Problem with Display of Special Characters on the Archive

[dawn_felagund]

Important ETA: After some light public shaming of our host on Twitter by Rhapsody (three cheers for Rhapsody!), they magically found the time to address our support ticket. The problem should be solved now BUT if you continue to notice special characters displaying incorrectly or any other unusual issues with the site, please let us know! This problem was caught by a member; y'all letting us know when something's fishy really does make a huge difference.

Also, Many Paths to Tread (MPTT) was having the same issue, which should also be resolved, so the above goes for that site as well. (Rhapsody and I both mod there as well, and our sites share the same host, so our problems tend to co-occur, and reporting a problem on one of the sites triggers a fix on both, when needed.)/ETA

For the past two weeks, we have had an ongoing issue on the archive with special characters either showing up as a question-mark placeholder or not showing up at all. Since our host had just done some upgrades, I suspected that was the cause and hoped that the issue would be quickly and quietly resolved when I submitted a support ticket. Well ... fast-forward two weeks, and I haven't even heard back from the host much less seen a fix for this problem, so I wanted to let everyone know that we are aware of it (and no, it is not just you or just your system!) and that we are actively seeking a solution to the problem. Rhapsody is about to try another, slightly more forceful way of contacting them, so I hope that will light a fire under them to get this sorted.

I regret that this issue has gone on for so long. I know that it is unsightly at best and makes stories with a lot of special characters essentially unreadable. We very much appreciate everyone's patience while we get this sorted, and I hope to have good news to report very soon.

Comments

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

It's been driving me crazy! I was sure that someone had noticed and so didn't want to add my complaint to the list. Thanks to all of you for working on it.

[dawn_felagund]

Rhapsody posted to our host's Twitter page and, within a minute, had a reply. So I hope that bodes well for it being fixed very soon!

It was also a problem on LJ for a while, so it's definitely fixable. I have a feeling that when they upgraded our version of PHP, they funked up some setting. (Pardon the technical language. ;)

[dawn_felagund]

Also, believe it or not, we just got the first report on the SWG today! However, an MPTT member had reported it there when the problem first started, and I'd noticed it as well.

[zdenka]

Thanks for the update! I appreciate the mods' work on this.

And I just realized this is SWG, not MPTT, but presumably it's the same problem?

[dawn_felagund]

It is! The two sites have the same host.

Incidentally, Rhapsody's tweet to that host was answered within a minute (whereas the support ticket I filed has not been replied to, two weeks later), so it looks like the ball might finally be rolling.

Since LJ developed the same problem at the same time (and it's been fixed, so it is fixable! *pointed look at host*), my hope was that it was related to the PHP upgrade, and our host would get on board and fix it too, and it'd be easy. Wishful thinking!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I am totally shocked. But then I am 1) fussy about those kinds of issues, and 2) spend more time fliting around online than the average person.

[dawn_felagund]

It should be fixed now, so do let me know if anything looks or acts wrong! (Our host changed our version of PHP without letting us know, which had caused one set of problems already that Russa sorted for us. On advice of the host, I switched us back to the earlier version.)

[dawn_felagund]

On advice of our host, I just reverted us back to the previous version of PHP, which has solved the problem on my end. Please let me know if you continue to notice anything odd (on either site)?

And thank you again for being the first person (and one of the only people!) to report this! It was one of those coincidental situations where I'd just switched to a new laptop and assumed my settings were off. Your email was what made me realize that the problem was bigger than just me.

[zdenka]

Thanks for dealing with it. :) It's not one of those things that breaks site functionality, but it's nice to have it fixed. It all looks correct to me now!

[independence1776]

I just checked; it's fixed for me!

[dawn_felagund]

Excellent! Thanks for getting back to me too. I noticed especially on the SWG that certain stories with lots of Quenya names were almost unreadable. Certainly, the reading experience wasn't pleasant.

Then a member emailed us today with a screencap showing that the site was displaying for her without special characters entirely; at least the placeholders sort of signaled that something belonged there and made the site somewhat legible. This was barely legible. Rhapsody had offered to go to Twitter with the problem earlier in the week, and I gave the host one most followup email. But this was ridiculous. Public shaming it had to be!

[dawn_felagund]

Yes! Thank you for letting me know! And thank you, too, for reporting the issue; your email was the kick in the pants we needed to say that, yes, this problem is big enough to take to Twitter and not wait till the next age of Arda for our host to decide to solve.

The stupid/annoying thing is that the problem came from the host changing our PHP version without informing us. This was made worse by the warning on the PHPConfig page that upgrading to a new version of PHP can break sites coded for an older version! But I guess that's okay if it's the host's decision. *sigh* It took me about 30 seconds to revert us to the old version, and the problem was solved.

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

I just gently thanked them for nudging people into action ;) whomever handled this there deserved it.

[dawn_felagund]

Yes they do indeed! It is sad, though, when it takes a company having to protect its public image to provide the services they are paid to provide. Hosting fees aren't exorbitant, but they cost enough that I have to give Bobby a heads up when they're coming due each fall so that we can monitor our spending! I'm sure Cathleen's in the same boat for MPTT.

Maybe if they made their ticket queue public--at least the times the tickets were filed--then that would help. Not like that would happen, but it very often seems that extreme transparency works to get things done these days.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I guess that will hold us until their next fix which will no doubt be wrong for us again! I gotta laugh! Thanks again to you and Rhaps!

[dawn_felagund]

You're most welcome! I do try to learn from these things, and I now have checking the PHP version on my list of tricks. I now know which version works for our site and how to switch back to it if they decide again to make us beta-test guinea pigs!