It was the first time I saw that while the typical database errors appeared, I saw many Charter Members and Members turn into guests, were we hacked?
I noticed that. However, I *think * that the change was by post and not by poster - that is, some posters were identified as both Members and Guests on different posts in the same thread. I could be wrong.
You’d think for $7.48, these things wouldn’t happen.
I was online while the board started going wonky, certain threads were not available, while some were not affected. certain threads would give you the error message:
Fatal error: input in flex scanner failed in /usr/local/etc/httpd/boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/includes/functions_log_error.php on line 1
While others were just fine. Then I noticed I wasn’t logged in, and when I tried to log in, the board went down completely.
Just my observations, I don’t think my trying to log in killed the board.
I can’t say whether it varied thread by thread (i.e. if you were identified as a guest in one thread, I don’t know if you were in all of them), but from the ones I saw it looked like the members identified as guests were identified as guests for the whole thread.
It looked that way to me too; seemed to change with each page display.
It was your fault. You broke the board!!
I don’t care what Slug Signorino says: you can’t fix the board’s problems by adding extra RAM to the Commodore 64s that act as its servers!
Hmm, my message upon returning was “Congratulations bare, you have won a lifetime membership to the SDMB!”
Hope you have a record of that.
I was too. My first inkling that something was amiss was that I coulsn’t access any thread that I had posted to. The others were ok. Then I was timed out and the board was…GONE! :eek: sigh.
Ok, it was my fault. 
Every time one of these crashes happens, I wonder if this will be the time that the SDMB doesn’t come back. I fear that one of these days, we’ll get a message saying something like, “The Chicago Reader has decided that we’re more trouble than we’re worth, and has decided to pull the plug. Been fun. Bye.”
The SDMB having online problems again? I am shocked. :eek:
No maybe I should have said “the SDMB having online problems again? So what else is new?” :rolleyes:
Okay, what is the new plan for increasing revenue at the SDMB? We’ve already been subjected to paid subscriptions, Google ads, indentured servitude, donating blood, etc. I have a feeling that soon, the bottom third of the screen will be filled with Esteban guitar infomercials !!! :mad:
I was very pleasantly surprised to see the board come back up today. I thought **Jerry ** worked for the Reader and that the Dope is just one {small} part of his job.
I work in IT, and I would not have liked to come in on a Sunday to fix a hardware failure on a message board. I think the response was great. I also Emailed **Dex ** & **Tuba ** last night about the outage and what info I could supply and they both got back to me. All in all an excellent response. Finally Jerry posted that to make up for the outage, all of our subscriptions were extended a day. That is a very fair thing to do.
Of course as much as I love this board the Esteban infomercials would drive me away. Funny is scary idea.
Jim
[tongue-in-cheek]
I tried to warn you guys that there might be something wrong with the board, and what happened? I got pitted! Well, all I have to say is, nyaaaaah.
[/tongue-in-cheek]
What Exit?
Geez. Now you’ve got me feeling guilty about all the nasty things I’ve said about the SDMB and its less-than-reliable computer system.
And you’ve personally helped these folks out … and all the SDMB staff involved did this on a Sunday. :smack:
It’s almost been an SDMB tradition to make fun of the SDMB servers (Commodore 64 ?? Sperry Univac ??) and all aspects of the SDMB computer network. Well, now I feel this little bit of fun has been taken away from my SDMB experience. :smack:
Still, it’s good to see that you folks were working dilligently so we could get back to discussing the important issues of the day - 1920’s Stlye Death Rays; Why do straight men get turned on by lesbian porn?; The close approach of Mars to the Earth in August; and if time allows Global Warming, terrortist threats, etc.
You folks did a good job getting things “up and running” once again.
But I warn you - the day I see Esteban infomercials on the bottom third of this message board there’s going to be Hell to pay !! :mad:
Most web-hosting company don’t even claim that they will have their server up 100% all the time. For example, I pay BlueHost $99 annually, and they still have the scheluded downtime, the occasional crash and sometimes, like all things with IT and networking, it’s outside their control (eg. power outrage).
I just glad I don’t have to pay SDMB $99, just $7++.