JD says: (4/9/15 3:17 PM)
If any of you see a 503 error (or any other problem), can you let me know? They made a configuration change to my site at about 2:15, and I haven't seen any errors since, but I'd like a wider level of feedback.

fakt says: (4/9/15 4:12 PM)
I got the error just a couple minutes ago. :( Wine usually helps my sanity!

BLT says: (4/9/15 8:52 PM)
We saw an error around 4 but all is well now.

JD says: (4/9/15 8:58 PM)
The 503 errors are random but seem to have to do with load on the site, so it tends to be better outside of working hours.

They did seem to have lessened today, despite a decent level of traffic in mid-afternoon.

(Though there was a nasty hard crash for about 45 minutes at around 1:00 this afternoon, which lead to the phone call with tech support in which I burst into tears while reciting the litany of previous requests for help that have gone nowhere.)

Definitely still want any reports of errors that anyone sees over the next few days.

coffeexdrinker says: (4/9/15 9:28 PM)
You know, my partner and I were talking about your site a few days ago. We were wondering: have you thought about putting together a crowdfund to move you to a completely new hosting company?

We'd be happy to toss a bit into the pot - you provide a vital service to the neighborhood, and this whole business sounds ridiculous.

JD says: (4/9/15 9:45 PM)
I appreciate that, and I actually have thought about it.

I've been with this company a long time--and for 99% of that, it's gone just fine.

Moving this site is just not an easy thing to do--it's not just a bunch of static pages that can be zipped up and uploaded somewhere new. It's multiple databases, and about 10 GB of photos, and all manner of code that needs to be tweaked each time there's a move.

I am also never really convinced that anywhere else is necessarily guaranteed to be better. And having already been through weeks of hassle, I'd prefer to avoid even more weeks of hassle by moving, if I can close my eyes and click my heels and believe that a fix is just around the corner.

Part of the issue is--my site just doesn't really THAT much traffic, and so there's just hardly any reason for me to move out of a shared environment, even though shared servers by nature always are a more perilous setup.

If I wanted to move away from shared, the next step up is to a virtual private server, which would mean going from about $20 a month to closer to $100 a month. AND I'd be responsible for keeping the server running myself. No vacations, no nothing, where I wouldn't always be worried that the server needed a restart or something.

And the fact that it's a ColdFusion site (the programming language) tightens considerably the arena that I can look at in terms of a lateral move.

This is not an easy issue to run down--it's not like I can just point to something and say "you need to change this setting in the server config." That makes it harder to get the attention of the next level of tech support--and since I do some level of tech support in real life, I do see this from both sides. (Plus at heart tech support folks do always believe that it's something that the customer is doing wrong, so I have to break through that as well.)

I also have tried very hard to not be the shrieking harpy calling them and berating them every five minutes. I have tried to work within their procedures. And the configuration change they made today was along the lines of the one I've been hoping for. I've still only seen the 503 once since they made the change, despite a whole lot of clicking around all afternoon and evening.

All that said, I do know that time is running out, that--never mind the site--*I* can't keep going like this.

Thanks for the opportunity to unburden myself. :-)

coffeexdrinker says: (4/9/15 11:08 PM)
Oh man. Well, if there is anything we can do (beyond reporting errors, of course) let us know! I'm sorry you've had so much frustration and yuckiness about this. I hope it is smooth sailing from here on.

JD says: (4/9/15 11:34 PM)
It's okay--if I weren't such a control freak, it would probably take less of a toll. Just drives me insane to see those errors, even if they are momentary and even if I can't even tell how many people are seeing them at the same time. "People will think the site is gone! People will think I'm a terrible webmaster! It's not my fault!!!!"

So you can see that the server isn't necessarily 100% of the problem. ;-)

Gemini in DC says: (4/10/15 6:44 PM)
As a bit (ok, a LOT!!) of a control freak myself, I can TOTALLY identify!! But, please know that most (all??!) of your loyal followers get that this isn't your fault, things happen that are beyond your control, and we will keep coming back for our JDLand fix!

Tom says: (4/11/15 10:35 PM)
I haven't had an error page yet.

JD says: (4/12/15 10:15 AM)
There hasn't been much traffic to the site in the past few days, so I think the errors would be lower in that case. I think they are probably in better shape overall, but I'm not sure they will ever go away 100% completely.

But please still do let me know if you/when see one.