SSMB showing as down for people when it's up for others (Server Error and HTTP 500 errors)

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I'm posting this on the behalf of @Failinhearts because he's unable to access the website due to this error. He says that he's tried accessing the site on multiple devices and has tested to ensure it's not just his internet playing up by attempting to use his phone's data and still receives the same error. He says when he's trying to access the site, he's receiving this error:

"Server Error: The website encountered an error when retrieving *Insert Sonic Stadium link here*. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly". But furthermore, despite the fact the site is showing as down for Failin and he can't access it, he's appearing on the online list for some reason. On top of this, several other SSMB members have said that SSMB has been showing as down for them since this morning and is still showing as down, so I don't believe this is a one-off occurrence.

Does any of the admins or mods know what's going on?

Edit: Additional Reported Cases - 

@Ayliffe has confirmed to be getting a different error, an HTTP 500 error - SSMB is loading on his mobile device however.

@Strickerx5 and @Dejimon11 seem to both be getting the HTTP error too, and plenty of other people are getting hit by the HTTP 500 error.

@Failinhearts provided more information - HTTP 500 message if he's on Chrome, Sever Error Message on Internet Explorer.

@Spin Attaxx is getting blank screens on private mode

@Dark Qiviut is getting blank screen on Firefox.

@Super Mechanio is getting hit by HTTP 500 message on both Chrome and Edge.

@SenEDDtor Missile is getting hit with unable to fulfil request error on Opera. 

[Ayliffe]

Only just been able to get on here - I'm getting a HTTP 500 error on PC!Chrome, but for some reason it's working a-okay on my iPhone via Safari. Any idea what's up?

[Spin Attaxx]

I'm able to get in fine on Firefox, but for some reason if I try and access the site on a Private Browsing window, all I get is a blank white screen and the URL on the tab name.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

 Can report that @pppp is also suffering this problem during usage of Firefox. 

[dbzfan7]

I got massive slowdown yesterday on a more powerful pc.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I'm keeping the list updated as more people tell me what's going on. Several members on the SSMB Discord are reporting different issues.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Update: Since it's up on the Discord, I'll throw it here quickly, the error seems to have been caused by the Sonical theme. For now, I can confirm Dundee is a safe theme as it's what I've been using, so I'd recommend changing theme just in case.

[Salamander]

I've been getting this error all day until just the past few minutes.  Firefox, blank screen.

Edit: Also, the spoiler button appears to be gone.  Related to the fix?

Edit Again:

Spoiler

It's back now.

 

[Danj86]

I had it too until recently, I tried it on Microsoft Edge and Chrome with the same results. Now it's working, but I changed to Dundee theme, just in case.

[Polkadi~☆]

I was a victim of this, too. HTTP 500 error.

It sucked, let me tell ya, geez.

[Baconjack]

Had an HTTP 500 error on Chrome desktop last night. Wasn't a good thing.

[Harkofthewaa]

I'm using Catfish Dark with Chrome and I haven't had any problems. 

[Mr Loopone]

I had this error all day and its the same issue that @SenEDDtor Missile had, unable to fulfill request on Opera. Managed to get back here a couple of hours ago.

The thing was that because the theme before logging in and the default lurking theme was Sonical meant that had it been a theme problem, I wouldn't have been able to log on (I use a different theme afterwards though).

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Tried getting to the site yesterday, it was an error 500, and it said that this site is unable to handle this request. Was using Chrome at that time.

[Razule]

I haven't been able to access for a few hours and it's been hours since the last post on this entire forum, so was the board just down for everyone? 

[bmn]

As @Ryannumber1gamer mentioned, this issue involved an error in one of the files that generates the HTML for the Sonical theme. This triggered a fatal error in the generation of the webpage as a whole when you request it, which gets sent back to you as an Internal Server Error (HTTP Code 500). This can sometimes happen if part of the software is updated in a way that would break old code somewhere else, and here in particular it can affect customised parts of our themes that don't get updated automatically when the forum software is updated.

@Razule Server performance issues occurring between around 5am and 7am GMT are probably due to the backup tasks that run around then. The system that's in place right now works the server quite hard, sometimes to the point it doesn't have the resources it needs to fully respond to requests. I'm working on a reorganisation of the system that should make a big difference to system load, but no ETA on that.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I cannot create new threads...

[TailsTellsTales]

Yeah for me on both the computer and mobile it will show either error 500 or error 502 and it happens right around late in the evening here.