Census 2016 - Can anyone logon?

[Andy]

So... it's 9:20pm on Census night and I've spent the last half an hour trying to logon.

Initially the website census.gov.au was "broke", then I managed to get a connection and a redirection to:
https://stream10.census.abs.gov.au/e...lcome.jsp#top2

Clicking on "Complete my Census" returns another window saying:

Thank you for participating in the Census. The system is very busy at the moment. Please wait for 15 minutes before trying again. Your patience and cooperation are appreciated. [code 9]

or it falls over with another message:


This site can’t be reached

The connection was reset.
Try:

• Reloading the page
• Checking the connection
• Checking the proxy and the firewall

ERR_CONNECTION_RESET


As someone who did a pile of family tree searching in the past, I'm all for the census data and don't mind my details being released in 99 years.

I'm also happy to fill it in online but how long should I muck about before sending the Australian Bureau of Statistics an invoice for my time?

Anyone else manage to log on to the site tonight?

[GrahamK]

Got in but unable to finalise or save survey, so gave up. Saved earlier so will probably have to redo last bit.

[ScottyF]

Andy

I logged on at 6pm. I had a feeling the peak of traffic would be later. I got on straight away and, end-to-end, the whole thing took about 4 minutes to complete. I've now received an email from the ABS: "Thanks for playing your part".

Scott

[chokkidog]

Did mine at 2.30pm. Took 3 or 4 minutes.
Didn't want to clutter up my inbox so I just took a screen shot of the receipt.
Hope you get to bed before midnight, Andy!!

[Andy]

Being "rural" we were delivered a paper version (without us asking) but knowing how much more of our tax dollars will be consumed in processing paper I was keen to do it online.

Just passed the hour mark and sick of seeing the error screens so yeah, might give it a rest and try again near midnight.

[SniffCoffee]

Yep started it about 7.30 and then system wouldn't let me submit it. Now can't get on at all. sigh

[Dimal]

Got on at around 5:00PM Ok and finished up in around 15 minutes...
Given we've got until mid September to file the data, I guess a few nights one way or the other isn't going to make much difference...

Mal.

[KopiV]

Had no issues @ 5pm on the west coast. Agree with Mal regarding data lodging, first time census has been able to be lodged online. Bound to have issues unfortunately.

[MrFreddofrog]

Blind Freddy could have predicted this. That's why I asked for a paper copy.

[simonko]

Also had no problems earlier at around 6 eastern - but saved it instead of submitting just in case the whole thing gets revised from privacy complaints. I would have liked to see explanations on some of the questions as to why such info is needed.

[Andy]

Blind Freddy could have predicted this. That's why I asked for a paper copy.

Paper ones were really only for people without an Internet connection.

I hope you post it back with a $5 note so the rest of us don't have to pay for the manual processing of it.

[gonzo89]

I still don't understand why people didn't do it a week ago when they received their code (or called up for a new one). At least now the slackers have an excuse to avoid the fine.

[Andy]

don't understand why people didn't do it a week ago

...because you are meant to do it on the night of the 9th.
I didn't know who was going to be at home that night, could have guessed but might have been wrong.

[GrahamK]

Seeing as due to hacking they shut down the site, it would seem they do have an excuse

[simonko]

No excuse - if you ask questions people don't like with scaremongering $180/day fines, you're likely to get hacked.

Also, it wouldn't be the first organisation to lie to attempt to save face.