# Read-only mode



## lafeel (Dec 10, 2013)

How about a status update on this? It has been nearly a full day now, and all we have to see is that stupid message on the top of the page. Could you guys be any *less*â€‹ informative?!


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## Ainoko (Dec 10, 2013)

I agree, nothing has been said on Twitter, or here. Would be nice to get some info instead of sitting here with our thumbs in our asses and spinning on them.


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## ImagineKarma (Dec 10, 2013)

I would like to know too. Could anyone give information on the progress please?


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## Astramasq (Dec 10, 2013)

Honestly, a full day with no estimated time given is more than irritating. At the very least, another post on the status thread saying that the process is still going would be a lot better than nothing at all.


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## PheagleAdler (Dec 10, 2013)

this is ridiculous.


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## lafeel (Dec 10, 2013)

PheagleAdler said:


> this is ridiculous.


If you don't mind me asking, which this are you referring to?


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## powderhound (Dec 10, 2013)

Isn't FA free for everyone? If so I don't think you can really get cross with anyone when it goes out. Do people want to pony up for something more reliable?


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## lafeel (Dec 10, 2013)

powderhound said:


> Isn't FA free for everyone? If so I don't think you can really get cross with anyone when it goes out. Do people want to pony up for something more reliable?


That is true, but what is wrong with requesting a status update, hm?


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## Mali-Kyte (Dec 10, 2013)

*Honestly and not trying to be rude but, since when do they ever keep us fully updated. Also, there are plenty other things on the net to do. *


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## Judge Spear (Dec 10, 2013)

Ainoko said:


> sitting here with our thumbs in our asses and spinning on them.



Funniest phrase I've ever read.


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## rednec0 (Dec 10, 2013)

Wow, sure is "blue balls" in here


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## AmaruKaze (Dec 10, 2013)

powderhound said:


> Isn't FA free for everyone? If so I don't think you can really get cross with anyone when it goes out. Do people want to pony up for something more reliable?



The site is free, which is true, but also free from agreeing to help.

Several coders and interested people have several times offered helping the issues the poorly coded mainframe of furaffinity poses. Each of those attempts have been shut down or neglected by the administration. Further more there are people actually living off the art they produce and therefore downtime equals no income or less income for them.

Additionally for the "Free to use so do not whine" if any other free to use site is down, which offers a commerical aspect e.g. Ebay or Amazon. The people offering the website presence are in trouble for auctions not done etc. same does happen here and therefore we should a little more considerate on that topic than "Wow people, get your porn of e621.net then".

Maybe but that would require common sense and actually an administration and a userbase that cares. Both are to the sad part of this story, not existing. The few who do care about FA and reforming/recoding it are always turned away by the administration so if one declines free help and fails to provide his service due to that, a bit of "bitching" over incompetence is i think well justifiable.


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## lafeel (Dec 10, 2013)

Mali-Kyte said:


> *Honestly and not trying to be rude but, since when do they ever keep us fully updated. Also, there are plenty other things on the net to do. *


True but my point is that they should dear.


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## Astramasq (Dec 10, 2013)

In response to the "there are other things to do," FA isn't just a porn, RP, general message site. For many people, it's a source of income; sometimes the only source they have. It makes perfect sense to want an update if there is going to be a readonly period of more than 24 hours.


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## Judge Spear (Dec 10, 2013)

I guarantee people saying "It's free so stop whining" cry every time the YouTube layout changes. lol


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## Kaeko (Dec 10, 2013)

Astramasq said:


> In response to the "there are other things to do," FA isn't just a porn, RP, general message site. For many people, it's a source of income; sometimes the only source they have. It makes perfect sense to want an update if there is going to be a readonly period of more than 24 hours.



I completely agree! I have a few auctions running that I must now extend because of the delay. I really need to know how much longer fa will be in read only mode since I'm counting on those auctions for my Christmas gifts


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## Mazz (Dec 10, 2013)

They probably don't know how long it will take and if they give a timeframe and it takes longer more people will just bitch anyway.


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## Astramasq (Dec 10, 2013)

Mazz said:


> They probably don't know how long it will take and if they give a timeframe and it takes longer more people will just bitch anyway.



 I still don't see a problem with a general update. Something along the lines of " We're still uncertain on ETA, as the database is still processing information. We hope the site will be back up soon, and we thank you for your patience." would be wise because it would convey care, even if there was no definitive answer. That alone might be enough to quiet some, and it would serve to make FA look better in a time of criticism...


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## Stargazer Bleu (Dec 10, 2013)

Furries love to complain about any and everything.
That said even a tiny something said would be nice.


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## Mazz (Dec 10, 2013)

Astramasq said:


> I still don't see a problem with a general update. Something along the lines of " We're still uncertain on ETA, as the database is still processing information. We hope the site will be back up soon, and we thank you for your patience." would be wise because it would convey care, even if there was no definitive answer. That alone might be enough to quiet some, and it would serve to make FA look better in a time of criticism...



Well maybe they got more important things to do than go "we don't know yet sorry" as an answer. As long as the site says "we don't have an ETA" then we know they still don't have an ETA.


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## Shisa (Dec 10, 2013)

i just posted adopts and now no one can comment or message me for them! Even the views are locked up. This is some crummy timing.


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## Astramasq (Dec 10, 2013)

Mazz said:


> Well maybe they got more important things to do than go "we don't know yet sorry" as an answer. As long as the site says "we don't have an ETA" then we know they still don't have an ETA.



 I don't think 2 minutes of their time is much of a waste, and I think the purpose it'd serve would be important. It just makes so much more sense for them to pop onto the forum, give a quick update, and scoot off. As I said before, it'd convey the fact they care about their users-- that's never a negative thing.



Shisa said:


> i just posted adopts and now no one can comment or message me for them! Even the views are locked up. This is some crummy timing.



 Haha, don't feel bad. ^^; I did the same.


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## Radivel (Dec 10, 2013)

Far as im concerned you can all chill this happens a lot. You should all be use to it. We understand some people need this site for an income but that aint gonna make the staff move faster. They aren't getting paid and they never have. Slowness is a tradition here.

Heres an idea for some of you go start a SoFurry account or weasyl or what not. Tell your viewers that they can go there for outages and stuff to find you. I just made a SoFurry myself and have found several artists I watch here on there. Im sure if you all did the same for them and yourself these times going down wouldn't seem so bad for everyone. I know the other sties don't stop moving just cuz this one does. Think ahead for these thing's.


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## ChromaticRabbit (Dec 10, 2013)

It'll be fixed when it is fixed. I shudder to even think how big some of these database tables are, and the size of the indexes. Stuff happens, I'm grateful for the efforts of the server admin critters to make right. Not much we can do but be patient.


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## Kaeko (Dec 10, 2013)

Lol I miss the old days


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## STrRedWolf (Dec 10, 2013)

The thing is, this is MySQL using the InnoDB storage engine.  There is no ETA until things can be flushed out or the thing that's holding it back taken out to the dung heap and shot.  Twice.


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## PheagleAdler (Dec 10, 2013)

You'd think with how many times this site has gone down, the VERY LEAST they should be able to do is give us a damn ETA!

I can wait...but enough is enough.


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## Astramasq (Dec 10, 2013)

STrRedWolf said:


> The thing is, this is MySQL using the InnoDB storage engine.  There is no ETA until things can be flushed out or the thing that's holding it back taken out to the dung heap and shot.  Twice.



 Thaaank you. Finally, something informative. Of course, I have -no- idea if what you're saying is true, because I don't know anything at all about programming, but I'm just glad someone has something that sounds logical. I'm going to doodle you a cookie now.


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## DarrylWolf (Dec 10, 2013)

Hey, at least we all get to feast our eyes on a shiny Sylveon while waiting.


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## AmaruKaze (Dec 10, 2013)

Radivel said:


> Far as im concerned you can all chill this happens a lot. You should all be use to it. We understand some people need this site for an income but that aint gonna make the staff move faster. They aren't getting paid and they never have. Slowness is a tradition here.
> 
> Heres an idea for some of you go start a SoFurry account or weasyl or what not. Tell your viewers that they can go there for outages and stuff to find you. I just made a SoFurry myself and have found several artists I watch here on there. Im sure if you all did the same for them and yourself these times going down wouldn't seem so bad for everyone. I know the other sties don't stop moving just cuz this one does. Think ahead for these thing's.



The problem with this logic is the following:

They are known to screw up and not just once, as you stated yourself. Now given the fact that it happened previously and this would not be a website but maybe a person trying to do some crafting themselves. After witnessing failure after failure you would recommend getting a professional to that person as he or she cannot do it on their own. Now usually that would involve time and money effort but due to the fact this happens online and servers can be accessed from around the globe plus coders, even educated and professional ones, are offering their time and help for free, where is the deal to say yes?

The problem the administration does not care, they do not care that peoples' income and therefore lives partially or fully depend on commissions. Remember when they increased the hardware massively? Many coders who have seen the code easily said this was unnecessary IF the load would be held to a minimum with optimal coding and reviewed mechanics but for sure no one really maintained the code of the website. After the years it is a round ball of patches and strips holding it somehow together so many even suggested to start over instead of painstakingly removing strip after strip and do it correctly. This was project ferrox and was closed down after one and a half years. 

Now for the alternatives. For sure you can head there but it is not the same thing, you will not reach as many people as on Furaffinity. You can save yourself from a total loss of communication but it is comparable with a downtime of Amazon. You can for sure buy stuff at other stores but not at the same rate, not all products are available with the comfort you are used to. Rewatching the whole bunch of people on e.g. sofurry ( sometimes they are not using the same nickname as it was either already taken or they deliberately changed it ) is a lot of effort. People rather accept a downtime as the commissions are usually not urgent ( besides now e.g. around Christmas or Valentine's day )

Let's be honest about it, who of you feeling like buying a book or an item not urgently needed but desired will rather wait a week until Amazon would be back up instead of painfully reading through the T.O.S. of shops, their shipping fees and also finding the said book. It can wait, so the customer usually isn't the one struck hard but the selling party, here on this site the artists well are.


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## Dragoncat (Dec 10, 2013)

DarrylWolf said:


> Hey, at least we all get to feast our eyes on a shiny Sylveon while waiting.



laffing because I've been stareing at these stuck submissions all day xDD

Yak did post what was going on, but it sounds like an eta or atleast a progress report can be given rather then saying "we have no idea" - then explain why one has no idea when the post says something is being done Px


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## StevenRoy (Dec 11, 2013)

*"Again, we apologise for using SQL!"*

If we could just get an indication that they didn't all get killed by a sudden server cluster explosion, that they're not all drowning in the vomit of an InnoDB server that's purging, that they're not all locked in a broom closet with absolutely nothing to do until a coworker gets them out of there, or that they're not all lying back in their sofas swirling brandy and smoking cigars and laughing at how frustrated we poor peons get when they decide it's time for another whimsical imitation of "Sideshow Cecil's Hydroelectric Obamacare" and other jolly good fun...

If we could simply get one admin to reply to this every 3-4 hours, even if only to say, "Sorry, we don't know why it's taking so long," and thus dispel _some_ semblance of apathy, we'd all be a lot less annoyed, wouldn't we?

See, personally, I don't mind the occasional downtime that much. This is, after all, a _mostly_ free service (let's not overlook the ad revenue!), and thus a little leeway is only fair, right? It's the damnable silence that gets me!

Perhaps we should all just go find something interesting to do for the next one or two days...

(In hopefully-unrelated news, happy Windows Update Tuesday, everyone!)


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## Astramasq (Dec 11, 2013)

*Re: "Again, we apologise for using SQL!"*



StevenRoy said:


> If we could just get an indication that they didn't all get killed by a sudden server cluster explosion, that they're not all drowning in the vomit of an InnoDB server that's purging, that they're not all locked in a broom closet with absolutely nothing to do until a coworker gets them out of there, or that they're not all lying back in their sofas swirling brandy and smoking cigars and laughing at how frustrated we poor peons get when they decide it's time for another whimsical imitation of "Sideshow Cecil's Hydroelectric Obamacare" and other jolly good fun...
> 
> If we could simply get one admin to reply to this every 3-4 hours, even if only to say, "Sorry, we don't know why it's taking so long," and thus dispel _some_ semblance of apathy, we'd all be a lot less annoyed, wouldn't we?
> 
> ...



...I'm sending you a cookie doodle too. /applaud


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## Pedigree (Dec 11, 2013)

powderhound said:


> Isn't FA free for everyone? If so I don't think you can really get cross with anyone when it goes out.


$19k+ in donations says otherwise. After such extensive donations (as well as ad revenue and FAU profits) have been made to the website, "it's free" cannot be used as an excuse anymore.


			
				Mali-Kyte said:
			
		

> Also, there are plenty other things on the net to do.


This may come as a surprise to you (it shouldn't), but quite a few people conduct business on FA, it is not merely a hobby for everyone even if it may be for you. Even if it is just a hobby for some, who are you to tell them that they should find something else to do when they are perfectly within their rights to be upset? Be more considerate, please.

It sucks that we have to rely on FA at all, but what else can you do when your customers do not want to move to a more reliable solution? You lose a huge margin of your marketplace (if not all of it) if you don't conduct business on FA for this very reason.

Honestly I can't blame them for not wanting to start over on another site though, and nobody should blame the artists for that either!


			
				Radivel said:
			
		

> Far as im concerned you can all chill this happens a lot. You should all be use to it. We understand some people need this site for an income but that aint gonna make the staff move faster. They aren't getting paid and they never have. Slowness is a tradition here.



This is possibly the funniest thing I've read on the internet today, aside from the TSA confiscating a 2" toy gun from a sock monkey.

1. The most frustrating thing about this is that it "happens a lot". We may be used to it, be that doesn't mean we should accept it.
2. You are foolish if you honestly believe they are doing this purely as a courtesy for the fandom with no money in the equation.


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## StevenRoy (Dec 11, 2013)

*What happens if we want our tax dollars back?*

You'd really think a $19,000 site would be more stable than this, wouldn't you?

But then again, if we compare it to another site that reportedly cost $600,000,000... Maybe we're doing about average?

(No, by the way, I did not make that image.)


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## CrystalOokamiWolf (Dec 11, 2013)

Astramasq said:


> In response to the "there are other things to do," FA isn't just a porn, RP, general message site. For many people, it's a source of income; sometimes the only source they have. It makes perfect sense to want an update if there is going to be a readonly period of more than 24 hours.



I know right! I have no job what's so ever. I've been trying to get a job since I graduated from school in 09. Babysitting and Commissions are my only way to make money. And what is bad is that I JUST updated my prices when FA wasn't in that annoying Read Only Mode. As soon my journal was posted BOOM this happens! And I have two Christmas YCHs I want to post and get those out of the way for Christmas.

I would love a update on when FA will return. :/ Cause this is just ridiculous! Artists like me are in more need of money then I am and FA is their only income. :/


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## CrystalOokamiWolf (Dec 11, 2013)

Just waiting to fave that sucker XD I have it in another tab just in case XD


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## Nightmare (Dec 11, 2013)

When it comes to people who make their sole income off FA(like myself) it's always good to have a plan B. Make sure people can get a hold of you elsewhere.
Personally i'm quite enjoying the downtime.. forced breather haha.
All we can do is be patient.


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## Haystack (Dec 11, 2013)

Nightmare said:


> When it comes to people who make their sole income off FA(like myself) it's always good to have a plan B. Make sure people can get a hold of you elsewhere.
> Personally i'm quite enjoying the downtime.. forced breather haha.
> All we can do is be patient.



this is why I give commissioners my personal e-mail address when they commission me, unless they have me on an IM system or have my phone number for texting. :3

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment because I'm planning a gift for a friend on FA who has no other point of contact besides FA, and can't get in contact with her while the site's down.


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## Nightmare (Dec 11, 2013)

Haystack said:


> this is why I give commissioners my personal e-mail address when they commission me, unless they have me on an IM system or have my phone number for texting. :3
> 
> I'm a bit frustrated at the moment because I'm planning a gift for a friend on FA who has no other point of contact besides FA, and can't get in contact with her while the site's down.


Oh god that's got to suck, i'm sorry. XD


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## Haystack (Dec 11, 2013)

Nightmare said:


> Oh god that's got to suck, i'm sorry. XD



s'alright.  she'll be happy even if it's not done before Christmas, I think. :3  just frustrating that I can't get on it sooner because we're out of touch.


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## Haystack (Dec 11, 2013)

Pedigree said:


> $19k+ in donations says otherwise. After such extensive donations (as well as ad revenue and FAU profits) have been made to the website, "it's free" cannot be used as an excuse anymore.



this is why I give all my commissioners my email and/or IM handle(s) when they decide to do business with me.
it's ALWAYS better to have more than one avenue of communication when money's involved,
especially when the primary site has such a tendency to bork out at inopportune moments.

I like FA, but I don't like that it's down so often, and often so unexpectedly.


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## nhdesigns (Dec 11, 2013)

I did just check on the site and it says that it's migrating to a new  server. At the moment it's 53% and until the migration is completed FA  will be in 'Read-Only' Mode. Which sucks! I got a lot of comments to  reply to and shouts to send out.


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## Kaeko (Dec 11, 2013)

I keep thinking...I have a new comment but then I realize that it's the same comment that I've tried to nuke 25 times over.


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## Kalmor (Dec 11, 2013)

http://forums.furaffinity.net/threads/795084-12-9-14-outage?p=4172492#post4172492


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