Bitcointalk: Error 504: Gateway time-out [Update: December 2, 2023]

[Not your key not your BTC]

this becomes scary for the signature participants only

[1714524033]

1714524033

[joker_josue]

I have been on this forum since 2012. I have seen 100 outages in the 11 years I have been on this site.

There always seems to be more down time when BTC starts to bull run.

It is a website visited by thousands of people all the time.
Even the largest websites in the world suffer moments of instability, when they experience a significant increase in hits.

It will always be impossible to guarantee 100% uptime. Perhaps we have felt this more in recent times, because it has appeared more frequently.

However, @theymos has already announced that it is preparing improvements, which should come into force at the beginning of next year. Therefore, it is important to have patience and understanding when this occurs.

[Majestic-milf]

this becomes scary for the signature participants only

You think? Well you may be right but I feel that it's not only those who are in sig campaigns that worry when there's a downtime because there are also users who don't visit the forum just to complete post quota but to do other things. Believe it or no, the forum is not in existence only for the signature campaigns but to disseminate information about Bitcoin and it's functionality, these campaigns are just a by product.

 The way you sound is as if it's every one that depends on the proceeds gotten from the campaigns alone. I'd love to change that impression but I find it might be unnecessary because you've chosen to believe that.

[taufik123]

It is a website visited by thousands of people all the time.
Even the largest websites in the world suffer moments of instability, when they experience a significant increase in hits.

That may be one of the reasons why the Forum is experiencing instability.
The increase in visits makes the server load heavier.
Especially when Bitcoin will soon be halving, making many people start opening this forum, reading some threads, and commenting and there are more new accounts created.

However, @theymos has already announced that it is preparing improvements, which should come into force at the beginning of next year. Therefore, it is important to have patience and understanding when this occurs.

Hopefully, the improvements that will be made by the forum administrator can solve all the problems that occur and the forum is no longer disturbed by some downtime that often occurs.

this becomes scary for the signature participants only

-snip-
 The way you sound is as if it's every one that depends on the proceeds gotten from the campaigns alone. I'd love to change that impression but I find it might be unnecessary because you've chosen to believe that.

Yup, let him say whatever he wants about the signature campaign almost all active and contributing members are participating in.
Remember that before the signature as it is now, we all have been active for a long time and continue to interact.
The signature campaign is just a reward, and I won't even be hypocritical about the money earned, we all benefit from each other.

[DYING_S0UL]

It is a website visited by thousands of people all the time.
Even the largest websites in the world suffer moments of instability, when they experience a significant increase in hits.

That may be one of the reasons why the Forum is experiencing instability.
The increase in visits makes the server load heavier.
Especially when Bitcoin will soon be halving, making many people start opening this forum, reading some threads, and commenting and there are more new accounts created.

I don't know the technical side of this problem. But the recent blackouts are making me concerned about what is going on. These instabilities are occurring more and more frequently now. This makes me wonder, is it something to be afraid of? Or is it some random server or hardware-side issue? Or any kind of cyber attacks. We can now predict when these blackouts might happen. When the owner is sleeping. But why this specific period of time? It doesn't make sense. Why doesn't it happen when theymos is awake? So that he can analyze the cause of this issue. 

[Pmalek]

I don't know the technical side of this problem. But the recent blackouts are making me concerned about what is going on. These instabilities are occurring more and more frequently now. This makes me wonder, is it something to be afraid of? Or is it some random server or hardware-side issue? Or any kind of cyber attacks.

Afraid in what sense? That the forum might be taken down or that the police will come crashing down your door when you are sleeping? The forum isn't for anything illegal nor is it doing anything illegal, so no need to worry for your well-being. And if it's an attack of any sorts, there is nothing that you and me can do about it.

We can now predict when these blackouts might happen. When the owner is sleeping. But why this specific period of time? It doesn't make sense. Why doesn't it happen when theymos is awake?

The reason why it's happening might not have anything to do with when theymos is sleeping. If it was happening while he was awake and at work, one could ask a similar question: why is it happening when theymos is working and not after work when he is home? I am guessing the dude also works somewhere in some capacity.

[jokers10]

That may be one of the reasons why the Forum is experiencing instability.
The increase in visits makes the server load heavier.
Especially when Bitcoin will soon be halving, making many people start opening this forum, reading some threads, and commenting and there are more new accounts created.

If it was so then why each forum unavailability happens in the same time? About 6 am UTC? Hardly each time crowds of visitors come just at that time. It looks more like theymos said: some program starts working on the server in that time and overloads it. Main problem is to understand which program and why.

[Not your key not your BTC]

this becomes scary for the signature participants only

-snip-
 The way you sound is as if it's every one that depends on the proceeds gotten from the campaigns alone. I'd love to change that impression but I find it might be unnecessary because you've chosen to believe that.

Yup, let him say whatever he wants about the signature campaign almost all active and contributing members are participating in.
Remember that before the signature as it is now, we all have been active for a long time and continue to interact.
The signature campaign is just a reward, and I won't even be hypocritical about the money earned, we all benefit from each other.

I just wait for no longer signature. I am sure you be 1st one to leave the forum.

[LoyceV]

But the recent blackouts are making me concerned about what is going on. These instabilities are occurring more and more frequently now. This makes me wonder, is it something to be afraid of?

If any website make you worry IRL, you should reevaluate your priorities
Even if Bitcointalk disappears, something else will take it's place.

[DYING_S0UL]

But the recent blackouts are making me concerned about what is going on. These instabilities are occurring more and more frequently now. This makes me wonder, is it something to be afraid of?

If any website make you worry IRL, you should reevaluate your priorities
Even if Bitcointalk disappears, something else will take it's place.

Maybe yes maybe no. Also I may have used wrong set of words. I have been on bitcointalk for some times now. It became on of my daily routine. I am literally spending hours, going from one thread to another, replying, reading etc. Now imagine, if bitcointalk disappears, what do you think my reaction will be? Forget about me. What about you? What will be your reaction, will it miss it, if there were no bitcointalk? You have been in this forum for years. Surely you have some attachments towards it. I meant something like that. 

[NotATether]

What the hell.... another 2-hour downtime.

I'm going to try to talk to the admins about this.

[seek3r]

What the hell.... another 2-hour downtime.

I'm going to try to talk to the admins about this.

Looks like it's becoming our new morning routine that the forum is unavailable for certain periods of time.

Today's downtime was between Post 63149133 und Post 63149134 - This means that a downtime of around 2 hours once again.
@LoyceV just as an info for you so you can embed it in your post.

I'm curious to see whether the error that causes this can be slowly identified....

[taufik123]

Getting Downtime alert again today from 2023-11-13 | 13:07:39 to 2023-11-13 | 15:15:39
Downtime 2h 16m




Outage analysis of bitcointalk.org

[WatChe]

Another day and another 504 error. Something really need a fix here.

[jokers10]

And again it started about 6 am UTC. It happens more often but each time about the same time. It should probably be related to some regular program action, because otherwise why at the same time? Internet provider on the server side?

At least we can make no plans on the forum at exact time.

[pinggoki]

It seems like this issue is starting to reoccur, as I can't even remember how many times I have experienced it as a result of being active when it happens or most members complaining and posting about it.
 
Have the administrators been able to talk about what usually causes this and if there is anyway to get rid of it once and for all, or is it something that we should just get used to for the time being until further notice?

The last one that happened, which lasted for almost an hour, was the longest I have ever experienced. I hope this gets fixed and we don't have such experiences again.

I guess we just have to hope that they're doing their best in regards to this issue, it definitely is an annoying thing but what can we do when we know that this situation is out of our hands, we can't really do a thing about besides talk about it and share our concerns to the administrators. And the problem is most likely a server issue which is a backend problem so let's just hold on to hope that it will eventually be fixed. I hope this isn't something that will happen and that we'd get used to it, I don't like the idea that part of my routine in exploring the forum is waiting for the server to go back up.

[LoyceV]

Now imagine, if bitcointalk disappears, what do you think my reaction will be? Forget about me. What about you? What will be your reaction, will it miss it, if there were no bitcointalk?

I'd have so much more time to spend on other things Maybe things like creating a replacement forum, although I lack programming skills for that so I'd really hope someone else would do that. But that's all speculation, I assume both Admins of Bitcointalk keep a backup of the forum database, and I assume at least one of them will make sure the forum comes back up.

Time for an update (>5 minutes is bold, >30 minutes is red):
186 seconds between posts at 6300/63006744.html Tue Oct 17 00:08:26 UTC 2023
186 seconds between posts at 6300/63006749.html Tue Oct 17 00:17:02 UTC 2023
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7836 seconds between posts at 6314/63149134.html Mon Nov 13 08:17:19 UTC 2023
(this only counts when there was at least 3 minutes between posts)

It looks like the downtime is increasing.

@LoyceV just as an info for you so you can embed it in your post.

Thanks. It's an automated script though.

And again it started about 6 am UTC.

The last 3 longer down times all started around 6:05 AM UTC.

[Woodie]

Here we go again, that was roughly over 2hours of downtime...

Thought this was another attack but reading some of the responses in the thread, some users say its some routine maintenance going on and not an attack?

So how can we make the distinguishment between the two as we have no alerts on these technical changes as they happen??

[acroman08]

And again it started about 6 am UTC. It happens more often but each time about the same time. It should probably be related to some regular program action, because otherwise why at the same time? Internet provider on the server side?

At least we can make no plans on the forum at exact time.

theymos did mention a month back that he is planning to do some upgrading for the next few months, these gateway time-out errors that is happening recently could be related to that, though I am not completely sure if it is.

anyway, here is a quoted post from when he mentioned that upgrading he will do for the next few months.

I'm planning on upgrading the main servers sometime in the next few months. (Just as part of standard maintenance: there will be no user-visible changes other than perhaps slightly improved speed.) Maybe that'll fix it just by virtue of moving things to different areas.

(The few minutes of downtime just now was due to me doing something, and is unrelated.)

[Despairo]

I think we need to take a nap at 6.00 AM UTC to 8.00 AM UTC since we're really active in this forum, maybe there's an user active for 24 hours everyday without a sleep.

It's possible run a bounty? although I didn't see there's a reward for someone to find an error about server.