Recent Site Outage: An apology and explanation

[ApolloImperium]

Where do I begin? I was going to start out with some humor, saying the site shut down due to lack of readers reviewing stories, but figured that it was a bad joke and wouldn't go over well... Oh wait, I just said it anyway, didn't I? No, really it wasn't that, but our authors always love their reviews, so if you are enjoying being able to read again, please make sure you also review!!!

First off, I want to thank all of our users who commented via FB and supported us during the last 24+ hours. It was a very harrowing experience for us, as I'm sure it was for you, and having you guys behind us supporting us made the difference. The fact that you were all behind us as we worked hard to get the site back up made a very stressful day a little less stressful. I honestly can't express in mere words how extraordinarily grateful I am for everyone's patience and kind words! Once again, you've shown we truly do have the best users out there. My love goes out to you all!

Secondly, I apologize and would like to explain what happened. This never should have happened, we recognize that and take full responsibility for it. It was our bad. The last time we renewed the domain, we renewed it for 5 years. As things happen, times change, email addresses change and log in information gets lost. As such, we did not get any renewal notices about the domain expiring and it honestly slipped from our minds until the site went down out of nowhere yesterday morning.

I was first notified about 11:00ish and it took me a few to confirm as I was one of the users that because of how funky DNS can be didn't have any issues. Once I confirmed it, I started making calls. GoDaddy takes customer privacy VERY seriously (as they should...) and wouldn't let me even pay the bill with out being able to confirm I was who I was. It was extremely frustrating and even a supervisor couldn't/wouldn't override it. Though I have to say, I'm very proud of myself as I didn't yell or cuss them out once... while the line was live!

Long story short, since the form I filled out to get the information updated could take up to 3 days to hear back on, DemonGoddess and I made the decision to purchase an alternate domain for the time being and she started working on the tedious process of changing the hundreds of files needed to make sure everything links correctly. Normally, we should've been back running in a few hours, but because apparently Murphy was having a bad day, things went wonky and we had to get Nexcess involved. As we were in the process of fixing those errors, we finally were able to get the domain renewed. We did wait a bit, just to confirm it was back up 100% and then we had to go back through and put everything back to how it was! Talk about time consuming!!!

At the time that I'm writing this, we are 99% operational. If you are experiencing errors, please make sure you have cleared your cache and cookies. If that hasn't resolved your issues, please be patient. DNS may be a bit wonky the next few days and cause a handful of errors, plus there are a couple of files that are still misdirecting and causing issues accessing a few sub-domain/archives. I know it's not the best experience when things don't work, but we are working to restore the site 100% as quickly as possible.

Just as a warning, if you are experiencing issues still, please understand that until we know the site is back up 100% we will be referring users back to this news post. Once we are sure that the site is functional, we will at that point troubleshoot as normal! I will post here and on Facebook when we know!

Again, thank you for the support and patience!

Apollo & DemonGoddess

[Edit] No data was lost, this was merely a domain issue, not a server issue. We will also be extending a 3 day grace period to any users who received their first warning about an issue due to the problems we had.

Edited September 15, 2012 by ApolloImperium
Added information

[Imasuky Lomae]

When I first started seeing the stuff wrong with the site i was really freaked out, I love this place so much i was crushed at the thought that i might noe be able to visit anymore. But now things are working just fine for me and i couldn't be any more happy about it

[nekluvshp]

No need to apologize!

You guys did your job. You kept us informed and up-to-date with the problem. You didn't ignore our questions, comments, or concerns.

Unlike another site, who will remain nameless(aff.net - adult).

We're just glad it's up and running again! Even if it had taken a week!

[DemonGoddess]

No need to apologize!

You guys did your job. You kept us informed and up-to-date with the problem. You didn't ignore our questions, comments, or concerns.

Unlike another site, who will remain nameless(aff.net - adult).

We're just glad it's up and running again! Even if it had taken a week!

If it had taken a week, I woulda been bald....

Seriously though, even had the domain not been renewed, I wouldn't have allowed longer than a couple days of down time. Anything more is unacceptable to me.

[WillowDarkling]

to Apollo and DG and all the staff for their awesome work. The cookie and special brownie baskets, and the booze are by the door to the lounge.

Nekluvshp, can I suggest you read your post again. Because the way it is now, it seems to suggest that AFF.net does ignore the users's questions, comments and concerns.

Not trying to be mean, just pointing out that the way I'm reading it, it comes out a little wonky.

[kagome26isawsome]

good work as always and i am glad to see the site back up! XD

[lyiint]

Glad to hear you guys are back up and operational! You guys did a fantastic job getting things sorted out so quickly, so kudos to you. ♥

[ApolloImperium]

LOL - Neko, I got what they meant, that AFF puts the adult in fan fiction, not just smutty but in actions as well!

Thank you everyone, as I said, your support (and coffee, lots of coffee) kept us going!!!

[Guest untamedlady]

Great job! Apology unecessary, stuff happens. I have the greatest confidence in your ability fix things as they occur. My hat's off to DemonGoddess for her saavy know how, and aff's excellent work eithics!

Kind Regards,

Alex/UntamedLady

http://untamedlady.com/

[ApolloImperium]

It may be unnecessary, but still something I feel I have to do - I'm old school like that! Thanks for your support as always UntaimedLady!

[WillowDarkling]

LOL - Neko, I got what they meant, that AFF puts the adult in fan fiction, not just smutty but in actions as well!

Thank you everyone, as I said, your support (and coffee, lots of coffee) kept us going!!!

Ah, I see! So the hyphen was supposed to be a = silly me.

[DemonGoddess]

If any of you are still seeing the GoDaddy parked domain page, that's a DNS propagation issue. All you can do is wait, and try again in an hour or two. How long it will take for that to clear depends on how often the DNS recaches itself for the domain. That's not something we or our hosting company have any access to (being able to trigger a recache, that is).

Experienced users can try flushing their local DNS cache. But, if you're unsure of how to do it, or uncomfortable at all with it, I wouldn't.

[Guest SinkingIntoDarkness]

I'm more than happy that it is fixed. I swear to you that I almost cried. T_T. The funny thing is, I haven't posted anything in almost a year (cause life happens which sucks sometimes) and all I could think about was I should have spent more time writing and posting to this site. X_X. It was a wake up call, that is for sure and gave me more than several heart attacks. But all in all, I am more than happy to see it up and running, for the most part. Thank you so very much for making sure nothing too horrible came to this site. I've been a member since 2003 and if this site had closed down or been lost...I don't know what I would have done....I know I would have mourned for a week...at least T_T. So thank you for your hard work! *bows low*

[Negaduck9]

You do a great job on a labor-of-love site. Sure, sometimes things go wrong, but we're all human, and (hopefully!) we're all adults here. Thank you for putting all the work you do toward this site, and for keeping us apprised when mishaps occur.

[Aysha c.c.]

I'm so glad everything is ok I was going in to panic mode last night. In just the short time I've been on this site it has come to mean a lot to me. I had a feeling that it was just technical difficulties but my heart kept going what if, what if, what if. Thank you all for your quick work in getting the site back up and thank you especially DemonGoddess for taking the time to return my Email last night I don't think anyone on any other sight would have done such a gracious thing so thanks again.

[Nerys Dax]

Thanks for the hard work. I'm relieved to see the site back up.

[Shunskitten]

I'm glad to see us up and running again, I would have posted it on FB but my fear of my family finding out that I write smut kinda got in the way...Anywho! Time for me to put up a story! XD

[botticelliangel]

so glad your back up! *happy dance* Thanks!

[LisaT2525]

Thank you for all your hard work in renewing the domain, and everything that's involved with that. I can't believe you purchased a temporary domain and switched all the files over, only to have to do it all again. You all are truly amazing. You are so dedicated into making this site one of the best around. You guys do such an awesome job and I'm so glad the site is up and running again. I was going thru major withdrawals yesterday. lol

I even called up GoDaddy to find out how long the process takes to renew.

So, thank you again for this wonderful site! =)

[Guest Jamie's FanGirl]

I'm glad you're trying your hardest! I cleared my cache and it's still not operating, so I guess I'll just be patient.

Anyway, I want to thank DemonGoddess and Apollo for their hard work, 'cause even though I haven't posted in several years, I am working on a new story (slowly) to put on here. Kind of creepy that this should happen a few days after I start!

I look forward to more updates...keep in touch.

(I think my handle is "Jamie's FanGirl"...)

[SujiChan]

OMG! First off, I had no idea you had a FB or twitter or I'd have known about this so I'm sooooo sorry for not being there for you. Glad you got it going again, though I'm sorry it was so frustrating.

[Guest vinsmouse]

Thanks for keeping on top of the situation and resolving it as quickly as you did.

Mouse

[Guest Guest]

Thanks a bunch for moving this here I don't have a facebook so i have only been getting teaser sentences to the site being down via twitter XD. Just wanted to say Ra Ra shish boom ba! we are all rooting for you, and you may not see us, but we are in your corner. if you need our help for anything just remember to ask much love <3

a faithful reader

[Skysan]

I was super surprised when I went on at my usual time and the site was out. Glad to see it got resolved so quickly. Nice job being so patient with the folks at GoDaddy Apollo. After receiving news that everything had been fixed, it took a quick little reset of my browser to get everything back to normal. I am so glad nothing was lost. I'm sure a lot of authors would have been so upset.

Great work DG and Apollo for taking such good care of this site and being calm in such a crisis.

[ApolloImperium]

Guest - Sorry about that! I have to have the page age restricted which means you do need a FB account...