What is wrong with the site? (Please read updated post #1)

JP Liz V1

500 Errors and Database Errors

_Kaiser_

Same here (503/database/too many connections errors) on touch in the last few minutes.

hullaballoo

There is a spam attack. The site will be unstable for a while.

The_Conductor

hullaballoo wrote: »

There is a spam attack. The site will be unstable for a while.

Spam or DDOS?
Can get in over a US VPN easily enough- but not on my organic Irish IP address.......

hullaballoo

Spam but it is having the same effect as a DDOS so both really.

Tokyo

Seems to have abated for now.

Overheal

Would a captcha for sending PMs help?

Boards.ie: Mark

That would certainly help slow down the ability to send a PM after signing up and activating account, giving us more time to spot and nuke it before a PM can be sent.

Overheal

Captchas e v e r y w h e r e

/am I a robot? *post this*

Tokyo

Overheal wrote: »

Captchas e v e r y w h e r e

My preferred variation of your suggestion would be for user accounts to be limited before their first 50 posts.

• No ability to post anything other than plaintext.
• Catchpa to use any tool that can potentially be used to spam (e.g. PMs, visitor messages etc)
• Perhaps the ability to read but not post in certain forums.

Once you've reached the 50 post limit then service resumes as normal.

Gremlinertia

mike_ie wrote: »

My preferred variation of your suggestion would be for user accounts to be limited before their first 50 posts.

• No ability to post anything other than plaintext.
• Catchpa to use any tool that can potentially be used to spam (e.g. PMs, visitor messages etc)
• Perhaps the ability to read but not post in certain forums.

Once you've reached the 50 post limit then service resumes as normal.

I'd add something to prevent one word posts for count building too if that's possible

Overheal

Gremlinertia wrote: »

I'd add something to prevent one word posts for count building too if that's possible

70 character minimum?

Gremlinertia

Overheal wrote: »

70 character minimum?

Exactly 'message is too short, must be at least ** number characters long for spam filtering purposes'

Tokyo

I probably should stress that this is my 'ideal world' scenario. I think the devs are busy enough at the moment just trying to maintain the site as it is remotely.

Gremlinertia

Oh indeed, having a wee daydream there myself, all long finger ideas

I really wish the captchas I get were cookie based instead of IP. I have to do it so many times a day and I use the site less because of them.

kippy

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I really wish the captchas I get were cookie based instead of IP. I have to do it so many times a day and I use the site less because of them.

Never seen a captcha on this site. Where you you seeing them? Are you accessing it in an non regular manner?

kippy

kippy wrote: »

Never seen a captcha on this site. Where you you seeing them? Are you accessing it in an non regular manner?

I live in Vietnam.

kippy

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I live in Vietnam.

Ah sorry, ya I seen you've said that before.

HeidiHeidi

All sorts of error messages popping up on both touch and full site when I try to click onto threads or submit a post in the last 10 or 15 mins.

The_Conductor

I'm getting demented with Cloudflare checks this morning- but am getting in ok.
Cloudflare seems to be on steroids.

Boards.ie: Niamh

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

All sorts of error messages popping up on both touch and full site when I try to click onto threads or submit a post in the last 10 or 15 mins.

Yes I was getting some 503 errors here myself, looking into it.

Boards.ie: Niamh

The_Conductor wrote: »

I'm getting demented with Cloudflare checks this morning- but am getting in ok.
Cloudflare seems to be on steroids.

Are you getting lots of captchas or errors?

HeidiHeidi

Boards.ie: Niamh wrote: »

Yes I was getting some 503 errors here myself, looking into it.

I got the widget error message, too many users, SQLATSATE message, 503 error, and I think one other.

The whole selection by the looks of it!

I had a cloudfare, nothing else.

Touch site via safari

This is it

I was getting a lot of SQL errors on the touch site earlier, seems ok now

Boards.ie: Niamh

Things should be back to normal now everyone, if not let me know here. Thanks!

SnowyMay

Hi all

Just wondering, does something happen to the DB every day at Irish time 6.30am?

Have noticed quite frequently that it gets a bit stuck around that time. First with Cloudflare generated error 524, and, after about two minutes, a SQLSTATE[08004][1040]. Using Touch and am accessing from Germany Once I get to the SQL error, I can access the site using the Full Site.

While thing lasts about 15 minutes before normal service resumes.

Not a huge issue, but just wondering as it seems to be happening pretty much at the same time when I’ve been online in the morning to notice (which is most weekdays - never so early on a weekend! )

Penfailed

SnowyMay wrote: »

Hi all

Just wondering, does something happen to the DB every day at Irish time 6.30am?

Have noticed quite frequently that it gets a bit stuck around that time. First with Cloudflare generated error 524, and, after about two minutes, a SQLSTATE[08004][1040]. Using Touch and am accessing from Germany Once I get to the SQL error, I can access the site using the Full Site.

While thing lasts about 15 minutes before normal service resumes.

Not a huge issue, but just wondering as it seems to be happening pretty much at the same time when I’ve been online in the morning to notice (which is most weekdays - never so early on a weekend! )

Same here.

Mr.Crinklewood

Penfailed wrote: »

Same here.

Ditto