Posted by: xenoscepter
« on: Today at 12:16:53 PM »Perhaps a tarpit thing? Something like Nepenthes or those Discord channels I see that are nothing but an insta-ban trap for bots.
Posted by: Erik L
« on: Today at 11:38:03 AM »more like the sql service crashes and is restarted.
I'm looking at ways to block bots/spiders
I'm looking at ways to block bots/spiders
Posted by: LuuBluum
« on: Yesterday at 09:17:13 PM »I think what happens is that they restart the server once it becomes overloaded and the bot scrapers start back at nothing; once they climb up again down goes the server.
We're at 7000 guests and counting, so it should go down not too long after this message. Maybe an hour, tops? Assuming 10k is the max it can handle.
We're at 7000 guests and counting, so it should go down not too long after this message. Maybe an hour, tops? Assuming 10k is the max it can handle.
Posted by: Jarhead0331
« on: Yesterday at 08:53:38 PM »Hopefully we can get some comment from Erik on this.
Erik said on discord he won't be able to do much for a while. IRL stuff.
I do notice there's a lot fewer guests reported today, and the forums are a lot better. Very odd.
This would be expected if the problem is as I suspect. When the site goes down, the bot attacks temporarily stop, so function appears to return to normal. However, the attacks will start again resuming the cycle.
Posted by: Louella
« on: Yesterday at 04:30:24 PM »Hopefully we can get some comment from Erik on this.
Erik said on discord he won't be able to do much for a while. IRL stuff.
I do notice there's a lot fewer guests reported today, and the forums are a lot better. Very odd.
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: Yesterday at 04:11:37 PM »In that case, I would venture to say that this issue takes on urgency beyond the poor site performance. I'm not a big fan of the idea that AI bots are using my fiction posts to "learn" how to write marketing copy and slop mags. I'm sure it's not entirely preventable, but I'd appreciate an effort being made to curtail that.
Hopefully we can get some comment from Erik on this. If the answer involves a bump in hosting costs, I'd like to think we as a community can come together on this.
Hopefully we can get some comment from Erik on this. If the answer involves a bump in hosting costs, I'd like to think we as a community can come together on this.
Posted by: LuuBluum
« on: Yesterday at 02:08:53 PM »As of right now there's... "5321 Guests, 4 Users".
I think that makes it pretty clear what the issue is then, no?
I think that makes it pretty clear what the issue is then, no?
Posted by: LuuBluum
« on: Yesterday at 10:46:30 AM »Also this is 100% the "AI scraper bot" issue. Look at the bottom bar on the front page.
"Most Online Today: 10170. Most Online Ever: 17947 (June 05, 2025, 11:20:42 PM)"
"Most Online Today: 10170. Most Online Ever: 17947 (June 05, 2025, 11:20:42 PM)"
Posted by: LuuBluum
« on: Yesterday at 10:20:37 AM »Yeah, if it's anything like the other forums I'm familiar with running up against the same issues, it's time to place your faith in Anubis for protection.
Posted by: Jarhead0331
« on: June 15, 2025, 09:40:12 PM »This problem gives me Deja vu. I run a forum built on SMF and host it on GoDaddy. I had very similar problems. It took awhile to figure out that it was due to a lack of a firewall that permitted AI bots to constantly attack the site. This activity would, over time, cause GoDaddy to throttle the site and it would eventually exceed capacity and force the site down. Paying a little more to add the extra security prevents the bot attacks and there have been no site outages since.
Posted by: Zed 6
« on: June 14, 2025, 11:32:21 AM »This site was not available for the last 2 days for me. Works at the moment.
Posted by: paolot
« on: June 14, 2025, 09:18:36 AM »It was not presenting for some days to me, but now you are right and it is happening again. 
Posted by: Garfunkel
« on: June 14, 2025, 09:04:58 AM »Yeah, still keeps happening.
Posted by: nuclearslurpee
« on: June 13, 2025, 06:33:04 PM »The problem is not happening now for some days.
Is it solved? What did it cause?
I am still experiencing this issue, unfortunately.
Posted by: paolot
« on: June 13, 2025, 05:30:51 PM »The problem is not happening now for some days.
Is it solved? What did it cause?
Is it solved? What did it cause?
