FanFiction.NET issues

[the DragonBard]

The FF.net search engine has been a pain in the neck for the past month.

When I use the Advanced Search option, and tell it to organize by publish date, the first page of links are all from 7-27-10, or earlier.

If it tell it to organize by update date, it organizes them almost randomly it seems.

I've e-mailed them multiple times, and they've yet to get it fixed.

 

[SotF]

I keep getting 408's and 503's now

 

[FinalMax]

Currently, I'm getting messages indicating the site is timing out. Maybe they're doing some kind of upgrade today. I'd prefer if they gave prior notice on the homepage at least a day before they do crap like that.

 

[Megaolix]

Is it just me or it's out again?

Edit: seems to be me. Why the hell can't I access some websites...

Edit: I don't know anymore...

 

[PCHeintz72]

Is it just me or it's out again?

Edit: seems to be me. Why the hell can't I access some websites...

Edit: I don't know anymore...

Feeds and direct links were working fine for me a few minutes ago.

No clue about alerts, since I do not use that system, far prefer their feed updates instead.

 

[Megaolix]

Is it just me or it's out again?

Edit: seems to be me. Why the hell can't I access some websites...

Edit: I don't know anymore...

Feeds and direct links were working fine for me a few minutes ago.

No clue about alerts, since I do not use that system, far prefer their feed updates instead.

Strange... Firefox and IE both can't reach it no matter how long I wait, so I doubt it's a browser problem... Mmmm...

 

[shiki]

Site was out for me around midnight yesterday.

It seems fine now.

 

[Megaolix]

...Fucking MTU value. That was my problem. Didn't imagine changing that would screw me up.

 

[TurfSurfer]

Site's not working for me. Not on Firefox, Chrome, or IE.

EDIT: And two minutes after posting it suddenly works again... :sweat2:

EDIT II: Aaaand it's back to being nonfunctional. <_<

EDIT III: Fuck this. FFN keeps coming on and going off at the crappiest and most random intervals. :rip1:

 

[FinalMax]

Today's issue seems to be on the crossover sections. Looks like crossover archives with either multiple cross-references or simply larger numbers of stories can't quite be accessed directly.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Today's issue seems to be on the crossover sections. Looks like crossover archives with either multiple cross-references or simply larger numbers of stories can't quite be accessed directly.

Only crossover section I cannot currently seem to be able to access that I have direct links to is the Elfen Lied one... and that is hardly large...

Uncertain as to the cause.

A small percentage of the ATOM feeds seem to be down and unresponding as well... though the bulk of them are. Oddly, one of the ones responding and working normally is the Elfen Lied crossovers category feed.

 

[Barret]

For me it seems to be random stories, links, and even chapters that aren't working at random intervals

 

[Chuckg]

Likewise. The same story either has or hasn't worked all day, depending on when I clicked the 'next chapter' link. And its not a crossover story either, just an HP.

 

[shiki]

Every other page doesn't work. Seems to be site-wide because even the front page messes up.

 

[unclekai]

Front Page, Story Indexes, Categories, Author Profiles, Chapters, etc. Seems these errors do randomly pop up everywhere.

ff.net must have some interesting issues... my guess something is broken between Database and Page creation.

Funny thing is: even the Profile Avatars are kaput randomly... including my own one. <_<

 

[NuclearTits]

I can use the front page and my profile page... but since this morning I haven't been able to read a single fic.

 

[Berserkslash]

It goes off and on for me, usually have to wait a couple minutes before being able to read the next chapter of a fic or open a new one.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Hmmm... seems somewhat sporadic.. but getting progressibly worse... if the ATOM feeds are of any indication, as some I could not read some 8 hours ago, could be read about 4 hours ago, but now what was affecting some feeds is affecting about 1/2 of them.

However, I believe it is in their server caches... one proof of this is an old trick sometimes allowing a page that is not working to display now works again.

prefix the story or author ID number by a 0 forces a refresh of the cache... does not always work, but I got it to read one profile and one story chapter earlier today.

 

[rdde]

Since that trick doesn't work consistently, I think it is more likely that you just caught the server at a good time, than the server cache trick actually working. I think it's like some server failure, like a memory leak or a hardware fault, then FF.net goes down, and then something restarts the server and things work for a bit again.

I have been preloading the chapters as far as it would go before the error appears. Then I would settle down with what chapters I have and then try to fetch the remaining chapters when I'm done reading a chapter. Works well enough for me.

 

[SotF]

seems odd that the admins aren't doing anything about it

 

[pacifist]

Hmmm... seems somewhat sporadic.. but getting progressibly worse... if the ATOM feeds are of any indication, as some I could not read some 8 hours ago, could be read about 4 hours ago, but now what was affecting some feeds is affecting about 1/2 of them.

However, I believe it is in their server caches... one proof of this is an old trick sometimes allowing a page that is not working to display now works again.

prefix the story or author ID number by a 0 forces a refresh of the cache... does not always work, but I got it to read one profile and one story chapter earlier today.

That works great thanks for the tip.

 

[T.L]

Has any body heard of the Literate Union on FFn ?

The so called Literate Union has developed a program called "Redbootton" or "RB" to search out stories that allegedly violate FFN Guidelines.

Now I can understand that some authors bend the TOS of FFn and others outright piss on the ashes, But a bot to troll through the mountains of crap to search out words or phrases. Never mind that the usage of bots on FFn is not allowed as per the TOS.

Who the hell do these self styled vigilantes think they are ?
If I feel that a fic is not suitable for what ever reason, then FFn supply me with a report abuse button. Admittedly it may take some time but I've done what I think is right.

I think that there are going to be a lot of stories that will be harmed by this bot for usage of words that might be unrelated to a TOS violation. It all comes down to context and a bot I think would be unable to discern the difference.

This group had some success earlier this year I believe with the Twilight section, ( Yes it needed pruning, Vampires have no need to sparkle, If they only knew what Vlad really did ),
But I believe that some success has given them a inflated ego and a seemingly self styled moral crusade.


Maybe I'm wrong but it seems strange after updating their bot that the servers of FFn have gone to shit.
<a href='http://forum.fanfiction.net/topic/61196/31616103/1/' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Literate Union</a>

 

[Dartz_IRL]

Error is a random residential IP address + Port 119. Something's going wrong inside their network, with how the site actually loads page data before serving it up.

Seems to me that their whole architecture might be starting to creak under the load.

 

[unclekai]

I think its a broken core component on their main machine park... and now they are running on backup.

I know from experience that getting replacement parts for server stuff is a bitch and half (you always need it yesterday and they always come next week).

 

[CatOnFire]

It goes off and on for me, usually have to wait a couple minutes before being able to read the next chapter of a fic or open a new one.

It's random as shit for me.

Sometimes I can load chapter 1 and chapter 4 but not chapter 2 or 3. Sometimes I can't get into my profile from a bookmark but can log in and change it. Sometimes I can't see this author's profile but can review his stories.

And these issues change every 10 minutes!