At the moment, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, MuseBlog is even weirder than usual.
We’re not sure exactly what’s going on. Apparently the blog’s software started sending too many queries to our Web host’s server, so the host company took us offline. We’re back, but the blog appears to have amnesia — either because we can’t tap into the database, or because the database has been erased.
We’re trying to restore things to what passes for normal around here. Meanwhile, we’ll open some temporary threads so that you all can keep communicating. It will be a little bare around here for a while, but MUCH better than a MB-less universe. [Not as bad as we feared. A little mopping up has solved most of the problem. –Robert]
Keep on Musing — and posting!
–The Administrators
AHHH all of the most recent posts say hello world.
All of the links go to Mike and people.
I think that this is a secret plot to weed out the newbies and shrink the blog…
*suspects conspiracy*
All the newbies will get annoyed and leave, all the oldbies are too addicted…
There have been a lot of complaints about overcrowding…
And the blog does say it will be bare around here for a while…
Er… is it back to normal or am I just not seeing these things? Earlier today it had issues I saw, but the only odd thing I see now is all the “Uncategorized” posts and a link to someone named Ryan’s blog under Links. Oddment.
Arrgh! So that’s why I couldn’t get on earlier!
(2) I’m tidying things up even as you post. I’ll try to make things look as normal as possible before I go to bed (which will be soon). The “Recent Comments” sidebar will have to stay offline, though, as I suspect that is where all the unwanted queries were coming from.
it looks normal now. *relief*
5- Well, semi-normal.
You should see what it looks like here “backstage”! It’s like cleaning up after a flooded basement.
Ulp! Will the Blog ever be the same? Will we have to revert to the Gaboomba? *panics*
0- Oh, okay… *sigh of relief*
Never fear! I think we’re back on track.
I’m still not sure what caused the problem, so we’ll have to live without “Recent Comments” until I know whether it was indeed to blame.
Did anyone else notice that posts don’t have to be moderated now?
Or has that been fixed? I had 2 posts on the random thread go straight through.
The blog is loading really fast now, so that’s good.
wow thats why it sometimes says that the internet can not connect to this website and i have to go to the muse fan page and open the blog from there
(11) The “amnesia” returned the blog to its default settings, including unmoderated posts. We’ve fixed that — just in time to keep a really crass, obnoxious piece of spam from posting itself here.
(12) Grappling with this problem has taught me a few things about blog optimization. I’m going to try a couple of plug-ins that might make things work better in the future.
omg the blog really IS getting weird!!!!!
PLEASE GAPAS fix this MADNESSS!!!!
Are you still having problems? It’s working a lot better for me now. Have you tried refreshing your browser, or clearing its cache?
Yay the posts get moderated now!
And the Hello Worlds are gone!
Hey GAPAs, do you stop a lot of posts before they get through?
I zapped two pieces of spam at the same time I approved your comment.
Yes, I did actually have some issues getting on last night.
Did we loose all of the old threads?
I was trying to get on last night, and it gave me a message that I hadn’t downloaded the latest version of wordpress onto my server, and that I should follow the steps to complete the process, or something along those lines.
That explains why I couldn’t get on last night. I feel your pain GAPAs!
Maybe, evil bunny henchmen
lead by the head evil smiley
took over the blog,
but then decided we were too weird here & left
Wait, I forgot the exclemation points
on my last post I’ll just do double on this one! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
And in my usual fog of obliviousness, I completely missed it. Might have something to do with not being here for the festivities.
It seems OK, there are no hello world posts and what’s here seems to work.
It did load awfully fast though. Maybe because there are fewer thread titles on the main page?
Hmmmm. *destroys own blog with the experiments*
Ooo, now below the comment box and allowed html part it says Trackback this post �|� Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
which looks different than before somehow…
When I tried to come on last night it did ask me to create my own blog when trying to load MuseBlog. If I had done that would I have been able to get in? I didn’t even try. That’s all I saw. I also didn’t know if my trying to continue to access the blog would have made it harder to make it work again, so I just stopped.
At least I am in now *Sigh of relief* Whenever something technical happens such that I can’t get into the blog it is much worse than when I am not near a computer and so can’t get in…
I’m sending this before it sounds any weirder.
Red-tailed HAWK
Last night, it wouldn’t load and kept saying “error”.
Today, there aren’t any “recent post”s on the side.
This is weird…
See? This is what happens when all those people’s letters go to the FMP. This is probably the work of their brother’s rabid hampster or giant squid or SPOILER farm animals.
Whew! Looks like the Blog is mostly back to normal. The only problem is that the recent comments bar had to go…
is explained in Hare-athon thread post #58! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
The recent comments bar has disappeared….
30- I noticed just now.
is explained in Hare-athon thread post #58! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
29, 32- Yes, yes, I know.
IT HAPPENED DURING MY BIRTHDAY.
This stinks……
How long do we have to live with out the RC?
Also, we only have 8 threads on the main page. fix that?
35 – Yeah, that’s going to kill me…:(
there were 36
Apologies in advance for possible double post.
Would it be possible to have a temporary thread where people could post to say what threads they had just posted on? So, basically it would act as a recent comments thread except…not? Does that make any sense? Example:
Person A posts on the “Welcome Neophytes!” thread. However, nobody knows that Person A posted there, so nobody response. But if Person A mentions they posted on that thread on the Recent Comments Thread, then Person B could go read that comment, post, and then say that they had posted. Person A could periodically check back at the RCT to see if anybody had responded to any of the posts he/she had made on several different threads.
I know that made no sense.
Oh well.
39- or the GAPAs could post there!
40 – That might be a little overwheling for them, though…
41- Look, here’s the work flow:
Post five coments
post on RCT
Easy.
42 – Still…I dunno.
GAPAs? Please? You can delete it once the real Random Comments thing is back up.
… At Blake Holsey High. (Somebody had to make that joke)
I couldn’t get on either last night, but I thought it was just my computer being it’s usual buggy self. That’s why I’m at the library now.
(43) Done! With luck, we won’t need it for long.
44 – Yeah, that’s what I thought. My computers have been taking a long time to load MuseBlog lately, anyways, so I thought it was just an extention of that.
45 – Thank you!
44= Drat! I was think of some why to get it to have muse academy! So I didn’t post.
I liked that show before it went off… It’s on the HG2G (the G is Gambony (didn’t spell that right))
47- It was a very complex mystery. What was happening in the end?
48- I think there was a worm hole… not really sure… the last time I saw it was 2004, we don’t have cable…
If you guys wanted to find out the ending, you could probably check Wikipedia.
WHAT!?!?!? The What’s here link went away! Oh, no, please come back! All of my pretty threads, gone! *Breaks down into weeping heap on floor*
Red-tailed HAWK
51 – Oh, wow, it did. It was probably slowing the site down or something.
disappeared, is anyone having the
same problem
(51, 35) While What’s Here is out of commission, here’s a list that is complete through the end of 2007. I’ll add the other months when I get home to a faster connection. In the meantime, you can find those links through the calendar.
my What’s Here button returned, HOORAY! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Interesting. I rarely use the “What’s Here” page anyways, so I didn’t even notice that it was gone. What do you guys use it for?
54-Cool!
As I said on the recent comments thread, the what’s here is back, but after the HG2MB. Also, the web address number for that page is 1253 or something and I thought it was different before….
Red-tailed HAWK
57-It is the history of every thread ever on MB, listed by month. It’s a fast way to find old threads if you now when they were created. Also, you can just see if there was a neat thread from the past you might like looking at…
By my posting the strange things I am seeing I don’t mean to pick on the GAPAs, as they are working very hard to fix the problem. I am just recording things for future people to read…
Red-tailed HAWK
(58) The number 1253 was just the next page number in line (Recent Comments is 1252), and I’m guessing that its higher number is why it appeared after HG2MB (page 89).
I never understand the Wikipedia summaries.
60-You make it very understandable and logical… Is it temporary, or will it never go back?
It’s interesting living without the recent comments bar. I am surprised to find myself sending in a post and quickly loading the home page to see if there is another post I should look at before going on… I guess that’s how I blog usually, and I’m stuck in the habit
Red-tailed HAWK
59 – For me it takes so long to load that I generally just search for old threads.
62 – Yeah, same here. I’m trying to get into the habit of going to the Recent Comments thread instead, though.
GAPAs, I do hope we can have the recent comments bar up eventually, but I must say. Today the blog, even the main page, has been loading instantly, with no trouble or long loading times. I mean, the home page pops up faster than it ever did.
I hope there is a way to have the recent comments bar AND fast loading, but you can’t have everything. I don’t know which is more valuable though. Probably the RCB (Recent Comments Bar) as long as the loading isn’t too slow…
Red-tailed HAWK
61-What does that have to do with this thread
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
64 – Yeah, for the last few days the blog has been loading very slowly for me.
The “MuseBlog” at the top of the page appears to be cut off at the bottom…
(67) It looks fine on my computer.
I agree, the whole blog is loading much faster without the Recent Comments bar, it was uncanny how quick it was today, as it’s been getting progressively slower lately.
However, I, too, hope it will be back, as it’s very convenient.
Thanks to the GAPAs who are working so hard to fix it all up!
*gives several pounds of vitual choklit to each* Enjoy!
Oops, that smiley-type question mark didn’t work! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
[You have to delete the spaces between the colons. Your post has been mended by the Smiley Gnome. –Admin.]
67-Yeah kinda weird, mine’s been
like that since I came (2-29-08)! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
70-Oh,
Wait a second, that’s supposed to be
a smiley-type question mark! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
67~ Mine too, it’s been that way for ages now, I’ve just sort of ignored it.
Hey, I had a page up from before the whole
What’s Here button ordeal, I clicked on it
58-it used to be page #72
but the page was blank *sigh* ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
My theory from post #22 was right
I just saw a group of evil bunny henchmen
lead by an evil smiley
walking down the street they chanted
“Take us to your GAPA.†and “Must destroy blog.â€
I talked with them, they said they
just took over MuseBlog but realized we
were really weird here & left!
I was just making that theory up, but it turns
out I’m correct ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
76- There’s one little hole in your theory–HPBs don’t take orders. They give them. It would be more like:
All that happened for me was this:
It started taking a very long time to load the page.
The recent comments bar disappeared.
I got a page that said I couldn’t go to MB, for reasons that I forget.
I wandered about feeling lost until I came back to find it was back to semi-normal.
76- also, the bunneys have taken over once. last year.
*shudders*
68- we’ve been telling the GAPAs this for forever-it’s cut off. You keep saying it’s fine on your computer, but it’s not on ours…….is there any way you could fix it?
Which operating system and browser (version numbers, too) are you using? That information might help — though anything we suggest or try is probably as likely to make things worse as better.
Wow. When I read “strange days”, I thought that it was going to be about my life.
It’s almost normal on here yayyyy!!!
MuseBlog has been loading at record speed recenty, which is a very good thing!
MB has always loaded rather quickly for me….
Of course, the speed is relative since it takes close to ten minutes just to start the computer and open Firefox…
Can the sidebar be re-loaded?
Well, the blog itself is loading really quickly, but it usually takes several minutes for the comment to go through after I hit “submit.”
WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON? WHY HAS THE BLOG GONE BLUE? WHERE IS THE RECENT POSTS SIDEBAR? WHERE IS THE CALENDER? WHERE DO I FIND THE HOMEPAGE? I WANT ANSWERS! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
YES! It’s back to normal!
We’re just testing something. Never fear!
Eep! The top-thingy is…blue? Is the format different for the blog?
“Currently even weirder than usual”
I like it.
Odd… Robert, I can see your comment underneath my unmoderated one.
89-Please, I know it’s scary, but try to remain calm. Haven’t you heard? The GAPAs took down the recent comments bar because it was causing problems.
As for being blue, I don’t know about that. I popped in here for a minute just now and it was blue, but now it has gone back to “normal”. I am assuming the GAPAs are trying to fix the blog, and changed it temporarily. I’m not sure how long it was blue, but it looks normal now…
Red-tailed HAWK
90-Oh, okay. What were you trying to do? Do we know anything new?
Red-tailed HAWK
Sorry, it changed right after I posted. And then I felt smart. Very smart.
Blue is the blog’s “natural” (default) color. Whenever we have to take the blog offline to modify its software, it always turns blue for a few minutes until we change it back. Cinnamoon just happened to peek while the change was in progress.
The host company doesn’t like Recent Comments, but I’ve found another plug-in that does the same thing and am waiting to get their approval for that. Stay tuned…
97- why Don’t they like it?
82 – I’m using IE 7.0, but other than that I don’t really know. Would it help if I took a screenshot at all?
97 – The suspense, the suspense!
(99) Ah, well, there’s a clue. I use Firefox most of the time, but when I open the blog in IE7, the lower part of the “g” is missing. So the problem would appear to be in how IE7 reads the page.
Swich to FireFox Or Safari For Windows.
Do you have any ideas when the recent comments will be back? Aproximately, like in a few days/weeks/months/years?
101 – I have FireFox too, but I don’t use it much, since I’m not used to it. It’s not that big of a deal, though.
94- Yeh, I heard about recent comments. I meant recent posts, under the calender on the side of normal threads.
I was scared, because I didn’t know how to find the homepage. I hit upon the clever idea of typing in the url. It worked, and the blog returned to normal as the page loaded.
Hey GAPA’s, on March 14 can we have a thread dedicated to Pi? 3.14159265358979364626…
What progress has been made? And is there anything that we can do to help?
The MuseBlog logo is cut off when I use IE, but not firefox. Also, I can’t see the question marks (�|�) in IE.
I missed the craziness, because I haven’t really posted here in a while.
105 – Yeah, I’m pretty sure there’s going to be one.
107 – No recent comments.
It’s still going.
(108) The problem with Recent Comments is that the blog has been too successful. The “Recent Comments” plugin scans all the comments before picking out the latest ones, and every time it does that it has to make contact with the host company’s computer. By now there are so many comments (about 200,000? I’ll have to check) that we’re threatening to overload the server. So they’ve given me a choice: get rid of “Recent Comments, ” or keep it and start MuseBlog over from scratch. So far I haven’t been able to bring myself to part with all those lovely historic old threads.
There are some cache plug-ins and things that might solve the problem, but to use them I have to change to the latest version of the blog software. It’s best to do that when nobody is posting — but I can’t stay up that late during the work week. So I’m waiting until the weekend.
Stick with us, please! We will find a solution.
109- We all appreciate your dedication.
Sorry for 2post, but I forgot to say this earlier. Is the change going to bring about any… visible difference… in the appearance of the blog?
remembers April 1st and shuddersNot if I can help it, but you never know.
111-Aw, I enjoyed that day. Of course, I got a little crazy, but…
109-
I would hate to lose those old threads too!!! 
Is there a way to make recent comments not scan over all of the threads, just the open threads? Because most of the old threads closed last April… I don’t know exactly how the blog works, but I do hope something can be done to keep the old threads. Would there be some way to get the blog to “notice” when I send in a new comment, have it automatically post it under recent comments, and then it would eventually disappear when more comments came? I know that sounds crazy and I don’t really know what I’m talking about, so I apologize if that was just to silly for words 
*Calls Chad up right away* *And AEIOU*
Thank you again for all of your hard work!!!
Red-tailed HAWK
I just realized what is going on, and I just can’t let him do that to himself. I am proposing to Robert!
No, I’m not marrying anybody, don’t get excited
I am proposing a plan….
Robert says he can’t as well put up the new software in the day when we are all posting. Thus, he plans to stay up ALL NIGHT on the WEEKEND to fix OUR BLOG for us. Now how can we do this to Robert who does so much for us? All night? During his WEEKEND?!? We can’t do that!
So I propose whenever there is a day when Robert thinks he could over the daylight hours upload the software, a thread be created and posted at the very top of the blog stating very clearly not to post between X and Y times. It’s the only nice thing to do. And besides, during the week, not so many people are posing during the day because we are all in school. On the weekend, posting sometimes goes up, and sometimes people in different time zones post in the middle of the night. But, no matter what, even if the day was the busiest time on the blog, we must be fair to Robert.
Red-tailed HAWK
When I start tinkering with the blog, you won’t be able to post for a while. I’ll probably give it a try on Saturday morning, right after breakfast. So, North American MBers: sleep late! It’s good for you. As for those of you in Britain, Denmark, New Zealand, and similar time zones, we entreat your patience.
115- just have it open in the 4-6 hours. I’m out for the rest off the day tomorrow
If I do stumble on in the hours that it’ll be closed, will there be a notice or something telling me that I can’t post? Because I would hate to come on and say some inconsequential comment and screw everything up.
115- We’ll all be cheering you on (in our dreams).
Yeah, that would be bad. I hope i’m not doing it now. It is late, but late enough? I’m kidding. It is 7:15 P.M. (on my watch) And also I find it amazing that their are MBers in Denmark, New Zealand ect. They must get their Muse mags very late. Does Muse give them air mail services and they have to pay more for their suscriptions?
115-Okay! That’s fine with me, at least we wouldn’t be having you up in the night working on it.
Thank you again for your work!
116-I think we should just be patient with whatever it takes, one day of limited posting hours for us is not a big deal. Hopefully he will be done by then, but I do hope people won’t be angry when Robert is doing his best…
117-That’s what I’m wondering. Robert-will it be impossible to post, or will there be a thread telling us not to post? Or will there be a thread saying it is impossible to post? I’m just asking this in case somebody comes on who hadn’t heard about what’s happening, as they would wonder what was going on…
Red-tailed HAWK
l have a brilliant idea!
I think we should start the blog over from scratch. Close all the threads on this blog, recreate them on the next, and post external links for reference.
um, ppl…………….u keep saying the recent comments bar has disappeared… dont u mean Most Recent Posts? and its here on my comp…
122-Huh? You must have it backwards. Recent comments (the bar, not the thread) is gone. It’s what used to be on the main page. Recent POSTS is still here, that’s on the right side at the top of every thread. Here, posts are actually the threads, and what we call “posts” are really comments.
If you really can see the recent comments bar, that’s just weird
Red-tailed HAWK
121- no.
121- And lose everything that was here? I’d rather not…
125- No…
Par example, we create a Ro+Rel thred on MB2. Then if sumwun wantses to respond to a post on Ro+Rel MB1, they put something like (278, 1) on it. Repeat threads would contain links to the old ones.
What does teh GAPAs think?
126-I Would think it wouldn’t solve the recent comments problem, and it would just be annoying. I would hate having two blogs, one separated from the other. I feel the blog must be in one piece, even if it means no recent comments.. But it was a nice idea! *Trying to think*
Red-tailed HAWK
For some reason, MB is going slower on my computer now. It takes longer for a comment to submit, and the pages are loading slower.
*is very puzzled at this*
127- That would solve the recent comments problem, because the other blog would have it. l think we face a choice.
WHAT DO YOU THINK, GAPAS???
That’s one option we’re considering. I’m planning to take the blog down for maintenance Thursday morning. Hm, better put up a notice…
I will leave if you ruin the blog like that.
I don’t know that I’d leave but… I seriously would rather have the blog in one piece than have the recent comments sidebar.
What about my idea of having each comment somehow tell the system that it is new?
Red-tailed HAWK
132- I sudgest we move to blogger.
just let the GAPAs do their magic, people.
and magic it is.
Ah ha ha ha. The problem has been solved! We have Recent Posts AND Recent Comments!