Stop bringing the talk board down for maintenance when the clearly important Aussie Crowd are trying to use it

[arfishy]

It keeps happening. Just STOP IT NOW.

I refuse to believe that you cannot move service to a little tiny emergency backup server which can support the 5 of us while you do stuff to the boards.

It's very stressful. I've had to engage with my family and everything.

4:30 (how specific!) is 10pm here, which is prime MN time and there is nothing else to do.

I meant 4:03

It is 8:03 here like Cali said, which is 3 minutes after my 2 are tucked in bed, and when DH is sitting on his computer playing geek games, so I tend to sit with him and fiddle around on mine and talk to him at the same time.

I get very confused with the time zones. I'm on Central time- 6 hrs behind UK and 7 behind Europe. I need lots of clocks too

Ooh this is complex.

So Under, you're 15 hours behind me and you're 17 hours behind me Calif & Dooney.

Wow, so when the Mumsnet Computers are switched off for backup it's 1.03pm for me, 8.03pm for Dooney and Calif and 10.03pm for Under.

Pretty peak times wouldn't you say Techs?

Very Good Calif, very good.

would be 3.03 for me. VERY peak

yes - prime time as the dds are at rest and I can mumsnet in some peace.

Loved the 'assumes position'

Seriously though, a fresh thread appeared in AIBU about wanting some warning, and I (as someone who has also spent quite a lot of time composing many posts a post at 3am) can also feel a bit grumpy if I don't notice the time and save a copy in Notepad / EditPad (like notepad but can have lots of separate sub-windows with files or jottings in)

I had recently been wondering just how awkward it would be to put any submissions into a queue to be processed after the backup task had finished...

Whatever page is being called up for submissions clearly 'fails' when the backup is activated, and the "Sorry, server is being backed up" page is shown.

Surely you could consider checking for a submission being made, and if that's the case, throw it into a small database which can be emptied (ie submissions being applied to the main database of postings) once the backup has completed ?

Or am I making too 'smart' an assumption ?

Just want to keep the Aussie ladies (and some in the USA) a bit happier, else BigTech might have his fingers flattened (or worse damage!) if they come to the UK 'en masse' and seek him out...

Hi all, Sorry the backup is causing you grief. We do try to keep the shutdown time to a minimum.

We could set up something to capture any messages that people try to post at that time, but unfortunately it would be quite a big piece of work to set that up so we're unlikely to get to it soon. (hides)

Just by the by, if your post fails you can often hit "back" and see it still sitting in the message box (Unfortunately I don't think internet explorer supports this, but other browsers do.) Then you can cut/paste and save it to post later. It's not ideal, but might be better than losing the post altogether.

Cheers,
Tech

I've tried 'back' plenty of times with Chrome and Firefox and rarely has it worked. Maybe to do with how much code is loaded and so on, but I cannot remember a time when I've returned to see my masterpiece of writing still in place.

If I notice the time, I nowadays use copy and paste (into EditPad) so at least I have a copy just in case it screws up says a backup is in progress.

MNHQ - any chance we can revisit this (its been 2 years since people first asked)? There's a nice chat going on in AIBU about a server shutdown warning, or maybe a way now to store our posts.

Get caught out every single morning!!!

Tech That's just rude. Saying you could do something but you won't . Agree with NWG, the "back" does sometimes work, but normally too emotional about the whole affair (seriously why is a surprise everytime) to use it properly and its still a PITA. FWIW I'm on Firefox.

Would a rolling big fat red banner be that hard?

btw love the concept of tech as a singular poster

Yes it has been a while hasn't it .

Arfishy. . . is that really you?

What about the kiwis? The kiwis always get left out. And we're not an Aussie offshore island either. I'v just got rid of my schoolkids for the day and have a spare 10 minutes before i have to go home to my real kids and - arrghh - no Mumsnet. Just stop it - now!

Well hello ClaudiaS, I shall go and find an Aussie thread and find out how everybody is .

ARFISHY!! Haven't seen you around for aaaages - you probably don't even recognise me but I do you, I remember one night you were having scary happenings outside your place and we were all agog to find out what was going on!

Tech (and NG) - for ONCE, I have an advantage then! I am on IE8 and if I try to submit a message and it's shutdown time (yes, PITA) I hit and it goes back to the correct page with the message still in the post box. Then when shutdown is over, I send it, it works fine. This HAS to be a first, that my system actually works better than some of the others

Am Down Under and server shutdown is usually 10.15am. Just as I'm sitting down with a cuppa and involved in something juicy.

perth