Stating the Obvious...

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Hi. I can't reach some of my favorite webcomics such as the Emergency Exit / Parallel Dementia crossover. Please fix that. Thanks.

We have top men working on it now.

[Newsman]

As an end-user, it would be nice if there were something on the front page of the site stating that you were experiencing some issues and when you anticipate them being resolved. I find it very frustrating to try and read some of my bookmarked web comics only to get a "page not found" error. Then I have to go search the web for the answer, and sometimes I find the answer and sometimes I don't.

Now, I realize that this is (mostly) a volunteer organization, but I would think that someone could find a minute or two to post a quick note on the front page that there is a problem and what the ETA on a fix is.

[Turnsky]

As an end-user, it would be nice if there were something on the front page of the site stating that you were experiencing some issues and when you anticipate them being resolved. I find it very frustrating to try and read some of my bookmarked web comics only to get a "page not found" error. Then I have to go search the web for the answer, and sometimes I find the answer and sometimes I don't.

Now, I realize that this is (mostly) a volunteer organization, but I would think that someone could find a minute or two to post a quick note on the front page that there is a problem and what the ETA on a fix is.

it's also a free service, you do come off as a bitchy customer who's angry at something he/she paid for.

look, the fact is, if something goes wrong, all Comicgen really has to fix the "minor issues" is Redwolf and Kisai, nobody else.. there's no 24 hour tech-support line filled with legions of foreign-speaking people just WAITING to fix whatever ails the system.
It'll be fixed, when it's fixed, no more, no less.
Those two have day jobs to attend to, not to nursemaid comicgen 24/7, it doesn't pay that well to quantify being actual employment.

[Perk_daddy]

I'm back up! thanks, guys!

EDIT: Looks like the update queue is stuck, though...

[Drowemos]

Ok for those of you keeping score at home:

May 6th through the 7th the sever crashed
May 20th the sever crashed
May 26th the sever crashed for a short period
May 27th the sever crashed
June 1st the sever crashed
June 4th the sever crashed
June 5th the sever crashed

So if I might politely ask:

WHAT IN THE BLUE BLAZES IS GOING ON!!!

I have to agree with Amtekoth these crashes are murder on anyone buying advertisements or selling them. They are getting increasingly frequent and for longer periods of time.

I just need to know is it safe to buy ad space at this point? If the servers are sill unstable fine, I will just hold of in investing in ads. But I need to know otherwise I am out a lot of money and I loose all momentum from my ad campaigns.

[Webkilla]

i wonder - when triggering manual updates, how long does it take now before the pages actually get updated?

[Jameslong]

usually it depends on how many other jobs are in queue. But lately i think they go straight through regardless? Not sure if it's still like that or not, though. Shouldn't take more than a minute when the queue is empty. Make sure you're doing 'full update'.

[Cope]

Make sure you're doing 'full update'.

Please don't do that; it puts unnecessary strain on the server. Full updates are reserved for rare occasions. The vast majority of the time a regular update will suffice.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

My index page went through, but not the comic itself.

[Scientivore]

Hi. I can't reach some of my favorite webcomics such as the Emergency Exit / Parallel Dementia crossover. Please fix that. Thanks.

We have top men working on it now.

Almost forgot to come back and say, it's back up. Thank you.

[Webkilla]

damn! now my comic pages show nothing but the "dont rip.jpg" images - the ads aren't showing either (not on my comic page, not on this forum... anywhere) and i triggered a manual update 10 hours ago, but it still hasn't come through!

[Cope]

damn! now my comic pages show nothing but the "dont rip.jpg" images

Your comics are showing up fine for me; try a hard refresh (ctrl+F5 or shift+reload/refresh) or refer to the images faq. The ads are also showing up fine for me (note that sometimes the the ad space will be blank anyway, and that comics rated MA and above don't currently have an advertiser); the problem is either on your end, or it only affects certain people.

As for the update queue....yeah, it's stuck.

[Oarfly]

Same here. Ads and all are there, only there's no update. This would have been an excellent excuse for procrastinating my latest update, only I actually did finish my comic on time. Relatively, at least. Oh well.

[Jameslong]

Make sure you're doing 'full update'.

Please don't do that; it puts unnecessary strain on the server. Full updates are reserved for rare occasions. The vast majority of the time a regular update will suffice.

sorry, i meant to say "make sure you're not doing an index update only" but it didn't come out right.

[Alschroeder]

Yeah, and the "regular update" trick isn't working either. I posted my comic to my character's livejournal, at http://mmsophia.livejournal.com/ in the meantime.
---Al

[Cope]

Make sure you're doing 'full update'.

Please don't do that; it puts unnecessary strain on the server. Full updates are reserved for rare occasions. The vast majority of the time a regular update will suffice.

sorry, i meant to say "make sure you're not doing an index update only" but it didn't come out right.

Well, as long as you know.

[Webkilla]

can we get any admin word on when the system will be back up in working order again?

how many souls of vista users must I sacrifice? How much blood must i shed for the machine spirits? Is there no end to this madness!

[Sphix]

can we get any admin word on when the system will be back up in working order again?

how many souls of vista users must I sacrifice? How much blood must i shed for the machine spirits? Is there no end to this madness!

GenChan requires 300,000 souls before everything is in working order.

Sigh... Best get working on it. *Grabs roommate and slays*

Well, seeing as how we're fast approaching the 4000 queued mark, I'ma start drinking now.

[Newsman]

it's also a free service, you do come off as a bitchy customer who's angry at something he/she paid for.

look, the fact is, if something goes wrong, all Comicgen really has to fix the "minor issues" is Redwolf and Kisai, nobody else.. there's no 24 hour tech-support line filled with legions of foreign-speaking people just WAITING to fix whatever ails the system.
It'll be fixed, when it's fixed, no more, no less.
Those two have day jobs to attend to, not to nursemaid comicgen 24/7, it doesn't pay that well to quantify being actual employment.

As I said in my original post, I do understand that this is a 100% volunteer organization, however, I have to wonder how much trouble it would be to put an announcement on the front page stating "we're having issues and we're working on it"???

As an IT professional, I realize that server management is a thankless job... you never get credit when things are going well, but you always get blamed and yelled at when things are b0rken, but as an "end user" I also get frustrated when I can't get my favorite comics.

To be fair, ComicGenesis/Keenspace isn't the only site that's been having problems lately. Another comic hosted on another, unrelated site, was also having issues yesterday. I haven't had time to check on it yet today, so I don't know if they got it resolved or not.

I still stick by my original request that someone post a news item, not even in detail, on the front page advising of system issues. That will help a LOT of people, IMNSHO.

[Lgo]

Ok, I just went to update my comic, and there are nearly 4000 pending requests. What's going on?