The DU Lounge
In reply to the discussion: Hello, I'm new. [View all]
magicarpet
(18,456 posts)Welcome to Democratic Underground.
Members Only Posting - you bumped into. Let me try to explain what happened.....
Recently the sight has been putting up Error Messages - # 504. That could mean many things and for many reasons. The administrators of the site are right on top of these sorts of messages and why entry maybe blocked.
It could me the servers are malfunctioning, or some other thing is malfunctioning, or could mean too crowded/too much traffic, and a cause no one wants to contemplate - the site may have been hacked.
This Error Message episode generally happens around election time when the traffic on political sites dramatically increases. But off season a 504 Error notice is concerning to the admins who keep the location up and running. That is when the DU backroom becomes busy trying to figure out why people can not sign on, read, and comment to the site.
One way to force the site into a lower traffic volume - which maybe the cause of the error notice - too much traffic volume causing the problem - is to only leave the site open to current active members. A current active member has a yellow star next to their name in the comment section. Once you pass a probationary period you can elect to become an active member by paying an nominal annual dues.
Those who have not yet finished their probationary period or elect to not become a dues paying member are considered in visitor status rather than member status.
When you to came by and saw open to members only - it was during the Error # 508 page popping up. So the admins cranked the traffic volume down to explore and sort out why it was sending the Cloud Error Message - in hopes they could prevent the error message from popping up at all.
The site is still working on the Cloud Error Message episode that is still occasionally popping up intermittently. But these guy who are the admins here are tenacious about keeping the place up and running and humming.
Hope my explanation of why you bumped into a members only message was found and helps in understandings of what is what.
Edit history
Recommendations
3 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations