A word about site outages

[Jarhead0331]

Apologies for the downtime guys. We've been down now on both Christmas and New Years. I believe I have tracked the most likely culprit to spam bot attacks of some kind. These attacks are maximizing the capacity of the server which then causes the host to throttle the site and close it down.

I believe I know what measure will help the problem substantially, but I need to speak with someone with the right tech expertise before I implement the plan as I've always been taught to avoid pressing random red buttons.

In any event thanks for your patience and continued loyalty.

Happy New Year! First post of 2025!   

[bobarossa]

You must have upset one of those bots/spammers you removed.  They contacted their friends for revenge.

[Jarhead0331]

You must have upset one of those bots/spammers you removed.  They contacted their friends for revenge.

It's ridiculous. Managing them has become a real chore. Whomever creates these time wasters is scum.

[JasonPratt]

And now the bots are being created by bots.

"Droids making droids: how perverse!"

[Jarhead0331]

There have been at least 8 attempts to register new accounts in the last two hours or so.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Lame.  Is there a way to determine legit account creations vs bot spam?

[Jarhead0331]

Lame.  Is there a way to determine legit account creations vs bot spam?

I'm not sure how to tell the difference between a "bot" account or one that has been created by an actual human. Fortunately, it's pretty obvious for the most part to tell whether a new account is created for the purpose of spam or mischief. It is a very labor intensive job to police them all. Given the frequency of new accounts, I have to assume most of them are coming from Skynet, or some similarly maligned derivative.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Maybe all those drones in your neck of the woods are even more sinister than we're being told.

[Sir Slash]

No problem Boss. The Grogheads can be down, but never out. My Wife does Internet Security for a local banking corp. and she deals with this kind of shit practically every day, all day. Glad it's not my job. 

[Jarhead0331]

No problem Boss. The Grogheads can be down, but never out. My Wife does Internet Security for a local banking corp. and she deals with this kind of shit practically every day, all day. Glad it's not my job. 

Just she have any interest in moonlighting for Grogheads? 

[JasonPratt]

Maybe Slash can offer her favors!

Re Skynet: our mistake may be in deprecating the alternate canon sequel AIs. 

[Sir Slash]

I am afraid the Wife keeps very busy dealing with all the Internet Riff-Raff, the IT idiots, and....supporting me. Husbands like me don't come cheap or easy.  I'm wondering if maybe somebody has it in for you JH? Could this be a personal thing you think?

[Jarhead0331]

I am afraid the Wife keeps very busy dealing with all the Internet Riff-Raff, the IT idiots, and....supporting me. Husbands like me don't come cheap or easy.  I'm wondering if maybe somebody has it in for you JH? Could this be a personal thing you think?

While there is no shortage of people who think I'm an asshole, this doesn't seem like that sort of thing.

I know there are technical issues that are causing this and which can and will be addressed. I have a guy who is going to work on it.

In the meantime, while we are having frequent outages, please don't forget we are on facebook and have a discord. If we're down, I will try to post updates on the discord. Please be sure to join the channel if you haven't already.

https://discord.gg/QEQYs7N

[WallysWorld]

I was getting worried there when the website and forum weren't showing up. Thanks for getting both online again!

[Jarhead0331]

I was getting worried there when the website and forum weren't showing up. Thanks for getting both online again!

There will probably be further outages, but I assure you they will be temporary. Thanks for your patience.