Puck 711

Chapter: Prince of Dappled ShadeCharacters: Colin SatanTags: Dr. Pepper Dr. Spicy memo store brand
JULY INCENTIVE ON TWC!!! It's fresh and summery and it's something to do with lemons or something. I dunno. VOTE TO MAKE A TALL, COOL GLASS OF PIEMONADE!!! Sorry this one is going up late. It's been a week. Thursday morning, I decided to log into this site and check comments, as I usually do. But this time, I couldn't log in to the back end of the site. And it wasn't just that the site didn't accept my login info. Rather, the entire login page was inaccessible. The website just defaulted to the main page every time. After talking to the hosting company's tech support, they told me that the Wordpress image had somehow become corrupted. I'd done no updates or added no new features, so the 'why' of it was a mystery. What followed was a full 24 hours of chaos, where they were reconstructing the site from their end and I was trying to do what I could from my end. In the end, the site was restored, but the weirdness didn't stop. Suddenly, I was unable to log into the site because my password was no longer valid. The hosting company had to go in and change it. I finally got access to the site, but when I logged in, I found a fun surprise: every single image file on the site had just been deleted. All comics, everything. The site was an endless sea of broken links. I was able to restore the images from a backup copy of the site, and then re-upload the more recent images that were still missing, and the site was finally functioning. I can only assume that someone gained access to my Wordpress profile and started ripping the site apart, because the funny stuff ended immediately when the host company changed the login. For a little while, though, it really did look like the entire website might die and never return. Such is the peril of independent website management. Taking care of this whole thing really put me behind on a bunch of fronts, which is why this comic is going up twelve hours late. But it IS done, at least, so there's that.

60 Comments

  • McManx

    I’m so glad you got the site restored. That would have been too great a loss for us to stand.

    Meanwhile, if Satan thinks he is in hell because of a store brand soda, just wait until he discovers they are out of cereal.
    (I can’t quite make out the other item on the grocery list)

  • Colin’s beard—gone for good?

  • Lokitsu

    Thank goodness the site was saved and thank you, EG for all your hard work.

    I’m not a fan of Dr Pepper, so I’m not sure how store brand can be much worse.

    • ElectricGecko

      It’s a very particular taste for very particular people. The dumb thing is that I spent a good while generating the vector logo for the Dr. Spicy brand, and it’s barely visible.

    • Wyvern

      I like Dr. Pepper okay, but it’s never been one of my favorite sodas, and I almost always buy store brands regardless. However, when Dr. Pepper w/ cream soda came out, I decided to give it a try, and I liked it so much better than regular Dr. Pepper that it’s the only kind of Dr. Pepper I’ll buy now. (Though I wish there was a store-brand equivalent so I could save money.)

  • sigpig

    The joys of multiple backups in different locations…

    This would have been TOO funny if you were posting Page #404… lol

    • ElectricGecko

      I have hard backups on my computer, but they’re not always the most recent. The good thing with my hosting company is that they keep backups from one day ago, two days ago, and a week ago. Very useful.

  • RoyanRannedos

    I was on a houseboat with my in-laws and other relations. My father-in-law and my wife’s aunt had a heated conversation over her insistence on Diet Dr. Pepper and my FILs choice of Diet Dr. K. So they had a blind taste test.

    The aunt admitted she couldn’t taste the difference between the two. But my father-in-law could, and he said Dr. Pepper was better after all.

  • Pat

    Almost forgot, Happy National Conveience Store Day everyone. And happy day cubed to you Gecko.

  • Frank H.

    That’s what you get for not being in the room.

    Yes. Yes you are.

    Is that a real store brand?

    I noticed when the site wasn’t working right. I’m glad you and them got it working again.

    • ElectricGecko

      I’m kinda reassured that someone noticed. Because honestly it felt like no one did. Which is a good thing, I guess, but also not a good thing.

      • Frank H.

        Yeah, been there. How impact others can be easy to miss. I check here every day.

      • rewinn

        I will admit that I check the stats on my little blog (a specialty legal education calendar) every day. It’s like I’m connecting with and being approved by hundreds of people – an illusion no doubt and yet satisfying.

        • ElectricGecko

          I no longer check the stats of this site constantly because said stats are always falling. I find it depressing now. But once upon a time, when the number used to go up, you bet I checked those puppies daily!

          • Frank H.

            During and after when my app goes on sale, I watch the numbers go up and up and then down and down. Then I got back to checking once a week. So I can update the prices in various currencies. I get it.

  • Marcus

    Dealing with brand stores food is often a hit or Miss thing when grocery shopping…

  • Such a charming houseguest he isn’t.

  • LaughingDemon

    Dr Spicy, Mister Mist, Coo-coo Cola. Slab.
    I think we had Faygo and Moon Mist or something.

  • ZybotAus

    Glad to see you got everything worked out. (Insert you favourite expletives here) hackers! The Fallen One is an acquired taste as a houseguest, like durian. (Or is that smell? With him it could be one and the same . . . )

  • Kaiser

    That’d explain why the site seemed not to work at random for me for a while – when I tried to check it a few days ago (I think it was Thursday because I forgot something?), the entire site was just… very weird. Put mildly. Like, nothing existed – it was white and stuff.

    One thing i’ve been curious about and managed to keep forgetting to ask, if you don’t mind me asking (unless this has been asked like 200 times already) – why do you call yourself “ElectricGecko”? I mean no offense, I’m merely curious.

    Isn’t this one of the first times Colin and Satan has truly interracted? Been a while, if nothing else.

    • ElectricGecko

      Yeah, for a while, they had some half-there version of the site up and it was just scary. Again, it’s a miracle that we were able to reconstruct it and lose nothing.

      I started going by ElectricGecko on DeviantArt a billion years ago because … it just came to me. They rejected most of my name attempts, and that was the first one they accepted. It was some random nonsense that stuck. In a similar vein, my Apple gaming profile is “Gumpynugget” and people always ask me why. I … wish I had an answer.

  • JuaSaysHi

    You are superhuman, to get that much dire horrific trouble resolved so quickly! 12 hours late is nothing – usually people lose a week or more. Your backup habits must be absolutely stellar.

  • demarion

    There’s also Dr. Skipper, and I long for when there really will be the tv show Dr. Skipper, RCN!

  • Gaudy

    “Oh sorry it’s less than half a day late guys, I was just salvaging my life’s work from a malicious hacker!”

    Dude, you sound like some sort of website Superman. MVP of the webcomic world.

  • I drink Dr. Spicy, I’m ashamed.
    It’s a generic product with another name.
    And just how awful does it taste?
    Like sugar-sweetened toxic waste!
    It’s a Spicy, they stock Spicy, they drink Spicy, they hate Spicy.
    Wouldn’t you hate to drink a Spicy, too?

  • ChrisH

    I believe Dr. Pepper is plum flavored. I don’t mind that at all, but for me, unlike plums, I get a rather soapy aftertaste I dislike. (I’ll drink it if there’s nothing else.)

    • ElectricGecko

      They have never actively disclosed the flavour of Dr. Pepper. There’s been a rumour for years that it’s actually turnip.

  • ChrisH

    I turnip my nose at that idea! 😉

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