If you’ve noticed strange things going on at VotersOpinion.com, rest assured – it’s not your imagination.

At first the problems were subtle and merely annoying.

For example, blogs weren’t showing up on the main page.  Then I’d correct typos, but those updates wouldn’t appear.

Hmmmm.

At first, the Webmaster kept insisting it was a “cache” problem.  Whatever that means.  So, he had me clear my cache, but that didn’t seem to work.

Then he said the problem might be Firefox, the browser I usually use.

So I tried using Chrome.

Same problem.

Then I tried Microsoft’s “New & Improved” version of IE … Edge!

Nope.  That wasn’t it.

I even tried clearing the cache on all browsers.  Several times.

Absolutely nothing worked.

I even switched to my laptop.  That was also a bust.

When my readers started complaining that they, too, were having problems with our website it was finally time to make the dreaded phone call …

To tech support.

My first try resulted in a conversation with a condescending, obnoxious millennial, with absolutely no sense of humor, and even less patience.

He kept me on the phone for over an hour, putting me on hold several times, while he tinkered with whatever it is techies do.  The last time he put me on hold, we got disconnected.

I suspect he did that on purpose, but I was too traumatized to try again.

I appealed to (or, rather, begged) the Webmaster to make the call, who then spent over three hours with tech support on one of his rare days off from his actual paying job.

For a day or so, the problem appeared to be fixed.

Until readers’ comments stopped getting posted.

So last night, I mustered up my all courage and called tech support again.

This time, I spoke to a supremely helpful and courteous technician, who again explained our problem.

Sort of.

We had two options.  One of them was to pay a small upgrade charge to switch to a better server, with less users and more resources.  Whatever that means.  Then all the Webmaster would have to do was transfer all our files over to the new server.

Since the Webmaster now works over 60 hours a week, we settled on the more expensive route, and let the techies handle the whole project and be done with it.

The Webmaster and I congratulated each other on a job well done, wished each other a good night and hung up the phone.

And thenVotersOpinion crashed.

Needless to say, I was beyond frustrated.

I bravely took it upon myself to call tech support one more time.

This time I was told that the file transfer process would take several more hours, and to please be patient.

I finally just went to sleep, hoping against hope that all would be well by morning.

I was way too optimistic.

Fortunately, the techie I spoke with this morning fixed our “database” connection in less than 60 seconds.

VotersOpinion is back in business!

If you are still experiencing problems accessing VotersOpinion, try clearing your cache.  If that doesn’t work, please let me know.

Thanks for your patience.

Stephanie