I wanted to document here what happened a few days ago with the USS forums, bringing anyone up to speed who wasn't aware of the issues, and for future reference.
Beginning roughly on April 28, 2017, users started noticing that they were receiving 'stale' pages when they viewed the forums. This manifested itself by time stamps in the past (current time as shown in upper right corner of all pages), and sometimes they'd be shown as logged in as other users.
After repeated communication with the hosting provider, it was determined that the site was generating a lot of traffic and that a product they use called Varnish Cache was serving up the 'stale' pages in an attempt to speed up response times. I argued that this would be fine for a site that was mostly static pages, but not appropriate for a PHPBB forum (or a wordpress blog, etc) An elevated support person told me that only by using an upgraded hosting product called 'cloud services' would I then be able to turn off this caching feature.
I upgraded and after a approximately 18 hour period, the site was migrated. I was then able to log in to my hosting account and turn off the caching feature.
Since then, the problem has not cropped up again, and to me the site feels faster.
If you have anything to add or other observations, please post in this thread.
Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
"Sir, our research shows that the bird is equal to or greater than the word."
- OGRE MAGE
- First Gentleman
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Re: Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
I would like to add a huge and sincere THANK YOU for doing what you do to keep this thing up and running for the rest of us.
(I am no longer seeing any issues on my end)
(I am no longer seeing any issues on my end)
- GreyWolfVT
- Wants a special title like Scott
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Re: Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
THANK YOU TONIXX! from me and all of my various personalities.
“All men did have darkness. Some wore it in the form of horns. Some bore it invisibly as rot in their souls.”
― Paul S. Kemp, Shadowbred
"If good people won’t do the hard things, evil people will always win, because evil people will do anything."
― Paul S. Kemp, Twilight Falling
DM - GreyWolf's Mystara Adventures - AD&D 2e
― Paul S. Kemp, Shadowbred
"If good people won’t do the hard things, evil people will always win, because evil people will do anything."
― Paul S. Kemp, Twilight Falling
Re: Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
Thank you very much. You're the type of overlord who makes me feel safe at night.
Re: Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
nice!coil23 wrote:Thank you very much. You're the type of overlord who makes me feel safe at night.
Good job Greg! Considering how big the issue was, the response was pretty quick!
--Ron--
This is a game about killing things and taking their stuff so you can become more powerful in order to kill bigger things and take even better stuff.
- hedgeknight
- Rider of Rohan
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- Scott308
- Guy Who Gamed With The Famous People
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Re: Summary of recent problems with the USS forums
Thank you for updating us on the problem and its fix, as well as everything else you do to keep the site running and providing so much entertainment for us all!
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
https://www.extra-life.org/participant/Scott Peterson
https://www.extra-life.org/participant/Scott Peterson