In the past, you often could go directly to the Mudcat Help when the main site was down, but the Help - if I understand things correctly - is now on the same server as the main forum, and if one is down I usually can't get into either.

There do seem to be particular times when my access is more likely to fail, although there has been too much variation recently for me to pin down anything very specific. There appears to be a "daily" cycle and also a "weekly" cycle at work, but this could be my imagination.

This could imply that a peak in the number of people trying to access simply overloads the server, and the heaviest traffic tends to happen at regular times.

It could also mean, as has been suggested by Max, that one of our users who visits regularly at about the same time on certain days still is using (or unknowingly infected by) a "personal search engine" or other crudware that locks things up.

It could also mean that the 'cat bogs down, perhaps more often than any of us realize; and those who must reboot (or whatever needs doing to clear it) tend to take their naps at about the same time. They deserve to.

If you look at the date/time of postings shortly after the 'cat actually has been down, a gap in postings may indicate that it actually was offline and the times indicate when it went down and when it came back; but re-postings to threads on either side of a break obliterates the visible evidence pretty quickly. I sometimes look out of curiosity, to confirm for myself whether it was (probably) a problem at mudcat, or if my own ISP is just jerking me around again. If I can't get in, but posts have appeared continuously - as has happened in a few isolated and very rare instances - I assume the latter cause.

I assume going to the 'cat is a bit like going to the library. Sometimes, someone else is using the book you want. It's nothing personal. You come back later, and be glad said "someone else" didn't rip off the book and it's back on the shelf.

John