Scheduled Downtime for AO3 and Fanlore

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2015-03-18 18:37:57 UTC

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Banner by Diane with the outlines of a man and woman speaking with word bubbles, one of which has the OTW logo and the other which says 'OTW Announcement'

AO3 and Fanlore users take note: both sites will be down for scheduled maintenance this Friday, 20th March. The maintenance will take place from 17:30 to approximately 20:45 UTC. What time is that for me?

Note that maintenance may also take slightly longer than expected, so there is no need to contact us if you cannot access the site at exactly 20:45 UTC.

For site status updates about AO3 and Fanlore please follow @AO3_Status and @fanlore_news on Twitter.

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MickletheKoala Thu 19 Mar 2015 09:05AM UTC

How do I change the color of the background on create a work skin?

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1. AO3_Support (Official) Thu 19 Mar 2015 11:44PM UTC
  
  Hi, Koalasama:
  Thanks for asking about changing the background color in a work skin. The simplest way to change the background color for the entire work content, from the title to the endnotes, is the following:
  1. Log in and go to http://ao3.org/skins
  2. Click on "My Work Skins"
  3. Click on "Create Work Skin"
  4. Give the skin a name you'll recognize, like "backgroundcolor"
  5. Copy the following line into the "CSS" box (if it ends up on different lines, that's okay):
  #workskin { background-color: pink; }
  6. Click Submit.
  When you go to post a work, you'll do everything you normally do, but before you click "Preview" or "Post", go to the Associations heading on that page and select "backgroundcolor" in the "Select Work Skin" pulldown. The site will automatically load the skin when someone views the page, and all of your text will be formatted without having to change any specific code! And if pink isn't to your liking, you can use any of the color names listed at http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_colornames.asp .
  If this isn't what you're needing, let us know!
  Best,
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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Shinska Thu 19 Mar 2015 08:07PM UTC

Question. Are the works buttons suppose to lead to an error message? I was trying to go to one of the people I'm subscribed to to read one of their stories and it led to an error message and didn't have a number for their works.

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1. AO3_Support (Official) Thu 19 Mar 2015 11:45PM UTC
  
  Hi, Shinska:
  They shouldn't, no. I'm afraid that preparations for some server changes we're implementing tomorrow (http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/2648) caused some unexpected downtime. The work is ongoing, so you may encounter further connection issues or other weirdness.
  We're sorry for the difficulties! You can follow our Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/AO3_Status) for information about current status of the Archive. If you have any questions, or your connection problems persist after we finish the maintenance work tomorrow, please let us know via the Support form.
  Best,
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
  Last Edited Thu 19 Mar 2015 11:45PM UTC
  
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isthisrubble Fri 20 Mar 2015 11:10AM UTC

hope the maintenance goes smoothly!

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Genuka Fri 20 Mar 2015 05:16PM UTC

You might note next time that if someone doesn't have a way to read the story they want to download other than their browser and don't want to use the HTML download for offline use they can simply load/open the entire story into their browser and leave it open. As long as the page/tab doesn't get refreshed or closed its effectively downloaded and stored in RAM ie. temporary storage. Of course the moment that it is refreshed or closed the story has to be available to be called up online if they want it back open immediately. Its a trick I use when I don't want to try and mess with actual downloads or they are unavailable and need to be able to access the information on the page for one reason or another when I'm going to be somewhere that I can't access the net. This also works if you load it and then send your computer into Hibernate or Sleep since it saves the RAM settings info even though it still counts as temporary storage.
I love this site!

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evie_marie Fri 20 Mar 2015 11:05PM UTC

Um... my book marks are not working and I have 51 bookmarks and i am only seeing the most recent 6

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:31AM UTC
  
  There is currently an info banner being displayed on most AO3 pages that says "We've had to rebuild our search index after moving our servers into their new home. While we're indexing all the works and bookmarks in our database, some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost. You can follow @AO3_Status on Twitter for more updates."
  So basically they did not go anywhere, they're just not appearing when you look for them. After the server update, the archive just needs to slowly go through and re-index every work and bookmark. It might take a while - I don't know how long.
  
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BardsAmbrosia Fri 20 Mar 2015 11:51PM UTC

Most of my Works are missing!!!

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:29AM UTC
  
  They did not actually go anywhere, they're just not appearing when you look for them. After the server update, the archive just needs to slowly go through and re-index every work and bookmark. It might take a while - I don't know how long.
  There is currently an info banner being displayed on most AO3 pages that says "We've had to rebuild our search index after moving our servers into their new home. While we're indexing all the works and bookmarks in our database, some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost. You can follow @AO3_Status on Twitter for more updates."
  Disclaimer: I am not a coder or staffer, just a tag wrangling volunteer.
  
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zhusanna Fri 20 Mar 2015 11:57PM UTC

...some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost.
Does this mean that our bookmarks will come back?

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:29AM UTC
  
  Yes, everything is still there -- it will just take time for all the works and bookmarks to be re-indexed so that they'll actually come up when you search for them.
  
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2. 1. zhusanna Sat 21 Mar 2015 06:32PM UTC
    
    Thank you! My bookmarks have already returned! *cheers*
    
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soreeyes Sat 21 Mar 2015 12:10AM UTC

Suggestion:
You should update the "edit work" so that when we're editing, instead of having to preview the work and then saving it without posting, we should be able to just press "save without posting" the first time we create something new. I'm kind of irritated when I have to preview something just so I can save it the first time around.

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CullenTerritory2 Sat 21 Mar 2015 12:47AM UTC

Yeah, uhm, I keep looking up a pairing I want and it keeps telling me that there is none in it, but this morning when I looked at it there was like 25 pages with the pairing in it. and I'm currently on page 19 of it, but when I go to load the next page it says there is none on it.

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:23AM UTC
  
  There is currently an info banner being displayed on most AO3 pages that says "We've had to rebuild our search index after moving our servers into their new home. While we're indexing all the works and bookmarks in our database, some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost. You can follow @AO3_Status on Twitter for more updates."
  Presumably this means that the other 6 pages of works haven't been re-indexed yet, so they won't currently appear in the results. They should eventually though.
  
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roosickle Sat 21 Mar 2015 01:08AM UTC

Ummm I'm gathering all my favourites will be back after the down time?please and thank you

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:23AM UTC
  
  Yes they will. :) It might take some time but everything should re-appear correctly.
  
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jjongffeine Sat 21 Mar 2015 01:28AM UTC

Although it has been said that no data was lost, I'm just still a little worried about the two out of seven works of mine that won't show up. Will they come back?

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1. dizmo Sat 21 Mar 2015 04:12AM UTC
  
  If it helps, the works are actually still there. (If you have their URLs, you can get to them directly.) What they're doing right now is reindexing all the works lists and bookmark lists directly. Which means basically rebuilding all the lists from scratch. It's an ENORMOUS amount of data given all the works and bookmarks, so it'll take a while, but it'll happen!
  
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2. 1. jjongffeine Sun 22 Mar 2015 09:47PM UTC
    
    Okay, thanks! I checked later and my works have come back.
    
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Lydia_E_Nheers Sat 21 Mar 2015 01:41AM UTC

Most of my work is missing too! Do I need to reload it?

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:24AM UTC
  
  Your works will re-appear once the search index has gone through and re-indexed every work and bookmark. It might take a while but eventually they'll all re-appear.
  
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veex Sat 21 Mar 2015 01:50AM UTC

Please say bookmarks will be returning D:

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:28AM UTC
  
  Yes, it might take some time for them to be re-indexed but they should be back eventually.
  
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TheDeadAreWalking Sat 21 Mar 2015 02:21AM UTC

WHERE DID ALL THE WORKS GO?!

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:19AM UTC
  
  They did not go anywhere, they're just not appearing when you look for them. After the server update, the archive just needs to slowly go through and re-index every work and bookmark. It might take a while - I don't know how long.
  There is currently an info banner being displayed on most AO3 pages that says "We've had to rebuild our search index after moving our servers into their new home. While we're indexing all the works and bookmarks in our database, some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost. You can follow @AO3_Status on Twitter for more updates."
  
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KelseyHeart Sat 21 Mar 2015 04:11AM UTC

Um... my book marks are not working and I have 266 and it only showing 61

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:17AM UTC
  
  There is currently an info banner being displayed on most AO3 pages that says "We've had to rebuild our search index after moving our servers into their new home. While we're indexing all the works and bookmarks in our database, some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost. You can follow @AO3_Status on Twitter for more updates."
  So no data has been lost. Basically the archive just needs to slowly go through and re-index every work and bookmark before they can appear when you search for them.
  Disclaimer: I am not a coder or staffer, just a tag wrangling volunteer.
  
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LovelyWords98 Sat 21 Mar 2015 05:31AM UTC

I used to have 222 bookmarks and ever since the now I only have 26. Is this because of the downtime? Or did I do something? Can it be fixed? I'm kind of freaking out...

Last Edited Sat 21 Mar 2015 05:32AM UTC

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1. Liviapenn Sat 21 Mar 2015 08:16AM UTC
  
  There is currently an info banner being displayed on most AO3 pages that says "We've had to rebuild our search index after moving our servers into their new home. While we're indexing all the works and bookmarks in our database, some numbers across the site might be off, and listings might be incomplete. Please rest assured that no data has been lost. You can follow @AO3_Status on Twitter for more updates."
  So no data has been lost. Basically the archive just needs to slowly go through and re-index every work and bookmark before they can appear when you search for them. It might take a while - I don't know how long.
  Disclaimer: I am not a coder or staffer, just a tag wrangling volunteer.
  
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Raberba girl (Raberba_girl) Mon 23 Mar 2015 03:44AM UTC

I don't understand why so many people seemed caught off-guard by the 'missing' works and bookmarks, even though there was a very prominently displayed message at the top of every page explaining what had happened....
Anyway, thank you, AO3 staff, for communicating so well with your users about planned downtime, and for keeping us updated via your social media sites! I appreciate it very much.

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ezia (Guest) Mon 23 Mar 2015 04:08PM UTC

This site doesn't load on opera mini. It's my only mobile browser. Ever since your server change nothing shows except for the website logo

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1. dizmo Tue 24 Mar 2015 05:35AM UTC
  
  The Opera Mini thing has to do with the new version of OM and isn't something that the AO3 can fix: More info at their twitter: http://twitter.com/AO3_Status/status/577963359166963712
  
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SoleAccord Tue 24 Mar 2015 05:33PM UTC

Will we be receiving a message at the top of our pages once the issues of missing bookmarks and such are resolved? I'm aware of the previous message telling us this would be going on and that it would resolve itself in time, I only want to know now if we'll get any official notice about it.
Thanks.

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englishlover13 Thu 02 Apr 2015 07:29AM UTC

Hi I was wondering if AO3 has an apt on Google Play?
Thanks.

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