h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lovely and quiet here on h2g2 today - if you listen hard enough you can actually hear the birds singing outside.

I had some trouble authenticating to the site earlier, as I understand a lot of us have. I've got around it by using a computer with a stored h2g2 password, and accessing only Ripley skins, e.g.http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A148907 for Askh2g2.

Yep. My default is http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/

I'm unable to log in from Chrome on this computer, but fortunately Firefox was able to connect.

I noticed this gibberish underneath the log on box when my log in failed.

>>>
Warning: odbc_exec(): SQL error: [unixODBC][FreeTDS][SQL Server]Unclosed quotation mark after the character string ''., SQL state 37000 in SQLExecDirect in /var/www/pliny.h2g2.com/application/library/Portal/Users.php on line 75 Warning: array_shift() expects parameter 1 to be array, boolean given in /var/www/pliny.h2g2.com/application/library/Portal/Users.php on line 149
<<<

There has to be a clue in there somewhere.

To my untrained eye, that looks like something most likely caused by a code change.

Maybe they'll consider backing it out.

Otherwise it's the Icy, Baron Grim and Recumbentman show.

I was going through withdrawals yesterday.

Maybe they pulled the plug on the site, but didn't pull it fully out.

Yeah... I was wondering the same thing as my email to the gurus went without reply all day yesterday.

You know what might be a good idea?

If the tech team would put some notice on the front page until this issue gets resolved.

Post 8 is awaiting a pre-mod check.

Guess 1 - it's

Guess 2 - he may be waiting for some time

I just saw a FB post from yesterday saying it was a technical fault, and that they were working on it.

Yeah, I saw it just this morning.

But many folks won't see it there.

I e-mailed that error message to the tech team yesterday, so they're certainly aware of it.

It's stopping people logging in, but strangely, people also seem to be not logged in if they're using Pliny but logged in if they're using Ripley. Somethin' cock-eyed somewhere.

Pliny always forces me to re-authenticate when I go anywhere near it.

I think the main reason I got booted was because Friday when I left work, I closed my main Chrome window before I closed a separate window I accidentally opened and forgot about. So, when I booted up the computer yesterday morning, all my pinned tabs were gone as was my cached log in. So, I had to try to log in through pliny and the Vogons denied me access.

I haven't had any problems at all. Ripley here at work (IE9 and on my laptop at home (Firefox), and Pliny in Chrome on my (Android) phone.

Ah! Just tried my phone and wasn't logged in. Aha! Logged in and was redirected to the login page. Ahaha! Now I know what everyone's talking about.

Back to the comfort of Goo, but not on my phone (Goo is white on white there)

Whatever you do, don't log out!


"You can leave any time you like, but you can never check in."

Strangely, Icy's link in post 1 sends me to a properly apologetic error page in Pliny.

My link in post 2 gets me straight back here. Brunel in Chrome.

But if I edit the redundant h2g2/dna/ (it pops up twice over in the url) out of my address window, above the apologetic error message, it gets me to Ask h2g2 in Alabaster.

Yeah, that's been an unresolved issue for months. I don't know if they're still even working on that one. The best thing to do when posting links to other h2g2 threads or entries is to post only the entry number or the thread info.

For example A148907 should lead you to Ask in any skin.
F131941?thread=8314487&show=20&skip=0 should lead you to this page.

Phew - I'm in as this browser wasn't logged out automatically yesterday... I've been getting withdrawal symptoms myself...

Unfortunately, to update the Front Page it requires getting past the Vogons first - I've been trying, but can't get in there either...