Stokes Sounds Off: LDS Church Temples Site Accessibility Issues

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Tuesday, May 8, 2018

LDS Church Temples Site Accessibility Issues

Hello again, everyone! For the last week or so, the LDS Church Temples site has been down. I have heard widespread concern about what is going on there, and today, we got some answers. It appears that due to a server error, the site data is temporarily inaccessible. I heard in passing that efforts are underway to restore the data, but depending on the extent of the problems, it may be impossible to do so.

So I wanted to prepare any of you reading this post for the possibility that the site may eventually be completely taken down. What does that mean for future discussions on this blog about temple progress (including the analysis of the latest developments)? I am not sure about that.

The Church has published every six months or so status updates on the temples currently under construction, and I imagine that will continue. And I am also sure that any major announcements, such as dedications, rededications, new temples, or groundbreakings will be a major focus on this blog going forward.

But if the site winds up going down permanently, it will certainly be more difficult to determine how close each temple is to reaching the next phase, and it will also be difficult (but not impossible) to access information about the size of each temple district, and any relevant information about how such districts may need to be split.

Once I have any additional information on this, I will be sure to pass that along. But I would be remiss indeed in failing to acknowledge how the developments reported on that site have enabled me to pass those along to all of you who read the posts on this blog. It is clear that ongoing temple developments are a highly important subject of interest to many. With that in mind, I will do everything I can on my end to find out what I can about temple progress going forward.

In the meantime, my thoughts and prayers go out to all who are involved in the process of trying to fix this issue, and I am sure that continued prayers in that regard would be beneficial to that process. If the issues, such as they may be, can be fixed, I am sure they will be.

Rest assured that I am keeping my eyes on this and all other temple developments, and I will do the best I can to pass any additional news along as I become aware of it. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

3 comments:

  1. I think we should all write to Rick Satterfield, the creator and manager or LDSChurchTemples.org, and let him know how much we rely on his site, how we appreciate his hard work, and how sad we are that the site is down. I also think we should offer to help him technically or finacially. Maybe we could accelerate the restoration of the site if he had funds to pay for a professional to recreate it? Could we organize a fundraiser for him? It's a unique and irreplaceable asset and will be a real loss if it is gone forever.

    Rick's email is webmaster@ldschurchtemples.org. Despite the loss of the site, that email still works, as shown by this recent exchange:


    On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 9:37 PM, wrote:
    Thanks, Marco. Unfortunately, I have lost the website to a server failure. There is a chance it can be recovered, but it is not looking good. I may need to retire the site now, as reconstruction would be a monumental task. Thanks for your support over the years.

    ME TO RICK:

    That's tragic. There's a google cache of it as of May 5, so the data's not gone, but the formatting surely is. It's such a great resource I really hope you can resurrect it. I bet there are many people like me who would be very willing to join an effort to make it happen.

    I wish you the very best of luck!
    Marco

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  2. Thanks for commenting, Marco. I have had many interactions with the webmaster of that site myself. The notice on the site has been updated to note that it may take weeks or months to bring it backback to it's previous state But it looks like it will be back. As anyone who has dealt with website issues can tell you, when such problems occur, if offers to help resolve the issue are provided en masse, responding to those offers may at some point take away time from a webmaster's restoration efforts. With that in mind, my suggestion would be that all who love the site should focus more on praying that those who are working on this issue will have the inspiration to resolve it ASAP rather than bombarding the webmaster with offers for help, which could be more of a detractor from the restoration efforts. Thanks, Marco.

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  3. I had an additional thought. Anxiety is one of many health challenges with which I am currently battling. While I cannot say for sure this is the case, I would imagine that a large-scale loss of data on multiple sites, one of which is very popular, and the worries about whether or not those sites can be restored, might cause a certain degree of anxiety, and if something like that is occurring, then bombarding those trying to fix the issue, even if that is for the purpose of expressing appreciation, support, and offers for help might just add to any anxiety that might exist. So while I would hope that there are those out there who would offer help and be able to give it, I think we would all be better served to pray for Heaven's help and inspiration to attend those working on this issue, as that kind of help would certainly do more good and might potentially be less detrimental, to the resolution of situations like this. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete

In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.

At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.

I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.

And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.

Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.