User submits a support request.
Support volunteer (usually) is hanging out, and happens to spy a support request that they know the answer to.
Support volunteer answers the request to the best of their ability and knowledge.
Support higher-level volunteer (or maybe even staff) comes along, and looks over all the potential answers submitted. The first one that meets the requirements for a) right, b) phrased in accordance with the style required, and c) lacks flaws like nasty typoes, gets approved.
User gets the approved answer sent to them.
There are refinements, of course, but that's the basic process. I am at the Support Volunteer level, which means that everything I think I know about someone's problem on the Support boards, someone who actually does know has to look over my answer and make sure that yeah, my answer is within some pre-determined level of accurate and potentially helpful.
Right now there's massive site-suck going on. I know this because of
lj_maintenance and http://status.livejournal.org, and because of the support boards. If you wind up at http://www.livejournal.com/support/help.bml , you get an idea of what sorts of things people are experiencing, and the answers that they're getting. I asked someone how I could help. It turned out to be by helping answer the massive flood of support requests. It's far easier for an admin to go through and say "Yes, that volunteer had the right answer" than to write their own answer. I asked what sort of information had to be in an approvable answer, then I wrote up a few brief paragraphs incorporating those concepts, and ran it past the admin.
I spent a few peaceful hours applying this information against the incoming support requests. The general concepts that the admins wanted to get across this morning:
LiveJournal developers and volunteers are aware that some users are having difficulty reaching all or parts of the site. http://community.livejournal.com/lj_maintenance/ has a post explaining that this is due to a suspected DDoS attack. Some users have reported that using a different computer or different browser helps them access the site, but this does not work for everyone. Developers are working on this problem; http://status.livejournal.org will have updates on their progress as it is available. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Is it the right answer to all problems? No. Is it going to be accurate tomorrow? Gods only know; I'm hoping not; I'm hoping things will have cleared up by then. But a whole hunk of the stuff with things not loading are most likely this. Alas.
