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Current day post and it's associated comic

craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
Why is it always broken? Or pointing to the previous day's comic? Why do I have to manually enter http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic to see it?

There is of course also a lot of weirdness in the archive itself, i doubt you could keep hitting the back button and expect to be able to go back through the entire archive without hitting a road block.

I guess the reason I ask is, its been like this for months, why hasn't it been fixed?

Craig.

craiger316 on
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Posts

  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    edited September 2006
    My guess is that it takes a bit to propogate.

    We all know how much a link from Tycho or Gabe can wang another forum... Well, my guess is that the comic gets that same treatment each week, on an order of magnitudes larger. Thus, I wouldn't be surprised if they have redundancies and other things to make sure the comic doesn't go down, and it takes a bit to propigate through those.

    Athenor on
    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
  • yozyoz Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    What Craig said. I've registered with PA forums purely to ask what the hell's going on. (But now I'm here, I'll stay for the burgers and to randomly call people dicks. Yay!)

    I remember a while back when a big deal was made of the site's new CMS. It's all very shiny I'm sure, but I would hope that "getting the comic online" would be pretty much the #1 job for it, and it doesn't seem terribly good at it. Maybe it's a propagation issue as Athenor says, but then how come the news post seems to propagate just fine? Or are the images hosted on a different box to the text/HTML, and there's some major delay going on there?

    The point is, the RSS announces there's a comic, the news post talks about a comic, and there's no comic. This seems to happen more than 50% of the time. It's a shame, as I would love to be able to read the comic that Tycho's talking about as I'm reading him talking about it, rather than returning every couple of hours for the rest of the day to see if it's up yet.

    yoz on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    yoz wrote:
    What Craig said. I've registered with PA forums purely to ask what the hell's going on. (But now I'm here, I'll stay for the burgers and to randomly call people dicks. Yay!)

    I remember a while back when a big deal was made of the site's new CMS. It's all very shiny I'm sure, but I would hope that "getting the comic online" would be pretty much the #1 job for it, and it doesn't seem terribly good at it.

    Too funny, yes that is exactly why I registered, just to ask this question. And I too figured how they could let this slip for so long. I just figured perhaps people are too afraid to ask lest they be flamed into char-broiled bits :)

    Craig.

    craiger316 on
  • The CelestialThe Celestial Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    It's a duct-tape fix, but when I can't view the comic on the front page, there's always a thread in Social Entropy with the new comic in it mere minutes after Mike uploads it.

    Here's the most recent one.

    Also, if you plan on posting after this thread craiger316, I'd recommend not signing your posts, it's looked down on as repetative seeing how most of us have actual sigs.

    The Celestial on
    celbmb8.png
  • xzzyxzzy Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    The image URL always follows the same pattern:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20060918.jpg

    The file name is YYYYMMDD, so just edit the url to match the day of the comic you want.

    I've never had this fail to bring up the comic.

    xzzy on
  • DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
    edited September 2006
    Yeah...like today's comic, for example. Still not up. Isn't that the main point of Penny Arcade, and yet the comic doesn't ever work! Sorry to be complaining but all these workarounds people are posting are a little bit lame... the site should work man.

    Unknown User on
  • paradoxialparadoxial Registered User new member
    edited September 2006
    Today, even the workarounds aren't working... this should be a bit higher on the list of "things to make work", given that it IS a webcomic and all.

    paradoxial on
    This sentence is false.
  • FierceDeity666FierceDeity666 Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    it's up, and i got the new comic thread.

    FierceDeity666 on
  • augustaugust where you come from is gone Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    paradoxial wrote:
    Today, even the workarounds aren't working... this should be a bit higher on the list of "things to make work", given that it IS a webcomic and all.

    Agreed.

    august on
  • ToastToast Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    Everyone saying there are "workarounds" is all well and good, but... like the guy says, the site is essentially a webcomic, and if the comic isn't readily available there's an issue there. Yes, you can just work around it (or, if you're patient like me, just wait for it to appear), but that kinda shouldn't really be necessary...

    Toast on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    I think the thing I find funny is T&G just go about their business like everything is working fine. Not sure who their developer is but if I were paying for their services I would be kinda pissed as the problems have persisted for such a long time.

    craiger316 on
  • yozyoz Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    I think the thing I find funny is T&G just go about their business like everything is working fine. Not sure who their developer is but if I were paying for their services I would be kinda pissed as the problems have persisted for such a long time.

    Maybe T&G don't know? I bet they just stick their stuff in the CMS and hit "publish", then assume it's all working fine. After all, it's worked okay in the past, right?

    yoz on
  • ThaoxThaox Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    Gears of war art is neat...

    Excepting that, the guy has nipples the size of dinner-plates.

    Thaox on
  • aragorn18aragorn18 Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    Thaox wrote:
    Gears of war art is neat...

    Excepting that, the guy has nipples the size of dinner-plates.
    Huh?

    aragorn18 on
  • SladvanSladvan Registered User regular
    edited September 2006
    Thaox wrote:
    Gears of war art is neat...

    Excepting that, the guy has nipples the size of dinner-plates.

    I find the shitty tacked on reflection at the bottom far more off putting than giant armored nipple plates.

    Sladvan on
    ken2.png
  • yozyoz Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    So today (Oct 4th) we have a new news post, and... a new comic? Dunno, 'cos the link in the news post (text "as surprised as we were") goes to the Oct 2nd comic. Poo!

    yoz on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    yoz wrote:
    So today (Oct 4th) we have a new news post, and... a new comic? Dunno, 'cos the link in the news post (text "as surprised as we were") goes to the Oct 2nd comic. Poo!

    This is happening for todays comic as well. Link points to previous comic, going directly to http://pen../comic shows current comic.

    Again, seems like a weird problem to just "tolerate" don't you think?

    craiger316 on
  • ToastToast Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    In other news, comic updates seem to be working properly again, so props to whoever fixed that :D

    Toast on
  • VolmariasVolmarias Registered User new member
    edited October 2006
    Hi, I registered just for the chance to bitch and complain.

    Today's comic isn't up.
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic sends me to yesterdays
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/27 sends me to yesterdays
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20061027.jpg gives me 400, bad request ????

    What the hell. Do you have some sort of load balancing solution that doesn't actually update all of the servers until the day after?

    Volmarias on
  • WhippyWhippy Moderator, Admin Emeritus Admin Emeritus
    edited October 2006
    man, sometimes they're just late putting it up

    loosen your britches

    Whippy on
  • VolmariasVolmarias Registered User new member
    edited October 2006
    Then shouldn't they delay on the news post until the comic is up too?

    Volmarias on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2006
    why

    Tube on
  • AroducAroduc regular
    edited October 2006
    We don't like to talk about it, but the server is actually a pair of hamsters in a wheel.

    We were supposed to upgrade to a dachshund, but the wheel doesn't have enough RAM.

    Aroduc on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    man, sometimes they're just late putting it up

    loosen your britches

    Bzzzzt, wrong. For instance, today's post link is supposed to take me to the comic for "British spoken here" for 10/27/2006, yet it takes me to "Misdirection" for 10/25/2006. If I type in http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic it takes me to the proper one "British spoken here"

    Yet, the link in the posting was for the correct date: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/27

    After I viewed the comic via the /comic link, I tried the http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/27 link again and it actually took me to the correct comic, not sure why/how.

    craiger316 on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2006
    it's a free site. It has problems. You're not paying for it. Shut up.

    Tube on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited October 2006
    Volmarias wrote:
    Hi, I registered just for the chance to bitch and complain.

    I like you already. <3

    Echo on
  • AroducAroduc regular
    edited October 2006
    it's a free site. It has problems. You're not paying for it. Shut up.

    Man, Tube. This forum is specifically here for complaining about problems with the site. Whippy said "No, the problem doesn't exist" and someone else then confirmed that it really does. Ease off.

    Aroduc on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2006
    I'm aware of the nature of the forum, but I'd rather people weren't dicks about the problems they're having, rather than the "bzzt wrong" bullshit.

    Tube on
  • VolmariasVolmarias Registered User new member
    edited October 2006
    At least I'm being honest. I just want to know whether it's an issue of the comic not being uploaded, or a load balancing not distributing it amongst itself, or what.

    Volmarias on
  • EinhanderEinhander __BANNED USERS regular
    edited October 2006
    God forbid someone asks a question about something not working in the forum that exists partially for questions about things not working. :roll:

    It's not like anyone was being a dick, they are legit concerns. I'm sure that we all appreciate the work that Gabe, Tycho, WhipstichZombie, and AlphaMonkey do (especially Alpha on the occasions that the servers shit the bed and he has to spend a ton of time fixing it). <3<3<3 :winky:

    I usually view the comic in the SE++ thread, since I can view it there usually quite a while before I can view it on the main site. This leads me not to read the newspost, or even look on the front page most of the time, which only drops the amount of ad views reported, which drops the amount of money the site makes. I know one person not viewing some ads might not make any kind of viewable impact, but it's still (if I'm not the only person who does that) something that the admins might want to know about, especially Khoo, since he's in charge of ads and revenue.

    Just a thought.

    Einhander on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited October 2006
    The ads here make about 27p a day.

    Tube on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    I'm aware of the nature of the forum, but I'd rather people weren't dicks about the problems they're having, rather than the "bzzt wrong" bullshit.

    [Warning: long post]

    You are too easily offended. The fact of the matter is, I posed a question and all I have receive is speculation. And false speculation at that. Not someone in charge stating "we are aware of the problem, here's why it happens". No. Just users speculating why the problem happens.

    "It's a free site, live with it..." That was exactly the response I thought I would get within about 2 seconds of posting the original question. Instead I was pleasantly surprised that other users of the site were as frustrated and bewildered as I. The site isn't *free*, its evolved past that state, it is a vehicle to sell stuff. It's not to say that they don't love what they do, but as far as I know, T&G buy diapers with the cash generated by the marketing aspects of the site. If the site were to one day disappear, would T&G get paid? This isn't like xkcd where the guy works for nasa during the day and draws stick figures and the mom-jokes that go along with them in his spare time.

    Would people still be interested in the printed material for sale if the site didn't exist? Maybe the diehard fans. But truth of the matter is, they sell us stuff by producing a "free" comic and then whispering "oh and by the way, go here to buy a shirt/poster/PaX tickets...". And avertisers pay them, not only for original content ads, but the advertisers are interested in placing ads on their site based on the metrics for how many people visit their site per day/month/year. They pay for your eyes (afaik).

    In conclusion: I'm not hating here, I have no resentment that they make their living doing what I would love to be able to do, I say hats off to you nobel sirs. I just don't get why the chronic archive problem has existed so long. yes, yes I know, its little more than an "incovenience". I guess the fact that I code these types of systems for a living grants me the obsessive compulsive nature of wanting to know why they are broken and how they can be fixed. I don't mean to offend and sorry if I came across that way.

    craiger316 on
  • scandalscandal Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    I think your problem seems to be your making too many assumptions. I'm sure this site doesn't operate as flawlessly as the sites you work on seem to. And it is free in the sense that you are not directly paying them anything to view the site and its content.

    scandal on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    scandal wrote:
    I think your problem seems to be your making too many assumptions. I'm sure this site doesn't operate as flawlessly as the sites you work on seem to. And it is free in the sense that you are not directly paying them anything to view the site and its content.

    Alright. I give up, I'll just put up with it and as Cardboard Tube said "Shut up". But (and there is always a but) it's old style thinking to say I'm not paying them anything by visiting their site. True, not directly, but its how the spice flows in the internet age...

    Au Revoir.

    craiger316 on
  • yozyoz Registered User regular
    edited October 2006
    scandal wrote:
    I think your problem seems to be your making too many assumptions. I'm sure this site doesn't operate as flawlessly as the sites you work on seem to. And it is free in the sense that you are not directly paying them anything to view the site and its content.

    And similarly, we are freely submitting an explained bug report, which in itself is valuable - the kind of thing that companies employ Quality Assurance people for. Y'know, if I was running a website that both showcased my creative work and provided my main source of income, I'd definitely want to know if there was something wrong. (Don't forget, PA is a business.)

    We're not bitching, we're explaining that something's wrong and it impacts site usage. That's what this forum's for, remember?

    yoz on
  • ÄlphämönkëyÄlphämönkëy Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Hey All!
    This thread slipped under my radar. I'm just posting to say I am aware of the problem, and I'm trying to figure out where the issue stems from. Right now, it doesn't look to be a code issue so much as a data issue. I'll address the posts individually later tonight, I would appreciate it if people kept things civil in here though. I understand there are problems with the site, and I will do what I can to resolve those, but if I don't fix your specific bug immediately please do not take it personally.

    Älphämönkëy on
  • craiger316craiger316 Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Hey All!
    This thread slipped under my radar. I'm just posting to say I am aware of the problem, and I'm trying to figure out where the issue stems from. Right now, it doesn't look to be a code issue so much as a data issue. I'll address the posts individually later tonight, I would appreciate it if people kept things civil in here though. I understand there are problems with the site, and I will do what I can to resolve those, but if I don't fix your specific bug immediately please do not take it personally.

    Thanks alpha, will be nice to see the links/archive back in order.

    craiger316 on
  • yozyoz Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Hey All!
    This thread slipped under my radar. I'm just posting to say I am aware of the problem, and I'm trying to figure out where the issue stems from. Right now, it doesn't look to be a code issue so much as a data issue. I'll address the posts individually later tonight, I would appreciate it if people kept things civil in here though. I understand there are problems with the site, and I will do what I can to resolve those, but if I don't fix your specific bug immediately please do not take it personally.

    Great! Glad to hear that there's an admin on it. Thanks!

    yoz on
  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Not an admin. The admin.

    (Whippy doesn't do this kind of thing)

    Kaputa on
  • yozyoz Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Kaputa wrote:
    Not an admin. The admin.

    Oops. Begging your pardon, Mr Admin Sir.

    *tugs forelock, bows*

    yoz on
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