def get_system_status(self):
        """
            get_system_status:
        """
        try:
            api_server_status_link = self.api_server + '/status_msg?version=' +\
                version_number
            response = urllib2.urlopen(api_server_status_link, timeout=1)
            status_msg = json.load(response)['status']
        except urllib2.HTTPError:
            status_msg = "Sorry, can't connect to psiturk.org, please check\
                your internet connection.\nYou will not be able to create new\
                hits, but testing locally should work.\n"
        return status_msg
get_system_status: