The WSOD (White Screen of Death) Support Group Thread....Need a shoulder to cry on?

[constructiondude]

The first meeting of the official White Screen of Death support group is now convening. If you need to talk or express your frustration, come on in and get it out. We'll listen. Its also a good place to post instructions on what to do when you encounter a WSOD, Fatal Error Message and the like.

 

After Sean's post I felt we had reached a crisis point.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Actually, I think things may have just gotten better since Sean (Tinknock) posted his frustration on the other thread..... I think he may have the magic touch......

[constructiondude]

Here is what I know about handling WSOD's. Normally when you click on the "send reply" button the page will automatically update with your reply and you will have an opportunity to edit, etc. But sometimes the network has a computer burp and you will simply get an ominous looking blank screen, hence: the WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH!! But don't panic! Your post made it through, it just won't update in the system until someone else replies, unknowingly posting their response AND yours (which had been sitting in limbo until they came along).

 

Even though bumping is a no-no, there seems to be an unwritten rule allowing you to do so if the thread is not getting noticed or it's getting buried due to high traffic. I reserve this for extreme/dire emergencies. Don't abuse it.

 

Some people have reported hitting the backspace button when faced with a WSOD which achieves the same results. However, DO NOT hit refresh, that is how multiple posts occur.

[constructiondude]

Actually, I think things may have just gotten better since Sean (Tinknock) posted his frustration on the other thread..... I think he may have the magic touch......

 

I have not had this good of luck in weeks which is why I'm on a posting frenzy tonight, taking advantage of what might be only a lull.

[constructiondude]

I'm not as experienced with the Fatal Errors but I'm pretty sure the replies don't update at all. When this happens you have to just take a deep breath, click on your browsers address line and go back into CC via the main page and repost. It sucks I know, but your in good company.

[jhannah]

Things seem to be working now (10:48 PM Pacific) so maybe the demon got exorcised!

[kryos]

I have not had this good of luck in weeks which is why I'm on a posting frenzy tonight, taking advantage of what might be only a lull.

Several of us have pretty much given up on posting/reading the Cruise Critic boards during the daytime. It is not just the dreaded WSOD, but lost posts, impossibility of calling up threads, and the list goes on and on. So, some of us have moved over to CruiseMates.com and are posting over there now. Cruise-Chat.com is another site. Of course, at least in my case, my first love is CruiseCritic, but the boards have been so flakey as of late that I simply can't waste my time fooling around with them anymore ... at least not during "normal" hours. That's why I pop over here in the middle of the night now, and will use other boards when I find myself online during the day.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kryos]

I'm not as experienced with the Fatal Errors but I'm pretty sure the replies don't update at all. When this happens you have to just take a deep breath, click on your browsers address line and go back into CC via the main page and repost. It sucks I know, but your in good company.

I'm wondering if there is simply too much traffic on these boards for CC's servers to handle anymore. I wonder if there is something that can be done, other than buying more powerful servers (which CC may not have the cash for)? How about eliminating all HTML in posts ... i.e., countdown clocks in sigs, avatars, etc.? Wonder if that would help matters?

 

I, too, am not an internet networking expert, but there has got to be something that can be done to fix these boards.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[coolcat12]

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 60 seconds exceeded in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\boards10.cruisecritic.com\includes\class_core.php on line 363

:eek:

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!

[Seago2]

Several of us have pretty much given up on posting/reading the Cruise Critic boards during the daytime. It is not just the dreaded WSOD, but lost posts, impossibility of calling up threads, and the list goes on and on. So, some of us have moved over to CruiseMates.com and are posting over there now. Cruise-Chat.com is another site. Of course, at least in my case, my first love is CruiseCritic, but the boards have been so flakey as of late that I simply can't waste my time fooling around with them anymore ... at least not during "normal" hours. That's why I pop over here in the middle of the night now, and will use other boards when I find myself online during the day.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

cruise-chat was my home for a long time. I posted my reviews at cruisereviews.com, which is the home site of cruise-chat. The problem is that it's such a small site- you could post a thread and get no response for a week. I do like Tom and Nancy and Karen and Dave. Maybe I'll go over there right now and see what's been happening. WSOD is killing me. I was so frustrated two days ago I said "never again." Today I have time to kill at work, so...

 

I don't think it has much to do with time of day. I post at 7am EST on Sundays= same thing.

[lka1012]

Hi, my name is Kathy and I am a Cruise Criic-aholic! I live in dread of the WSOD or worse the entire site being down.

[jtl513]

Even though bumping is a no-no, there seems to be an unwritten rule allowing you to do so if the thread is not getting noticed or it's getting buried due to high traffic. I reserve this for extreme/dire emergencies. Don't abuse it.

I think officially the no-bumping rule is for the Roll Call threads, not here.

 

Since we've gone onto the "limited access" 9 days ago I'm getting very few of the old WSOD (white+"Done") and far, far more of the Fatal Timeout which boots me off the site. Much more annoying to me!!!! :mad:

 

P.s. - OK, I just went back and re-read the rules, and bumping for the sole purpose of raising the thread to the top of the forum without adding any new content is not allowed ... but IMO, a bump after a failed post, or one that did not increment the post count, is a different matter!

[wizard-of-roz]

Oh! Thank Gawd! An excuse for my surly attitude! It's not ME.....it's the White noise, WMD's, Whole Food's, Wooly Mammoth's, White Screen......Whatever......

Frustration is not the key word here......it's implode.....that's what I wanted to do.....every !@%* time I saw that friggen "non-descriptive", "not-colored", annoying "WHITE SCREEN!" :mad:

 

There now!!!!! I'm so much better now!!!!! :rolleyes:

[Old As Dirt Mom]

My name is Karin, and I'm also a Cruise Criticoholic:o

 

I never used to "bump" threads prior to our recent "technical" difficulties, but nowadays, I do "bump" some threads. The reason I do is that frequently, threads show as not having any responses, when in actual fact, one or more people may have already replied to a poster's question. But the poster is left thinking that he/she has "0" replies, and that nobody is interested in helping them. So in that case, I do indeed bring the post out of "white oblivion" or the "great white vortex", as I call it.

 

Karin

[waiting2retire]

Great idea for a thread Steve! In fact, I'm surprised Ruth C, the WSOD queen :D hasn't already been here to add her 10 cents worth!

 

I haven't encountered the WSOD as much lately, but the "fatal errors" are driving me insane! One of these days I'm going to have a fatal error meltdown myself :eek: And not just the error message itself, but the fact that I can put in a load of laundry, return phone messages or prepare dinner while waiting for a thread to load :mad:

 

I can deal with the WSOD because I don't have to retype my message -- it's there, it just doesn't show. But with the error message, whatever I typed is totally unrecoverable as far as I can tell.

 

Okay, I feel a little better now too.:o

 

Bonnie

[waiting2retire]

AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGH!!!!!

 

Just typed a lovely, somewhat civil response and, of course, got the "fatal error" message.

 

TOOOOOO FRUSTRATING :mad: :mad:

 

Bonnie

[waiting2retire]

Well, it appears I may be wrong. When I get the fatal error message (last two posts here, they did appear!

 

Still frustrating :mad:

[hammybee]

I don't think it has much to do with time of day. I post at 7am EST on Sundays= same thing.

 

I am an insomniac- up late and up again, very early. It's been the same at all hours of the day and night.

 

I go way, way back with CC, on again/off again, to when this was a forum, within AOL. I never bothered to have my post counts carried over, cause the only thing I count is money :)

 

And no matter how bad this is, it is still so much better than it was, back then. But then again, the number of active members and lurkers is so much greater than anyone could have ever predicted. The number of posts on some of these boards blows me away.

[Lynne Myrna]

OMG.......I feel everyones pain.......I'm frustrated too.....my patience is wearing thin!!!!!!

[constructiondude]

Several of us have pretty much given up on posting/reading the Cruise Critic boards during the daytime. It is not just the dreaded WSOD, but lost posts, impossibility of calling up threads, and the list goes on and on. So, some of us have moved over to CruiseMates.com and are posting over there now. Cruise-Chat.com is another site. Of course, at least in my case, my first love is CruiseCritic, but the boards have been so flakey as of late that I simply can't waste my time fooling around with them anymore ... at least not during "normal" hours. That's why I pop over here in the middle of the night now, and will use other boards when I find myself online during the day.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

I wouldn't recommend cruisemates.com to my dog (if I had one); they treat people like crapola. They were mean to me and very cliqueish, in the HAL thread it didn't matter what you said about the ships, they took it personally or read it out of context and would respond rudely and sarcastically. One woman in the Carnival forum got hollered at because she posted in caps (she didn't know); instead of a simple explanation about not using caps, they screamed at her like she committed a major crime. Naturally she never came back and I felt so sorry for her. I hope she made her way over here. The worse part about that site is the "moderators" refuse to delete those posts in which people are being deliberately cruel. Its not often that things get to me so if I've noticed it I guarantee you its bad. Go there at your own risk! And I'm sorry if my opinion upsets anyone.

[OldCodger73]

I don't encounter the WSOD very often. My big problem is sometimes it's impossible to get on CC. Other times everything is working fine, then all of a sudden CC stops responding and I get a "timed out" message. When this happens I'm assuming the servers at CC are overloaded. This is a great site when it's working but ... .

[RuthC]

Great idea for a thread Steve! In fact, I'm surprised Ruth C, the WSOD queen :D hasn't already been here to add her 10 cents worth!

Queen? Me? Funny, I've always fancied myself as an Empress. :rolleyes:

Just got here. I read from the oldest to newest posts first, and I subdivide that---threads I've posted to, threads I've read, new threads. Since this is a new thread since I last logged off, and it keeps getting added to, it's taken me all afternoon to get here. (TMI, huh?)

But here I am! :D

I have noticed that I'm not getting the WSOD as much lately, but am getting those exasperating error messages. I just hit "refresh" for those (sometimes twice) and the post does register. Doesn't always advance the thread, though.

I also noticed that if I use Sean's "back, back, refresh two-step" that my post count doesn't increase (yeah, big deal), and I don't get that cute little check-mark on the thread title line (remember, I said I read threads I've posted to first).

I've also noticed that there aren't nearly as many new posts from the time I log off at night until I log back in the next day as there were even up to a week ago. Up to last week I would sign on to find where I left off was half-way down page 2; now it's only near the bottom of page 1.

Frustration level has increased throughout our little community, I guess.

Now, let's see if this goes through. :confused:

[constructiondude]

Out here on the west coast I am often the only one posting around 11 or 12 at night long after the rest of the country is in bed. Sunday afternoon is the worst, too many people have nothing else to do on a Sunday I guess, not only is the WSOD monster out with a vengence but my posts get buried almost immediately.

 

I've also gotten the page expired message but my posts still seem to go through and all I do is hit the back button and its all good.

[Seago2]

I wouldn't recommend cruisemates.com to my dog (if I had one); they treat people like crapola. They were mean to me and very cliqueish, in the HAL thread it didn't matter what you said about the ships, they took it personally or read it out of context and would respond rudely and sarcastically. One woman in the Carnival forum got hollered at because she posted in caps (she didn't know); instead of a simple explanation about not using caps, they screamed at her like she committed a major crime. Naturally she never came back and I felt so sorry for her. I hope she made her way over here. The worse part about that site is the "moderators" refuse to delete those posts in which people are being deliberately cruel. Its not often that things get to me so if I've noticed it I guarantee you its bad. Go there at your own risk! And I'm sorry if my opinion upsets anyone.

 

Yeah, I cruised over there yesterday and got right in the middle of a nasty witchfest about the thrilling topic of assigned seating vs. a table for two. I mean, I didn't weigh in, my posts just happened to be in the middle of it!

 

But I saw a lot of our people over there, so it might be fine.

 

If I have trouble posting this then cruisemates will seem like a great option. If I don't, then everything is fine here. That's the way it is, day by day, post by post. It's not like this is newenglandjournalofmedicine.com and I have to post my critical new cure for cancer. This is an obsession and a way to pass the time, and if it is too frustrating (which it has been), then I'll just take a break!