denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
Denise ([staff profile] denise) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2013-08-02 09:51 pm

a few quick notes on ongoing, intermittent issues

We've had a few intermittent issues lately that people have been running into:

1) Random "403 Forbidden" errors when loading site pages, mostly in journals but sometimes on site pages.

2) Shop carts paid for by credit card where you get an error when trying to check out, then the cart is set to "waiting for payment" status.

3) When crossposting to LiveJournal, the crosspost not going through and error messages in your inbox that read "Failed to connect to http://www.livejournal.com/interface/xmlrpc".

All three of these errors are only happening occasionally.

The first two are problems on our end that we're working to track down -- we've added some extra debugging code that should help us pinpoint the cause, and we'll get it fixed as quickly as possible after that. (Things that only happen occasionally are very hard to diagnose and fix, since you can't always know for sure what the cause is, and you can't usually verify that the fixes you're putting into place actually fix the problem.)

The crossposting problem is, unfortunately, on LJ's end and not on ours: that error means that LJ was unreachable at the time the crosspost attempt was sent. If you get the error, your crosspost attempt will retry up to five times, at increasingly-longer intervals, before sending you a final failure notice in your inbox. Once that happens, you can edit the post and re-check the crosspost box, then save the post, to start it trying again. Whether or not it succeeds depends entirely on whether we can reach LJ at the time it tries. (It doesn't matter whether you can load LJ on your own computer when that happens -- the crosspost attempt is sent from our servers, so our servers have to be able to reach LJ, not your computer.)

If you run into problems with a payment, open a support request in the Account Payments category, and I'll get things fixed up for you as soon as I possibly can. (There's only one of me, though, so it probably won't be an immediate response, unless you happen to catch me while I'm sitting right in front of the computer!)

If you run into either of the other two problems, you can let us know by leaving a comment here, just so we can get a rough sense of how often the problems are coming up. We might not be able to tell you anything more than what's in this post, though!

If you're having an issue that isn't one of these three, open a support request, describing the issue as thoroughly as possible, and somebody will help you troubleshoot it.
gekiviolet: (jing → the day is suddenly beautiful)

[personal profile] gekiviolet 2013-08-03 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
I'm running into the 403 error problem a lot; in particular it happens just about every other time I try to reload a page after changing to a new account (such as with the LJLogin Firefox extension, which also works with Dreamwidth). Reloading again lets the page load properly, though. I don't know if that might have anything to do with it/how many other people have that problem while switching, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.
senmut: an owl that is quite large sitting on a roof (Default)

[personal profile] senmut 2013-08-03 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
I didn't screen cap, and am not sure if it was Monday or Tuesday, but I ran into the 403 after having logged out and switched to another journal, but as I was only trying to view site pages, not journals, it confused me.
untonuggan: Lily and Chance squished in a cat pile-up on top of a cat tree (buff tabby, black cat with red collar) (Default)

[personal profile] untonuggan 2013-08-03 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
I've been running into the 403 errors (a few times) but have not had spoons to submit an error report. >.>
gekiviolet: (jessica → you're a devil; a devil you ar)

[personal profile] gekiviolet 2013-08-03 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, wow. I never knew -- I don't have any of those problems, personally! I just wanted to mention it just in case. :)
lexicalcrow: (Default)

[personal profile] lexicalcrow 2013-08-03 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
I was wondering if the 403 errors were something on my end or not. I've had a couple in the past 24 hours when loading my reading page. Refreshing/reloading does fix it, though. Good to know it's not just me!
juliet316: (DW: Last look at a ghost)

[personal profile] juliet316 2013-08-03 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
I've had a few 403 errors yesterday and I've set my browser to keep me logged into DW (IE 9, Windows Vista). As the person above me said, refreshing does fix it.
peoriapeoriawhereart: blond and brunet men peer intently (Napoleon & Illya peer)

[personal profile] peoriapeoriawhereart 2013-08-03 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Had the 403 as I was logging in just now, but it cleared once I went back and tried again. Thanks for being on top of things and letting us in the loop.
ilyena_sylph: (Dreamwidth "d", rainbow-colored by Sophie) (Dreamwidth)

[personal profile] ilyena_sylph 2013-08-03 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
I've run into the 403 a couple of times.

Once trying to get to new comments on an access-locked post (one I had access to) on another's journal, once trying to get to a reading filter, and I can't remember the couple of others.
Edited 2013-08-03 03:28 (UTC)
brigantine: (pinky and brain say hallo)

[personal profile] brigantine 2013-08-03 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
The crossposting problem is, unfortunately, on LJ's end

Okey-dokey, I was wondering about that. Thanks for the info! :)
bloodstainedlineage: (Default)

[personal profile] bloodstainedlineage 2013-08-03 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
I've run into the 403 errors a few times today.
silverflight8: bee on rose  (Default)

[personal profile] silverflight8 2013-08-03 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so glad I wasn't the only one with the 403 error. (Wait. That didn't come out right. Since the error exists I'm glad I wasn't the only one.) It went away and didn't come back so I didn't want to file something I couldn't reproduce. Good luck tracking it down :)
synchronicity2: (Default)

[personal profile] synchronicity2 2013-08-03 04:01 am (UTC)(link)
I had one 503 error earlier, after submitting a comment in a community with a different journal, but I hadn't logged/in or out or anything. I just went back, refreshed the page, and the comment had posted, so IDK what that issue was.

I also had an error pop up when I tried to buy paid time earlier, I just waited a moment and then tried again and it seemed to go through just fine. I'm wondering if because I tried to change the delivery date of the gift to 8/2/13 (instead of 8/3/13, which it automatically was at - this was at around 8PM Eastern US time on 8/2) because the second time I just left it alone and it processed fine.
acelightning: Ace Lightning logo with flashing lightning bolt (Default)

[personal profile] acelightning 2013-08-03 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
I made a post on 28 July, and waited for it to crosspost to LJ (according to my journal's default settings). Instead, I got the error you describe: "Failed to crosspost entry to acelightning@LiveJournal: Failed to connect to http://www.livejournal.com/interface/xmlrpc." (I posted it to LJ manually instead, of course.) I have not gotten any error messages or notifications about it since then, nor has the post ever crossposted to LJ.

Just figured I'd throw in my two zorkmids' worth...
torachan: (Default)

[personal profile] torachan 2013-08-03 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
I got a 403 once within the past few days, but didn't submit an error because it only happened once and because I submitted a report for 503 errors not that long ago and did not really appreciate the response, which said that refreshing my browser should fix it. Which...yeah, the page does usually load correctly on a second try, but that's not really what I'd consider that a "fix" per se (and also seems to imply that somehow the problem is on my end).
teenyoda: (Default)

[personal profile] teenyoda 2013-08-03 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
I am a frequent getter of 403s, which could be in part because of how often I reply/comment/post during any given day. It happens when replying to an open post, trying to load the page directly from my email, trying to open a page in another tab. There really is no set rhyme or reason. It just happens whenever, and like everyone else, I reload the page and everything is sunshine.
subluxate: Sophia Bush leaning against a piano (Default)

[personal profile] subluxate 2013-08-03 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
I just had an LJ crosspost not go through; it did once I retried it.
formermagicalgirl: (Default)

[personal profile] formermagicalgirl 2013-08-03 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
I've only personally gotten the 403s when refreshing a page I have open on a tab. I've had it happen both with entries and my reading page. Goes away once I refresh, so not a big deal at least.
sylvaine: Dark-haired person with black eyes & white pupils. (Default)

[personal profile] sylvaine 2013-08-03 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, I was wondering whether the 403 errors were on my end! I've had a fair number of them, but reloading the page fixes it.

[personal profile] ex_scratchy448 2013-08-03 09:49 am (UTC)(link)
I just have to say: I love how dedicated the DW team is <3 <3 <3
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2013-08-03 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
Amusingly, I'd never had a 403, and then I had one opening this page...
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2013-08-03 10:51 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, and I've received error notifications for a failed post to LJ within thirty seconds on several occasions. So the increasing wait period can't be _that_ large.

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