Photo of the Day

I've noticed two recent incidents where Photos of the Day have been posted, then quickly removed and replaced with another, Today, 12 May, is an example. There was an interesting photo by Modris Baum of rhabdophane-(Ce) from Mont Saint-Hilaire displayed as the Photo of the Day, only to be replaced about an hour later with a different one. About two weeks ago, one of mine showed up (a natrolite and analcime from Michigan), only to be replaced later in the day.

What's happening?

Regards,

Steve Stuart

It's a bad interaction between the caching of the front page. When the cache expires, a new front page is generated. If there are several people trying to display the front page at the same time, a number of copies of the front page are generated. For the first time this happens in a day, a random selection of the POTD from the pool is made. We then end up with a number of POTD for the day. The next time the program is run, it checks for this condition and removes the additionally checked ones. So you can end up with a POTD that isn't the same as you see at the start of the day. The other photos still stay in the pool, so they will be picked in the future.

I have a plan to fix this. I'll do that tonight.

Jolyon