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Archiver > GENBRIT > 2002-01 > 1009979579


From: (m petty)
Subject: Re: 1901 Census - well, that was a non-event!
Date: 2 Jan 2002 05:52:59 -0800
References: <qdBY7.39850$4x4.4663734@news2-win.server.ntlworld.com>


I'm with you there!

I know previous postings have quite rightly stated that this will save
a lot of time and effort when it is up and running.........etc etc
etc.

I'm probably being unappreciative here, but should it not be up and
running fully today? Yes, this is the first online UK census, but
should lessons have not been learnt when the IGI went online? Wasn't
it obvious that HUGE numbers of people will be trying to access the
information today? Surely it would have been common sense to 'beef up'
the server in the early days to cope with the demand.

I have managed to get some information from the index, but I cannot
page forward and I cannot view the individual entries. However, in
saying that, I'm not sure I would pay for anything at this stage as
the payment session will likely expire before I can download the
information.

Here's hoping improvements will be made soon

Maxine Petty


"Jonathan Horniblow" <> wrote in message news:<qdBY7.39850$>...
> The 1901 Census was supposed to go live at 9am this morning.
>
> At 7am, I checked the site:
>
> http://www.pro.gov.uk/census/ It said:
> "The most eagerly awaited genealogical event of this millennium is nearly
> here. From 9am (GMT) on Wednesday 2 January you will be able to access the
> 1901 Census returns for England and Wales over the Internet."
>
> http://www.census.pro.gov.uk/
> Just had a load of: "HTTP 404 - File not found" errors.
>
> OK, so it wasn't 9 yet.
>
> But by 9:20am, nothing had changed. No info available.
>
> By 9:50 am, the following had appeared on the front page:
>
> "1901 Census Online
> The Public Record Office and our partners, QinetiQ, are pleased to announce
> that the 1901 Census Online service officially went on live on 2 January.
> The demand has been so great since the service went live that the site is
> currently busy."
>
> The other pages were still as shown above. Perhaps the above should read:
>
> "1901 Census Online
> The Public Record Office is embarrassed to announce that QinetiQ was so
> chuffed at spending several hundred thousand pounds changing it's name from
> something meaningful and recognisable, that we were both caught out when 9am
> came. Following several furtive attempts to sort arse out from elbow, we
> have now given up, and will probably relaunch the site in June, after an
> expensive consultation process".
>
> So, don't hold your breath!
>
> You could, of course, try emailing them. Oh, no you can't, that's broken as
> well:
> Click on submit, and you get:
>
> "HTTP Error 405
> 405 Method Not Allowed
>
> The method specified in the Request Line is not allowed for the resource
> identified by the request. Please ensure that you have the proper MIME type
> set up for the resource you are requesting.
>
> Please contact the server's administrator if this problem persists."
>
> Good old governmental departments!

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