem with our database. A message has been sent to the technical staff. We apologize for the inconvience. Did anyone else get that? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/38 "2001-10-15T15:44:09Z")
I got that message once. I noticed the problems starting on Saturday. Search timed out, 9 times out of 10. Attempts at posting hung forever. But you know what? Posting from work, I’d been having that problem for months. Must be the firewall here interfering. I’ve gotten so used to my posts not seeming to go through. “The document contained no data.” OK, fine, forgetaboutit. I go back to the forum index screen. It doesn’t show my last post! I open the thread … there’s my post. Every time! So I know enough not to doublepost. I snigger with derision every time I see others who don’t know enough to avoid doubleposts. That had been normal for me for at least the past year. And now I see everyone else suddenly complaining of it. But I did notice a sudden degradation of service over the weekend, yes. So what is this “traceroute” and why is it controversial? This is the first time I’ve heard of it. What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/39 "2001-10-15T16:59:27Z")
Pulling up a page has been painfully slow for me until about 5 minutes ago, 11:55 Central on 10/15. This will, I hope, last. Whatever you guys just did, THANKS! ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291/40 "2001-10-15T18:13:17Z")
Things are MUCH better now. I’m able to post and see it show up right away, and search too. All the modern conveniences. Whatever y’all fed the hamsters, keep it up! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hmmm-the-boards-are-truly-screwy/87291.md?page=3)