Database Incident January 2, 2023

[Gloucesterman]

THANK YOU so very much.

Yes, Happy New Year to you and All.

 

I must admit that I feared the worst and consider the reappearance a special gift for the New Year.

[Detman101]

Thank you so much for the hard work getting this awesome place back up and running!
💝

[Number99]

Thank you very much for restoring the site.

And thank you for your many dedicated efforts.

 

The first time I saw the 500 error on this site was on the evening of December 30 last year. (GMT+9hr).

I am not sure because I am not familiar with such events. (Sorry if I am wrong).

However, I believe that you may have retrieved all the data based solely on the fact that these times match.

 

Again, thank you.

 

Correction:

I checked my Google search history and found that I first searched for "fountain pen network" at 16:26 JST (GMT+9hr) on December 31, 2022.

To be exact, I first saw the "500 Error" around 16:26 JST on December 31, 2022.

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Number99

[lapis]

Thanks, Wim! It's not just simply nice to be back (for me) but good to remain alive. Without you, it's "Game over!"

MIke

[JungleJim]

Thank-you Thank-you Wim! The website and all the accumulated data here are priceless.  Have a Safe and Healthy New Year!

[mhguda]

Thank you thank you thank you Wim! and happy new year, to you, and all others who missed our daily(?)FPN fix...

For me, FPN was missing from december 31st (noted in my journal) with the Error 500 message, so for me, virtually everything has been restored... And thank you also to Misfit and the rowers in the Lifeboat on the other site... your initiative helped us keep our heads above water...

[InkyEd]

Thanks for the hard work in getting the site running again.  I especially liked the running commentary of the actions being taken to reestablish the forum.  It was much more reassuring than just seeing a continuing error message which at first made me think there was a problem with my computer.

[Paul-in-SF]

Thank you for this place, and for all the work and people it takes to keep it going. Best wishes for the new year for everyone.

[OldTravelingShoe]

Thank you very much, @wimg! It could not have been easy or pleasant, and the solution lost so little it's negligible. (Like @PithyProlix, I experienced the failure earlier, and, perhaps unlike him, I was afraid all is lost.) Many thanks indeed. 

 

To all FPNers: Happy New Year! Wish you all the best, a fantastic 2023, and more wonderful time with fountain pens. Ink-time. 🍾🎉✒️

[InesF]

Thank you @wimgfor your effort to keeping the site alive for such a long time and for your effort in restoring it now! 👍

All the best for 2023!

[AmericanMonk]

During the outage I developed a nervous tic, full-fledged alcoholism, spontaneously chose to give myself a couple of Hello Kitty tattoos (which wound up looking like Hello Spiky Potato tattoos), and sold a stolen cow for some beans that turned out to not be magical at all. Tomorrow I have something called an "arraignment". I don't know what that means but I'm looking forward to finding out.

 

There exists a possibility that I did not cope with the outage very well. I'm glad FPN is back. It was missed.

[LizEF]

6 minutes ago, AmericanMonk said:

During the outage I developed a nervous tic, full-fledged alcoholism, spontaneously chose to give myself a couple of Hello Kitty tattoos (which wound up looking like Hello Spiky Potato tattoos), and sold a stolen cow for some beans that turned out to not be magical at all. Tomorrow I have something called an "arraignment". I don't know what that means but I'm looking forward to finding out.

 

There exists a possibility that I did not cope with the outage very well. I'm glad FPN is back. It was missed.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Yay, we're back!  
 

@wimg, many thanks, and best wishes going forward.  🍾🎉🥂  

[inkstainedruth]

I'm so relieved that the site was back up as quickly as it was, and that so little was actually lost.  When I first saw the 500 Error message, I was afraid that there had been another DDoS attack like the one a few years ago.

Thank you for getting things back up and running, and also for the progress reports (although I was a bit bemused by the notices that said "2021" instead of "2022"...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: @AmericanMonk THAT WAS HILARIOUS!  Mind you, you're just lucky you bought beans instead of cryptocurrency.... 

[OCArt]

Yay! It's back.  Thank you so much for working to fix it and providing this great resource.

[XYZZY]

Thanks @wimg for all of your effort and for keeping this wonderful site running!

 

I learned a long time ago that backups are fickle things, best not trusted until proven to work.  If you really have spare hardware now (which I inferred from the progress notes during the outage), then in your copious spare time 😉 the occasional restore would prove the backups, or highlight flaws in the process.  And after doing that three times you'll scripting the restore so that it's easier.  Of course I say this without having any clue how complex FPN is, so it's easy to offer sophomoric suggestions.

 

Again, your time and effort is very appreciated!

[txomsy]

My most sincere acknowledgement and thanks to all the team for the difficult work carried out in these most sensitive dates.

 

Have a Happy New Year

[JonSzanto]

Well done, Wim. Always good to see a quick resolution and everyone getting back into their comfortable pen place. Happy New Year to you and all of your team!

[swampa]

Thank you

[knarflj]

Thank you so much, and happy new year!