My father is an IT specialist and I asked him to take a look into this.
So you understand how this works we are currently on a web browser "Browser" which connects us via the internet to a web server which in turn retrieves information from a DATA base server (could be someones home computer or a very large one such as that used to support the cloud). The issue appears to be with the web server and not with the DATA Base server so you should not worry about losing all data that has been downloaded to the DATA Base server.
The software used on the "Web Server" is Simple Machine Forum Software "SMF" which is written in "PHP" Hypertext Preprocessor code. There was an update to the underlaying PHP code on April 30th, 2018 to version 5.6.36.
My father would like to know from the individual who maintains this forum if they made any recent updates? i.e updating the SMF software after April 30th, 2018. If you have review and check the following:
“500 Internal Server Error” messages after changing the PHP version
If you receive “500 Internal Server Error” messages after changing the
PHP version on your web site, check the .htaccess file in your
public_html directory. At the end of the .htaccess file you should see
text similar to the following:
# Start A2 Switcher Block
# Do not remove or modify this block! Added by PHP Switcher from
cPanel to use an alternate PHP version. Contact Support for details.
<IfModule mod_suphp.c>
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php-5.6.36.php
</IfModule>
# End A2 Switcher Block
The AddHandler value determines the PHP version for your site. Make
sure that the correct version is specified, and that the line
formatting is correct. Depending on how the .htaccess file was
previously configured, you may find that lines of text have been
merged, which could cause problems.
You may also see php_flag values configured in the .htaccess file. Any
php_flag values should now be configured directly in a custom php.ini
file.