Error message when posting

[Laird]

I'm fairly regularly receiving the following error message when posting: "The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again." It's pretty harmless because all that I have to do is resubmit the form, but it's a little bit strange that it occurs at all. Is there anything that we can do to avoid this message and the need to resubmit the form?

[Kevin Solway]

I've tried "purging the cache" of the forum styles. We'll see if that makes a difference. (I was able to post this message ok)

[Laird]

Well I didn't receive that error message on the last post that I made, which was subsequent to your cache flush. It looks promising so far.

Nor on this post. Problem solved (a tentative hope...).

[Laird]

Hmm, but something else strange is happening now. When I post I don't see the usual confirmation screen before being directed back to view the thread. It kind of hangs for a while on the page with the edit box before redirecting. I'll see if it happens again for this post...

...yeah, it did. Perhaps it's just a problem with my browser though. In any case it's nothing serious.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Just experienced another occurrence of the same out of memory error message.

[Dan Rowden]

That's interesting as I haven't been getting them at all.

[Laird]

Well I did receive another message - identical to the one that I quoted in my thread-opener - subsequent to suggesting that the problem had been solved, but it was only the once and I've been posting like a madman since then anyway.

[Dan Rowden]

[...]posting like a madman[...]

Never has a truer word been said!! ;)

[Shahrazad]

Dan,

You're not supposed to agree with someone who is self-deprecating.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Dan,

You're not supposed to agree with someone who is self-deprecating.

[Shahrazad]

Do you have a point?

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Yes, Sher - my point is that it looked like you were scolding him as if you were his mother. First of all, he was just joking with Laird - as reinforce-evidenced by the ";)" at the end of his post, and figured that Laird could take a good-natured jab (assumed from knowing Dan's pattern of behavior), and historically, Dan does not like being treated like a child, which you were doing - so this was supposed to be educational for you so that you do not get on Dan's nerves.

Besides, I don't think Laird was being self-depreciating in the above post. I think that was just a figure of speech, and Dan was just having some fun with that.

[Dan Rowden]

Just copped an error trying to load the board:

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Out of memory (Needed 1677264 bytes) [5]

SQL

SELECT u.username, u.username_clean, u.user_id, u.user_type, u.user_allow_viewonline, u.user_colour, s.session_ip, s.session_viewonline FROM phpbb_users u, phpbb_sessions s WHERE s.session_time >= 1200523627 AND u.user_id = s.session_user_id ORDER BY u.username_clean ASC, s.session_ip ASC

BACKTRACE

FILE: includes/db/mysql.php
LINE: 158
CALL: dbal_mysql->sql_error()

FILE: includes/functions.php
LINE: 3154
CALL: dbal_mysql->sql_query()

FILE: index.php
LINE: 125
CALL: page_header()

[Carl G]

Bunch of these while opening pages in the last few minutes:

General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Out of memory (Needed 1677264 bytes) [5]

An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.

Please notify the board administrator or webmaster: ksolway@theabsolute.net

[rpl]

Whose running the show?

[Carl G]

Hours of off and on bullshit this evening. What a bogus server.

[Dan Rowden]

Yeah, there seems to be periods where it's bad. Researching the error is quite, um, enlightening. Googling "Out of memory (Needed 1677264 bytes) [5]" is quite an experience.

[Kelly Jones]

Probably some kind of coincidence, Dan. The last time the forum was down, Kevin mentioned running out of allocated resources or something.

When Kevin is unable to administer the forum, do the other owners have the necessary passwords and skills ?

[Dan Rowden]

It's about the server and MYSQL database capability/versions/etc, which means the domain hosts, so Kev is on his Pat Malone there, as far as I can tell. Though, I admit that technical summation may be wrong.

[Kelly Jones]

I figured that it's something like us running-over our allocated resources again (Kevin's host's server's).

What's your plan if Kevin's run-over by another resource, like a truck? Or a fatal virus? It's not that the Genius Forum isn't duplicable in many ways. But since the machine's effective and in good working order (sort of), then you need at least one backup programmer.

[Kevin Solway]

I'm on to it, but it's difficult to know what to do at the moment.

The new webhosts we've been lumbered with are obviously rubbish, but the problems are:

1. We've paid for a long-term contract, in advance.
2. They just might fix the problem soon.
3. It's a big job to move to another webhost, and the forum database might not survive the move.
4. The new webhost might be worse than this one.
5. We could go for a dedicated server, but that is a lot more expensive than the shared hosting we currently have, and is also not guaranteed to be free of its share of problems.

Any ideas?

[Dan Rowden]

Show the patience and non-attachment that rationality should engender, perhaps.

[Laird]

Very useful and appropriate advice that was, Dan, because Kev was plainly acting like an over-emotional and ditsy little girly.

(payback for your last "never has a truer word been said" dig :-P)

To the topical: I mentioned this to Kev in person yesterday but I want to also document here that I repeatedly and for a period of several minutes was unable to access GF due to server memory problems. I received a message identical (as far as I can recall) to the one that Carl G posted up above. My experience seems to have been identical to his.

As for what to do: I don't have any particular ideas as yet but I know that the best man for the job is on it. I have full trust in Kev's technical abilities and judgement. I guess if pushed I'd say let's go for option 5, dedicated server (preferably at a different, higher quality host - I guess we'd have to google for good reviews), but I realise that financial cost is a concern. Hmm, actually, I may know of a good hosting service for dedicated servers. I'm involved in a project where I've done most of the coding and purchased the domain name and a friend purchased a dedicated server hosting solution. It seems to be working very well - Linux-based host too. If you're interested, Kev, I'll find out how much he's paying for it. I guess that you'd probably prefer a Windows host though, seeing as how every time I talk to you about my machine you invariably find an excuse to exclaim "Bloody Linux!" :-P

I do have one suggestion to make though, and that is that backups of the database be held by more than just Kev. I also suggest that he make the administrative passwords available to other people, such as Dan and David. I make these suggestions so that things will be smoother for GF in the unlikely event that Kev is run over by a truck. Like Kelly, I think that this is something that we should consider in advance.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Today, all except for one time, the screen came up as soon as I pressed refresh. Unfortunately, every time I went to a new page, I had to press refresh to get anything but the error message.

Hint for users - if you get the error message, immediately press refresh as it could be just that microsecond that the server is out of memory.

[Dan Rowden]

As for what to do: I don't have any particular ideas as yet but I know that the best man for the job is on it. I have full trust in Kev's technical abilities and judgement. I guess if pushed I'd say let's go for option 5, dedicated server (preferably at a different, higher quality host - I guess we'd have to google for good reviews), but I realise that financial cost is a concern.

I've done a bit of research into dedicated servers in the past and though by no means exhaustive I found that are [appear to be] outside our financial abilities.

I do have one suggestion to make though, and that is that backups of the database be held by more than just Kev. I also suggest that he make the administrative passwords available to other people, such as Dan and David. I make these suggestions so that things will be smoother for GF in the unlikely event that Kev is run over by a truck. Like Kelly, I think that this is something that we should consider in advance.

They have trucks in Queenstown?