One of my favorite sites in the world, Flickr, went down today – just as I wanted to find a photo of Jerusalem.
Drats.
But what I love about Flickr is the way they handle their problems. Here’s the post from their blog during the outage…
Ouch that hurt!
One of the big switches that lets Flickr talk to the outside world went on vacation without telling anyone about 30 minutes ago. The problem has been fixed and we’re wobbling our way back up, but you might still see some strange behavior for the next 10-20 minutes.Actual photo serving wasn’t affected so any photos you were showing elsewhere (like on your blog) should have gone on happily showing up.
update 12:58pm: hmmm, still stuck in baggage claim on the way back up. We’re looking at another 20 minutes at least until everything is all shiny.
update 1:33pm: all cuteness aside, our dedicated team of server whisperers are bringing each frightened server up one by one. This is taking a bit longer then they had promised us. Current predictions are 15 minutes. We’ll provide updates as necessary.
update 1:39pm: WE’RE BACK! Thanks for your patience.
I remember back in the day when Flickr would be under maintenance and you’d get a little message that said, “We’re sorry Flickr is getting a massage.”
Sure it wasn’t access to the site like I wanted, but the fact that they eased my troubles with a “cute little message” made me feel all better and warm and fuzzy inside — and more importantly it kept me coming back — so much so that Laurie and I both have pro accounts (although that’s up for debate as mine is about to expire).
Either way I think it goes to show how great a little humility and humor can go a long way when you know you’ve messed up.
Way to go Flickr. Thanks for taking care of us.
