Internal Server Error

[Stewart]

I've had a word with the site's hosts and they asked me to clear my cache, which worked. I suggest, if you are experiencing the same problem you do the same.

With FireFox:

Go to Tools -> Clear Private Data

Uncheck all tickboxes, with the exception of the Cache, and then hit 'Clear Private Data Now'

With Internet Explorer:


Actually, it's been so long since I used IE that I have no idea. Perhaps someone who uses it can write up some quick instructions.

[kpjayan]

Stewart,

I don't think it is to do with the cache clearing.. I'm having trouble at Office with IR 6.0 and Firefox 3.x as well as at home PC with IE 7. You may want to check with them again. The problem persists ( intermittently) despite clearnig cache.

Moreover, certain pages are not loading completely.. It get terminated with certain errors.

[Stewart]

I have another suspicion as to what may be causing it - something I've done in the background.

I'm heading off to a literary event shortly, so will get back to the hosts once I'm home. Interesting that it should happen, though, the day after the hosts email to say they've been bought over.

[titania7]

I have another suspicion as to what may be causing it - something I've done in the background

.

Oh my goodness! I knew it. You've been up to some mischievous
antics, haven't you, Stewart? And to think, I've nearly been pulling my hair out I've been so frustrated by this site today!

I'm heading off to a literary event shortly, so will get back to the hosts once I'm home

You have fun now. And don't dwell for a moment on thoughts of your poor, stressed-out listmembers .

What's the literary event, by the way? I'm sure everyone here
would like to hear about it. At any rate, I know I would .

Interesting that it should happen, though, the day after the hosts email to say they've been bought over.

Now that is downright spooky.

Halloween best,
Titania

PS I can't even access your post to my Food in Literature thread.
The page cuts me off before I get to your message!!!

[nnyhav]

Quick Fix, until this gets sorted: go to user control panel (UserCP) and under Settings & Options on left click Edit Options, then under Thread Display Options change the number of posts to display per page from "default" to 5 posts per page and hit Save Settings button at bottom of page. (Internal Server Error along the way can be overcome with Refresh.)

PS should mention this just makes incomplete pageloads less likely not impossible, and ups the odds that Refresh will correct.

[Eric]

I suspect that as several of us are experiencing this problem, it is something generated by the website, not by us individuals.

None of us have had these problems for all the months we've been posting, and now this problem has struck.

Could you explain a little more, Stewart, about the hosts and their being bought up? It isn't the sort of thing that hits the papers, like when Iceland goes bankrupt, or is bought up by the Russians. We're small fry.

I hope we don't get unceremoniously dumped, as happened with that BBC literary chatsite that many of us once belonged to.

How do Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd and vBulletin fit into the equation? When something (like a bank!) works and does what you want to, you never ask questions, but with this recent spate of failure messages, you wanna know who runs what.

[Stewart]

Could you explain a little more, Stewart, about the hosts and their being bought up? It isn't the sort of thing that hits the papers, like when Iceland goes bankrupt, or is bought up by the Russians. We're small fry.

Oh, it's nothing like that. The host is an American company selling webspace. A bigger fish just came along and ate it up - helps push its capabilities further, allows for greater customer service, yadda yadda yadda.

I now suspect that I've been the one at fault. One of the things I want to do with the site - as anyone who runs a site should do - is make it better. So, I've been working away in the background on a new style that fits the whole screen, rather than the narrow strip, and will make the forum look nicer, less rough in some areas, more consistent, and will offer some more options. Well, that was my plan - my home computer finally breathed its last at the weekend leaving my in-development style looking like a Spanish costa. Hopefully I'll have a new computer sorted out by next week and can get back to the matter of updating this.

One of the things I was experimenting with last night was IP addresses, a thing I can use to geographically, to a degree, pinpoint users. Knowing this can let me tailor messages and the like. Then I went to bed, thinking that the experiment was safely locked up in the experimental forum...looks like it crossed over. I've removed all references to what I did last night and it seems to have stopped the server errors. So, business as usual, I hope.

I hope we don't get unceremoniously dumped, as happened with that BBC literary chatsite that many of us once belonged to.

The situation is completely different. The BBC board was a part of the BBC website and when they decided books were crap, TV shows about home makeovers were better then they closed down the site.

World Literature Forum is mine. I've paid for the forum software license, I've paid for the application that rewrites the URLs to something more search engine friendly (i.e. rather than forum.com/page?thread=5, we get forum.com/author/murakami-haruki), and I pay the host for the space and bandwidth on the server.

[Eric]

I'm glad that the WLF belongs to one person. I agree that the BBC did an unforgivable disservice to books by, first of all, allowing a sulky temp to censor out any rude words we might have chosen to write (I once wrote "hob-nobbing" and the dumb nonentity thought I was swearing), then moving aside in silence and acquiescence, as the management got rid of us. This really was the epitome of philistinism.

But please don't put too much effort into the on-screen shape of the whole thing. I think most of us are happy that we have got a forum at all. The minor irritations of screen-shape, etc., are not huge. We have a search function, so that we can find old postings and don't start new threads unnecessarily. We can access the public biographies of our fellow posters and contact them if we wish. And so on. So when your computer is renewed and back on line, I'm sure things will solve themselves. Maybe we could have a suggestions questionnaire for WLF users, to ask what needs improving, what needs to stay the same.

[Eric]

Am I right in concluding that the internal server error problem has been solved? Everything seems back to normal today.

[Stewart]

Yes, solved. Hands up, it seems to have been my tinkering that caused it.

[titania7]

Yes, solved. Hands up, it seems to have been my tinkering that caused it.

Hmmmm.....that's what I suspected . Well, at least you're being a man about it, Stewart, and 'fessing up. I'm sure the "improvements" you were trying to make were quite well-intentioned.

Of course, we're all wondering what mischief you will be up
to next. At least, I am .

~Titania

[saliotthomas]

It has been very hard to connect to world lit lately.For the last 2 days.Like this morning i tried about ten times before been through.

[Stewart]

It has been very hard to connect to world lit lately.For the last 2 days.Like this morning i tried about ten times before been through.

Anyone else suffering this problem?

[saliotthomas]

Sorry Stewart,seem to work again perfectly.

[Irene Wilde]

Stewart,

What on earth happened yesterday? I was getting "403 Error -- access forbidden" for most of the day. I thought I was being banished or something! Glad everythhing is much better today, but curious what the error indicated.

[Stewart]

What on earth happened yesterday? I was getting "403 Error -- access forbidden" for most of the day. I thought I was being banished or something! Glad everythhing is much better today, but curious what the error indicated.

Some sort of techno-jiggery pokery happened. When I crawled into the house at four o' clock this morning I got on to the host's support line and they told me a little trick to fix it. Don't understand it myself, but it's worked.

[Mirabell]

I thought I was being banished or something!

yeah same here

[saliotthomas]

When I crawled into the house at four o' clock this morning I got on to the host's support line and they told me a little trick to fix it. .

ha but you are a brave man Stewart....drunk as a skunk fighting internal error,that the 20th century hero.


PS-ttss...Trying to bane Irene and Mirabel on the sly were you...???

[Stewart]

Apologies to all for the long offline session today. After and hour long chat with the support team, they found an issue with the server changing its permissions and had to take it offline to work out how it had happened and reboot. Hopefully things should be fine from here on in.

[Sybarite]

yeah same here

And ditto.

Apologies to all for the long offline session today...

Doesn't sound as though you have anything to apologise for, Stewart.

Good to be back, anyway.