# Recent server timeout errors — anyone else getting them? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 7, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514 "2019-12-07T16:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 28
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/541 "2020-02-15T00:03:53Z")
> [@margin](#): > > … Also, what’s with the odd, “You have—something-something a post that is not part of the discussion. Please (words to the effect of removing it) and continue.” Something like that. This is afyer you hit the quote function. That’s probably normal. It indicates that you had selected a post to quote, in some thread, maybe some time ago, that is still being referenced. You can include or exclude it when you make your post. If you don’t delete it, you will be reminded again the next time you create a post. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/542 "2020-02-15T02:32:11Z")
This is the first time I’ve managed to get here in a while. Constant long waits and time-out errors. I really hope this is not a harbinger of things to come. The SDMB may be a shadow of its former self but I still find it a valuable resource. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/543 "2020-02-15T03:16:17Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > That’s probably normal. It indicates that you had selected a post to quote, in some thread, maybe some time ago, that is still being referenced. You can include or exclude it when you make your post. If you don’t delete it, you will be reminded again the next time you create a post. Er…I think you’re saying I might have touched on an ancient post that will unleash the locusts should anyone try and use the quote function? But none of the posts have been more than a day or so old, I don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/544 "2020-02-15T03:31:54Z")
> [@margin](#): > > Er…I think you’re saying I might have touched on an ancient post that will unleash the locusts should anyone try and use the quote function? But none of the posts have been more than a day or so old, I don’t think. I clicked multiquote on a post from the MSG thread. When I clicked quote on your thread, I get "You have selected 1 post that is not part of this thread. Quote this post as well, or deselect this post. " at the bottom of the post box. If I ignore that note, nothing happens. (eta, confirmed - nothing happened) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/545 "2020-02-15T03:33:19Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I clicked multiquote on a post from the MSG thread. When I clicked quote on your thread, I get > > "You have selected 1 post that is not part of this thread. Quote this post as well, or deselect this post. " at the bottom of the post box. If I ignore that note, nothing happens. > > (eta, confirmed - nothing happened) But when I quote this thread, I still have the note - which will repeat until I either deliberately use the quote from the MSG thread, or deselect it ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/546 "2020-02-15T10:06:30Z")
> [@margin](#): > > Er…I think you’re saying I might have touched on an ancient post that will unleash the locusts should anyone try and use the quote function? But none of the posts have been more than a day or so old, I don’t think. It’s entirely possible you have run into a vB error, but what you describe sounds like a normal function to me. When you click on the multi-quote button ("+), the current post is stored for future use. You can repeat this action for more posts. Nothing happens until… …you initiate a reply, when the saved posts will pop into the edit window. Now what happens if you store some post(s), then forget about it? Sometime (hours, days – there is no time limit) in the future, you may begin a reply sequence, perhaps from a different thread. You will be reminded of the posts you forgot about, and given a choice to (1) include them in your new edit, (2) continue to store them, or (3) discard them forever. Does that describe your situation? ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/547 "2020-02-15T15:01:59Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > It’s entirely possible you have run into a vB error, but what you describe sounds like a normal function to me. > > When you click on the multi-quote button ("+), the current post is stored for future use. You can repeat this action for more posts. Nothing happens until… > > …you initiate a reply, when the saved posts will pop into the edit window. > > Now what happens if you store some post(s), then forget about it? Sometime (hours, days – there is no time limit) in the future, you may begin a reply sequence, perhaps from a different thread. You will be reminded of the posts you forgot about, and given a choice to (1) include them in your new edit, (2) continue to store them, or (3) discard them forever. > > Does that describe your situation? No, not at all. Perhaps it helps to know that I do almost ALL my websurfing on an Android phone. (Don’t judge.) This phenomenon is intermittent. I don’t have any posts saved. After how years on the Dope (with absences) I finally got my time zone changed. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/548 "2020-02-15T17:36:47Z")
You don’t have to have deliberately saved them; you just have to have clicked either on multiquote in a post, or on reply to post, and then for whatever reason not to have posted any reply. And it’s possible to click like that by accident. I trigger that message fairly often, as I sometimes start to reply to something and then either think better of it, or decide not to bother; or just get distracted and go do something else and forget about the previous possible reply. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/549 "2020-02-15T19:52:47Z")
Just to put this out there… I’ve been hesitant to update my Firefox, because once when I did that I lost all of my favorites. I bit the bullet and updated it today for the first time in a looong time, and so far the SDMB is loading pages quickly and without error. I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/550 "2020-02-16T08:15:35Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Just to put this out there… > I’ve been hesitant to update my Firefox, because once when I did that I lost all of my favorites. I bit the bullet and updated it today for the first time in a looong time, and so far the SDMB is loading pages quickly and without error. I hope I haven’t just jinxed myself. It’s been long established that the board has intermittent performance problems, and it has nothing to do with the browser or the client OS. Updating Firefox was probably the right thing to do but it has nothing to do with the problem. The board was actually performing well most of today but I did have some delays and I just got a 504 Gateway Timeout a few seconds ago. This is a long-term ongoing problem. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/551 "2020-02-16T11:55:28Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s been long established that the board has intermittent performance problems, and it has nothing to do with the browser or the client OS. Updating Firefox was probably the right thing to do but it has nothing to do with the problem. The board was actually performing well most of today but I did have some delays and I just got a 504 Gateway Timeout a few seconds ago. This is a long-term ongoing problem. If all this is true, how come I almost never have any of these problems? I have had one ONE 504 in the past five months. And I am here a lot. Am I just lucky or what? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/552 "2020-02-16T17:06:24Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > If all this is true, how come I almost never have any of these problems? I have had one ONE 504 in the past five months. And I am here a lot. Am I just lucky or what? I’ll go with “just lucky” and “not on here as much as some of us”. The problem is very intermittent and sometimes doesn’t show up for days at a time; other times, the site is practically unusable. It often just manifests as a delay in response and only in extreme cases do you get server or gateway timeout errors. There may be a geographic or time of day dependency but as far as anyone has been able to tell it’s completely random. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/553 "2020-02-16T17:28:38Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > If all this is true, how come I almost never have any of these problems? I have had one ONE 504 in the past five months. And I am here a lot. Am I just lucky or what? From what we (most of us) have determined, there are multiple factors involved. If you happen to have one of them minimized, you might not see problems as often. That doesn’t mean the system is working perfectly. I don’t seem to get as many errors as others have reported, and while I often observe slowdowns (like ~30 seconds to post), the slowdowns rarely escalate to timeouts. If I’m not watching carefully, I might not spot the slowdowns at all. It’s possible the timeout clock is different for different locations, connections, users, computers, and browsers, so one person may be less affected than another. ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/554 "2020-02-16T18:02:45Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > From what we (most of us) have determined, there are multiple factors involved. If you happen to have one of them minimized, you might not see problems as often. That doesn’t mean the system is working perfectly. > > I don’t seem to get as many errors as others have reported, and while I often observe slowdowns (like ~30 seconds to post), the slowdowns rarely escalate to timeouts. If I’m not watching carefully, I might not spot the slowdowns at all. > \*\* > It’s possible the timeout clock is different for different locations, connections, users, computers, and browsers, so one person may be less affected than another. \*\* Thank you for this, this is an extremely useful observation. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/555 "2020-02-16T22:30:50Z")
504 Gateway Timeout about 2 minutes ago. And so it goes on. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/556 "2020-02-16T23:41:27Z")
I have been experiencing them all along. I just posted to CS, got a Gateway Timeout message but the post went through. Seems to be intermittent. Sometimes I think the problem has been fixed and then it does it again. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/557 "2020-02-17T22:38:51Z")
Was able to post, then just sat there twiddling my thumbs…again… ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/558 "2020-02-17T23:40:44Z")
I, too, had some issues today. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/559 "2020-02-18T20:54:21Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > To me I see only 2 possibilities : > > They found the problem but don’t have the money to fix it. > > They are too cheap to hire an expert to find the problem and fix it. I have read that this message board is running on an ancient vBulletin software with lots of custom hacks. And, you know, the machine is running on hamsters. Maybe there’s a shortage of rodentologists in the Chicago area? Or maybe it’s not a money problem at all, but a time and focus problem. As in, “hey guys can you please give this technician root access to the SDMB servers, it’s been eight weeks” “sorry haven’t had time, I’ll grant access as soon as I have the chance” ~Max ---
**Author:** ![cram4dell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5e9695/32.png) [@cram4dell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cram4dell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514/560 "2020-02-18T22:14:59Z")
Brand new user here, but I have already seen some random timeouts. Just saying. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recent-server-timeout-errors-anyone-else-getting-them/844514.md?page=29)