OK, I got some more replies from the very prompt people at webfaction. The problem seems to be with my app (web2py).
"... This is how the server works, HTTP is port 80 SSL is port 443 Your app runs on port 10853 locally and is than proxied by nginx to either port 80 or 443 http://docs.webfaction.com/user-guide/_images/inside-the-server.png ..." Yet, I most definitely have a file called parameters_443.py. Any clue, or pointer? Thanks