Hello, as most of you are now aware the site experienced problems two days ago. So, the staff met to discuss how to proceed.
Before discussing what was talked about, we would like to note that 27 users have been banned this evening for pedophilic roleplays, or offering them. Thank you to the users who were offered who declined them, your accounts remain unbanned. We will be reducing the gap between ban waves now, and would like to remind people that this kind of roleplay is not permitted on the site.
In the case of what happened, unfortunately, we still do not know what the root cause is. As many people kept their tabs open, we were unable to see in the logs what the problem was. The number given when the site came back online implies 157 people kept tabs open. Please do not do this in future downtimes, as it creates error spam that hides the true error. In some cases, keeping tabs open will cycle the true error out of the log almost immediately, as they are capped in size and length.
However, it was noticed that all errors - though we do not believe they were the errors we were looking for - were database related. As we were able to reach and query the database normally, we are certain it was online. Instead, it seems likely that some form of corruption has set in.
Currently, expired chats are routinely cleaned from the database. We do not believe this is the cause. However, we have suspended this process. We believe it is more likely that constant errors through the lifetime of the site have gradually accumulated until the point we reached, in the same way that constant damage to a body may result in organ failure. It may also be that the database simply got too large at some point, and even with expired chats being removed, cannot hold its weight anymore. This is also why the restoration took so long; the database is very large, and takes a long time to transfer.
As such, we have re-evalutated our intentions. Originally, we were performing what is known as a âblack boxâ rewrite, where data would remain intact and the site be replaced piece by piece. However, if the database has issues, this does not matter, and the site will collapse one day regardless. So, we have decided to go with the old administrationâs plan after all, and take the opportunity to address new functionality in the process. We are aware that we have wasted time trying to maintain the current site, and apologise for it, as well as to those who wanted the current iteration to remain.
We will look to the past for guidance on how to proceed. While it will not be indefinite, as the new version proceeds to a point where it is usable, we will replace the current version. The current version will then, as before in the siteâs history, be available as âunsupportedâ. This will not be permanent as the database will now continue to grow, and so will become expensive to host over time. Depending on user desire and available funds, this period may extend or shorten. This will not occur until the new version is usable.
We intend to honour Kickstarter backers from the old administration during this process, and have received the list of Kickstarter keys. They will be usable for early access. However, that the staff have day jobs and famillies that demand our attention. Please be mindful of this when enquiring about how long it will take.
Thank you for your patience.