A language learners’ forum

Seems like the bot has stopped responding to tweets again?

Elenia wrote:Seems like the bot has stopped responding to tweets again?

You’re right. I hadn’t noticed, but it hasn’t responded to mine from yesterday or the day before. I think it was OK before that.

I've checked this, there seems to be something amiss with the configuration. I've rebooted but that isn't working. I'm just getting some updated configuration information from EMK and I should be able to put this right. Hold off on posting for the moment.

I've confirmed that none of database connection setup appears to have changed. If it had, the forum would be down, too. So I'm not sure what's up.

I've checked all the files and the php configuration, nothing has changed. So I've escalated to the hosting company to check the crontab engine. Only thing left to look at really. Really need to get this ported over as well.

rdearman wrote:I've checked all the files and the php configuration, nothing has changed. So I've escalated to the hosting company to check the crontab engine. Only thing left to look at really. Really need to get this ported over as well.

What happens if you try to access the database using the "mysql" command-line tool on your own computer, using the username and password that you have? Let's see if we can narrow this down.

emk wrote:

rdearman wrote:I've checked all the files and the php configuration, nothing has changed. So I've escalated to the hosting company to check the crontab engine. Only thing left to look at really. Really need to get this ported over as well.

What happens if you try to access the database using the "mysql" command-line tool on your own computer, using the username and password that you have? Let's see if we can narrow this down.

Oh I can get to the DB, and the php files are all good. The only thing left is the php executable or the crontab daemon. Given the service provider has a history of the cron daemon falling over, I'm inclined to blame them. I'm thinking I might just run this on my own server at home, save myself some hassle.

After a 6-8 emails back and forth to the hosting company support people where I explained a number of times what was wrong with their automatic scheduler, I have moved the bot updater to my own server.

It seemed it was difficult for them to understand that something which hasn't changed in 8 months doesn't suddenly stop working. It seemed it was my fault that the code didn't work because I wrote it wrong, even though it had been working for the last 8 months. Also they couldn't understand why I setup a simple job which ran every minute and emailed me the version number of the software then complained because that didn't work either. At what point did support people stop learning the art of troubleshooting?

Anyway, I have moved the bot away from that hosting platform and the bot is back running again. You might need to check any posts between the 23rd and 28th just to make sure they were processed. If @langchallenge replied to your message then it was processed, otherwise just copy and paste it back into a tweet and it will do it now.

And on a side note, I have a little project now to move all my hosting away from those people, and removed the 3 paragraph rant I've written about them here.

rdearman wrote:
It seemed it was difficult for them to understand that something which hasn't changed in 8 months doesn't suddenly stop working. It seemed it was my fault that the code didn't work because I wrote it wrong, even though it had been working for the last 8 months. Also they couldn't understand why I setup a simple job which ran every minute and emailed me the version number of the software then complained because that didn't work either. At what point did support people stop learning the art of troubleshooting?

You have my full sympathy. Being awakened at 2:00 in the morning once to go fix a problem with code, only to discover that some moron colleague in support failed to follow instructions, leaves one spluttering language not suitable for church.
As for troubleshooting, I once worked for a (different) company whose help desk chief spent his days at work maintaining a porn site and got paid overtime to do at night what he was supposed to be doing for the company in the daytime. So at times there is no knowing what "support" people are up to.

Sorry if it's not the right place to ask this question, but I haven't found a better one. Does the time spend on listening to an audiobook while commuting counts or it has to be a more focused effort?