[eclipsegirl]

I can only thank you for what you do to protect us, and your site.

THANK YOU

[pnm]

I can only thank you for what you do to protect us, and your site.

THANK YOU

no problem

eagle-eyed puzzlers may have noticed a new number at the bottom of the page, between parentheses:
this is the current system load during the past minute, it typically is below 1.0.

During the last "attack" (not really an attack these days, more "misbehaved information stealing",
or what do you want to call it), this load number hit 350 ..

[pnm]

another AI crawler today, again from China,

but strangely enough a well-behaved one

it's still distributed, i.e. coming from many (probably compromised) PCs,
specifies no source, and uses a fake browser id string, but it only retrieves a page every few minutes or so

[bram]

but strangely enough a well-behaved one

A well-behaved AI crawler?!?! Now that's a surprising development

[paulv66]

another AI crawler today, again from China,

but strangely enough a well-behaved one

it's still distributed, i.e. coming from many (probably compromised) PCs,
specifies no source, and uses a fake browser id string, but it only retrieves a page every few minutes or so

I presume that means they are trying to extract data rather than disrupt your site?

[pnm]

I presume that means they are trying to extract data rather than disrupt your site?

exactly, lately that has been the main source of traffic

(all over the web in fact)

there is a code of conduct, but no enforcement (not really possible because it
is easy for the perpetrators to remain hidden)

[pnm]

I was away for a week, and right before I left there was the "AI crawler overload",
which is why I had to leave the forum closed

didn't want to risk the site burning up while I was offline

[eclipsegirl]

I am glad the forum is back. Thank you.

[pnm]

I am glad the forum is back. Thank you.

no problem

I should add a general "load monitor" that warns me when the site gets overloaded,
and/or maybe shuts off the forum automatically when this happens.

[pnm]

I do have some software running that collects performance stats.

To give you an idea, this is the "load graph" for July (loads below 1.0 are normal,
for this server we don't want the load to go higher than 2.0):