I Do Believe We've Been Invaded - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Elvellon · 08-07-2024, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

The admins are working on it, but it's not something that they can fix immediately. Give them a bit of time to work on it.

I appreciate that. That's the first acknowledgment I've seen that anyone is working on it, hence my comment, but maybe I missed it.

***Mithadan*** · 08-09-2024, 08:10 AM

If you have recently entered the forums, you have all noticed the frequent 508 error messages (insufficient resources) preventing access to the Downs, I have attempted a fix.

A 508 message, based upon my feeble, tech-deficient research, is the result of a site's servers being overwhelmed by too many users viewing or interacting with the site. Others have commented upon the large number of visitors shown as being on the site, often more than 2500 (the counter shows that the most people on the site at one time was 6300 this past May).

Recently, Huinesoron noticed that one forum, The Movies, was consistently attracting more than 90% of the visitors. He also noticed that one thread, Full-Length LoTR Parody Movies, was showing an absurd amount of "hits," presently more than 22 million (not a typo) with the number increasing by hundreds of thousands every week. It appears that something in this thread has been attracting bots/AI scrapers. This is based upon observation, not technical confirmation. I know of no way to determine whether any particular post in the thread is attracting the attention.

The primary posters on this thread over the last several months have been Huinesoron and Galadriel55 who have been using it to develop their Finrod Rock Opera (a worthy endeavor if you have not noticed it). After discussing this with them, I have moved this thread into a private forum. It is no longer visible in The Movies. They will continue to privately work on the Finrod Opera in the private forum. I am sure that if any of you want to see it or follow their progress, they will accommodate you.

Before I moved the thread, The Movies forum showed roughly 2000 visitors. After I moved it, it showed 135 visitors. I suspect that the "visitors" that we viewing/mining the thread when it was moved will remain there, clogging our server until they leave the page they are viewing. After that, they will not be able to reach the thread, hopefully curing the 508 problem. Or maybe this ham-handed effort will not be a fix. We'll see.
__________________

Huinesoron · 08-09-2024, 08:35 AM

Thank you, Mithadan. Hopefully now we're in hiding things will settle down. If anyone still wants to see what's going on with Finrod-Zong, you can access the Google Doc of the current state of it through my signature or G55's. If the bots want to try and DDOS Google, they're welcome to!

(Credit where it's due, it was you and Elvellon who put together where the bots were swarming; I just theorised on why.)

At this time there are 2796 "guests" on the Downs, with only about 600 of them viewing specific forums. The rest are hopefully either still viewing the Zong thread until they refresh, have been bounced to the main page, or are hitting the "no such thread" page; in any of those cases I hope we'll soon see a drop-off in numbers.

EDIT: For reference/tracking, 15 minutes of "Viewing" and "User" counts. Times are in GMT+1, date is 2024-08-09; this is about half an hour after the Zong thread was moved.

hS

Galadriel55 · 08-09-2024, 11:04 AM

I have absolutely no clue where you guys can see the visitors to specific fora. I can only find the guests listed on the main page - still around 2.8K, similar to Hui's observation a couple hours back. I still ran into the 508 twice while jumping back and forth between the forums. And views to the Zong are still at 22M - up from 17.9M a month ago as observed by Elvellon. Let's see how these numbers change over the coming days and keep our fingers crossed. Thank you Mithadan!

Huinesoron · 08-09-2024, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I have absolutely no clue where you guys can see the visitors to specific fora. I can only find the guests listed on the main page - still around 2.8K, similar to Hui's observation a couple hours back. I still ran into the 508 twice while jumping back and forth between the forums. And views to the Zong are still at 22M - up from 17.9M a month ago as observed by Elvellon. Let's see how these numbers change over the coming days and keep our fingers crossed. Thank you Mithadan!

On the front page, I just see the viewer count next to each sub forum. So for instance "The Books (91 viewing)".

Currently we're at 6294 Guests, but only slight increases in each forum. So the bot servers have come online, but they're on the main or error pages for sure. Hopefully once they realise they're not reaching the correct page they'll back off.

hS

***Mithadan*** · 08-09-2024, 02:04 PM

Interesting that just after the thread was made private, visitors shot up from about 2200 to a new record high of 6589....

Huinesoron · 08-10-2024, 01:14 AM

8:10 am at GMT+1, we have 5721 guests. Breakdown across forums, top to bottom:

318/109/194
181/33/208
62/5
15
2/6/3/67
153/5

I don't know if it's useful, but I'm trying to log the numbers at various times of day to see how they rise and fall.

EDIT: 9:05am GMT+1, also on 10 Aug: 5464 guests.

40/21/101
41/13/37
32/0
7
4/6/2/60
17/11

EDIT2: 10:46pm GMT+1, 10 Aug:

5292 guests
65/32/71
22/11/37
45/3
7
2/1/2/62
42/7

EDIT3: 11:53pm GMT+1, 10 Aug:

4927 guests
55/22/87
25/11/41
55/1
9
4/5/2/59
19/4

EDIT4: 9:22am GMT+1, 11 Aug

3191 guests
83/11/114
43/6/67
160/4
4
0/0/0/44
13/5

EDITAGAIN: Dropping the full logging until something interesting happens with it, but:

11 Aug, 9:43pm GMT+1: 3217 guests
10 Aug, 00:30am GMT+1: 7328 guests.
11 Aug, 11:07pm GMT+1: 3328 guests
12 Aug 6:49am GMT+1: 3313 guests
12 Aug 9:26am GMT+1: 3023 guests
12 Aug 11:49am GMT+1: 3140 guests
12 Aug 5:48pm GMT+1: 3165 guests
12 Aug 9:46pm GMT+1: 3135 guests
12 Aug 10:35pm GMT+1: 2847 guests
13 Aug 9:27 am GMT+1: 3072 guests
13 Aug 1:11pm GMT+1: 3140 guests (starting to see a theme here...)
13 Aug 9:49pm GMT+1: 3092 guests
13 Aug 10:55pm GMT+1: 3226 guests
14 Aug 12:34pm GMT+1: 2987 guests

hS

08-09-2024, 08:10 AM	#2
*Mithadan* Spirit of Mist Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Tol Eressea Posts: 3,397	If you have recently entered the forums, you have all noticed the frequent 508 error messages (insufficient resources) preventing access to the Downs, I have attempted a fix. A 508 message, based upon my feeble, tech-deficient research, is the result of a site's servers being overwhelmed by too many users viewing or interacting with the site. Others have commented upon the large number of visitors shown as being on the site, often more than 2500 (the counter shows that the most people on the site at one time was 6300 this past May). Recently, Huinesoron noticed that one forum, The Movies, was consistently attracting more than 90% of the visitors. He also noticed that one thread, Full-Length LoTR Parody Movies, was showing an absurd amount of "hits," presently more than 22 million (not a typo) with the number increasing by hundreds of thousands every week. It appears that something in this thread has been attracting bots/AI scrapers. This is based upon observation, not technical confirmation. I know of no way to determine whether any particular post in the thread is attracting the attention. The primary posters on this thread over the last several months have been Huinesoron and Galadriel55 who have been using it to develop their Finrod Rock Opera (a worthy endeavor if you have not noticed it). After discussing this with them, I have moved this thread into a private forum. It is no longer visible in The Movies. They will continue to privately work on the Finrod Opera in the private forum. I am sure that if any of you want to see it or follow their progress, they will accommodate you. Before I moved the thread, The Movies forum showed roughly 2000 visitors. After I moved it, it showed 135 visitors. I suspect that the "visitors" that we viewing/mining the thread when it was moved will remain there, clogging our server until they leave the page they are viewing. After that, they will not be able to reach the thread, hopefully curing the 508 problem. Or maybe this ham-handed effort will not be a fix. We'll see. __________________ __________________ Beleriand, Beleriand, the borders of the Elven-land.

08-09-2024, 08:35 AM	#3
Huinesoron Overshadowed Eagle Join Date: Nov 2017 Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea Posts: 3,971	Thank you, Mithadan. Hopefully now we're in hiding things will settle down. If anyone still wants to see what's going on with Finrod-Zong, you can access the Google Doc of the current state of it through my signature or G55's. If the bots want to try and DDOS Google, they're welcome to! (Credit where it's due, it was you and Elvellon who put together where the bots were swarming; I just theorised on why.) At this time there are 2796 "guests" on the Downs, with only about 600 of them viewing specific forums. The rest are hopefully either still viewing the Zong thread until they refresh, have been bounced to the main page, or are hitting the "no such thread" page; in any of those cases I hope we'll soon see a drop-off in numbers. EDIT: For reference/tracking, 15 minutes of "Viewing" and "User" counts. Times are in GMT+1, date is 2024-08-09; this is about half an hour after the Zong thread was moved. hS __________________ Have you burned the ships that could bear you back again? ~Finrod: The Rock Opera Last edited by Huinesoron; 08-09-2024 at 09:06 AM.

08-09-2024, 11:04 AM	#4
Galadriel55 Blossom of Dwimordene Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: The realm of forgotten words Posts: 10,517	Status report I have absolutely no clue where you guys can see the visitors to specific fora. I can only find the guests listed on the main page - still around 2.8K, similar to Hui's observation a couple hours back. I still ran into the 508 twice while jumping back and forth between the forums. And views to the Zong are still at 22M - up from 17.9M a month ago as observed by Elvellon. Let's see how these numbers change over the coming days and keep our fingers crossed. Thank you Mithadan! __________________ You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera

08-09-2024, 02:04 PM	#6
*Mithadan* Spirit of Mist Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Tol Eressea Posts: 3,397	Interesting that just after the thread was made private, visitors shot up from about 2200 to a new record high of 6589.... __________________ Beleriand, Beleriand, the borders of the Elven-land.