[vsnet-grb-info 5789] Explanation for the GCN email backlog

[GCN Circulars]

All GCN Customers,

Due to the massive amount of traffic from the back-to-back bursts tonight
the GCN computer suffered from a high load factor.  This has resulted
in delayed email delivery (both Notices and Circulars).
Please note that this did NOT efffect the socket distribution -- the socket packets
went out in milliseconds for both bursts.  But the email delivery of the Notices and Circulars
has been delayed; especially for the Circulars (several hours for some customers; and more so
for the later Circulars submitted in tonight's series of many follow-up observations.
At times, there were as many as 14 Circulars being processed simultaneously.

I toke steps to clear the email backlog.  The distrubtion rate increased, and
the backlog was cleared around 12:10 UT this morning.

My apologies for the inconvenience and confusion these late emails have caused.

For the future, I will investigate and implement procedues and code to prevent
such a confluence and competition of processes.

Sincerely,
Scott Barthelmy