Announcements

EarlG

(23,182 posts) Wed Jul 30, 2025, 09:40 PM Jul 30

137

Expected DU downtime for maintenance: Thursday July 31, 1 PM ET (UPDATE)

Last edited Thu Jul 31, 2025, 02:32 PM - Edit history (2)

UPDATE: JULY 31, 2PM ET

Downtime is over for now, and we have completed the updates that we needed to complete.

HOWEVER...

Due to the nature of this update, there is a fairly high potential for glitches and odd things to happen. Most of these glitches, should they occur, will be related to caching. Essentially, "old" data and instructions might still be left behind, even though the update has been performed. It's possible -- depending on the seriousness of the glitches -- that we will have to take the site down again and revert the changes that we've made.

If you experience any "weirdness" of any kind, please report it to me via email (earlg@democraticunderground.com). Email is better than DU Mail, just in case DU Mail is affected. When reporting any bugs or glitches, please do your best to explain the problem as explicitly as possible -- use as much detail as you can.

If we need to bring the site down again, it's likely that we will not post an announcement first -- the site will just become unavailable and you'll get the "DU is currently offline for maintenance" message. If we need to provide you with additional information, we'll do so through that message. Should something go seriously wrong, we'll update our social media pages with information.

Otherwise, we're hopeful that everything went according to plan and further action won't be necessary. I'll update you again once we're confident that things are stable.

(Note that non-Star Members will not see ads temporarily. We will be performing a brief code update to bring them back tomorrow morning -- enjoy it while it lasts!)

ORIGINAL MESSAGE

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the late notice, but DU will be down for maintenance for a few hours on Thursday.

Over the past year or so DU has seen a significant increase in bot traffic -- particularly AI scrapers -- which don't produce any ad revenue but do significantly increase our server costs. This has been a real struggle for many independent websites, and an existential crisis for some. Tomorrow's downtime is part of an effort to mitigate that problem.

We will also be making a change to the way ads are loaded on DU, although this should not (if everything works correctly) make any difference to non-Star Members who are already seeing ads. It should provide a couple of fixes for Star Members -- for example, you should no longer see things like the random cookie banner which I know has been an annoyance for some people.

We do not know how much downtime will be required. We're thinking maybe 2-3 hours, although hopefully it will be quicker. If anything goes wrong -- which unfortunately is always a possibility when doing things like this -- we may need to revert the changes, which might mean additional downtime.

If we determine that the downtime is going to take significantly longer than expected, I'll update people by posting on our Facebook page and on our Bluesky page.

https://www.facebook.com/democraticunderground

https://bsky.app/profile/demunderground.bsky.social

I may also send an email out to our mailing list. If you are not already on the mailing list, you can join here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=contact

Finally, just to head off any questions about why we don't do this in the middle of the night, we've found that in the event we need tech support from any of the third parties involved in this process, we can get it much faster during regular business hours. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it's just better for us to do it this way. We hope the downtime will be brief and everything will be back to normal quickly.

Thanks for reading!

-- EG

35 replies

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Highlight:

Expected DU downtime for maintenance: Thursday July 31, 1 PM ET (UPDATE) (Original Post) EarlG Jul 30 OP

Thank you, EarlG. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly. You and Elad niyad Jul 30 #1

And now I have no excuse to put errands off! marble falls Jul 30 #24

It's this. MontanaMama Jul 31 #26

Dammit. I've put off buying that hose clamp too long. No more Lake Marble Falls in my back yard. marble falls Jul 31 #28

Thanks for the headsup malaise Jul 30 #2

Thanks for the heads up, EarlG - and wishing you and Elad every success! Rhiannon12866 Jul 30 #3

Give the hamsters some blueberries during the down time. They will enjoy it immensely. . . . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Jul 30 #4

THANK YOU EARL BOSSHOG Jul 30 #5

Thank you for the heads up, EG. sheshe2 Jul 30 #6

Thank you! 2naSalit Jul 30 #7

Thanks, EarlG and Elad Alice Kramden Jul 30 #8

Thanks, EarlG. May you and Elad have great success addressing this bot issue. Patience is not easy, but you've got mine hlthe2b Jul 30 #9

Thank you and all concerned orangecrush Jul 30 #10

Thank you, EarlG! And damn the AI companies for the harm they're doing to the internet. I wish highplainsdem Jul 30 #11

Best of luck with this. greatauntoftriplets Jul 30 #12

Good luck with the bot/AI extermination! LearnedHand Jul 30 #13

Thank You for taking such good tech care us all. democratic underground has enhanced my life George McGovern Jul 30 #14

Shields up! blogslug Jul 30 #15

All good things come to those who wait... JoseBalow Jul 30 #16

Thank you for everything you do - and if posting to social media becomes necessary, an email FemDemERA Jul 30 #17

They are absolutely right. Daytime server upgrades don't always go as plan and tech support might be needed. usaf-vet Jul 30 #18

Thanks for the heads up. mwmisses4289 Jul 30 #19

Thanks, one of the great things (and there are many) about this website dgauss Jul 30 #20

By coincidence, Surfered will also be down for maintenance a few hours Thursday as well. surfered Jul 30 #21

git r done . AllaN01Bear Jul 30 #22

You've never led us on, do what you need to do! marble falls Jul 30 #23

Good luck & thank you for all your hard work!!! CaptainTruth Jul 31 #25

KICK Hekate Jul 31 #27

😐 dweller Jul 31 #29

Mahalo for everything you and Elad DU Cha Jul 31 #30

Much appreciation Alice Kramden Jul 31 #31

Thank you for the update, EarlG, and for all you and Elad do to make this site work! FemDemERA Jul 31 #32

Thank you for the update! CaptainTruth Jul 31 #33

This message was self-deleted by its author jfz9580m Aug 1 #34

That was pretty damned malaise Aug 3 #35

niyad

(127,254 posts)

1. Thank you, EarlG. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly. You and Elad