Website crash slowed us down.

November 15, 2008 - But it didn't stop us.

Running a website can be a complicated thing.  Some things are really simple: all it takes to upload a picture is to do just that, upload the picture.  Some things are easy but take some time.  Editing stories and calendar items isn't really hard, it's just tedious.  But some things--especially some important tasks--can get out of hand.

One regular task, at the first of each month, is backing up the website.  This means downloading every single file on the site and storing it on a local computer.  THEN it's time to backup the database (which actually stores all the information you see) and store it. 

I'd actually finished those tasks late on November 2 when I thought I could take the next step.  Our content manager program had an upgrade ready, so I tried to install it.

Everything crashed.

After my heart rate went down, I realized I was in a pretty good position.  All I had to do was restore the backup program and data and things would work.  Except, of course, they didn't.

The short explanation is that I couldn't edit anything.  The data was visible, the site would run, but I couldn't add or edit any stories, calendar, text items--nothing.

From November 2 to 15, nothing on the site could change.  I've now tracked down the problem and fixed it.  You'll notice that we're back in business.

What didn't crash was our paid online subscription.  It's sometimes hard for people to realize this, but that subscription operates almost independently from our free website and its services.  We were still able to get the November 5 and 12 papers out to all our subscribers.

I apologize for any stories that got left out during our down time, especially the football playoff stories.

And thanks to a DotNetNuke editor in Italy, we're back up and running again.  I will try to upgrade the site soon, but I think I know a little better how to do it.

Ken Purscell