[Matt Q]

Over the past few weeks, I've been finding it harder to consistently access the Sphere. I've been getting an increasing number of database errors and 503 errors ("This page isn’t working. www.ablemuse.com is currently unable to handle this request."). It doesn't last long, and normal service usually resumes after a minute or so.

Before I trouble Alex with this, I thought I'd check if anyone else having the same issue?

[Brian Allgar]

I keep getting this:

Content Encoding Error

An error occurred during a connection to www.ablemuse.com.

Please contact the web site owners to inform them of this problem.


But I've done what it says, and contacted Alex.

[R. Nemo Hill]

I've had the same problem.

Nemo

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi All,
I haven't had any problems myself, but I have no idea of how to fix 'techy' issues. I am responsible only for the day-to-day stuff as it were; if the site goes down, or gets hacked, it's over to Alex.

Therein lies another potential problem though: several members have asked me about Alex, as he hasn't been answering emails (even from me).

All I can do is add to the pleas. Alex, are you OK? Are you there?

(Fingers crossed that Alex sees this thread.)

Jayne

[Joe Crocker]

I have been getting the same message. As Matt says, it seems to cure itself quite quickly.

[Jim Moonan]

.
Yes me too. Mostly in the form of "Bad Gateway" which I don't like seeing.

.

[Hilary Biehl]

Yes, I've been getting those too.

[Shaun J. Russell]

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that there are constantly extremely high numbers of "users" browsing the forum. As I type this, there are 6393. As much as I'd love to believe that formal poetry workshops are a bastion of interest for the madding crowd, clearly over 6350 of those are bots. It's been this way for years, and I don't expect it's going to change unless Alex makes the expensive decision to migrate to new software etc. after 25+ years on the same platform. (I'm no tech-head, but I understand that that would be a challenge).

But yes -- I've been seeing the issue too, and PMs don't come to my email anymore, which is a shame.

(Speaking of which -- Jayne, just making sure you got my PM from yesterday!)

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Shaun,
Yes, thanks, I received your PM ...and have done the necessary!

Jayne

[Matt Q]

Thanks all. Looks like it's not just me.

Jayne, thanks for the info. It sounds like messaging Alex won't achieve much at the moment. I hope he's OK. Quite possibly the two things are connected. The Sphere starting to play up, and Alex not being around to clear caches and the like.

Jim, yes, I get the bad gateway errors too.