[Malcolm Armsteen]

This is where I'm ahead of the game. Since they went into partnership (sic) with Virgin Media, O2's data signal has turned to dogshite. I hadn't noticed any difference from usual. Sluggish internet performance is the norm.

Ditto BT.

[Boiler]

I'm sure Kreuzy will be aware of this if he looks at the logs, but in the small hours of this morning I couldn't actually get on to Mailwatched: I received a notice of a general error advising there were too many connections to the SQL database.

[kreuzberger]

The database is being cleaned out at 02:30 each day as it bloats with over a gig of residual shite from the bots which are targeting us. It is both unusual and a royal pain in the arse.

[Boiler]

That explains everything, because that was about the time I tried to look at the forum.

[kreuzberger]

OK, I have shifted tat to 03:45.

[Oboogie]

I'm sure Kreuzy will be aware of this if he looks at the logs, but in the small hours of this morning I couldn't actually get on to Mailwatched: I received a notice of a general error advising there were too many connections to the SQL database.

I've experienced that too, also daytime non-availability with a different error message - I wish I could recall what it said, I'll make a note next time it happens.

[Boiler]

OK, I have shifted tat to 03:45.

Thanks, K - but in reality, I shouldn't be doomscrolling at that time in the morning anyway!

[Boiler]

Is the forum getting bot-fucked again, K?

[kreuzberger]

Yes...

[Boiler]

Thought so. This is the first time I've been able to access it for some hours now.

Thanks for keeping it going.

[Samanfur]

Agreed. Thank you, Kreuzie.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's very slow - are the bots the cause?

[zuriblue]

I hate to have to suggest this but maybe the word Cloudflare should enter the conversation.

They do a free account which, according to other PHPbb users, should be enough to deal with spammers.

Any idea who's doing the spamming? Is it AI training or is it bad actors who are triggered by the existence of a small left wing site?

[Boiler]

I suspect it's AI/LLM 'bots' - many are no respecters of location or safeguards. They took down a forum devoted to early tinplate toy trains and with that, a lot of knowledge useful to collectors of same was lost. I know of one vintage radio forum that now uses Google's 'reCaptcha' amongst other things in order to slow them down.

If nothing else, they'll be well-trained in the correct usage of "fuck" and "cunt"....

[zuriblue]

If nothing else, they'll be well-trained in the correct usage of "fuck" and "cunt"....

Naturally. After all they are receiving guidance from a distinguished educator