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To MODs: Constant PriusChat Errors

Discussion in 'PriusChat Website Questions' started by stevepea, Jun 25, 2017.

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  1. stevepea

    stevepea Senior Member

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    Just in case the Mods didn't know, Prius Chat continues to have major errors/downtime, and goes back and forth between being "normal" and having problems.

    Over the past few weeks, on a number of occasions (whether logged in or not -- even just looking at it as a guest), instead of showing the page, this error message pops up:

    An unexpected database error occurred. Please try again later.

    Just so you know, it's not on the user's ends. I've seen it from my home computer, on my celphone, from other people's house, etc.

    There are times where's it's buggy, and if you keep trying, it might work for a second or two, before getting the error constantly again (requires you to continually keep trying).

    Other times like today, it generally seems to work, but I have seen the error 3 times already. And when I made a new post it said "Uploads not allowed" and when I tried to change the title of the post as I was initially writing it, the Black/Red Warning box came up with error.. but then next time it allowed it.

    Anyway, just wanted to make sure the mods know... there's problems that occur off and on with the website, and it always gives the same error message (database error).

    Just want to make you guys aware of it if you're not already :)

    EDIT: see some of the comments from others below. While today seems to be better than other times when it's buggy (when it can be about 95% errors), I'd say about 1 out of every 7 times today I'm getting the "An unexpected database error" message...

    Just trying to help.
     
    #1 stevepea, Jun 25, 2017
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2017
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  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i tried to like your post, but got an 'unexpected error' the first time.:cool:

    if you report your post, it gets the moderators attention.
     
    #2 bisco, Jun 25, 2017
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  3. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    The Mods can't help. Only Danny can save us.
     
    #3 JimboPalmer, Jun 25, 2017
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    #4 bisco, Jun 25, 2017
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  5. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    Even that generates an unexpected database error:(.
     
    #5 Raytheeagle, Jun 25, 2017
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  6. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Yeah, I think the mods are as annoyed as the rest of us, but as @JimboPalmer said, it's outside their area of influence. There has still, to my knowledge, been no explanation offered as to why this keeps happening. It may, in fact, not be a forum problem, but maybe a hosting problem. But those are usually brief and not chronic like this. The web site owner tells them what happened, they fix it, and we all breathe a sigh of relief.
     
    #6 jerrymildred, Jun 25, 2017
  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Upvote the initial post, make it a landslide. (y)(y)(y)

    (Makes you feel like you're doing something, anyway. :ROFLMAO:)
     
    #7 Mendel Leisk, Jun 25, 2017
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  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    who's taking the over/under on when this gets moved to fhop?:cool:
     
    #8 bisco, Jun 25, 2017
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  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Just FYI, almost every time it goes back up, it's because Danny responded in some manner to fix the server. The site doesn't magically go from "unexpected database error" to "normal" operations.

    He may not communicate like you'd want him to on PC but between being a father to 3 young daughters, being a husband and managing this (and the PC Shop), I hope you can understand that fixing the server is much higher priority than responding to every single thread when it comes to PC priorities (and obviously family supersedes everything).
     
    #9 Tideland Prius, Jun 25, 2017
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  10. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Oh and the rest of us moderators have to deal with moving threads, merging threads, deleting threads (upon request), deleting posts because of said database errors to clean up the thread, merging posts (where appropriate as we've agreed upon), dealing with spam, dealing with bickering members (he said, she said. I scream for ice cream).

    I've been on other forums. Trust me when I say that mods and members aren't as nice as they are on PriusChat..
     
    #10 Tideland Prius, Jun 25, 2017
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  11. stevepea

    stevepea Senior Member

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    Oh, exactly. And I tried very consciously not to sound like I'm complaining, but simply to let Mods know there's a problem. I realize very well that running something like this takes a lot of time, and people have real lives outside of it, which is actually one of the reasons why I posted it (and waited for many days of seeing the errors before doing so, not just posting it the first couple days) -- because I don't expect people to give up their real lives in order to constantly monitor a volunteer site, and figured once it seemed to be happening for long enough, they'd want to know there were site issues. And to the other Mods who as well have to spend a lot of time with PC, it's much appreciated.

    (And if anyone's wondering, I started this new thread to report site problems because I didn't see any other threads [by their titles] mentioning the problem [I always do check]. The other thread [which I noticed later had similar discussion] has the title of "Barely Usable with Google Chrome" which from the title seems to be Chrome specific, and not about the "database error" message that kept appearing no matter what browser was being used...)

    I wonder, would it perhaps be useful (or would it cause too much traffic/abuse) to have a special sticky area, or an icon to click on for when the board is having problems? Don't know if that would help, or open a floodgate everytime something minor happens.

    Anyway, thanks Mods (all of you) who help with PC!
     
    #11 stevepea, Jun 26, 2017
  12. Sam Spade

    Sam Spade Senior Member

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    That is not quite accurate.
    The do something to temporarily cover up the problem.
    If they actually FIXED anything, it wouldn't happen again........or at least a LOT less often.
     
    #12 Sam Spade, Jun 26, 2017
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  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk EGR Fanatic

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    Maybe it's because I'm absolutely HOOKED on this site, that I notice the ups and downs more, but that's the sense I get: that something is leaky, and get's periodically bailed out. But maybe we need a bigger boat?

    upload_2017-6-26_6-40-39.png
     
    #13 Mendel Leisk, Jun 26, 2017
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  14. Sam Spade

    Sam Spade Senior Member

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    NO. Nothing us average users do will help the problem.

    There obviously is a problem with the software or hardware on the server......which Danny doesn't own or maintain.
    He just rents space on it.

    I suspect that the server owners are saying the problem is with the Forum software, which Danny IS responsible for.
    I also suspect that is NOT true and the real problem is with the database handler which the server owner is responsible for.......but it is easier for them to do nothing.......and they continue to get away with it.

    Likely that nothing will change unless or until the server crashes completely and has to be reloaded from scratch........which may never happen.
     
    #14 Sam Spade, Jun 26, 2017
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  15. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    Or until Danny switches to a different hosting company, which is a fairly significant effort, especially in light of his other responsibilities and the complexity of this site.

    And @Mendel Leisk, I'm afraid I'm hooked, too. :D
     
    #15 jerrymildred, Jun 26, 2017
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  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    it's all part of a subversive plan...:sneaky:
     
    #16 bisco, Jun 26, 2017
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  17. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Well the best way is just send us a PM or tag us in a thread like this. There's always the possibility that a few of us happen to not check PriusChat coincidentally at the same time. (e.g. I was away on vacation for 10 days and only checked PC twice. If I happen to catch it when it was working well, I would be none the wiser).

    But definitely communicate to us (There's also the PC twitter account if PC actually goes down and you need to contact us). We want this to be a two-way thing and not a top-down approach :)

    Thanks again.
     
    #17 Tideland Prius, Jun 26, 2017
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  18. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    more problems, 4 days later.
     
    #18 bisco, Jun 30, 2017
  19. jerrymildred

    jerrymildred Senior Member

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    How ironic. I clicked the link to see what you wrote and got a data base error. LOL!
     
    #19 jerrymildred, Jun 30, 2017
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  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i tried to report my post, and the same thing happened.:rolleyes:
     
    #20 bisco, Jun 30, 2017
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