Site is down again

[heyitscami.livejournal.com]

 Looks like the site is down once again...or at least some sections of it, are. The main page appears to be working, while the stories show the following error:

503 Service Unavailable

No server is available to handle this request.

(no subject)

[thegodapollo.livejournal.com]

Login's broken again. What is with FF and breaking the login recently?

We are unable to process your request right now to the Login area and we apologize for this brief inconvenience.

If the problem persists, please contact support at support@fanfiction.com.

---

Thank you. - Site Staff

No thank you.

Edit: Login is working now.

Fan Fiction.net, on the Verge of Implosion?

[marzydotes2011.livejournal.com]

Is Fan Fiction about to Implode?

I woke up this morning, poured myself a cup of the most deliciously cappuccino and started engaging in my secret, taboo hobby that I can’t even do under my own real name.

I started working on my fan fiction stories.

Now I don’t write for any of the major fandom categories but I do love the stories I do write. Sometimes it sucks not belonging to a major fandom because it’s nearly impossible to find alternate sites to FF.net on the web. But it’s not all bad, because remember that month where all the major fandom kingdoms crashed and the only people who could add stories or update were those of us with relatively obscure fandoms?

I love my readers as they’ve been loyal and though my main fandom is tiny compared to the giants like Harry Potter and Twilight, they are loyal readers and some of them have even become great writers adding to put my fandom in the triple digits. Hopefully we’ll get there before the site comes crashing down.

It’s been rife with problems in the past four years I’ve been on it much more than expected for a site its size and scope. Crashed account servers, broken stat charts and the mystery of the disappearing (i.e. corrupted) chapters and stories…which are literally here today, gone tomorrow.  These problems likely are caused by it being the victim of its own success…the site has literally outgrown its shoestring staff (which probably subcontracts on a very limited basis for that all too critical IT support) and the server size.

But seriously this past week?  Has there ever been times in recent history where three or four things have broken down at one time?  Ironically, this takes place as the only announcement on the front page is that they’ve increased stability on their site. This is the closest FF.net (and its sister Fiction Press which is a complete train wreck now) ever came to acknowledging their problems and postings like these are admissions.

In the past two days, couldn’t login during two periods, lost more chapters of some of my favorite stories and have no stats at all now.  The staff which lives inside a perpetual cone of silence hasn’t even admitted it has any problems. You have to go run the account server address through the brilliant tool, “Is it Down for everyone or just me?”.

Bookmark that site on your computers.

I’ve started exporting my fan fiction to a blog because I’m on a long waiting list for another site and exploring a couple of others.  I’ve long exported all of my fiction press stories to great sites like Booksie (which has a small fan fiction category) and others because that site seriously hasn’t even had working stats or a working editing box in document manager since about September 2011. That might not matter much to people here (though I do see overlap) but pay attention, because at some point a decision based on triage was made involving the two sites when they no longer could manage them both and FF.net won that triage decision…until the time comes when that decision may have to be made again.  If they pretty much cut bait on one of their sites (which does have a huge readership as I had 3000 hits a day compared to 500 at FF.net) when stats worked. We who use Fiction Press know the only broken parts that get fixed get fixed because they’re also broken on Fan Fiction.net because they do share server space for accounts. Was that a harbinger for things to come?

Now it’s a total bummer b/c I’m like working on the most profound (in my mind anyway) FF.net story ever and I don’t know who can find it or if anyone’s reading it. I have received PMs when I can access them (ha ha) of people frustrated by trying to find stories on the site. I sent several emails into the black hole which is FF.net/Fiction Press customer service. This time, I’m going to send them a list of IT guys I know and recommend they give some of them a call because they clearly have a site that’s outgrown them.  

And in the meantime, I still write.  But where will I publish?  FF.net will probably still linger on but its problems are outstripping its productivity in ways that often happen when a site gets away from those who create it, a victim of its own success so to speak. But when I discourse with people who are worried about occasional glitches on their own sites, I say it could be worse, then I tell them about FF.net.  I also tell them that a few ounces of preventive maintenance (which doesn’t seem to happen with FF.net) is worth a pound of only responding reactively to breakdowns or problems with band-aid repairs that never last. Sometimes when this happened with other sites including some blog services, they sold to a for-profit giant like Google and got out of the management side of their sites. Sometimes that's the best thing that ever happened to a quickly growing site, sometimes not.

Maybe someday the folks at FF.net/Fiction Press will get a clue, just been here four years and haven’t seen it yet. 

And the learning curve’s getting steeper.

Stats, oh how I miss you

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Hello,

Sorry to post to rant, but this seems to be the only outlet. Is anyone else still getting stupidly low stat hits? Mine have dropped into the very low double figures, after previously going into triple on a daily basis. This has been going on for three days, and to be frank, its enough to make you paranoid enough that no-one's bothering to read!