Springboard issues and notifications

KatePlayItVR

I didn't think the Facebook group was used anymore since this new discourse online group was started. It's a good job people posted in the Facebook group about the issue with the database on Saturday, or we'd never have known.

Here in UK when it happened, we had already shut for the day. It seems when the database was restored to a previous point any changes made since that point disappeared. We made changes to games on stations and lost some bookings. We would never have known why or what changes needed to be restored on Sunday morning for our customers had it not been the notifications popping up from people posting in the Facebook group.

Is there a reason why there was no direct communication from Springboard to arcade users about the problem? I appreciate at the time it might be all hands on deck. Something could've been sent out after resolution, just to let us know what the issue was, what solution has been implemented and the affect on users.

matthew

Hey Kate! I also replied on Facebook but i'll copy that reply here as well for everyone else.

All our direct communication during outages is through our Status page. We can't rely on any of our normal methods of communication in case they are affected by the outage as well.

We've got a lengthy post going over the issue in detail that will be coming out today!

VR-ARRIVAL

matthew

Thanks Matthew. I would agree with Kate though that as a newbie, I didn't know that we were supposed to check the status button and, to be honest, hadn't even noticed the Server Status heading up the top of this page. I had a group booking disappear on the weekend and there was no email cancel notice. I was just lucky that no-one had created another booking on top of that one. I never sent in a query on the off-chance I had accidently deleted it myself (although was 99% sure I hadn't).

Jamie

Hi Kate and Andrew.

If you're curious to know a bit more about the service disruption we've written up a full report here: https://engineering.springboardvr.com/springboardvr-issues-march-2nd-2019/

Let me know if you have any questions!

matthew

@KatePlayItVR and @VR-ARRIVAL - Any suggestions on where we can put the link to the Status page to make it easier to find for customers?

VR-ARRIVAL

matthew

Hi Matthew. I guess now that I know that it is there, I would look at it if I think something is amiss in the daily running. The issue is that we aren't really told this when setting up (and to be honest, with everything else in the learning curve, it will probably be forgotten with everything on the plate with setting up a centre!). I would like to see either an email sent out and/or a quick post on this site if something is occurring that is a significant runtime issue/event and just pointing them to the server status tab for updates. Cheers, Andrew

KatePlayItVR

Hi Matthew, I think it might be a good idea to let people know it's there when they sign up and find their way around Springboard and this site, like Andrew has said. I also agree that now we know it's there we will check from now on. Completely understand about not being able to send emails now it's been explained!