Maybe pruning?

[zompist]

I'm trying something: removing guest access. I notice that when getting errors, guest logins are at 50 or 100 or more. I expect most of those are bots. Let's see what happens...

Edit: It doesn't remove the problem, but I feel it's better? Earlier today I had to refresh a page half a dozen times to see it.

[bradrn]

I'm trying something: removing guest access. I notice that when getting errors, guest logins are at 50 or 100 or more. I expect most of those are bots. Let's see what happens...

Edit: It doesn't remove the problem, but I feel it's better? Earlier today I had to refresh a page half a dozen times to see it.

It’s still at 100 guests for me… and on further investigation, it appears that guests can still access verduria.org, they just don’t see any forums. If the number of accesses is the problem, I can see why doing that wouldn’t help.

[zompist]

What I meant was that guests can't see the forums, which means they can't spend their time hoovering up posts.

At the moment I can access the board fine. Fingers crossed.

(Edit, to keep testing if nothing else. Why do supernatural entities care if our fingers are crossed?)

[bradrn]

At the moment I can access the board fine. Fingers crossed.

As can I, at the moment. But a few minutes ago I couldn’t.

(You know, it would be really convenient if there were some way to access the server logs…)

[Raphael]

Seems to work fine right now, once you log in, thought the main page still shows a lot of guests visiting.

[Raphael]

Still working greatly. Perhaps there could be some kind of warning on the main page, something like "Don't panic, the ZBB hasn't gone away, it's just that it's only visible to people who are logged in now"?

[bradrn]

Still working greatly. Perhaps there could be some kind of warning on the main page, something like "Don't panic, the ZBB hasn't gone away, it's just that it's only visible to people who are logged in now"?

I second this.

[WeepingElf]

Still working greatly. Perhaps there could be some kind of warning on the main page, something like "Don't panic, the ZBB hasn't gone away, it's just that it's only visible to people who are logged in now"?

I second this.

Thirded. Before trying, I thought the ZBB had melted down.

[zompist]

I changed the tagline— since there's not much on the page when you're not logged in, I hope that's visible enough.

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[Ares Land]

What I meant was that guests can't see the forums, which means they can't spend their time hoovering up posts.

At the moment I can access the board fine. Fingers crossed.

(Edit, to keep testing if nothing else. Why do supernatural entities care if our fingers are crossed?)

It seems to have done the trick, at least on my end.

[Man in Space]

I just got a straight-up 404 trying to access Conlangery.

[Raphael]

And the Board is slow and sometimes giving me errors again. Despite the changes. Wtf is going on?

EDIT: I find it really weird that the change to a login-only Board apparently solved the problems for a while, but not permanently.

[zompist]

Sigh. I've been getting problems again, and at this point all I can say is that I know how annoying it is.

I looked at bluehost's website, and it looks like the only way to contact them is via a chat interface. No e-mail option. I don't have time for that right now but I'll struggle with it later. I just hope it's not ChatGPT.

[Man in Space]

Getting 500s and 404s. I specifically thought to check this and it says there’re currently 103 visitors.

[bradrn]

It’s really terrible just at the moment, basically unusable. And with only around ~80 users, insofar as I can tell.

As an aside: I wonder if upgrading phpBB to the latest version might be worth a try?

[zompist]

As an aside: I wonder if upgrading phpBB to the latest version might be worth a try?

Might be worth a try, though it's tedious.

FWIW I ftp'd into the server and checked the error_log file. It has an innumerable set of errors like this:

Stack trace:
#0 /home3/verduria/public_html/cache/production/url_generator.php(49): Symfony\Component\Routing\Generator\UrlGenerator->doGenerate(Array, Array, Array, Array, Array, 'phpbb_feed_foru...', 1, Array, Array)
#1 /home3/verduria/public_html/phpbb/routing/router.php(168): phpbb_url_generator->generate('phpbb_feed_foru...', Array, 1)
#2 /home3/verduria/public_html/phpbb/routing/helper.php(148): phpbb\routing\router->generate('phpbb_feed_foru...', Array, 1)
#3 /home3/verduria/public_html/phpbb/template/twig/extension/routing.php(36): phpbb\routing\helper->route('phpbb_feed_foru...', Array, true, false, 1)
#4 /home3/verduria/public_html/cache/production/twig/cd/cd6dc777362816e4f1730d62edab105dab4b9a7c8305a07ef7290a6eb2ce1b78.php(145): p in /home3/verduria/public_html/vendor/twig/twig/src/Template.php on line 419
[08-Apr-2023 03:38:08 America/Boise] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Symfony\Component\Routing\Exception\InvalidParameterException: Parameter "forum_id" for route "phpbb_feed_forum" must match "\d+" ("-1165" given) to generate a corresponding URL. in /home3/verduria/public_html/vendor/symfony/routing/Generator/UrlGenerator.php:148

I have no idea what that means, and there's no timestamp. I deleted the file to see if more of the same occurs.

Ironically, the board is working fine right now. (Not because I deleted the file; it was fine before that. Since the problem comes and goes, I feel like it's bot activity, but I dunno.)

[bradrn]

Stack trace:
#0 /home3/verduria/public_html/cache/production/url_generator.php(49): Symfony\Component\Routing\Generator\UrlGenerator->doGenerate(Array, Array, Array, Array, Array, 'phpbb_feed_foru...', 1, Array, Array)
#1 /home3/verduria/public_html/phpbb/routing/router.php(168): phpbb_url_generator->generate('phpbb_feed_foru...', Array, 1)
#2 /home3/verduria/public_html/phpbb/routing/helper.php(148): phpbb\routing\router->generate('phpbb_feed_foru...', Array, 1)
#3 /home3/verduria/public_html/phpbb/template/twig/extension/routing.php(36): phpbb\routing\helper->route('phpbb_feed_foru...', Array, true, false, 1)
#4 /home3/verduria/public_html/cache/production/twig/cd/cd6dc777362816e4f1730d62edab105dab4b9a7c8305a07ef7290a6eb2ce1b78.php(145): p in /home3/verduria/public_html/vendor/twig/twig/src/Template.php on line 419
[08-Apr-2023 03:38:08 America/Boise] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Symfony\Component\Routing\Exception\InvalidParameterException: Parameter "forum_id" for route "phpbb_feed_forum" must match "\d+" ("-1165" given) to generate a corresponding URL. in /home3/verduria/public_html/vendor/symfony/routing/Generator/UrlGenerator.php:148

Ooh, that really doesn’t look good. I’d strongly recommend upgrading the board.

(As with previously, I’m willing to help out if needed.)

[zompist]

(As with previously, I’m willing to help out if needed.)

I may take you up on that... please e-mail me.

[bradrn]

(As with previously, I’m willing to help out if needed.)

I may take you up on that... please e-mail me.

Done!