SEO
Internet Archive Website Offline for Hours
The Internet Archive, also known as The Wayback Machine, suffered an outage around midnight east coast time on August 25th. Disappointed fans around the world who were unable to access the site expressed their patient concern as well as thanks for the website.
Updated: Networking Hardware Failure
The problem affecting the Internet Archive was equipment failure related to networking hardware.
Jason Scott, an archivist who works for the Internet Archive tweeted the reason:
“A core piece of Internet archive networking equipment has failed and a replacement is being sourced right now.”
Internet Archive Down
The site displayed a message saying that the site was down.
A check of the headers via the Webconfs.com website showed that the website sends to a browser indicated that the site was sending a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable Error Response.
This error message code is typically sent when the server is taken down for maintenance or because the server is overloaded and is unable to respond with a webpage.
Screenshot of Error Message from Internet Archive Home Page
Tweet Announcement
The Internet Archive posted a tweet shortly after midnight to alert the public that the website was down.
The tweet didn’t offer any information about what was wrong, only that they were working to bring the site back up.
Here is the tweet:
We are working to resolve the outage affecting https://t.co/rvOhn0c6zM & @waybackmachine.
— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) August 25, 2022
Wayback Machine Fans World Wide Express Concern
Many people were inconvenienced but those posting comments were more concerned than upset, with many simply posting messages of gratitude.
IsItDownRightNow had over 300 comments expressing concern.
Some people were students who needed the site for their research.
Another was a Grateful Dead fan who posted that their attempts to stream archived Grateful Dead concerts were unsuccessful.
Comments poured into Twitter as well.
No listening to Grateful Dead today. RIP
— Hakkı Bluoyd (@hakki_bluoyd) August 25, 2022
Thanks, I’ve been cut off in the middle of a critical moment in a book! I’ll be watching for the update that service is restored, hopefully soon.
— Miss Maryo (@MeNotBornToday) August 25, 2022
Ah, I thought it was my connection. Please come back soon 🙏🤍
— Bite-sized reminders and such. (@minireminders) August 25, 2022
thanks for the update! We are so used to using the archive and it being there always.. checked the internet connection several times before checking here. hope that issues are resolved soon, with best regards and big thanks for your services to the world community
— Mir Titles (@MirTitles) August 25, 2022
What Can Be Wrong?
There was some speculation that the site might be down due to multiple lawsuits filed by publishers that object to the free distribution of books.
But the error message provided by the website seems to indicate that there’s a problem at the server level, the cause of which can be a myriad of issues.
This article will be updated when more information is available.
SEO
Executive Director Of WordPress Resigns
Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress Project, officially announced her resignation, ending a nine-year tenure. This comes just two weeks after Matt Mullenweg launched a controversial campaign against a managed WordPress host, which responded by filing a federal lawsuit against him and Automattic.
She posted an upbeat notice on her personal blog, reaffirming her belief in the open source community as positive economic force as well as the importance of strong opinions that are “loosely held.”
She wrote:
“This week marks my last as the Executive Director of the WordPress project. My time with WordPress has transformed me, both as a leader and an advocate. There’s still more to do in our shared quest to secure a self-sustaining future of the open source project that we all love, and my belief in our global community of contributors remains unchanged.
…I still believe that open source is an idea that can transform generations. I believe in the power of a good-hearted group of people. I believe in the importance of strong opinions, loosely held. And I believe the world will always need the more equitable opportunities that well-maintained open source can provide: access to knowledge and learning, easy-to-join peer and business networks, the amplification of unheard voices, and a chance to tap into economic opportunity for those who weren’t born into it.”
Turmoil At WordPress
The resignation comes amidst the backdrop of a conflict between WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg and the managed WordPress web host WP Engine, which has brought unprecedented turmoil within the WordPress community, including a federal lawsuit filed by WP Engine accusing Mullenweg of attempted extortion.
Resignation News Was Leaked
The news about the resignation was leaked on October 2nd by the founder of the WordPress news site WP Tavern (now owned by Matt Mullenweg), who tweeted that he had spoken with Josepha that evening, who announced her resignation.
He posted:
“I spoke with Josepha tonight. I can confirm that she’s no longer at Automattic.
She’s working on a statement for the community. She’s in good spirits despite the turmoil.”
Screenshot Of Deleted Tweet
Josepha tweeted the following response the next day:
“Ok, this is not how I expected that news to come to y’all. I apologize that this is the first many of you heard of it. Please don’t speculate about anything.”
Rocky Period For WordPress
While her resignation was somewhat of an open secret it’s still a significant event because of recent events at WordPress, including the resignations of 8.4% of Automattic employees as a result of an offer of a generous severance package to all employees who no longer wished to work there.
Read the official announcement:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Wirestock Creators
SEO
8% Of Automattic Employees Choose To Resign
WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO announced today that he offered Automattic employees the chance to resign with a severance pay and a total of 8.4 percent. Mullenweg offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever one is higher, with a total of 159 people taking his offer.
Reactions Of Automattic Employees
Given the recent controversies created by Mullenweg, one might be tempted to view the walkout as a vote of no-confidence in Mullenweg. But that would be a mistake because some of the employees announcing their resignations either praised Mullenweg or simply announced their resignation while many others tweeted how happy they are to stay at Automattic.
One former employee tweeted that he was sad about recent developments but also praised Mullenweg and Automattic as an employer.
He shared:
“Today was my last day at Automattic. I spent the last 2 years building large scale ML and generative AI infra and products, and a lot of time on robotics at night and on weekends.
I’m going to spend the next month taking a break, getting married, and visiting family in Australia.
I have some really fun ideas of things to build that I’ve been storing up for a while. Now I get to build them. Get in touch if you’d like to build AI products together.”
Another former employee, Naoko Takano, is a 14 year employee, an organizer of WordCamp conferences in Asia, a full-time WordPress contributor and Open Source Project Manager at Automattic announced on X (formerly Twitter) that today was her last day at Automattic with no additional comment.
She tweeted:
“Today was my last day at Automattic.
I’m actively exploring new career opportunities. If you know of any positions that align with my skills and experience!”
Naoko’s role at at WordPress was working with the global WordPress community to improve contributor experiences through the Five for the Future and Mentorship programs. Five for the Future is an important WordPress program that encourages organizations to donate 5% of their resources back into WordPress. Five for the Future is one of the issues Mullenweg had against WP Engine, asserting that they didn’t donate enough back into the community.
Mullenweg himself was bittersweet to see those employees go, writing in a blog post:
“It was an emotional roller coaster of a week. The day you hire someone you aren’t expecting them to resign or be fired, you’re hoping for a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Every resignation stings a bit.
However now, I feel much lighter. I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay. As the kids say, LFG!”
Read the entire announcement on Mullenweg’s blog:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/sdx15
SEO
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