Continuing to fix bugs and tweak servers. If you want the technical summary: those “503” errors were when the load balancer decided an app server was error-ing, but it could sometimes take out all the app servers, even if they were fine. Lots of new traffic from Mastodon users.

@manton @jean Every time that error shows up, I feel a deep urge for a fail whale-like error page. Maybe something with Guinea pigs? 😊

@sod Wish you could add custom error pages to the load balancers.

@vincent Ah, you can't? I've only worked with nginx and HAProxy for load balancing, which both supports custom error pages. Huh. Which software are you using? (So I know what to avoid. 😂)

@sod @vincent @jean It's Linode's built-in load balancers. I think I may have it under control finally. More optimizations ongoing. I love the idea, though… I thought about asking the original fail whale artist if she accepts commissions. 🙂

@sod Yeah, those will work, but MB sits in front of Linode Node Balancers - I can't see an option... Basically they just stop serving traffic to the app servers if they go down (or when it thinks they're down anyway), so it never reaches them. Maybe they have something in the docs.

@manton You're a better artist!

@manton @sod @vincent @jean If so, I support the 503 Guinea Pig!

@vincent @manton Maybe you could add a backend node with the sole purpose of serving a friendly error message by setting its mode to backup?

If set to backup, this backend will only receive traffic if all accept nodes are down.

@sod Oooo, nice find! Might just redirect to a Rickroll 😋

@vincent Haha, that would be hilarious (for established users)!

@sod @vincent Oh, that’s interesting! I’ve wondered what “backup” meant. That’s a nice feature.

@Miraz Something cute to ameliorate the annoyance!

@jean Exactly!

@manton @jean I’ll cast another vote for a Guinea pig version of a “fail whale,” but can’t help also suggesting what I thought @miraz might: a fail quail!

@manton @jean @vincent I made it fast but something like this?

@gregmoore That looks great! ❤️😃

@jean Or eventually - even a client side game that pings the server every <n> minute(s) while you are playing, and tells you when you can stop playing…or maybe not. 🤔

@fgtech LOL

@gregmoore That's great!

@gregmoore So cute! 😍

@gregmoore That’s brilliant!!

@odd @manton @sod @maique ☺️Wow, thanks.

@maique Haha, I’m flattered.😄👍🏻

@gregmoore It is adorable! I will point out one little thing: guinea pigs don't really have distinct noses like hamsters, really just nostrils. But you have nailed the chubbiness, and I did check to make sure the back paws don't have more than 3 toes.

This is part of my complaint to the Unicode Consortium, who claim the hamster emoji can stand in for guinea pigs too, in their rejection of my proposal. #stillannoyed

@jean You’re right! I need better references. (I’m my defense, I drew this as quickly as I could around midnight.) If Manton wants to use it for real, I’m happy to fix errors like that.🙂

@gregmoore I was thinking of using it for my brain's 503 moments. 🤣

@jean I need to make one for my 404 moments. I’m always forgetting the names of things.

@gregmoore wow, if that's art that you make 'fast', I'm sure other things you make must also be great!

@val 😊Thank you.