THE OFFICIAL "Is Simtropolis down?" THREAD

[Hahayoudied]

   We please all readers's attention ....   

A GOOD WAY TO CHECK SIMTROPOLIS' STATUS IS HERE: http://status.simtropolis.com/690056

POSTING IN THIS THREAD IS LIMITED TO ST AND SC4D STAFF ONLY

Thanks for your understanding    -jeronij -

For the most up-to-date information and for any sort of inquiries regarding downtime at Simtropolis, please refer to the Official Simtropolis Twitter Page.

While as members of the SC4 online community, we share your concern about our friends and colleagues over at Simtropolis, but SC4D is not a site dedicated to discussing and speculating about Simtropolis, and off-site matters should remain off-site. Posts by members not on ST or SC4D Staff will be subject to removal and possible disciplinary action.

If you have any questions/concerns regarding this policy, please PM myself or another staff member.

-Tarkus




Today, I decided to check Simtropolis. However, when I clicked on the link, it said it unavailable. Yesterday, the website was fine, until now.

[dedgren]

Is Simtropolis Down?

This thread is the only place from this point forward where this question should ever be asked here at SC4D.  Please?

Some background.  All web-based fansites, sooner or later, will experience offline time.  This happened, you may remember, to SC4D several weeks ago when we faced host/server issues.  Across the spectrum of members, folks react differently when they discover that their favorite site is "off the air."  Some just simply go about their business and do other things.  Others sit and worry to themselves.  Still others begin asking about what's going on.  This thread is for that last category.

One of our fellow SC4 fansites, Simtropolis [linkie], seems to be offline for various periods of time on a frequent enough basis to cause some members here to start threads entitled with some variant of "Is ST Down" as a pretty regular thing.  We generally have allowed these threads to run their course, and then we remove them during routine housekeeping within a short time.  This, however, represents some, albeit minor, make-work in light of the general non-substantive nature of the comments.  By way of explanation, we (SC4D and its staff) don't know anything about what is going on when ST is offline.  Nobody there contacts us and tells us- and we'd certainly be surprised if someone did.  It is also very rare (I cannot recall a single such thread where someone posted claiming to authoritatively speak for ST in responding to the initial question) that anyone else would know.  So, at bottom, these threads are pretty pointless.

When SC4D was last down, we found it very helpful to post information about the situation on threads we started at ST and at Peg's fansite [linkie].  Each of those sites very graciously allowed this to happen, and we very much appreciated the gesture of support.  We'd like to reciprocate, hence this thread.

We will invite ST, whether through a special member nic we establish (the names "ST and Simtropolis" come immediately to mind) or through a staff designee, to post info about any offline time in this thread.  This can be done in advance of the outage, if it is a planned one, or as it is going on in the form of updates.  The only other posts that should appear here are queries as to whether ST is offline, and then only (to the extent reasonably possible) one per incident.  No other commenting will be allowed- it simply has no purpose.  Such comments will be removed without notice.  After the incident is over, all comments will be zeroed back out, and we will be ready for the next time.

If there are any questions about this, please PM me.  I'm not seeking to start a discussion here- if you feel inclined to comment, please re-read the foregoing.


David

[krbe]

Is Simtropolis Down?
It is also very rare (I cannot recall a single such thread where someone posted claiming to authoritatively speak for ST in responding to the initial question) that anyone else would know.  So, at bottom, these threads are pretty pointless.

When SC4D was last down, we found it very helpful to post information about the situation on threads we started at ST and at Peg's fansite [linkie].  Each of those sites very graciously allowed this to happen, and we very much appreciated the gesture of support.  We'd like to reciprocate, hence this thread.

That is indeed true. Even in business will companies who are usually fierce competitors cooperate so that the impact on customers can be minimised. I remember SAS grounding all Q400's the day before I was supposed to fly with on of those. At 0640 the following morning, a brand new A321 from Spain were waiting for (all 20 of) us, while a German company flew us home in the evening the same day. I don't suggest a 24 hrs emergency staff for non-profit fansites (though I believe the economy is better for those than it is for commercial airlines), but it's always nice to get some information along the way.

Anyway, through my time, I have however managed to gather some technical info about ST:

The server is rebooted every day at 0600 New York time. That means that it'll be rebooted at 11 London, 12 Berlin, 14 Moscow, 19 Tokyo, 00 Honolulu, 03 Los Angeles, 05 Chicago. See more times over at Time and Date. If the reboot fails for some reason, it is most likely that you'll have to wait to the following day.
Note: These times are calculated while New York is observing summer time. If the reboot is fixed to UTC/GMT, as is often the case, the daily reboot takes place at 10 UTC (which means 5 NY time during the winter, and 6 NY time during the summer). If so, the reboot time has to be changed accordingly when darker times arrive for places observing summer time (DST). If it's tied to New York time, the reboot time does not change for places observing summer time (DST).

To sum up:
The server reboots every day at 6 New York time. If it's not up after it's supposed to reboot itself after 24 hrs after it went offline, then you can start worry. Meanwhile, enjoy nature. It's even better than SimCity.

[dedgren]

That is excellent info, krbe, and really does help us understand what happens.  With your permission, I will probably make some content from your post persistent in this thread.  Thank you for sharing this with us.


David

[un1]

I'm double posting because it has been 12 days since my last post!!

ST is down... The note said:

oh noes!! how did i get on this page!
im not good with computer!
There's a cute picture of a cat!

Simtropolis will return shortly.
Message posted at 2:45am EST May 23 2008

Is ST based in Torornto??

[dedgren]

AS of 6:50 a.m. Alaska Time (GMT-9) ST still appears to be down.  We have no further information.


David

[un1]

3:57 Eastern Time; Still down... 

That means I won't be able to go on until 4:00 PM EST tommorow!

[Haljackey]

Is ST based in Torornto??

The ST servers are based in Ontario, Canada.  The exact location I am unsure of.

At least this time, we know that the problem is being worked on.  The last time the site went down we had no information.  I hope everything is going all right for those who are working on the problem.

Best,
-Haljackey

[toxicpiano]

Yes

[jplumbley]

The ST servers are based in Ontario, Canada.  The exact location I am unsure of.

At least this time, we know that the problem is being worked on.  The last time the site went down we had no information.  I hope everything is going all right for those who are working on the problem.

Best,
-Haljackey

Dirk lives in Burlington, Ontario.  So, the servers are probably under a Burlington IP (24.141.xxx.xxx or similar).

[Hamish]

Has anyone tried sporeum (Simtropolis' sister site). Its not down, so I don't think it is a server problem.

[un1]

Hamish; We know that it is a server problem! 
6:41 PM EST Still not working! 

[Tarkus]

Hamish; We know that it is a server problem! 

If it were a server problem, you'd be getting a 404 error.  You wouldn't be getting the "cat page", and nothing would show up at all--it would be as the page did not exist. 

My guess is that they are upgrading the site in some way, and they needed to take it down in order to do so.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Hamish]

UN1: I never said that it was a server problem. I said it wasn't. Because if it was then sporeum would be down too.

[nerdly_dood]

Sporeum, eh?  I oughta make sure for myself...

[checks]

Umm, nope, sporeum is up and running...

I can't wait for ST to come back up, I intend to debut my CJ there as soon as possible.  Nerdly_cities has been through three updates at www.simcities.net so far, and boy are you gonna get a big one tomorrow!  (I usually show about three cities per update, and i haven't repeated a city once yet, and i don't intend to soon, either, but it will probably make it more interesting when i do)

[Godzillaman]

Muahahaha!!!! None shall stand up to the furry of the Oh Noes cat of doom!

[Jonathan]

That cat page has completely dissapeared now. Maybe ST is being switched to Version 6?

[JoeST]

Looks like the server is down....

(as sporeum is down now too...)

[callbat]

Oh dear.........

So when should we begin to worry?

[krbe]

You may start to worry now if you like, but then again... what good does it do?