Our site is growing at a pretty steady clip. Almost every day we are getting a couple hundred new people signing up on the site. When we first launched ActiveRain, we had very aggresive goals for membership numbers. We also had limited programming resources. So as we added features and members at a dizzying pace, sometimes the necessary attention was not paid to scalability issues.
Over the last six months we have been retro fitting the site to make sure that all of our features can scale with the increasing membership numbers. Last night, we pushed a critical infrastructure upgrade to the site. As you attempted to log on this morning, or today you may have been met with upgrades evil twin Mr. Proxy Error. He is a mean guy who does not care about your passion for real estate.
What the heck is a Proxy Error anyways?
Whenever you click on a page on ActiveRain, a query is sent to our database to display that page. There's a pretty good chance that someone else clicked on another page .001 seconds after you. This happens in succession and there are always pages waiting to be loaded. Every once in a while (although it seems more frequent recently) one of the queries will run into a problem and not be able to display the page in a timely manner. This is where the Proxy Error starts. At the same time, Queries that are in line to be displayed begin to time out and the result is proxy errors for pages that would otherwise display fine, but since they are behind a page taking too long to display, they are affected as well. Of course, if you are anything like me, you hit the refresh button five times and force the query to be requested again. The vicious cycle then displays Proxy Errors for everyone in line.
(please note, this is a very elementary explanation because quite frankly my understanding of it is very elementary.......the developers are busy fixing this stuff so the PHD explanation is not available)
Please know that your frustration is shared by our entire team. Our developers have been working their fingers to the bone over the last few days to ensure that Mr. Proxy Error is eradicated. Mr. Proxy Error is still lingering a bit but his appearances are becoming fewer and farther between.
In addition to Mr. Proxy Error there may be some other minor issues on the site today as well. We are aware of many of them but if you know of something please feel free to leave it in the comments.
We are really sorry for the annoyance that these upgrade cause and want everyone to know that we are continually making improvements to the foundation of the site so that you don't have to worry about stability. I promise you that no one reading this is getting more gray hairs over this thing than Jon and Jeff (wait, nevermind not those two.....they have no hair) Brad and Rich and I.
Thank you for your support and your patience, we really appreciate it!!
Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.
Make sure you check out some of our Facebook Fan Pages Too!
Find Foreclosures in Wallingford Seattle
Home in Green Lake with a basement
It has been a little frustrating, but as a hardcore AR member we'll be patient!
Best, Dan
Hi Bob - We understand. Thanks for the explanation. Even though we moan and groan and cuss & discucss AR's name we appreciate ya'll trying to make it mo bettah' for us all! KM
No complaining from me! It's not like you are over charging us or anything :)
When was the cut off date for guessing how many members AR would have? I can't remember and just know I won, lol.
I hate Proxy Error. It is mean, bad and ugly. But I will think positive. I am positive I hate Mr. Proxy Error
I hate Proxy Error. It is mean, bad and ugly. But I will think positive. I am positive I hate Mr. Proxy Error
I have lots of grey hairs so I don't mind Mr Proxy error. Keep doing all the good you do
The 'Advertising' link on our 'My Home' page is missing. We can't log in to manage our ads. We receive an error. Is AR changing the way ads work or getting rid of their ad system? We never received an email about it.
Hey y'all do a fine job, keep up the work. BTW, I love how our comments are highlighted when we reply to our blogs! It is just so much easier on the eyes when reading replies or looking for replies from the poster!
I was actually going blog about this after getting SO many proxy errors today, I finally had to give up. Glad to hear you are working on it, thanks for this update.
I had a walk through at 7am and noticed the maintenance banner. Then I had several people call me and ask me if I had been on AR today. Wow! I've met so many people through AR that they'd actually call me and ask me what's going on. It's pretty neat how that works.
Glad I wasn't frustated w/those errors today.
I have been having lots of issues with Mr. Proxy -- but alas I will not complain. It is great to know that AR is on the spot - trying to fix this. Let me just say thanks to all of you for your great work, I know we don't say it often enough. You have set up a great network for us, and I for one am forever greatful. A day without AR is an empty day (unless I am on vacation). Thanks again
I do get frustrated but I won't be going anywhere. I like it here too much. When Mr Proxy rears his ugly head I just keep trying until I get through.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!!HAHA!! Keep up the good work, I am not going anywhere!!
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!!HAHA!! Keep up the good work, I am not going anywhere!!
Thanks for the explanation before i threw my computer out of the window! I'm glad it's you and not my computer. I'm sure you guys will banish Mr. Proxy from the kingdom soon!
Good Luck Bob - I'm pretty sure this is as annoying for you as it it for us....maybe even more so. Life is full of annoyances, but most realtors these days have learned not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Fortunately I'm blessed with being a Taurus...not easily deterred ;-) HANG IN!!!
Love the site - but this search lag and proxy problem is a headache. It is difficult to convince our sales associates to become more active on the site when they can't log in, post comments, etc. Thanks for the update. I hope it gets resolved soon because it is a great resource.
Tell Mr. Proxy Error to go on a hike. We appreciate all that you are doing and we will hang in there! Try to have a good weekend.
Oh Bob, You know the guru's at AR are laughing at the frustrations they are bringing upon the "Pavlov's" dogs they have created.
On a serious note with growth comes growing pains and we understand those of you that have hair are doing everything possible to get rid of the glitches.
WidowMaker...
I still think The Proxy Error needs to be fondly referred to as a "Wooky 502". And we (BB and I) want:
Roll Over Comment Points for our efforts to keep commenting in spite of the system having "Wookies" :)
TLW...ROAR!
Spoke to a few who have experience a loss in subscribers. I'm not sure if that is a result of a system malfunction who me and some others just p**sed some folks off:)
Other than that, growing pains come with the territory.
I am glad I saw this post! I thought maybe something was wrong with my computer/system. We'll be patient...these things are never easy. Thanks
Mr. Proxy Error and I have become close buddys lately, but as with any house guest, I will be glad to see him go :~)
If anything..your strikeout made light of the whole thing...as always...your explanations are detailed...but tell me...do I still get a t-shirt?
lol!
I'm still feeling picked on. I guess we are like of school kids all fighting to get in the lunch line. If you falls out another advances? None the less the line is long.........
Thanks for building this wonderful community and working hard towards growing the community and making it a better place for us.
P.S. Can you tell everyone to stop clicking when I'm trying to click? lol!
Bob I have been on this site long enough to be on a first name bases with Mr. Proxy Error. I have just come to accept it as part of the privilage of being on here :) :)
My hair is turning just as white. Guess it's time to do something other than blogging... Hmmm what could it be?
The proxy error monster--we are all just riding it out. I noticed my home page this morning with less subscribers and no rankings in NY--it appears to be way off. Thanks for the updates we are grateful for all you and the AR team do for us.
I'm ready to hire a hit man for Mr. Proxy Error. I'm riding it out but it has been an all day long battle with this evil doer. I can't even get logged in to leave this comment.
Bob... according to the number at the top of the page, we've just jumped from about 124,000 members to just over 153,000 members in one day...
a 30,000 jump... is that part of the updating??
Bob - I have a question: Now that I am the #0 featured person in my city and county, is that better than being #1? Also, will our cities and counties come back? :-))
Things happen. I am very thankful for AR you guys do a great job and service. Happy Holidays
Thanks for the update. It doesn't lessen the frustration, but at least we can take it with an enlightened smile.
Bob, I have noticed errors on my "stats" page (wrong number of blogs, wrong ranking city, county, state, etc) Also, I no longer am being notified by email when someone coments on a post. Also when you try to "uncheck" the comment box so that you no longer continue to get comments on a post you get an error message that says you typed in the wrong "graphic".
Mr Proxy was very busy yesterday----just kept dogging everything I was trying to do.
Bob - Of course this happens when I finally set aside two days of multiple hours to work on my blog. I've been slammed for 2 weeks with work (means a paycheck sooner or later) but had several things I really wanted to write about. You can't help it. I'm so new to this, I think it's got to be my fault!!LOL Thank you to all of you who are making this possible for those of us that really need it!!!
Bob.. I can handle the error proxy as long as I know I'm not the only one coming across this problem. Thank you for blogging about this... I'm sure things will get better.. they always do.
I see that others are now able to login . . . .have I been deleted because it say "Cannot Login TamiVroma" or something along those lines.
Yep, that Proxy guy just kept following around Active Rain yesterday--all day long.
Its all cool. Sucks - but thats life. We've moved on :-) Maybe some of us will get some work done now!
Bob, I think the Proxy Error is the evil twin to the Hourglass conceived at Microsoft. Massive, massive hours of time wasted. What can we do? Wait till it is fixed. I think most Rainers just step away in TOTAL frustration of not being able to get anything done.
Alan,
The jump in membership numbers was due to a discrepancy with what we were previously counting and what is being counted now after the update. We normally only count 'active' profiles. The additional 30K came from the fact that we are now counting 'active' and 'created' profiles. The 'created' account status is for people that signed up for an account but never went that extra step to activate the profile. We will get the counter back to only 'active' profiles soon. 30K people that have created an account and never even filled in their phone number or web address.......hmmm.....
Fred,
That is a glitch. For some reason quite a few (although not all) people who were number 1 have moved to 0 and are not showing up. Jorgen and team are aware of it and should have it fixed soon.
Bob, Thanks for addressing this issue. Mr. Proxy Error was with me most of the day today, and since I do not know the answer to this, can somebody tell me if the comments I made today but didn't show up on my hope page are gone forever? Thanks,
Thanks for the update Bob. It is amazing there are 153,312 members now. The pace of the growth is also picking up it appears. It wasn't that long ago that the number hit 100K. Happy Holidays
Don
Bob,
Admit it....it is a psychological way of pulling back our Active Rain so we want it more.....this is how we get addicted.....
thanks for enabling us................
(I worked all day and this is the first time I tried to log in and there were no problems....)
Bob, don't worry about it - I was too busy following up on AR leads to notice (not kidding!).
Keep up the good work, AR has kept me in business, I don't sweat the small stuff.
I've been logging in pretty regularly during the last 24 hours and I think I saw the Proxy Error once and then when I refeshed a couple minutes later the site worked just fine.
All the Best,
Glenn Sanford
Bob- I try to go and do something else but that party pooper bugs me because it seems to happen right when I have the time to comment and return comments. It also keeps other readers away so they miss what we are writing about that could help them. It is what it is, and soon this too shall pass.
Thanks, I know it is hard for you guys too.
Here is some errors I am experiencing.
0 for Michigan
0 for Washtenaw County
0 for Ann Arbor
on my points summary page and when I log on Matt Heaton and Lenn come up.
Bob ~ thanks for the explanation -- don't worry that the PhD version wasn't available LOL -- but we don't mind Mr Proxy Error visiting since he's making things better in the long run!
Hi Bob,
I thought my 6 month old MacBook was losing its mind!!!
I had it here in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada continuously the last two days, especially when I went to my blog or someone elses. I would get kicked out and a few hours later try again. One of my blogs the music played continously, so today I deleted it and started again.
Thanks for the info, since I was losing my hair!!!
;>)
Bob, is all good ! With growth there is always some growing pains per se ! Is well worth it !
Hey, how did you get in to do this post???? lol~ I'll expect some of that Hair Color stuff for Xmas Bob. I'll be checking my stalking and under my tree!!! :-))
Active Rainers are patient people. We understand. My ranking in my City has changed from #1 to 0 today. Oh, I'm not loving that, but I know it will be OK. It deleted me from my City. My ranking in my county has moved me from #3 to #2 and a featured member on my Home Page, but not on the county page. While I got excited at first, it's just not accurate, yet. :) I submitted my issue to the help desk. Thanks for the updates.
Yes, of course it's frustrating, but we will be a patient people and let your IT guys work this out.
I noticed this the first thing this morning so I took a day off from Active Rain and actually got stuff done, knowing you guys were probably on it.
Noticed an issue as I did a post earlier -- the button to create a link in the text to another source is not working -- (and yes I double checked to be sure the page would allow pop-ups) -- but while it would seem by clicking to make a text section hyperlinked - there was no way to do that. Just a FYI .
I am a big fat zero as well in my county and my city.....maybe somebody finally read some of my posts at AR.
Bob - thanks for the information regarding the proxy error.
I'm really hoping that ActiveBrad meant to say "stocking" and not "stalking." (a few comments above this one) Merry Christmas, everyone!
I do have a question though. Are we going to be able to associate again? I'm a social butterfly. :)
Elayna Fernandez - Designed 2 Impress, Inc. Naples FL
Whew! I thought it was my computer! After complaining to my husband that I couldn't blog, laughing at his blank stare and eventually getting through, I'm glad your team is on it. Although, I think I was REALLY close to getting a new computer!!
Bob - Growing pains are to be expected and celebrated! Its good to hear that the community is growing and you're all working to make it better. I know I'm one of the newer people, so I'm excited to be part of it all.
If your ranking has changed from 1 to 0 it means you have too many darn points and we are giving someone else a chance!!
haha, just kidding of course. We are aware of that bug and are getting it fixed asap.
I wrote a blog about Mr. Evil... I thought I would provide a little inspiration.
Bob- Proxy Errors are child's play. And, I know you'll correct going from #1 to 0. But, today, you really have me panicked.
My ID has been deleted. I just posted about it. Okay, you want to know how I managed to post, if I no longer have my identity. Easy... my home computer is permanently logged in. I still exist - really!! - AR just doesn't want to recognize me.
HELP!!!
Pretty please :-)
Yeah man...I'm feeling it:)
I have to be honest...I gave up and stopped trying to get in last night...when I was proxied the fourth time. I was on the road with clients all day, but I'm really happy that I can get into ActiveRain now. Growing pains are a fact of life. We can handle it...so don't worry about it. NO GRAY HAIRS NECESSARY!! ~GBU~
Just because you asked I am going to say.....We aren't getting updates when comments are on our posts & normally you go "home" and see who has made a comment and those aren't there either. Sorry if this comment pushes you over the edge ;). KM
Thanks for the explanation. I thought that is was because I was typing at over 100 words per minute and the server couldn't keep up.
Bob~Quite frankly, I'm happy Mr. Proxy Error was around...it gave me an excuse to go shopping :) Patience we shall be...
We keep coming back, so you must be doing something right! Thanks for keeping us informed!
Bob - tell everyone working their fingers to the bone Thanks for all the hard work. Mr. Proxy Error just means growth, which is good.
I'm patient and thank you all for diligently working to fix it! Do you really have to fix the featured #? It put me to number one instead of 2 -. I did notice that now when I comment on something on "my home" it doesn't show that I did and I can't remember half the time where I was! Thanx you guys are great!
Bob, there are so many things that annoy me more than getting a Proxy Error message! And I appreciate your diligence in getting it fixed.
Bob...
I read through all of the comments and didn't notice anyone mentioning that the groups are not updating when comments are made or posts are added! THX
Bob -
Whew! I thought I was destroying the whole Internet simply by logging on!
Why don't we give Mr. & Mrs. Proxy Error some Christmas Egg Nog and put them to sleep, once and for all!
DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
good to know what's going on. I thought it was my network. Keep the goog work
Maria
You guys are the BEST! 'Never experienced a management team that as so responsive or demonstrated such caring for clients/customers/member... whatever we are. The notice and explanation are much appreciated!
I was unable to log on this morning. Tonight I can't get into the new members blogs. Will this be fixed soon?
You never know how much something means to you until it's no longer there.
Sort of like a crack addict....
Time to go howl at the moon for a while ;-) And then perhaps us South Carolinians will just put on our camo and go out huntin' us a Proxy Error or two. I hear it's open season!
it is amazing how many new members every day -- it is also amazing how you guys keep up -- thanks for all of your hard work -- JE
Hi Bob, Thanks for the explanation. I have been plgued by that evil twin, but am happy about the improvements. When the evil twin has been exorcised, it wil be great. Tonight the only thing I am noticing is that my home page is not listing the comments I am making. I suppose they'll show up sooner or later, huh?
Sooooooo Bob, this is what is going on, huh? I'm just commenting in the dark since none of them are showing up on my back end. I just figured there were glitches being worked out. ;-)
I hate Mr. Proxy Error! If I ever see him in person, I'm gonna open up a can of... well, you get the idea ;) LOL
Thanks for the explanation. That explains why I could not get in today and when I did, I had suddenly moved from #2 to #1 and off the page entirely.
Plenty of bugs to go around, but I know that all of you at AR are busy working on the issues. I much appreciate all you do.
not to sound like a pain in the neck - but maybe updating localism so the front page of it has current articles could be added to a todo list -
Well that explains what's been going on......I has been a frustrating couple of days!
Bob, glad I'm not the only one... and even glader that you're getting it fixed. Appreciated your humorous explanation.
Regina P. Brown
Bob - it gets to be very frustrating and I promised Brad & Rich I won't complain about it anymore.
I'm almost -- not quite, but almost -- lost without my "Your message" function working. I don't even get emails anymore when someone comments on a blog entry of mine. I'm also not happy with losing my ranking in my city to the Localism folks. But, as someone famous once said, "It is what it is." I'll adapt.
That is me up above at 03:10 AM. For the past two days or so, ActiveRain sometimes kicks me off of the system when I go to submit a post and I have to log back in and make a comment like this one.
Thanks for the post and all that you do for AR.. Happy holidays.
Appreciate all you guys do for us.
Since yesterday I can no longer log on to my home page. I am also receiving no emails. This is a little more than annoying. Can you help?
Good ole Mr Proxy can certainly test your patience. I appreciate the fact you guys are making all these improvements so even though it is a pain in the neck in the long run it will all be worth it!
Bob - Hey, I am hanging in here....I ain't bitchin'.....I know that all of your Active Rain staff are kicking butt and taking names to eliminate all the growing pains.
Hi Bob:
Boy, were those errors tough yesterday to get through just reading some posts...
While it was frustrating yesterday I must say - I GOT A LOT done with regard to present shopping, baking, etc. Thanks for the break actually - the real world was kind of nice for a day! :)
I want my MTV!
Hi Bob,
Not a problem at all - thank you for your continued updates and communication with us.
I sincerely appreciate everything you guys have done for us.
Wow, when I found out I was the #1 featured member, I wanted to add everyone as an associate to let them know. The add associate link was gone. Now today, my temporary promotion is gone and I am back to #2 for my county. Good news is the proxy guy is gone! LOL
Thanks for the info Bob. Is there a way to send out a broadcast to all members when issues like this come up so we're not floundering around. Possibly a system status page or a system status blog?
Very happy to see comments dated for the 13th. Just wish I could log in. Been locked out for two days. I'm in withdrawal and will be commenting and posting like a fool once I get back in (LOL). Glad to hear about the updates. Very cool to see this place expanding at a steady pace. Wishing you all the very best. Regards, Carolyn Tann-Starr.
At least I have an answer. I was going crazy!!!!
Morning Bob, Evil Mr Proxy Error needs to get over it. We trust you guys are doing all you can. I posted a comment yesterday and it showed up about a gazillion times. My apologies to all !
Bob, love the hair addition! On a good note, I noticed there is what appears to be an automatic save when editing...is that true or were my eyes deceiving me this morning?
Ok, I'll try to quite hitting the refresh button continuously!! Good to know everyone behind (and in front of ) the scenes is scurrying and working on this. :)
My last Localism post (yesterday) is not showing up in Localism. Also, there were a couple of comments on that post but I did not rcv the usual email notice of them. Maybe someone has already mentioned it, but I opted out of ready ALL 111 comments before me :~)
For the record....I haven't had any problems! Thanks for all you do....
Tina in Virginia
Here here, I know you guys are working hard and it shows everyday. Several friends called to ask if I was having any problems logging on, I told both of em that I have bigger problems my closing on a short sale has went south unless we cut out the commission totally. Anyway thanks for all you do.
Keep up the good work. I haven't been around much in the last few days, so haven't experienced this problem. You all do a fabulous job. Merry Christmas
Bob - I still can't log in. AR says my username (WestportMoves) doesn't exist in the system. I was able to post, last night, from my home computer, which was left logged on. Obviously, it's going to stay that way, as it's my only means of playing in the rain, at this time. However, it means I'm locked out, during the day.
Please, please...HELP!
Yeah!! I'm In. Please ignore previous message. Thanks Rich.
In addition to Mr. Proxy Error there may be some other minor issues on the site today as well. We are aware of many of them but if you know of something please feel free to leave it in the comments.
Hey Bob,
The network is just acting goofy tonight. :) If ActiveRain was an engine, I would say you need to replace the timing belt. However, since it's programming, I'll just have to sit back and watch.
Here's an example of goofy. When I go to the Realtors group, this is at the top of the page.
Home : Groups : Realtors® : Page 1147
OTOH, the Dedicated Bloggers group works fine for me.
Hmm, maybe the problem with the Realtors group is specific to me because of a comment I made on an old post there - that seems to be hanging in limbo right now.
P.S. When did we hit THIS number? That's much higher than I remember.
Members: 153,312
HI Bob! Is there a way to post a blog not being signed in--a way around the system? I see that others are logged in and I still can't get logged in.
Thanks so much!
I am learning about the proxy error. It will get better I know it.
I am learning about the proxy error. It will get better I know it.
Bob, after nearly loosing my blog this past month and spending hours of marti's time recreating it from scratch I think I finally have a sliver of an idea of what you all go through and how hard you work in order to keep us all happy. Truly, all of the proxy errors are such a minor imposition, you guys deserve nothing but praise and appreciation! Thank you!
I'm assuming you guys are aware that the tags are all messed up? I have someone else's tags on my blog...
Don,
Yes, we just became aware of that last night. The fix is in place and waiting to be deployed. That is actually your ActiveRain soulmate. So if you don't know them, you should make an effort to learn all about them, haha.
If you go to anyones blog, those same tags will appear for you in any blog. They follow you. A nasty little bug but it should be fixed soon. My soulmate yesterday was Brad Andersohn. No matter where I went, his tags followed me. Today, it's someone different.
Now you made me go to see who my soulmate was! I guess I should probably introduce myself...
:)
Hi; Just wondering when they are going to fix localism. My last 8 posts still have NOT shown up as yet... I am trying to be patient but posted them last week.
I am sure the groups homepages will be fixed soon also.....I cannot do any administerative work on the membership OR featured posts.....
=-)
Howdy Bob
I'd sure like to know why, folk's post's are coming up missen in the groups?
Why are there only four pages of post's, in all the groups now?
Why was the founders of the groups, in the Active Rain community. Not told this was going to happen?
Do you know, that a lot of folk's are not as active in the community, because of all this is happing in the community. Every day there are folk's talken about not stayen here in the community.
Thank you, for your time and help with this
Dale,
Posts are not going to groups right now as the result of pretty nasty bug. The developers will have the fix in place Thursday night.
There are only four pages of posts because we had to put a fix in place in order to get everything worked out. The groups were the source of the majority of the proxy errors that were occurring on the network. Instead of having the proxy errors continue, there were some temporary changes made to groups in order to stabilize the rest of the site. Now that the site is stabilized in regard to proxy errors, the developers are working on upgrading the infrastructure of the groups.
We certainly should have told the founders (and really the whole community) about the group changes and about the fact they are temporary.
I'm very sorry that people are talking about not staying here. I hope they will understand that we try our very hardest to deliver a platform that is user friendly. No one, not one single person, is more concerned about the experience our members are having than I am. I am very confident that our developers will have everything back in working order with their deployment on Thursday night.
Bob,
Is fixing Localism in the big fix tonight? I noticed that the last Localism post in Nevada was 12/12/08, and that featured/top neighbors are the same as when the New Localism came out - Not that I am complaining, I am a Top Neighbor in Mesquite, just wondering about it.
Thanks for everything,
NOT thinking about leaving AR - best Google results in town!
Here is an update about what's going on with the different major bugs:
Update on ActiveRain Issues