Firstly, I’d like to extend a huge THANK YOU!!! to all of my wonderful readers and those of you who commented on my last post, WordPress Database Error MySQL Server has Gone Away. I really appreciate your support.
I did so much research on the error I found repeated in my error logs called “WordPress Database Error MySQL Server has Gone Away.” I came across a few solutions, but they only broke my blog even more! I tried setting up a testing server, but the database wouldn’t play nice with it, so all the changes I was making to my blog were live (very scary!).
I suppose you all are wondering how I fixed that MySQL has gone away error. Well, it’s still a bit of a mystery to me, but here’s what I think was going on:
Long story short, I believe the problem was twofold. The first was switching hosts in the middle of April. I read that the “gone away” error can happen when you switch. I don’t know why, I just read it can happen. Rob’s Notebook to the rescue! This solution didn’t fix the problem all the way (and why isn’t this brilliant bit of coding a standard for a WP installation??!), though, and I left a comment for Rob asking for more info on inserting the time_out portion of his solution. He was kind enough to email me back personally, and help me with inserting that piece of code (thank you again, Rob!).
The second piece of the problem was some scripting modifications I made in an attempt to Fight Spam without a Captcha. I didn’t even consider this could be an issue; if I were to have problems with this script modification, I would think they would happen right away. I don’t in any way think it was faulty code from Vivien; I think it was me being lazy when I upgraded to 2.5 soon after its release (the wp-comments-post.php I modified was replaced with the new 2.5 file). I just copied the code in the wp-comments-post.php I had modified, trying to make a quick job of updating it instead of making sure I did it all correctly. Andrew, from Fun with Wordpress, made a suggestion about spam plugins, which turned me onto this idea (thanks, Andrew!).
I want to extend a big thanks to the Bluehost support team, too, for putting up with all my calls about this crazy problem. They were all very friendly, polite and as helpful as they could be. I am still very, very pleased with Bluehost and I would recommend them if you’re looking for new hosting (really wish they had a hosting option other than shared, because I’m sure I’ll outgrow their service someday).
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Good to hear
I’ll keep in mind Blue Host.
Great to hear everything is back in working order!
I use bluehost as my hosting company and have loved every minute of it so far. I had read alot about their support team before I signed up. It’s great that they were able and willing to help you. Makes me feel more confident in my choice.
It’s great to hear Bluehost handled the situation admirably. We run a similar business and from our point of view anything we can do to enhance the service we provide is part of the deal.
Why? As you have experienced, it values the customer, and turns them into a great advocate spreading positive statements by word of mouth.
I really wish more businesses thought this way.
Jacob Cass,
Yup, they’re awesome!
Jacob Carter,
Even though Bluehost wasn’t able to fix the problem, I was so happy they were willing to work with me. I had to be a little persistent because at first they wanted to send me off to WP support, but I definitely felt like they were wanting to help me fix it.
Karl,
Yes, I definitely felt valued as a customer and it makes a huge difference in how willing I am to recommend them. If they had just brushed me off (“Yeah, our records show you’ve called 3 times about this problem and since you’re running WP, it’s your issue.”), they would be right, but I wouldn’t feel so compelled to sing their praises.
I’ve read little posters at businesses before that say something along the lines of the customer is the most important part of this business because it is the reason for the company to exist in the first place.
I don’t believe the customer is always right, but if you make them feel valued, the problem becomes more manageable. Glad to hear you run your business the same way :)
I have seen a saying that goes along the lines of:
The customer may be right, but not all customers are right for us.
This can work very well at times.
Karl,
That’s a good saying. Hard to accept sometimes, though!
huh, I’m very glad everything is back to normal now, Lauren. Congratulations!
I did think about the changes you did in WP-comments file following my code on fighting spam without captcha, but then I ignored that thought because your changes in the comment file after the upgrade were working fine until you’ve moved to the new host, or am I wrong there?
Anyhow, what was the exact issue with the code and wp-comments file? Why was the commenting working for some and not the others?
Why I’m asking is because I too had to update my wp-comments.php after upgrading iBit to WP 2.5, and haven’t had any problems with the comments on my site.
Vivien,
Let’s see, I upgraded to 2.5 with my old host (Media Temple) and the comment scripting I did was fine. I moved to Bluehost in the middle of April (right around the 15th) and comments were still working fine until the 29th. I had NOT upgraded to 2.5.1 at that time, but I tried that to see if it would fix the problem. It didn’t, but I really think it was just me being lazy and the wp-db needed to be changed because sometimes the DB connections can get a little off with a new host for some reason. The new wp-db adds code to check if the script interacting with the DB failed and if so, it re-establishes a connection. Pretty brilliant and I’m not sure why it’s not in the wp code by default.
I have no idea why things were working sometimes and not others. Very frustrating. Updating the wp-db fixed it so half the time it was working and then reverting back to the orginal comment scripting fixed it so it worked all the time. Could’ve just been bad connections.
Good to hear you haven’t had any problems with the extra scripting with 2.5. I’m going to try implementing it again this weekend. I just wanted to give everything a little bit of time so I could make sure it’s working.