Bulbapedia 503 service unavailable

[Snowy]

I just tried to use the search on Bulbapedia and got a 503 service unavailable error.

 

[Tiddlywinks]

I just tried to use the search on Bulbapedia and got a 503 service unavailable error.

It happens. When the server is for one reason or another burdened, it will not be able to handle some of its functions, like search. (Pages should still remain basically accessible.)

In particular, just now, a couple of heavily used templates were updated, which puts some strain on the server in checking all the pages it's used on. These sorts of updates are generally kept to the slow hours for the site, however.

 

[Snowy]

That would explain that then. I must have tried at the same time those updates happened.

Is it possible to get a better error page for that though?

 

[Tiddlywinks]

I think it's supposed to be simple (because the server /is/ burdened). And there's definitely not always an obvious "culprit" like a template change. And a simple Google search should also give a fair idea of what sort of problem it is anyway.