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? 😊

@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. 🙂

@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.

@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! 😍

@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.

@val 😊Thank you.