but I trade not in bones or in kidneys

So, this is going to post in August, because July is pretty much COMPLETELY booked with overemotionalism. Bah. But this just happened (July 23rd), and thought it was worth passing on to those who may not know.

So, around 1:10 pm or so, I saw this in one of my groups:

[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hi
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: can someone IM me?

I thought about it, and thought, sure, I'll bite.

[13:16] Emilly Orr: Err...why?
[13:16] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: my inventory items went missing

Ah. It begins to make sense now.

[13:16] Emilly Orr: Ah. Grid's having issues today. I would suggest, clear your caches, hit a sandbox, relog and reload, but...took me an hour to log in this morning, so....
[13:17] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: how to clear my caches?
[13:18] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I got this message...

"[13:16] Second Life: The message sent to [group name] is still being processed.
If the message does not appear in the next few minutes, it may have been dropped by the server."

[13:18] Emilly Orr: Right. So what's happening is, there's a lot of load on the servers for some reason? We're not sure yet if it's a DDoS attack or a failure in a server bank.

In all honesty--and this is me speaking from the 23rd, remember--I don't think it's either? But they are working theories, because there are serious issues happening today, and happening yesterday, when the bulk of sims were going dark.

[13:18] Emilly Orr: But chat lag, sim lag, sims going offline, and messages being dropped, it's all being seen.
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: okay
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: so, how to clear my cache?
[13:19] Emilly Orr: Pretty sure tomorrow, your inventory will be fine.
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: oh, that's good
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:
[13:20] Emilly Orr: If you're in Firestorm, it's Preferences Network Files Clear Browser Cache button, then, if you REALLY think you have local issues, Network Files Directories Clear Inventory Cache, and Clear Cache, both.
[13:20] Emilly Orr: (But you don't USUALLY need all three? All three nets you impatient time in a sandbox; the first just means you relog and the system reloads things for you.)
[13:21] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Thanks
[13:21] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:
[13:22] Emilly Orr: Sure!

Does every issue need to be fixed by completely emptying all inventory caches and starting from scratch? Of course not. And it's all down to how robust a computer, locally, is in play too--I've noticed I pretty much had to clear cache every couple of hours on the potato, and once a week religiously, dump everything and reload, just to avoid major crashing and inventory issues. The newer comp is functioning much better, but I still occasionally clear cache just to be safe.