Where Did "Most Recent Journal Entries" Go? [Updates: 2]

[Update 1; 2020-12-27 16:05:32 UTC: Added my conversation with TMB. Scroll down to view. Minor rewording of original story. --martyb]
[Update 2; 2020-12-27 19:38:48 UTC: TMB started investigation and added a short update below. --Bytram]

aristarchus writes:

Not an actual sub. If this had been an actual sub, there would be something here. But just noticing that the list of recent journal entries is gone from the front page?

Thanks for that, aristarchus!

We've got a problem:
Where did the "Most Recent Journal Entries" slashbox go?

I don't know what happened. And, of course, TheMightyBuzzard is on vacation for the week.

No code changes have been made recently. Hmmm.

Way back when, I had read Niklaus Wirth's Algorithms+Data Structures = Programs. Well, if it's not code, then maybe it's data? It's a longshot, but worth a look.

I looked in the DB. Found the most recent journal entry. Looked like a Cut-and-Paste of some computer-generated HTML wrapping some marketing blurb written in Portuguese. Not only were there inappropriate HTML tags, they were saddled down with a plethora of attributes. For more fun, ladle in a heaping helping of UNICODE characters.

Still doubtful, but seemed the most likely culprit given the timing. I updated that journal entry manually in the DB to replace journal.article text with something benign.

No Joy. :(

FWIW, I also "bounced" the servers (varnishd on hydrogen and fluorine). Still no luck.

Current Workaround:
Use the site's search function to list the most recent journal entries:

https://soylentnews.org/search.pl?tid=&query=&author=&sort=2&op=journals

Besides, I had nothing else to do first thing on a Sunday morning, right?

[Update #2]:

I don't have the patience to fix db transaction timeouts on someone else's chicklet-keyboard-having Windows laptop. It can wait until I get home on the 2nd. --TMB

[Update #1]:

(See below the fold.)

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