Server zeroing

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Server Zeroing is a technical fault that occurs from time to time. It is a result of the data storage failing as a result of being full (and thus overwrites old information with new input, which thankfully is backed up so it can be restored).

Introduction

When you log in, you find that suddenly your nation has become the 0 of 0. Your caption is a zero-length string ("") and your pristine customised flag has become a red-cross or replaced with the alt text. All of your telegrams are missing, and all of your Civil Rights, Economy and Political Freedoms ratings are set to "Good".

S0-SCR1.png

Your issues have disappeared, your region has become 0, and there's no regional messages or other NS nations in it. It claims the nation's last activity was 13,021 days ago (which was on January 1, 1970). The regional description has disappears and it is described as "devoid of nations".

S0-SCR3.png

Everything appears to have been lost. You log out to log in again to see if things are back to normal, but it claims your password is incorrect.

Also, If you go to the Un page, the text of the resolution at vote will be

[Error evaluating "parse(Resolutions::display_resolution($nation), $nation, $xtra)", type eval: No nation name supplied! Bad file descriptor at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/JClass.pm line 211. JGConfig::__ANON__('No nation name supplied! Bad file descriptor at /home/nation/pub...') called at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/JClass.pm line 211 JClass::load('Region', undef) called at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/Resolutions.pm line 476 Resolutions::display_resolution('Nation=HASH(0x888a234)') called at (eval 6270) line 1 eval 'parse(Resolutions::display_resolution($nation), $nation, $xtra) ;' called at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/Dynamic.pm line 154 Dynamic::handle_macros('Nation=HASH(0x888a234)', undef, 'HASH(0x88823d8)') called at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/Dynamic.pm line 307 Dynamic::parse('^J<...', 'Nation=HASH(0x888a234)', 'HASH(0x88823d8)') called at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/Dynamic.pm line 291 Dynamic::generate_page('Nation=HASH(0x888a234)', 'un', 'HASH(0x88823d8)') called at /home/nation/public_html/cgi-bin/index.cgi line 339 Apache::ROOTwww_2enationstates_2enet::cgi_2dbin::index_2ecgi::handler('Apache=SCALAR(0x880fa4c)') called at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/mach/Apache/Registry.pm line 149 eval {...} called at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/mach/Apache/Registry.pm line 149 Apache::Registry::handler('Apache=SCALAR(0x880fa4c)') called at (eval 6270) line 0 eval {...} called at (eval 6270) line 0 ]


What happens

The server has had a technical hitch and thus cannot present your data on screen. This is why everything appears as zeros, blanks or zero-length strings - these are the default field values in the database for unmodified fields. This is why this is called "Server Zeroing".

S0-SCR2.png

Your nation has NOT been deleted! It's just default behaviour for the game engine to prevent hideously offputting error messages being displayed to people because error messages can make people feel that something is wrong with their machine. Your computer is NOT at fault! The only problem is that due to the updating system the changes in the last few days or so will have been lost but this is not a problem, as the administrative and moderation team are logically minded and so have backups of almost all nations.

What happens after that?

  • The moderators will discover the situation and mend the technical issues first. Finding the fault may take some time, so please be patient.
  • Some testing will be involved to ensure that all pending errors are fixed in the game engine.
  • The most recent backup prior to the error will be used to restore the database. This will mean that you lose the most recent changes you made, but you will still have the issues present to make the same decision again, or treat this as a golden opportunity to change your mind that you normally wouldn't get.
  • New nations created between the last backup and the server failure will not be restored (never having been backed up), but those names will once again be available.
  • The system should be back to normal after these steps and your nation should be suitable for logging in again, passwords and data restored.