Zompist Bboard Again

That has already been tried, although I think the exact errors then were slightly different¹, so it might be worth trying again. That said, I didn't have an account the last time restricting views was done, and it was really annoying. I'd worked out what happened, but of course all the conversation about it became unaccessible to me, and since I then didn't want to make an account just in order to look at the ZBB². I would like to request, that if that does happen again, then Zompist put out a message³ explaining it, and crucially whether it is being tested (and if so for how long) or whether it did indeed help and was permanent.

I don't particularly like the idea of restricting views, and definitely not as anything more than a temporary measure while we⁴ work out a solution, because it feels like a slow death, because why would anyone want to join a forum when they have no idea what goes on there?

¹ I seem to remember it being 500s, but I've forgotten
² I wanted to watch a bit more first, partly because I knew if I made one I would probably post a lot, and I wanted to have a better idea of the by-laws before I did so.
³ Presumably on his blog, which is at least where I checked for one last time. Given how patchy the ZBB has become it might be a good idea to nominate it as the official “ZBB backup status update” place.
⁴ Or more accurately, other people, as I have no clue how you would go about restricting bot but not human views, except seeing if there is any hosting service that includes some way of doing it as standard

At least what could be done is broad IP blocks on things like Amazon AWS and Alibaba to cut down on the load, as there is really no legitimate reason why those would need to access the Zeeb.

On trying a access a thread, I got this fun-looking error:

The board wrote:General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

User 'verduria_new1' has exceeded the 'max_questions' resource (current value: 1) [1226]

An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 1:01 pm I am not an expert on these matters, but maybe it helps if the content of the ZBB is made invisible to visitors who aren't logged in. This is AFAIK a functionality phpBB offers, and only a minor nuisance compared to frequent "Too Many Requests" errors.

+1

This problem with the AI bots clogging and crashing the forum reminds me that I once characterized AI as an invasive species. With our own hangout now under siege and increasingly unusable, we are seeing the effects of that invasion now. Then again, considering how long the AI thread got, I must imagine the bots have ingested quite a lot of anti-AI talking points ironically enough.

malloc wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 9:12 am This problem with the AI bots clogging and crashing the forum reminds me that I once characterized AI as an invasive species. With our own hangout now under siege and increasingly unusable, we are seeing the effects of that invasion now. Then again, considering how long the AI thread got, I must imagine the bots have ingested quite a lot of anti-AI talking points ironically enough.

Sure, they are a problem, but we have no evidence of evil intent.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 10:53 amSure, they are a problem, but we have no evidence of evil intent.

Sure but invasive species hardly need evil intent. It's not like cane toads are cackling with villainous delight as they hop rampant across Australia.

I keep getting Too Many Requests errors and every page seems to take 30 seconds to 2 minutes to load. The site also keeps logging me out as well, even when I have the remember me setting check boxed.

malloc wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 12:29 pm

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 10:53 amSure, they are a problem, but we have no evidence of evil intent.

Sure but invasive species hardly need evil intent. It's not like cane toads are cackling with villainous delight as they hop rampant across Australia.

Yes, things need not have evil intent to cause damage. But let's stop here; this place is to discuss how the ZBB can cope with the problem, and nothing else.

For fuck sakes! I just had a post fucking eaten due to a fucking Too Many Request error as soon as I click submit.

Ahzoh wrote: ↑Sat Jul 26, 2025 1:23 pmFor fuck sakes! I just had a post fucking eaten due to a fucking Too Many Request error as soon as I click submit.

Not that this salvages your lost post, but I generally highlight and copy the text of my post before submitting so I can refill the post if it fails the first time.

I just changed the permissions for "Bots" to no access. I want to see if that helps before doing the same for "Guests".

(No idea if AI crawlers are representing themselves as bots or as guests.)

zompist wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 5:19 pm I just changed the permissions for "Bots" to no access. I want to see if that helps before doing the same for "Guests".

(No idea if AI crawlers are representing themselves as bots or as guests.)

If I may, in this case I recommend saving your [everyone their own] posts here. I did it (and do it) manually in the case of my Twin Aster-related threads—I know I asked for your permission, zompist, about using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to archive it but I decided it was just better to print the PDF from my browser—and you have the benefit of access to your materials if the ZBB is offline.

Man in Space wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 5:22 pm If I may, in this case I recommend saving your [everyone their own] posts here. I did it (and do it) manually in the case of my Twin Aster-related threads—I know I asked for your permission, zompist, about using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to archive it but I decided it was just better to print the PDF from my browser—and you have the benefit of access to your materials if the ZBB is offline.

I assume this is a general "you", and I second the reminder. Posts are still there even if the board is available, and I don't intend to erase anything. But people should never rely on an external website to store their creative work. No, not even the Cloud. Keep your work on computers you own!

(I have local copies of zompist.com and almeopedia.com. My Mac's hard disk is also constantly backed up on a separate local drive. I don't keep a local copy of the ZBB though the Wayback Machine seems to back it up regularly.)

Presently we have 502 "guests", so I'm guessing restricting access to bots won't work.

Anyway, consider this your warning that you may have to log in soon, which means if you're a human who doesn't have an account, it's time to create one. E-mail me if you need the secret code.

zompist wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 6:32 pm Presently we have 502 "guests", so I'm guessing restricting access to bots won't work.

Anyway, consider this your warning that you may have to log in soon, which means if you're a human who doesn't have an account, it's time to create one. E-mail me if you need the secret code.

Maybe change the text up at the top of the page to say this? (You know, the one which currently says ‘Crossing our fingers’…)

zompist wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 6:01 pmI assume this is a general "you", and I second the reminder.

Yes, this is correct. I remember what happened the last time the board experienced these issues and I don’t want others to suffer the same pitfalls I did. Unfortunately I couldn’t think of a succinct way to put it at the time (hence the insertion in square brackets).

zompist wrote: ↑Sun Jul 27, 2025 6:01 pmthe Wayback Machine seems to back it up regularly.

I know this is a longshot, but is there some way to specifically allow the Internet Archive to view the board even if it’s set to logins only? The Wayback Machine is legitimately useful.

Interestingly, I haven't (touch wood) had any problems accessing the forum since bots were banned, even though the number of guests strongly implies that the measure isn't having an effect. Have I been lucky thusfar, or are other people experiencing this too?

Lērisama wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 2:21 am Interestingly, I haven't (touch wood) had any problems accessing the forum since bots were banned, even though the number of guests strongly implies that the measure isn't having an effect. Have I been lucky thusfar, or are other people experiencing this too?

Literally just this moment I’m getting a 429 Too Many Requests error.

At the moment the front page says 95 guests, which is far less than 500.

I dunno, I feel like it's been better, but there is a probably a cycle to the "visitors" and I've had errors too. Next step is to try the guest limitation.