The Census Website Has Crashed And Everyone’s Losing It
You had one job.
After weeks of hype, significant privacy concerns and the threat of massive fines, the big day finally arrived. Census night. And it was a complete and utter catastrophe.
The Census website has crashed, in what is clearly a revenge attack from the Chinese swimming team who are still furious about Mack Horton’s sledge of one of their star athletes.
Given that millions of Australians can play Pokemon Go at once and it doesn’t crash is a good reason to outsource the census to Nintendo
— Tim Beshara (@Tim_Beshara) August 9, 2016
After a huge debate raged around privacy concerns that left many Australians questioning whether they should even complete the Census, the government has tonight helpfully provided the answer: Even if you want to fill it out, you can’t. Visitors to the Census website, attempting to fulfil their civic duty, are unable to log on.
The official Census Twitter account is alternating between telling everyone that everything is fine, and pointing out the website is down.
@simonanlezark Hi, the online form and website are operating smoothly as expected. Please try again. — Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
The ABS & Census websites are currently experiencing an outage. We’re working to restore the service. We will keep you updated. Thank you.
— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
It’s a pretty awkward result considering the Census website had literally one job: Letting people fill in their census forms. And to add insult to injury, it appears the federal government spent tens of thousands of dollars “load testing” the website to ensure it could handle all the traffic.
Load testing the website for the 2016 census: $54,367.50 pic.twitter.com/foe3OYmzf9 — Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) July 30, 2016
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the government department who run the Census, they are working hard to try and restore the website. But it seems likely most of the country will go to bed or finally finish watching Stranger Things rather than sit around and wait for service to be restored.
It’s the first time the Census has been run predominantly online, and given the disastrous outcome it might be last. Serves them right for bragging about how easy it would be!
How awkward when you brag about your HUGE capacity, then get self owned on census night #CensusFail #census2016 pic.twitter.com/urkbRxOKgl
— Sarah McLain (@SarahMcLain_) August 9, 2016
If you are really keen to fill out the Census, don’t despair. The government has clarified that you can fill it out at some point within the next month and you won’t cop a fine.
Despite the colossal failure of the nation’s largest and most important public survey, the whole #CensusFail has really brought the country together. It’s kind of heartwarming.
In the age of Netflix, it seems like #censufail is giving Australians a genuine, universal civic experience.
— Shaun Crowe (@shauncrowe) August 9, 2016