Language: English [ others ]

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

A new post to hang comments on

We've hit 259 comments on the last post. That's a lot of words. I'm making a new one here to clear the baffles.

178 Comments:

Blogger Megan said...

I've been on LT for a couple of years now, and this is the first outage that has inconvenienced me. And that's what it has done - inconvenienced me. It hasn't destroyed my day, or caused me to lose faith in humanity. And for the record, I do not have my head up Tim's butt, although I am sure he's a nice guy and all. I will be patient and wait for LT to be back up and running, and enjoy looking at everyone's bookpiles, and get on with my life. Some people out there just need to chill.

6/13/2007 12:07 PM  
Anonymous readafew said...

Lost, aimless, adrift, purposeless, directionless, unsettled, rootless...


I think I'm going through dt's

6/13/2007 12:10 PM  
Blogger mbernardi said...

I've been a bit lost without LT having just unpacked 4 boxes of books to put on the newly built bookcases.

But it's not the end of the world.

If you look at the contacts there are FOUR staff running the whole operation.

And though I'm in the UK so noting was happening in MY mornings, I look forward to the resumtion of service soon.

6/13/2007 12:19 PM  
Blogger Mark said...

I am decaying away
give me my LT
no breaks now.

This moment I realize how much LibraryThing has become a part of my life :)

Must.. index.... book... soon.

Thanks for the good work guys, and hopefully it comes up soon! Best wishes!

6/13/2007 12:24 PM  
Anonymous tsanchezt said...

Is it just me who bought a new pair of books today thinking he could go on with them without LT available for cataloguing ? I did. Although I knew I would miss it, I couldn't avoid getting, for just ten bucks, "Nova" or "The Einstein Intersection" on hardcover from Delany.

6/13/2007 12:27 PM  
Anonymous Leebot said...

My husband Tim (for whom my e-mail the other night was actually intended) is from Ireland. Lucky you, I love visiting that part of the world, and I hoped you took advantage of your ice cream visit to snag a few Magnum bars.

I remember back in June 1999 (I think), the great eBay was down for something like 24 hours, maybe even longer. That company too had to go through some growing pains and learn from experience the need for redundant servers etc. Of course in that case, eBay's outage created a lot of consternation among folks who had built a business around it.

I can't get too exercised about this outage because as much as I love and miss LT, it's a hobby for me. Hang in there, don't let the b's getcha down.

6/13/2007 12:29 PM  
Anonymous Conkie said...

Growing pains... who's never experienced them?!
I'm not surprised that "the systems" can (and do) "go down", since we're also their designers/builders.
Disappointed LT'ers out there -remember the monetary investment required of you to "LT" your books, etc. You are getting so much more than what you put monetarily into it!
Yes, you have also invested your time, but think about how Tim & the LT staff must feel. They've put their lives into this site. This is their full time job and beyond!
Tim, Abby,.... keep up the good work. I know "L'ing's" will be looking up!

6/13/2007 12:33 PM  
Anonymous Ray said...

Am I in the right place?I read an article about library thing but this looks like a blog.Is this supposed to be like shelfari?I dont get it.This says post comments?

6/13/2007 12:35 PM  
Blogger Tim said...

Above: Yes, Shelfari is a copy of LibraryThing. LibraryThing is currently having a down time. Shelfari and the 30-odd other imitators (and one or two originals) are not.

News: John says things are looking up. Also, I'm working on a scheme to spread the load among the current servers, if that fails. I am not sure it can handle it, but it's worth a try if John's route doesn't pan out.

Second update: The Sligo Clarion hotel gives you a fortune cookie when you order fries and coffee. I don't know why. Mine says "love overcomes everything." Hold hands and the server will mend.

6/13/2007 12:43 PM  
Blogger clamairy said...

It might be difficult to hold anyone's hand, with my head ensconced where it is, Tim. ;o) *joke*

Thanks for handling this whole thing with such grace, all of you on the LT team.

Here's hoping for some seriously good mojo!

6/13/2007 12:56 PM  
Anonymous 9days said...

I just got two books in the mail today from Amazon. They're sitting there uncataloged. That's not natural.

Well, we could play 20 questions in the meantime...

I'm thinking of something blue.

6/13/2007 1:00 PM  
Anonymous Morphidae said...

Hey, Clam, turn on the light. It's dark in here.

*shrieks*

Turn it off! Turn.it.off!

6/13/2007 1:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

9days: Forget-me-nots?

We could also have a down time book challenge.

marise

6/13/2007 1:05 PM  
Blogger Caroline541 said...

Something blue - that would be me because LT is down.
So sad - so blue

6/13/2007 1:06 PM  
Blogger clamairy said...

Morphy, I'm going to need therapy now. :o)

6/13/2007 1:10 PM  
Anonymous tsanchezt said...

Maybe you mean a colour but the first book which came to my mind was "End of the world blues" from Jon Courtenay Grimwood. Can't think on another one right now, although I didn't buy it. Should I ?

6/13/2007 1:12 PM  
Anonymous tsanchezt said...

"Blue Mars" from Kim Stanley Robinson, which I own, would do. Now it's my turn. I'm making plans for this "summer". Anyone ?

6/13/2007 1:17 PM  
Blogger Blue Tyson said...

Polar City Blues is fun.

6/13/2007 1:17 PM  
Anonymous 9days said...

Caroline541,

You win!

Your turn.

6/13/2007 1:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is a sad thing but one that can be corrected with time and a little patience- carmela

6/13/2007 1:29 PM  
Anonymous Katherine said...

computers are weird

6/13/2007 1:41 PM  
Anonymous sat said...

Expecting my mother-in-law tomorrow for a week long visit, so I've been organizing my books/ things here. No necessity to catalogue but it's a periodic reward (sort of the concentrated umph.) In anticipation of the resurgence of this site, I toying with the plan of composing a text file of the ISBNs or Library of Congress Cat. Numbers, or (if predating these identifiers) just the author's last name, comma, and book title. So when we're back on-line I can jump start my part. This stop-gap plan might be helpful to others here.

6/13/2007 1:42 PM  
Anonymous laytonwoman3rd said...

YAY! That other thread was getting ridikulus.

Next, of course, we'll have to deal with the crash that results from all us junkies logging back on when the stie is back up...

6/13/2007 1:44 PM  
Anonymous laytonwoman3rd said...

Umm 'site"
But you knew that

6/13/2007 1:45 PM  
Blogger Tim said...

Yeah, I think we'll let people back in one IP number at a time. No, I
won't tell you which numbers will be first. You'll all go out and use
proxies to get a different IP...

6/13/2007 1:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tim: Any chance of collecting your status comments from the previous entry and adding them to the text of this entry?

6/13/2007 2:01 PM  
Anonymous 9days said...

Certainly you'll let AOL users on first, since you feel so bad for us having crappy IPs : )

6/13/2007 2:15 PM  
Anonymous clelly said...

It's a very cool side effect of this Terrible Crisis that everyone's chatting together on the blog instead of being holed up alone with our CueCats. But what's REALLY cool is that when LT is back up, I'll actually be able to delete a bunch of my "unread" tags. Hey, every cloud has a silver lining...

6/13/2007 2:18 PM  
Anonymous teelgee said...

Site will be "up by dinner" -- ok, is that 'dinner' as in the mid-day meal of the farm belt? (where supper is the evening meal) or "dinner" as in east coast chic 9pm meal? or the Italian version of dinner at midnight? ;o)

Really, I'm being patient and appreciate all the work you guys are putting into it.

6/13/2007 2:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I posted two photos to Flickr a while ago and tagged them as LTdown. Do I need to do anything else as they are not showing with others?

6/13/2007 2:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Don't go on a hunger strike."

We're not the ones living on fries and coffee! They have some great food in Ireland. Please, relax for a while and eat a decent meal.

"let people back in"

Some of us are honest people, and would never dream of going out and using proxies to jump the queue. (Nothing to do with the fact that we don't even know how to do that.) Surely you'll let those people go first.

6/13/2007 2:26 PM  
Blogger Tom said...

Can anyone tell me what books to buy .. I can't buy a damned thing without my LT TBR list! How can I not buy books ??... arrrgggg!!

6/13/2007 2:33 PM  
Blogger Elle Vee said...

And I JUST found the 'take shelves' at work! Oh, sweet irony! Now I am sitting in my little cubicle surrounded by pretty new books, unable to read OR log.

Seriously, though [and my head is near NO ONE'S sphincter], the effort put into fixing these problems is quite heartening, as are the constant updates, which have kept me from total mental collapse. Or boredom. Yeah, OK, boredom.

6/13/2007 2:35 PM  
Anonymous sat said...

Those 259 previous comments can still be read (in all their glory). Go to the main LibraryThing blog page and near the top on the right under "Previous Posts" select the topmost field or so. This way Tim needn't repost his comments; they are accessible still. Just twiddling, being helpful and amusinging myself by reading and writing comments.

6/13/2007 2:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I literally have been on LT for about 10 minutes of my life.. during that time that it was back up yesterday, or whenever that was. I don't know Tim, John, or Abby. I loved it for the time that I got to check it out, and I'm excited to use it more.
But I am SHOCKED at how rude people are being about LT being down. This definitely DOES happen, and whatever your feelings are, there is no reason to be so rude about it all. Why don't you wait until later to politely give them your suggestions?? Complaining and attacking them definitely won't fix anything, and probably will only make things worse because these people who are working their butts off to fix the problem.
And this ridiculous stuff about John's vacation... it's none of anyone's business if he was or was not working, people are allowed to take a break from life. John, I wish that you had been on a real vacation instead of a fake one... it seems like you deserve it.
I can't wait to use LT more, and thanks for everything you're doing.
And go on a vacation when you're done... all three of you! You need it!

6/13/2007 3:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I strongly recommend Macintosh servers....

6/13/2007 3:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I miss my Mommy

6/13/2007 3:54 PM  
Blogger amanaceer said...

i think i will do a couple of cartwheels and squeal loudly in delight when the site is back up and running!!! :)

6/13/2007 3:58 PM  
Anonymous drbubbles said...

anonymous said...

> [lots of things at 3:11 PM on 6/13/2007]

Hear, hear! Because we all know that nothing changes behavior one finds objectionable faster and more reliably than a generalized, anonymous scolding in a public forum! (Except maybe a sound thrashing by an ape of some sort. But, sadly, the intertubes can't accommodate ape-scale bandwidth yet....)

6/13/2007 4:24 PM  
Anonymous MerryMary said...

peace...rainbows...puppies...cool shade...moonlight on sand...bluebirds...peace...


This too shall pass. We will again be as one. Embrace the peace...Become the peace...

Love you all.

6/13/2007 4:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is directed at anyone who thinks this situation is no big deal--

I looked at comptetiters sites- yes I looked- and found something interesting. On the anobii blog there was a post dated May 12th saying they were reaching there 500,000th book. Which feels like no big whoop except there current count is 960,000 plus. The books catalogued doubled in a month, which coincides with the problems LT has been having the last month. I doubt that's a coincidence.

It's dangerous and blind methinks to say this is no big deal. People will go elsewhere for good service.

6/13/2007 4:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"**I met my husband online using a Commodore 64 and 300 baum modem in 1989. :D"

Ahhhh ... how I miss all the old romance in life! Tea at Tiffany's; a late supper at the Savoy; a Mediterranean cruise through the Greek islands; a glorious night at the Met. or Covent Garden opera house; drinking and gambling into the night at Monte Carlo; being dressed to the nines in a tux and dancing and carousing in the early hours of the morning to the dulcet strains of Bix Beiderbecke and his hot jazz ensemble; and, of course, those halcyon, carefree hours spent unshaven in my terrycloth bathrobe chatting-up chics on a Commodore 64 via a 300 baud modem. :) Oh, how I miss the eighties! :(

That decade had such class ... such elegance ... such style ... such poise ... such joie de vivre. Unfortunately, all those happy, indolent, lotus-eating, frolics of my salad days spent with a bulky keyboard and a battered Hayes modem are now now just faint, fond memories of a past Golden Age. :(

So thank you so much, Morphidae, for helping me to recapture some of the ecstasy and joy of my misspent youth with such a poetic post ... for a brief moment there all mu past bliss came flooding back to me!

Rule42

6/13/2007 4:43 PM  
Anonymous 9days said...

Trunk Monkey! That made me giggle.

6/13/2007 4:44 PM  
Blogger Tom said...

wow mr. anonymous (if thats even your real name!) .. a few months ago I did import my catalog over to anbii to test it out .. I spent a couple of hours there (wasted hours) and quickly rushed back to LT.

I'd bet you a fair amount of money that Tim, John, and Abby feel that this downtime is a very big deal.

your anger is misdirected .. look at your anger .. then let it go.. let it be.

6/13/2007 4:50 PM  
Blogger Bobbie said...

Just a little reminder for us to be grateful for what we have every day. LibraryThing will be back up and running and I'll thank God for letting me participate on this wonderful site. I wouldn't want to be in the support people's shoes. The stress must be immense. Just chill, thing will be ok. And p.s. I'll remember you in my prayers.

6/13/2007 4:51 PM  
Blogger Tom said...

merrymary ... I think that's a book.. "Being Peace" - by Thich Nhat Hanh

(a very good book! )

6/13/2007 4:52 PM  
Anonymous laytonwoman3rd said...

"people will go elsewhere for good service"

Well, go. We won't miss you, because we don't know who you are. Is it possible to disable the ability to post anonymously on here? I don't see any advantage in it, except to people who want to be snarky without being identified,by so much as a made-up user name.

6/13/2007 4:59 PM  
Blogger Liz said...

So, disaster, for not only is LT down (ok, so as people have pointed out, maybe that's not so much a disaster, more an inconvenience) but DISASTER, for my bookpile entry isn't showing up on flickr, despite my correct taggage!

Thus I am posting a link here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8877178@N07/544534806/

There. :-)

6/13/2007 5:01 PM  
Blogger Dennis said...

Has the site been down? I'm afraid I've been too busy doing things like going to work every day to notice.

6/13/2007 5:05 PM  
Blogger sheherazahde said...

I have become very dependent on LT. I have been trying to catalog my collection for 15 years, but I have made more progress in the few months that I have been using LT.

This outage is distressing for me. But the service is so valuable that I can afford to be patient.

Even with the service down for two days I still am farther ahead then I would have been without it.

6/13/2007 5:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Is it possible to disable the ability to post anonymously on here?"

laytonwoman3rd, people are posting anonymously because the only other options are to post with a Google or Blogger user id. or with a web page address. Even if some of us have those, if they are NOT the same id. as our regular LT user id. then it is still effectively an anonymous post. I am not sure how folks are posting with their actual LT id. - I'm assuming it is because they use that same id. everywhere on the web (or at least on Blogger and/or Google).

6/13/2007 5:12 PM  
Anonymous Morphidae said...

Under choose an identity, pick "Other" then all you have to do is type in your name. No website is required.

6/13/2007 5:16 PM  
Anonymous lorax said...

anonymous @5:12, I don't have a Google/Blogger ID. So I click on "Other" and use my LT username. You could use anything you wanted, but if nothing else not using "anonymous" gives people a way of distinguishing among the multiple anonymouses. [This is when I like the /. approach of replacing "anonymous" with "anonymous coward" for people who can't even be bothered to come up with a creative throwaway ID.]

(It *asks* for a web page, but also states that it's optional.)

6/13/2007 5:21 PM  
Anonymous Rule42 said...

Thanks, mothy-drawers ... :)

6/13/2007 5:22 PM  
Anonymous TomVeal said...

Despite problems like this prolonged outage, I have no plans to abandon LT. I do worry, however, that it will eventually abandon me. A business model based on collecting a one-time fee of $25 or less doesn't strike me as viable in the long run. That's why I'm careful to download my catalogue at frequent intervals, lest the results of my work vanish into cyberlimbo.

6/13/2007 5:27 PM  
Anonymous Rule42 said...

"multiple anonymouses"

anonymouses ????

Anonymii surely?

We're all anonymous on the web, lorax ... or should that be Mr. Lorax?

Rule42 (NOT rule42!)

6/13/2007 5:35 PM  
Anonymous FicusFan said...

I too am dismayed with the Rudeness and the lack of perspective shown by people who can't deal with the outage.

Yes, you may have paid for it, but as a lifetime member myself, it isn't a large amount. And wouldn't even cover the hour of a computer professional's time.

It also isn't a regular problem, so I think the users should in fact think of it as no big deal. I don't for a minute think that Tim, Abby and John do. That is a distinction that some have failed to make.

Computer problems happen and that is a fact of life. You deal with it, learn from it, and move on.

I have had wonderful service, whenever I have a problem or a question, and I think they do a very good job with the public service also. That doesn't mean they are perfect, or can't improve. But kicking people when they are down is repulsive.

Constructive criticism from members of the community is helpful. Potshots from the 'anonymous' peanut gallery are not.

6/13/2007 5:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Appropriate stack of books considering the situation. (See titles on spines.) Hope things get going again soon. Thanks for your site and your concern.

Pat

6/13/2007 5:48 PM  
Anonymous avaland said...

Rule42,

If you're missing it that much, we have a Commodore 64 and a working Vic 20 in the basement - yours for the asking...(along with an entire MAC museum).

Tim, Abby, John; we're with you so hang in there. LT is the best $25 I've spend in a very long time!

6/13/2007 5:48 PM  
Anonymous Rule42 said...

My LTdown bookpile photo

Just testing if I can post real links here. At least the post "Preview" function works under "Other" ... because it doesn't if you post anonymously!

Rule42

6/13/2007 5:50 PM  
Blogger Stephanie said...

I blame the current zombie apocalypse. Will be waiting patiently for LT to come back up.

6/13/2007 6:05 PM  
Anonymous DromJohn said...

As I've said, the book on top of my to be cataloged queue is by Judith Viorst.

So, I'm driving home today, and Daniel Schorr starts talking about the fans dislike of The Sopranos ending. Means nothing to Daniel because he wasn't a The Sopranos fan. But his good friend Judith Viorst was a big fan; such a big fan that if The Sopranos producers wanted to end it with a big blackout then that was ok with her.

Omen, from my next LT author. Is the big blackout ok with me, even if I'm a fan?


;-)

6/13/2007 6:06 PM  
Anonymous bherner said...

Who would have thought readers would be so impatient. I'm betting they all have big piles of books they could be reading.

6/13/2007 6:20 PM  
Anonymous lorax said...

rule42, "lorax" is my LT handle, and my standard blog-commenting ID. Nobody says you need to use your real name, but something consistent and non-ambiguous is always a help.

"Megan" and "Mark" and "Ray" aren't necessarily using their real names, either -- I could just as easily sign things as "Steve" and nobody would ever suspect I was pseudonymous.

6/13/2007 6:31 PM  
Anonymous Leebot said...

Okay, I uploaded my Book Pile photo. It's my first one ever so I have no idea when to expect it to show up (or if I even did it correctly).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8881494@N03/544823559/

6/13/2007 6:33 PM  
Anonymous Rule42 said...

"If you're missing it that much, we have a Commodore 64 and a working Vic 20 in the basement - yours for the asking...(along with an entire MAC museum)."

No thanks, avaland, I have my own mini-museum full of techno-artifacts from the 80s and 90s, which I have no intention of resurrecting back to life (in the spirit of BLITEOTW) let alone expanding!

I suggest you offer your old Commodore 64 and a Vic 20 to Tim ... he might be able to utilize them as redundant primary servers.

Rule42

6/13/2007 6:38 PM  
Anonymous Kenya said...

While I think some have expressed their frustrations rudely, I disagree that it is no big deal. I have two collections on LibraryThing for which I'm responsible, my personal collection (kahudson) and our center's small reading room. We are in negotiations with the library regarding inclusion in their catalog, but that's a long (odd) story. Basically, we needed a temporary solution until we could work something out with them. Having used LT for my personal collection, I suggested it to my supervisor.

The books are being appraised just as we are finishing inputting them. (By my estimate we have 400-600 left.) The appraiser had a deadline of tomorrow. We've brought on graduate assistants especially for this. Obviously, we haven't been able to add them to the system. I understand the downtime, but my supervisor does not. My humble suggestion is not looking as good now.

I understand that things happen. (I would have preferred they happen a month earlier or a month later.) I also understand that these sorts of things take time. No, it isn't a big deal for my personal collection. However, it can be under other circumstances. As I hope that LTers deal with the staff/management courteously and with empathy, I wish that LTers would not minimize the problems this may have caused others by saying it's "no big deal."

6/13/2007 6:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

has anyone recommended Farina's Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me as part of a bookpile;)? Look forward to getting the site back... Thanks for letting us have it in the first place.

6/13/2007 6:51 PM  
Anonymous diane said...

you know ....I have never ever been to a web site that was down for over two days. This is not professional. This is amateur.....and the reason some do 'anonymous is because they may not have a google blog.

6/13/2007 7:01 PM  
Anonymous laytonwoman3rd said...

Thanks to morphidae and lorax for pointing out the various possibilities for posting here when you don't have a Google or Blogger account. Should have done so myself; I use the "Other" box too.

And the plural of "anonymous" is clearly "anonymice".

6/13/2007 7:02 PM  
Anonymous _zoe_ said...

Anonymii surely?

Surely not. What justification could there be for that form?

I think anonymi is most common, though I personally prefer anonymoi.

6/13/2007 7:04 PM  
Blogger clamairy said...

I prefer anonymeeses.

6/13/2007 7:16 PM  
Blogger Elle Vee said...

I wish they would update the main page. Every time I click, I feel a moment of hope, and then disappointment.

Incidentally, the new Nick Hornby book "Slam" might be a good addition to the bookpile.

Has anyone here read the poetry of A. Nonny Mouse?

6/13/2007 7:20 PM  
Blogger clamairy said...

Look Familiar?

6/13/2007 7:21 PM  
Anonymous clelly said...

Anonymice! LOVE it. How can I work it into a conversation? Besides this one?

6/13/2007 7:26 PM  
Anonymous nawatramani said...

I am sure you all have read the same sentiment from everyone else. Like a lot of other LT "addicts", I have been checking back on the site status multiple times a day. I love it and I miss it. I have made more progress in getting my books catalogued in the past few months since I joined LT than in all my years of reading and collecting prior to this. So YAY for LT!

Being in IT, dealing with HW and SW on a daily basis, I know that things like this can happen at any time. One can try and minimize the risk, find workarounds, work around the clock but **NOBODY** can guarantee a 100% uptime through the years. And while it may inconvenience some users and disastrously impact others, you must believe that the people/team responsible for the system are doing everything they can to make things right. Because whether we like it or not, the downtime is a direct reflection of the team's ability to deliver what the users need/want and nobody likes to admit failure (even if it is not something we can control). When you consider a startup like LT where the people supporting the site are also the ones who depend on it for their livelihood, the anguish, worry and stress is only compounded.

So let's all take a deep breath, take a step back, read some books and let Tim and his team set things right.

Last but not least, not sure if anyone else had the same experience but both times that the site was down, I e-mailed the team and both times, received a personal reply back from John with details. Not a canned reply, not a cut-n-paste status from the website home page but an actual reply addressing the issues I had raised in my e-mail. I find it mind-blowingly awesome that in the midst of all the chaos and worry, they could and did take the time to respond to my e-mail. If that doesn't show how much they value their users/customers and take any and all feedback seriously, then I don't know what does.

There! Now that I have that out of my system, it is time to go read some books and wait for LT to come back so I can go back to cataloging my collection.

BTW it is nice to see so many LTers sharing their thoughts on this blog. If nothing else, at least the downtime had the pleasant side-effect of making us gather here. :)

Nita

6/13/2007 7:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I suggest we just ignore the whiners. They are probably just thugs for the competing sites. Did you see anyone you know from LT whining? I guess not. Let's stop feeding the anonymous trolls.

6/13/2007 7:30 PM  
Anonymous _Zoe_ said...

But what does "we're replicating" mean in terms of how soon the site will be up?

6/13/2007 7:32 PM  
Blogger clamairy said...

OH! A Replicator!

"Earl Grey! Hot!"

:o)

6/13/2007 7:50 PM  
Anonymous dodger said...

The Day the Book Site Died
A Novella for LibraryThing addicts, by LibraryThing addicts.

Suzie Petulance was not unlike other kids her age: she enjoyed playing with her friends, reading books, and surfing the Internet. One glorious day, Suzie discovered a magical new Web site called LibraryThing.com. She was mesmerized by it, and quickly opened an account (she was, of course, at least thirteen years of age, as the Term of Service stated that she had to be).

She soon began cataloging her books, and even joined some of the sites many groups, where she met scores of interesting new friends from around the world. Suzie was soon spending every free hour on this new and wonderful site, even though it kept her from seeing her friends--or sunlight for that matter. She didn’t mind though, she had made new friends, albeit she couldn’t see them, she new they existed. And her skin had never looked better, so all-in-all she figured this to be a good thing.

Then one hot day in June (she, of course, lived in the northern hemisphere--it was a cool day in June for some of her new friends) a disastrous thing happed. That morning, she sat down at her computer, logged in to her LibraryThing and found...


Take it, someone.

6/13/2007 7:58 PM  
Anonymous nawatramani said...

In generic terms, replicating means they are making a copy of either the data or the whole system from a "source" (backup, another DB, another server) to the "destination" (the rebuilt server). Once done, the site should be up. :)

Time taken to complete this step depends on the amount of data to be replicated and the bandwith (how big the pipe is through which the data is traveling between source and destination) available.

Having said that, a cup of Earl Grey would definitely not be amiss, replicator or no replicator! Live long and prosper, LT! :)

Nita

6/13/2007 8:03 PM  
Blogger me said...

I too am an LT addict. I just want to say Thanks to the peeps that make LT possible. I know you are under a TON of stress to get back online so we can get our fix - just know that it is appreciated!

6/13/2007 8:09 PM  
Blogger Language said...

I suggest we just ignore the whiners. They are probably just thugs for the competing sites. Did you see anyone you know from LT whining? I guess not. Let's stop feeding the anonymous trolls.

Don't be ridiculous. It's great that so many users are patient and tolerant, and I'm sure Tim is very grateful for the supportive comments, but people have a right to be upset when a service they've paid for goes down for an unconscionable length of time. You realize there are institutions using this as part of their cataloguing system, right? If you were thinking of doing that, you'd probably be having second and third thoughts about now. And if you'd just convinced your boss to put money into a LT account, you'd probably be pretty pissed off.

I cringe when I see the aggressive comments, too, but you know what? Those people have a grievance and they have a right to express it however seems best to them, and you don't really come off to well calling them "anonymous trolls." This site is not your family or your spouse, it's a commercial website, and people who run such sites have to get used to dealing with heated complaints. I think Tim's doing well at that, and I suggest you leave it up to him. He doesn't need "supporters" who wantonly insult other paying customers.

6/13/2007 8:16 PM  
Blogger MIRV said...

I miss Library Thing *sniff* I might possibly be going through withdrawal as I have only cataloged a quarter of my book collection, if that (I think I was at 313 when LT died). But in the grand scheme of things a few days without LT will not ruin anyone's life. So long as we don't crash the server again in our rush to catalog new things once the site is up and running again!

6/13/2007 8:16 PM  
Anonymous bertilak said...

As one of the lucky winners of the IP lottery I can say 'Looking good!'. Hang in there, everybody.

6/13/2007 8:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

(Pechmerle, continuing Dodger's tale:)

that a zombie uprising had kidnapped the Web site's founder and spirited him off to Gibraltar. This wouldn't have been so bad, but it also meant that *gasp* the site was down! Distraught beyond tears, Suzie . . .

6/13/2007 8:28 PM  
Anonymous jen said...

Ok, I admit it, I checked out a copycat site this afternoon. Can I just say that Shelfari sucks? I lasted all of about 10 minutes before I decided I'd rather play with poison ivy.

6/13/2007 8:29 PM  
Anonymous John said...

I have spent the most enjoyable 15 minutes of my LT experience browsing the last howevermany comments(adding books is only fun in SM manuals). I think it is a wonderful site, and have recently finished cataloguing my library. Of all the posts I read, only one seemed to legitimately deserve our sympathy –someone had suggested using LT for more than just their own collection and it crashed at a time that only Murhpy could have chosen, proof if any is necessary that shit happens!
I too have had the incredibly fast and personal responses that have recently been mentioned, and am not even remotely pissed off by the outage. My hands are beginning to shake as I write this, however, as the latest Ian McEwan book has just arrived... so I have something that has not been bagged!!
Thanks you all at LT for wonderful service, and for scrambling as you have! Don't know how many customers you have in Chile, but this one loves ya...

6/13/2007 8:31 PM  
Anonymous Andrea said...

Thank you!

Is the "import books" feature currently down? I'm adding by hand right now, but with a little over 300 books, the evening looks daunting.

But thank you!

6/13/2007 8:33 PM  
Blogger Tim said...

Hi. Some points:

1. We're letting people in batches. We're at about 30% of IPs and it's holding up fine. If you are getting the down page, try clicking the logo to get to the home page. If you get the down page again, sorry, you're not lucky.
2. Various automatic processes will not run until sometime tomorrow. This includes the imports. We're trying to "control" as many factors as possible.
3. Some data, like the Zeitgeist, has not been updated in two days. It will update slowly. It's a big "behind the curve."
4. I'm currently repairing the books that have no work. There will be some problems there. They can be resolved.
5. We are going to do a big wrap-up blog post. What happened. What we learned. What we're going to do. It's not going to happen tonight. We need a little breathing room on this, and also to sleep, eat, talk to wives, etc.

6/13/2007 8:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I got on for about two minutes....hit the tag button and lost it again.......geez

6/13/2007 8:47 PM  
Blogger Tim said...

Define lost it. Got down page again?

6/13/2007 8:50 PM  
Blogger Renee said...

This post has been removed by the author.

6/13/2007 8:53 PM  
Anonymous varielle said...

xxx ooo to all you hardworker LT staffers. Put your feet up and have a beer.

6/13/2007 8:54 PM  
Blogger avidreader said...

Hurrah! Three cheers for the Library Thing Team!

6/13/2007 9:04 PM  
Blogger Fred Z said...

Yay! Welcome back. Immediately cataloged 8 books. ( I found a first US edition of MRS. MINIVER at a garage sale this afternoon.)

6/13/2007 9:10 PM  
Anonymous SqueakyChu said...

Thanks for working so hard over the past few days to get this site up and running again. As my kids might say, you rock!

...and I do have more books to catalog now! Yay!

6/13/2007 9:20 PM  
Anonymous laytonwoman3rd said...

Oh, bliss. I added two books, and updated my thread on the 50 Book Challenge Group. I will leave it there for tonight, so as not to overtax the recovery. Blessings on you, John and who-all. You done good.

6/13/2007 9:20 PM  
Blogger Daland said...

Snagged a quick backup to Yojimbo. Everything is there and the site looks good!

I will lay off for a few days to ease server stress. Great job to the LT crew. Perseverance pays off!

Best
Daland

6/13/2007 9:34 PM  
Anonymous Jerry said...

Good work folks.. I know it's been a hectic couple of days, but it's been appreciated...

6/13/2007 9:35 PM  
Blogger Ray Gray said...

A sober note on rebuilding from damage.

LibraryThing was launched on August 29th 2005, the same day and year that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States of American.

It will take decades to rebuild homes and lives due to Hurricane Katrina's fury.

Do not forget this fact as the small staff of LibraryThing attempts to have all ISPs link into the full service they have provided since 2005.

LT name Quotato
Real name Ray

6/13/2007 9:36 PM  
Blogger Robert Guffey said...

Bravo to the staff who worked hard over nights and vacations and across continents to get the site back up!

6/13/2007 9:39 PM  
Anonymous Mirichan said...

Glad to see you're back... as long as nothing was lost (and nothing appears to have been) I could live without it for a few hours [but I was VERY glad to see it back ^_^] AND I would like to thank you for having updated us along the way about