Not everyone, but a handful of people complain that when placing a city protection it only works for a few days, then disappears . Any idea what they could be doing?

Are you sure things are being written to the DB? If they aren't then a server restart would wipe out any fields that were placed. Are you using Sqlite or MySQL?

mysql, one sec while i check the log for connection failures

well i do see:

2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.configuration.file.YamlConfiguration.loadFromString(YamlConfiguration.java:55)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.configuration.file.FileConfiguration.load(FileConfiguration.java:138)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.configuration.file.FileConfiguration.load(FileConfiguration.java:105)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.sacredlabyrinth.Phaed.PreciousStones.managers.SettingsManager.load(SettingsManager.java:$
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.sacredlabyrinth.Phaed.PreciousStones.managers.CommandManager.onCommand(CommandManager.ja$
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.command.PluginCommand.execute(PluginCommand.java:44)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.command.SimpleCommandMap.dispatch(SimpleCommandMap.java:186)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_4_R1.CraftServer.dispatchCommand(CraftServer.java:514)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.v1_4_R1.CraftServer.dispatchServerCommand(CraftServer.java:506)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_R1.DedicatedServer.al(DedicatedServer.java:260)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_R1.DedicatedServer.r(DedicatedServer.java:225)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_R1.MinecraftServer.q(MinecraftServer.java:494)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_R1.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:427)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] at net.minecraft.server.v1_4_R1.ThreadServerApplication.run(SourceFile:849)
2013-01-23 19:57:30 [SEVERE] Caused by: while parsing a block mapping
in "", line 1, column 1:
bypass-blocks: []unbreakable-blo ...
^
expected , but found Scalar
in "", line 1, column 18:
bypass-blocks: []unbreakable-blocks: []

but i think thats unrelated. my config file for that looks like:
bypass-blocks: []
unprotectable-blocks:

• '51'
  unbreakable-blocks: []
  hiding-mask-blocks:

Post your config on here: http://yaml-online-parser.appspot.com/

If everything is good it will convert it to json. If not it will tell you where the errors are.

yep everything checks out, heres the config:
http://pastebin.com/y6XH54Jd

i still think those errors are unlikely to be the cause. Im seeing errors with LWC not writting to the db, so ill put money on thats the issue

You can enable this "/ps debugsql" to have PS output all SQL statements, may help you.

Weird seems like a connectivity problem with the db server. May want to check with your host.

my users tell me that this isnt new pstones, this happens with older ones, (couple months old) just deciding to not work. replacing them seems to fix it

i talked with my host, i think its just easier if i copy and paste what they wrote:

The reason you are seeing these errors is due to your application using persistent connections. Cloud Databases will close a connection after 120 seconds of inactivity, if your application does not check to see if the connection is open then you will get that error. The next query will reopen the connection and the application will begin working normally once again.

To fix the problem you will need to check for the state of the connection and if necessary reopen the connection. Alternatively you can try non-persistent connections and open and close connections on an as needed basis.

Hmm, PS checks and opens a new connection if the old one is closed every time it tries to access the db. So that wouldn't be a problem.