Issues here too! Everything is running very slow!
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Chiming in as well -
Trying to load my dashboard, and facing similar issues. Items are not loading and also getting the same 500 Internal Error posted above!
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been getting retrieval errors for a couple hours now
dashboard loads (extremely slowly), but reviews will not.
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Since some requests are succeeding (though irregularly), it looks very much like a server load problem due to high traffic. I guess we have to wait until the traffic goes down or the servers are made to be able to handle the higher load.
Iāve been having issues with BunPro loading slowly for a few days, but now Iām experiencing the same problem with the server giving an error message. Currently, the page doesnāt load at all for me.
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Same issues here.
" Retrieval Error
There was a problem getting your study questions. Please reload the page to try again.
If the problem persists, please contact us."
Not much we can do. It seems the server where the study questions are hosted might be down, overloaded, etc. Some type of issue anyways.
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I agree, itās a bit weird. But as a former software dev, I have a hypothesis:
- They implemented a new patch for something. Either a new bit of feature(s), or perhaps some bug fix, or perhaps some ārefactoringā (can google if you want to learn about it).
- The patch caused unexpected issues, and people started to report bugs/issues soon after. For example:
- Instead of rolling-back the original patch with the unexpected side-effects, they attempt to fix the new issues with (a) new patch(es). Example:
- Unfortunately, while this new patch appears to fix things, it also has unexpected side-effects. Namely, it unexpectedly alters the performance of something on the server-side, such as some database queries.
- While under low to medium traffic, this second patch appears to fix the original patch without issue, and so most of the dev folks āgo homeā (or whatever the equivalent phrase would be if theyāre working remotely) for the day, thinking everythingās fine.
- Since ābusiness hoursā for Bunpro are based in Japan, yet most of their customers are from Western countries like in Europe and the Americas, āgoing homeā in Japan is equivalent to ālate at night / very-early morningā for most customers.
- Later, as ālate nightā turns to āwaking up timeā for many customers, the traffic at Bunpro begins to ramp up and up.
- The not-fully-tested second patch, with its compromised performance characteristics, cannot accommodate the full load on the server from however many hundreds/thousands of users trying to use the website/app all at the same time.
- Bunpro effectively conks out at the least convenient time for its customers.
- Thankfully their forums are hosted independently and we can at least document the situation.
A lot of the above is guesswork/speculation on my part, so I expect Iāve gotten lots of specific details wrong. But I think the general gist of it is probably not too far off.
My suggestion to Team Bunpro would be to take this overall issue very seriously (site failing due to recent dev patches, but while dev team unavailable), and immediately begin to implement a more robust Integration and Deployment process.
For example, if they are not already implementing Continuous Integration (wp-CI), then immediately start looking into implementing that. Especially with Automated Testing / Test-Driven Development (wp-TDD).
In particular, set up a test environment which is a clone of the final production/live environment, and which can handle automated Performance Testing in general (wp-PT) and Load Testing in particular (wp-LT).
Then, by having the Continuous Integration perform its Automated Testing in stages ā with a Pre-Production Stage, where Integration tests and Performance/Load tests are automatically performed prior to full release to the Live/Production servers ā these kinds of nasty ācanāt handle typical maximum load due to not-fully-tested patchesā situations will be far less frequent.
This is of course important not just because it makes the site more continuously functional/available, but more importantly because these kinds of outages give the brand of Bunpro a āblack eyeā, and harm long-term reputation. And reputation is Bunproās strongest power for generating its (currently still high level of) word-of-mouth marketing.
In other words, letting these kinds of things go on, without addressing them seriously and immediately, puts Bunproās reputation and long-term success at risk.
In my humble opinion.
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Iām just dreading the backlog of reviews to look forward to at some point this evening 
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oh wow bunpro is out lolā¦
I also am dreading my review backlog :((
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Donāt worry too much ā you will be able to handle it!
Even if you end up with a huge pile of Reviews, if you take them āslow and steadyā, bit by bit, you will be able to break down even a huge mountain of Reviews (eventually!) if you just keep at it on a regular basis.
Specifically, one key idea that has helped me a lot over the years is that I donāt have to finish all my Reviews in a single review session ā or even in a single day, or week, or whatever.
Practically speaking, the way I make this work is that before I start to feel discouraged or overwhelmed during a review session, Iāll:
- Use the Wrap Up feature (or whatever itās called here), which conveniently has the keyboard shortcut of the number zero ā0ā, which is very easy to press if you have a numeric keypad on your keyboard.
- Complete the āwrap upā of the session by finishing the remaining review items that I got wrong during the session.
- Get to the Summary screen, and give myself a little dopamine boost by acknowledging the completed session with a mental "Yay! I did it!
". As simple/silly as that sounds, that kind of āpositive feedbackā is literally how the brain reinforces habit-building. - If I successfully averted the dread/anxiety/overwhelm, and Iām still feeling like Iāve got energy/motivation to keep going, I might just start up another review session ā and again use Wrap Up to end it before it gets too long. Otherwise, well at least I did some reviews for now, and I can come back later to do more.
By āallowingā myself to cut review sessions into shorter chunks like this, I can successfully complete many review sessions, over and over. Even if I have a HUGE mountain of reviews, by steadily chipping away at them like this, I can maintain a steady pace ā while importantly maintaining the positive feedback of repeated successful sessions ā and therefore eventually conquer any number of Reviews in my queue.
(Importantly, it also requires not adding (too many) new items into my review stack, whether that be by doing new Learn sessions, or by manually adding items from item pages.)
I currently have over 2500 reviews in my queue (due to going a little crazy adding tons of Vocab items in the past few months), but by using the above method I can just happily chip chip away at the stack, day by day, and I know that eventually I will get my reviews back down to normal levels.
My point here is simply that Iām guessing you have fewer than 2500 reviews in your queue once BP gets back online. So, if you were to also make use of this idea (keep review sessions short/manageable with Wrap-Up, and just keep making steady progress day by day), you will also be able to tackle your review stack, no matter how big it is. (Just donāt go nuts like I did and add more items to your Reviews, either with Learn sessions or by manually adding them.)
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Wowā¦2500 reviews? I get stressed with my 50 or 60 reviews I have to do a day after learning 3-4 new grammar lol. I like the attitude towards it though for sure
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you get 50-60 reviews? i do the same with 3-4 grammar points, yet yesterday i got 255 reviews and kept pace for like 3 weeks prior (i do at every chance i get) so unless i have 100 ghosts, i dont know how that works. i also learn 5 vocab a day (which dosent have ghosts so it takes 2 seconds). anyways after all its a long journey, not a rush.
(not much of a bug report, bit off track)
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To be fair, Vocab reviews are orders-of-magnitude easier / less-mental-effort than Grammar reviews. Out of all those 2500-ish reviews, only about 80 are Grammar reviews at any given time, and they are thus spread out very thin among the total reviews I do during a session.
(I could handle my Grammar reviews separately ā effectively keep them at 0 day by day, if I wanted to ā and doing Vocabs separately. But Iām just enjoying the simplicity of ānot thinking about itā and just doing all reviews mixed. I understand that this is drastically slowing down my Grammar progress, but in fact thatās fine by me because my biggest weakpoint right now is lack of Vocab!)
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yeah 50-60 is my normal amount. I used to get much more before but that was because of my conjugation being bad. Now it takes me 1 or 2 fails on a new point and I seem to grasp it enough. But yeah I agree, it definitely is a long journey and should be treated slowly and patiently.
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2.5k reviews! 
Mine will probably be closer to 30 grammar haha, orders of magnitude less.
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My concern with all of this is not so much my reviews piling up, but losing my streak! I donāt anticipate them taking that long to fix the issue, but I still canāt help but worry 
.
BTW, my streak is not even impressive (maybe around 240 days) compared to the time Iāve been a member (probably around 750 days), but Iām trying to use it more for accountability for myself that Iām studying everyday.
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Same. I already emailed them to pretty please preserve my streak. If the site isnāt back up in the next 40 minutes, itās gone unfortunately :ā)
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Itās getting a bit annoying
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i can access the bunpro dashboard at the very least through the mobile app and you can access the vacation mode through settings menu there to preserve your streak. Give it a shot for sure
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Surely theyāll just freeze/extend everyoneās streak?
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