Prevention of reading and replying

[whole diary]

[Phantom]

I have had an ongoing problem now, that appears on both my work laptops and my mobile phone - so different servers and web browsers.

When I open this site, I always click the "Update topics" and "Recent unread topics" hyperlinks to show me the updated posts etc.

But after I open the 4th / 5th page I get a holding warning page telling me I am unable to post or view anymore.
I then get this page on anything I view, and have  to leave the site for about an hour before I can try again.

I wasn't sure if this was something that can be looked into please?
It means that if I find a thread that I want to reply to, I get stopped by this contact page

Grateful for any assistance or advice

[grahame]

I have had an ongoing problem now, that appears on both my work laptops and my mobile phone - so different servers and web browsers.

When I open this site, I always click the "Update topics" and "Recent unread topics" hyperlinks to show me the updated posts etc.

But after I open the 4th / 5th page I get a holding warning page telling me I am unable to post or view anymore.
I then get this page on anything I view, and have  to leave the site for about an hour before I can try again.

I wasn't sure if this was something that can be looked into please?
It means that if I find a thread that I want to reply to, I get stopped by this contact page

Grateful for any assistance or advice

Oops - I missed picking that request up.  Please send me an image of the page you get - I THINK I know what the issue might be, but want to check that I address the right question.

[Phantom]

I have had an ongoing problem now, that appears on both my work laptops and my mobile phone - so different servers and web browsers.

When I open this site, I always click the "Update topics" and "Recent unread topics" hyperlinks to show me the updated posts etc.

But after I open the 4th / 5th page I get a holding warning page telling me I am unable to post or view anymore.
I then get this page on anything I view, and have  to leave the site for about an hour before I can try again.

I wasn't sure if this was something that can be looked into please?
It means that if I find a thread that I want to reply to, I get stopped by this contact page

Grateful for any assistance or advice

Oops - I missed picking that request up.  Please send me an image of the page you get - I THINK I know what the issue might be, but want to check that I address the right question.

Hi Grahame
Please see below, as requested

[grahame]

Hi Grahame
Please see below, as requested

Ah ... that is NOT the message I would have guessed.  Taking a look as I get a chance.  Maybe overnight but as I missed it and it's waited a while anyway, another 20 hours won't be an issue.

[Mark A]

Hi Grahame
Please see below, as requested

Ah ... that is NOT the message I would have guessed.  Taking a look as I get a chance.  Maybe overnight but as I missed it and it's waited a while anyway, another 20 hours won't be an issue.

I read that third sentence as "Maybe overnight bus as I missed it", conflated things with your current adventure, and broke into a cold sweat.

Mark

[grahame]

OK ... the forum has a number of mechanisms to detect and stifle denial of service events from over-enthusiastic automata and one of those is to give a quick "you are asking too much, too quickly" response to them when a behaviour is detected.   Phantom - sorry - you have hit the detector button.

Typical human behaviour and typical automata behaviour differ and there is usually clear air between them, but just very occasionally there are patterns that fall into the middle ground; those patterns will tend to come up in a disproportionate way for well established members who know exactly where they are clicking and do so quickly.

I have moved the cutoff point to give you a little more leeway - raised the bar if you like.  I doubt it's going to stop you getting that page but it should happen less often.   I have my fingers crossed that it won't reduce the effectiveness of the DOS detector - keeping a watchful eye and there's an element of chance that we may see server load pushed up dramatically.  If that happens,  I will have to lower the bar again and look for other options.  Please keep me posted.

[Phantom]

Thank you

It may be something to do with the way I read the forum?
I tend to right click and open 'Show unread posts since last visit' and 'show new replies to your posts' in new tabs.
Then I would go down and right click on the threads of interest etc.

I guess it is the opening of so many pages so quickly that is the problem?
I wonder if I open, then read one, then go to the next if that will solve the problem?

I am very grateful for you looking into this, I know what a nightmare a forum is behind the scenes, I recently upgraded the Bristol City forum, and had lots of little tweaks to make behind the scenes.

[grahame]

Thank you

It may be something to do with the way I read the forum?
I tend to right click and open 'Show unread posts since last visit' and 'show new replies to your posts' in new tabs.
Then I would go down and right click on the threads of interest etc.

I guess it is the opening of so many pages so quickly that is the problem?
I wonder if I open, then read one, then go to the next if that will solve the problem?

I am very grateful for you looking into this, I know what a nightmare a forum is behind the scenes, I recently upgraded the Bristol City forum, and had lots of little tweaks to make behind the scenes.

Yes - you've probably triggered it by the way you browse - which is AOK but not the usual metric to my knowledge. You may find less of a problem by making that change - but no absolute guarantee.   The timing relates to pages accessed in perhaps the last 5 minutes, and I have stepped that up from 10 to 15.  Once you hit the page you showed here, you may be blocked for uo to 10 minutes.

Indeed a lot goes on behind the scenes, but I enjoy it. Thank you for your patience on this one;  I may be away collecting pictures for "where am I" but I should still be addressing issues at least daily.

Greetings from ...