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Technical problems

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Steve Herrmann Steve Herrmann | 12:41 UK time, Wednesday, 6 January 2010

A brief update on the publishing problems we've been experiencing on the News website, which I mentioned in my post yesterday. The problems with publishing have continued and are resulting in some delays to story updates, and some broken links and images. We're sorry that the problems persist - our technical team is working hard to resolve them. I'll let you know more when I can.

UPDATE, 14:33: A bit more background on the site problems from our technical team:

The problems have been affecting the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News and Sport websites intermittently, and relate to the systems which replicate and deliver stories and images to both websites. The main symptoms have been delays to story updates, some broken links and images. The problems mainly affect core news and sport stories including the live text for the South Africa England test match. Other parts of the website such as blogs, sports scores and stock market updates are unaffected. We're sorry and we're working hard to resolve the issues.

UPDATE, 18:10: We've made a few changes now, which should have improved matters.

Steve Herrmann is editor of the .

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Ah, OK. So in the meantime should I just ignore the RSS feeds altogether?

  • Comment number 2.

    Number 10 at work perhaps, hacking your system and stopping you get the news online!!?

  • Comment number 3.

    We still love you Beeb, even in spite of this temporary imperfection.

  • Comment number 4.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 5.

    I blame a Murdoch conspiracy

  • Comment number 6.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 7.

    These things happen. I'm sure you're doing your best to fix the problem. Keep up the good work!!!

  • Comment number 8.

    Snow Gremlins at work...

  • Comment number 9.

    Having problems signing in ??
    Security services accessing your e-mail...
    Not having problems signing in ??
    ...unlucky.
    Soi disant Dangerous.

  • Comment number 10.

    Shame to see a good website starting to have 'features'.
    I was only a few weeks after saying to some friends about the first class Busines Intelligence type report on Road Traffic Accidents on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News site - that was a good peice of work by the way - the richness of the reports, the drilldown functionality, the consistency across multiple pages - whilst keeping in mind the sensitivity of the subject matter and the emotional 4 part article. Well done to those that built it .... now get on and get the website fixed!!! we need our news!?!

  • Comment number 11.

    What irks me, and has for a long time, is that every time I hit one of your broken site links, I get a patronising page that makes no apology for the mistakes made by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. Instead it blames the user for incorrectly typing a url. How often do people actually mistype urls rather than follow you broken links?

  • Comment number 12.

    Reboot
    Reload
    Rebuild
    Retire to pub

  • Comment number 13.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 14.

    it's the wrong type of snow on the server. must be the fault of dear old gorden, he geat blamed for every thing else. Know that your team are doing there best, keep up the good work

  • Comment number 15.

    Perhaps you need to re-calculate pi.

  • Comment number 16.

    Speaking of technical problems any chance of someone fixing the News Radar, as the latest headlines are from a month ago.

  • Comment number 17.

    Aside of current technical problems, when will you provide a meaningful weather forecast site? You are unique in not providing temperature information—after all, is that not a key item of information that users are looking for? Let's hope your next "improved re-design" of the site is just that.

  • Comment number 18.

    Switch it off and then back on, that should solve all the problems...or press F5

  • Comment number 19.

    Not very good for a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ supported site….

  • Comment number 20.

    When did they reboot the CERN particle accelerator and did it coincide with said Pi calculation and England's batting collapse?

    Hmmmm, sinister forces!

  • Comment number 21.

    Maybe the website team have taken a leaf out of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ HD's book and reduced the bandwidth and used new encoders. :)

    No sorry, I'm mistaken...if that was the case we'd have been told it was our imagination, and Steve would have called the story "Debunking the myth of technical problems"!

    Seriously, thanks Steve for the information - I'd agree with #11 however, it might be polite to replace the error page with a "we're having problems" page while things are awry.

  • Comment number 22.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 23.

    No doubt someone has suggested a needless change to "improve" the system and it hasn't been tested properly.

    I used to be able to order the shooping online in 15 minutes until the website was "improved". Now it takes over an hour. A similar experience with the online bank and the office intranet.

    I'm not against change but needless change that results in a decline in performance from the customers' experiences is inexcusable.

  • Comment number 24.

    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

  • Comment number 25.

    Turn it off and turn it on again, always work's for me :)

    Seriously though, good luck getting it sorted, I hope your tech guy's were a bit better than my datacenter staff at getting into work today!

  • Comment number 26.

    Thanks for letting keeping us informed

    Any news on why News Radar has not been working for a month?

  • Comment number 27.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 28.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 29.

    This comment has been referred for further consideration. Explain.

  • Comment number 30.

    Does anyone know why I get the error:

    ! An error has occurred in the script on this page
    Line 39
    Char 21
    Error Object required
    Code 0
    URL /includes/blq/resources/gvl/r61/script/blq_core.js

    When I have on my active desktop?

    Its only been doing it for the last few months.

  • Comment number 31.

    Few websites would explain this so openly - I commend you Beeb.

  • Comment number 32.

    Have you tried switching your computer off and turning it back on again Auntie Beeb?! ;)

  • Comment number 33.

    No need to apologize Steve, you help run one of the best websites in Britain. Thanks for the update :-)

  • Comment number 34.

    In response to the comment about RSS feeds - I am advised that they are published by the same system that publishes the indexes and pages. To that extent, any delays in the publishing of pages also delays the publishing of RSS updates, but they are otherwise correct. We are minimising delays to breaking news stories, so I would recommend continuing to use the RSS feeds as normal.

  • Comment number 35.

    Steve:

    Thanks for informing us the audience about technical problems affecting the news site.....

    -Dennis Junior

  • Comment number 36.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 37.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 38.

    broken links seem very unprofessional to me and i'm just an average knows-nothing amateur.

  • Comment number 39.

    Here is a problem you haven't fixed.

    Try to sign up to these blogs with an existing ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ registered "name". Go through the whole darned process of re-registering and confirming emails and write your comment; then try to "post comment".

    What happens ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ?

    "There has been an unexpected problem. Please log out and try again."

    Try it for yourselves and then PUT IT RIGHT - please.

  • Comment number 40.

    Thanks for letting us know about this - thought it may have been something wrong with my Internet connection at this end.

    Since it started working again though I've been receiving script errors on many of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ editor blog pages (the page starts loading and after 30 seconds I get a messagebox saying Script Error at line 19.. I am using Internet Explorer 8. Is this a remnant of the technical issue or something faulty with my browser setup?

    Thanks

  • Comment number 41.

    I personally think Bin ladin must be dead by now, it's been too long that his trail has gone stone cold. In this day and age where you can bribe people with huge sums of money in that region bogles me that no one has come up with the prize money. Also it's this "Spartacus syndrome" thats taking place in the muslim world "I am Bin ladin, no I am bin ladin" and this must be confusing the US inteligence along with others, rumors of citings here and there are very vague and adding to confusion. It is such a diabolical situation in the M.E. and everyone is using it to their own advantage. Karzai wants the west to remain in Afghanistan as long as possible and using the bogeyman ladin as an excuse. The Al Qaida movement is so fragmented that day by day it is getting out of control. I personally think if the Israeli/Palestinian issue is resolved then there will reason for the west to say "now what???
    Stop this madness!

  • Comment number 42.

    Re-#39

    My partner, a long term contributor to these blogs, is still waiting for the problem to be fixed. The error message says:

    "There has been an unexpected problem. Please reload this page and try again."

    There are several mentions of this fault dating back to November 2009. It simple goes around and around in an endless loop until you log out. When you log in again the same thing happens endlessly. IS THIS A FAULT OR JUST TESTAMENT TO LOUSY PROGRAMMING. A message would be nice.

    My partner can access HYS with his user name but the "editor blogs" remain inaccessible. Thanks ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ you are SO considerate.

  • Comment number 43.

    Virgin are regularly blocking access to web sites, including www.bbc.co.uk/lottery/. Does anyone know how to circumvent this ?
    Virgin deny this at the first support level, but have admitted it higher up the chain.
    This is not recent, but have only just managed to trace it through.
    This has been verified by pinging www.bbc.co.uk/lottery/. The response comes from a Virginmedia site [81.200.64.50].
    Does this mean that Virgin have something against the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ; or against the good work funded by the lottery, or the Olympics, or ??

  • Comment number 44.

    @43, KSZ,

    No problem here. Could be just a blip in the service...

  • Comment number 45.

    Have tried it again - both still blocked. Also tried pinging the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ again. If however I use VPN to accees via the work server (on ZEN), it all works perfectly.
    Are you on Virgin cable ?
    Or could it be just local - we're in West Yorkshire

  • Comment number 46.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 47.

    #42

    Please will you sort this re-registration malarky out. It simply does not work as it is supposed to. My partner gets all green ticks, confirms his email, writes his comment and attempts to post them but "An unexpected problem has occurred, please reload the page and try again". This then goes into a circular loop.

    In other words the system is telling you guys that there is an error in your programming logic - the UNEXPECTED error - and you need to correct it. It isn't on my PC because it happens on ANY PC.

    A comment, almost any helpful comment, from you ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ guys would suffice or does he have to go through the official complaints route?

  • Comment number 48.

    Where have all the pictures gone on the BBc News site! I would sack your techies, this has been going on for a very long time! It's amazing how dull your site looks without the images. Fix it soon please. Regards Clive

  • Comment number 49.

    #48. At 10:55am on 31 Jan 2010, Clive wrote:

    "Where have all the pictures gone on the BBc News site! I would sack your techies, this has been going on for a very long time! It's amazing how dull your site looks without the images. Fix it soon please. Regards Clive"

    Well they are all there for me, and no one else seems to be complaining, might I suggest that you check your own browser settings, in case you (or your network administrators, if it's affecting work place computers) have not - accidentally, or as a matter of policy - either turned off image support of perhaps even blocked access to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's "" image serving sub domain.

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