Repeating loading page shown to some visitors in place of site content

For roughly 46 minutes on August 14 (from about 21:29 to 22:15 UTC), a portion of visitors who were not signed in were shown a repeating loading page reading "One moment, please" instead of the requested page. The site itself remained fully operational throughout, signed-in visitors were unaffected, and no data was involved; the loading page came from a stale cached response in our content delivery layer. The cache was cleared to restore normal access immediately, and we have since shortened how long pages may be cached and added automated monitoring that detects and clears this condition within minutes if it ever recurs.

• Posted: Aug 14, 2026, 22:08 UTC
• Resolved: Aug 14, 2026, 22:28 UTC
• Duration: 20m

Timeline

1. resolved

   22:28 UTC

   This incident has been resolved. Pages are now cached for a shorter period, and automated monitoring is in place to detect and clear this condition within minutes if it ever recurs.

2. monitoring

   22:16 UTC

   A fix has been implemented and we are monitoring the results. The affected cache has been cleared, and normal page delivery has been confirmed. Any visitor still seeing the loading page should reload the page.

3. identified

   22:14 UTC

   The issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented. A stale cached response in our content delivery layer was being served to a portion of visitors who were not signed in.

4. investigating

   22:08 UTC

   We are currently investigating a report that some visitors are shown a repeating loading page reading "One moment, please" instead of the requested page.

Permalink: /incident/82