Recent site slowdowns / Cloudflare 525 errors

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HB
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#1: Post by HB »

Some members have reported sluggish response times and Cloudflare 525 errors. It may be a temporary problem on their end, but as a precaution, I've enabled an "attack mode" option that will present visitors with a browser check warning before returning the requested page. You should only see this warning one time (note: your browser must allow cookies and JavaScript for it to pass).
Dan Kehn

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HB (original poster)
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#2: Post by HB (original poster) »

Hmm-m, I haven't seen any timeouts since flipping the switch, plus the response time is really good. I'm tempted to just leave it on, despite the interstitial "one moment please" page. Let me know if you see any odd behaviors (though if you can't access the site, you won't know about this request :?).
Dan Kehn

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#3: Post by Macmutant replying to HB »

I got the browser check on each of my devices. Only saw it once for each one, and it was fast. The site does feel faster.

cmin
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#4: Post by cmin »

I wasn't getting it on my computer but my phone kept going to that cloudflare msg loading

Macmutant
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#5: Post by Macmutant »

The behavior I didn't expect, is that now Apple Private Relay works properly. Prior to this change, I would have to turn it off to be able to post, because the site thought I was behind a VPN. Now, I can just leave it on. Apple uses Cloudflare for Private Relay, so perhaps it makes sense.

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HB (original poster)
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#6: Post by HB (original poster) »

cmin wrote:I wasn't getting it on my computer but my phone kept going to that cloudflare msg loading
I saw that once and clearing the browser cache/cookies fixed it. Give it a try, and if it doesn't work, post your user agent. It will look something like this:
Browser is Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/98.0.4758.102 Safari/537.36 OPR/84.0.4316.21
Macmutant wrote:The behavior I didn't expect, is that now Apple Private Relay works properly.
That's odd, it shouldn't matter. :?

For reference, HB uses the IP Intelligence service to check for VPN/proxies. Before anyone points it out, I know there are legitimate reasons for using a VPN. Unfortunately, nearly all spammers use one, so blocking VPN is a blunt tool for spam prevention. Since adding the check for proxies/VPNs, spam posts are down to just a few a month.
Dan Kehn

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#7: Post by Macmutant »

It's a bit odd. There is a setting to allow websites to see your IP, but hide it from ad networks. It's in Safari, not with the rest of the Private Relay settings, which are in System Preferences-->Apple ID. I have Safari for Mac set to share my IP with websites. Wondering if it's a new update, since I don't recall setting it this way. I haven't checked to see if the same setting is present on iPad. Either way, I absolutely understand the need to deal with spammers, and wholeheartedly support this approach, as a website user. Thanks for looking out for us.

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bringyoutomyhell
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#8: Post by bringyoutomyhell »

Macmutant wrote:The behavior I didn't expect, is that now Apple Private Relay works properly. Prior to this change, I would have to turn it off to be able to post, because the site thought I was behind a VPN. Now, I can just leave it on. Apple uses Cloudflare for Private Relay, so perhaps it makes sense.
For what it's worth, I still need to switch off private relay, log off and log in again, to be able to post. It's a bit of a hassle, but if it's needed to combat spam then it's fair.