In Focus

When Websites Go Down

I thought I should address our website being down for the past day or so. If you're reading this, you've made it back to the site and to the Chicks Eye View. Even though our website has been up for a little while, as I type this our Message Boards, Chat Room, Chicks Dozen Worksheets and My Club area are inaccessible.

We are so sorry and apologize profusely if you've tried to get the site and couldn't. We know some people have wanted to post on their message boards, upload meeting minutes and even register for the Chick Fest and they have been unable to. Believe me, we feel your pain, the Chicks are going through withdrawals because we can't post or read our message board! Not to mention I've had to answer twenty phone calls from Chick Karin who is going through the roof because the site is not working correctly.

So here's what happened, some coder-dude put in some bad code. It froze the server where we keep our website. The company then had to call Microsoft. Microsoft told them to download a patch (fix it patch) and they would be okay. But after they downloaded the patch, it completely froze up all the servers. They are now building each server from the ground up.

I know at a time when we're so used to getting the information we want, when we want it, it's very frustrating when you can't have it. It's just like when my on-line bank goes down. Geez, now that makes me mad. I'm all ready to pay my bills, I have everything lined up ready to go and I can't get to their site. However, I'm told these things happen with the Internet. Back in early 1996, AOL went down for 19 hours. It made the headlines in all the newspapers and television. AOL was amazed that they had actually made such big news by going down. I was told that when one building catches on fire, we rarely hear about it because it's one building and affects maybe 20 to 30 people. But when a website or Internet service goes down it effects millions just like a power company/grid going down. Well I don't think we're the size of a power company, but we did notice the electricity might be flickering in your house. Okay, I'm not sure if that analogy made you feel any better, but I'm told it's the nature of the beast and we have to expect it to happen every once in a while.

We realize your lives may be dependent on the communication and friendships you have on this site and we're doing our best to get them restored as soon as we can. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience and hope you can understand, it's part of the Internet world we live in.

Let's hope this never happens again... 'cuz Karin is driving me crazy.