What the hell?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Caesar]

Wow, get a life...

[mindseye]

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font> I would hope that some people would notice that something like that havent happened in the last 26 months in the history of apolyton & gamestats, but i guess i'm being optimistic....
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

I'm sorry, MarkG, but that is a lame response.

First there is the fact that it's not quite true - just a few months ago you lost your most important asset, your entire downloads database, which hadn't been backed up in months. Aside from that, hearing that you haven't had a catastrophic failure for two years is somehow not very re-assuring.

When customers show up at your store, only to find the lights out, the door locked, and no sign on the door, you have a serious situation that warrants something more than "I'm sorry you failed to notice this hasn't happened in a long time." Not having fail-over or backup systems is pretty bad, but not even posting a message for bewildered "customers" is really inexcusable.

- mindseye
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by mindseye (edited September 11, 2000).]</font>

[Alexander's Horse]

Hmmm, some of these "customers" confirm my decision not to choose a career in retail. Apolyton was down for a few hours, WHO CARES?



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Founder of the People's Republic of Topics (PROT)
Convenor, Threadjacking Appreciation Society (TAS)
Proprietor, Apolyton Tea Shop http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum19/H...tml?date=00:06

[Ming]

Man... come on guys... we are talking about a gaming site here, not some national security site. Even the big money sites have had down time lasting that long or longer. If you want perfection, you won't find it at ANY web site. I've seen some very reputable sites that are down often. It's actually pretty good here overall... (with the exception of some SLOW times) If Apolyton being down can get you so mad and pissed, maybe you need to get out more

[Urban Ranger]

Yeah, GeoCities was down yesterday, but it was for about an hour.

I don't expect websites to be up all the time, but a down time of 30 hours is excessive.

[Caesar]

Oh come on! Its a gaming site... yes some of us spend a little *cough* too much time here *everyone looks at ctg*

But I'm not complaining, 30 hours not on apolyton... thats the end of the world... get out! DO SOMETHING! Go have some fun, I'm just using apolyton to procrastinate doing homework...

[mindseye]

I'm sorry, maybe for me it's more a matter of professionalism (I work in the industry). The first rule of a major outage is to alert your customers/users. Posting a small notice on a parent server requires little effort.

That's why I say: lame.

- mindseye

[John-SJ]

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by mindseye on 09-11-2000 10:25 PM</font>

I'm sorry, maybe for me it's more a matter of professionalism (I work in the industry). The first rule of a major outage is to alert your customers/users. Posting a small notice on a parent server requires little effort.

- mindseye
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

mindseye, I agree with you. However, in this case (AFAIK) the parent server (gamestats) was down as well. At least, they were down every time I checked.

John-SJ

[MarkG]

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by mindseye on 09-11-2000 09:14 PM</font>
First there is the fact that it's not quite true - just a few months ago you lost your most important asset, your entire downloads database, which hadn't been backed up in months.
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>what does this have to do with this? that was a problem caused by a script and the back-up was my responsibility. nothing to dowith gamestats. in this case there was a problem with the httpd which does have to with gamestats. i just pointed out that something like that has never happened before, which goes to remind that we have had a pretty good service here so far

[MarkG]

and something else

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by mindseye on 09-11-2000 09:14 PM</font>
you have a serious situation that warrants something more than "I'm sorry you failed to notice this hasn't happened in a long time."
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>our notice on the issue was the news item in the about section and the announcement on the forums. my post was a reply to something someone said....

[Xuenay]

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by mindseye on 09-11-2000 09:14 PM</font>
I'm sorry, MarkG, but that is a lame response.

been backed up in months. Aside from that, hearing that you haven't had a catastrophic failure for two years is somehow not very re-assuring.

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by mindseye (edited September 11, 2000).]</font>
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>

Being down for a day is a catastrophic failure? Please, thats a non-lethal failure. When you begin to lose astro/cosmonauts and getting your rocket blown up on the last mission step, thats a catastrophic failure.

(been playing Buzz Aldrin's Race To Space too much again... ;-))

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"Now Lone Star, you will see that Evil will always triumph, because Good is Dumb!"
-- Dark Helmet

[stuntman19]

wow......this is the first time to this area of the site......hmmm.......I think some diaper changes are needed. I am a fairly new member(since August), but I think the site is fairly cool. I guess one can't please everyone.

[Provost Harrison]

We should strive to fix and problem and any fault, no matter how large or small that persons problems are. Some may be more severe than others, but fix the severe ones and move down the list of severity. It's an endless list, but it is an admirable admiration to fix them all...

Sorry, just my philosophy for the day, but you catch my point. Solve all problems that you can possibly solve...

[stuntman19]

I agree with the idea of fixing problems, but if a site being down for a day crushes your existence, you need a reality check dude.

[mindseye]

Xuenay & stuntman19,

I think you read my message backwards! Apolyton being down was not catastrophic for me, but from the point of view of a web-based business, having your site completely "off the air" is about as serious a problem as can occur, i.e. "catastrophic".

The gravity of an outage depends on its duration and the nature of the site's business. If you're processing millions of dollars of sales online daily, an outage of five minutes would be "catastrophic". For a site like Apolyton, I'd say a <24 hour outage is not a big deal unless it's a frequent occurance. An outage of 24-48 hours should raise an eyebrow and prompt a post-mortem. More than 48 hours should probably spark immediate action. My specific point was that a small notice on the parent server requires little effort and should be standard procedure in an outage.


John-SJ, when I checked the GameStats main site, it was up. I tried the link to the Apolytons Forum, it failed. This would be the logical place for a notice to have appeared.


<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font>my post was a reply to something someone said
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>
I apologize, I missed the official announcement.

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font>what does this have to do with this?
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>
MarkG, I understand maybe you have not had this exact problem in a long time. My point was that from a broader point of view, your site has experienced two major technical problems within a few months. As a fan of your fine site, I'm hoping this is getting the attention and resources it deserves within the GameStats organization.

- mindseye

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