56 replies to this topic

[Steam]

Much better today, so far anyway.

[Quinlan minor]

First day that I haven't had a dropout for more than a week.

[sonikk4]

Just been going through the Admin logs and looking at how many spammers have been joining the forum and its not as many as i thought it would be, so potentially not them.

 

However talking to Deathrow he says its possible there have been a lot of people / bots etc trying to do naughty things and to quote him The traffic isn't people who use the forum, websites get hit by people scanning for vulnerabilities, search engine scrapers etc."

[beardylondon]

Yeah better today

[timmy850]

Today it says there’s about 2500 guests browsing at this particular moment, which is much higher than a few months back

Also the “record number” of users online at one time was set at +24,000 in April 2025, which can only be explained as bots, there’s no way there was that many actual users online at that time

Edited by timmy850, 29 May 2025 - 01:21 AM.

[sonikk4]

The way the system has been set up is that no spammer “should” get through. The process that allows us to get people will capture the vast majority.

However we do have members who have not posted in years so either left the mini fraternity or who other things going on in their lives and these particular accounts for whatever reason were hacked some while ago so the system is not 100% foolproof.

So from what I can see now after Adam has explained it to me, the more foot traffic we have over and above the norm that we normally see will slow the system down to the point it’s overwhelmed. Now I’m no computer expert far from it but I can see the logic behind this and as such what an be done??

There is always somewhere out there in “I’m going to piss someone off because I can land” and there is very little we can do about it. Why people feel the need to do this just typifies the thought processes of a small group of individuals.

[Ethel]

Every chance it's not even people now. Doing it bcause it can be done, in order to just get better at doing it - it's the AI way.

[sonikk4]

Every chance it's not even people now. Doing it bcause it can be done, in order to just get better at doing it - it's the AI way.

Yup very true, having looked at the logs for sometime now you can see there is definitely some form of Bot / AI at work. There are certain things about the “ new members” who join that something stands out like a sore thumb and these are all without a shadow of a doubt spammers. Plus it’s the pure numbers involved. You used to get maybe a dozen or so over 7 days. Now it’s pages and pages DAILY!!! although there has been a downturn in the direct approach per se.

So now maybe inundating the forum as visitors is the next approach. Whatever or whoever just needs to take a running jump and leave things alone although I have no doubt that will not be the case.

[68Deluxe]

 

Every chance it's not even people now. Doing it bcause it can be done, in order to just get better at doing it - it's the AI way.

Yup very true, having looked at the logs for sometime now you can see there is definitely some form of Bot / AI at work. There are certain things about the “ new members” who join that something stands out like a sore thumb and these are all without a shadow of a doubt spammers. Plus it’s the pure numbers involved. You used to get maybe a dozen or so over 7 days. Now it’s pages and pages DAILY!!! although there has been a downturn in the direct approach per se.

So now maybe inundating the forum as visitors is the next approach. Whatever or whoever just needs to take a running jump and leave things alone although I have no doubt that will not be the case.

 

Yup, and at least over here in Aus -  it seems that car enthusiasts are a dying breed, not growing exponentially in numbers. 

[mab01uk]

Sounds similar to the problems the Mk1 Forum has had recently:-

https://mk1-forum.ne...pic.php?t=40315

 

Quote from Mk1 Forum Admin:-

"Linked to the recent bot attacks unfortunately, I've had to set a time limit for being 'logged in' (which in reality is simply a session on the server even if you're just sat looking at nothing at all as a guest user). This used to be ten minutes, it's now about two minutes. Reducing the amount of time seems to have really helped get rid of the bots taking up all the server bandwidth.
When you log in, click the 'Remember Me' tick box and that should solve getting logged out early as a guest."

https://mk1-forum.ne...=353627#p353627

 

 

 

Edited by mab01uk, 30 May 2025 - 01:53 PM.

[Gaz66]

Sounds similar to the problems the Mk1 Forum has had recently:-
https://mk1-forum.ne...pic.php?t=40315

Quote from Mk1 Forum Admin:-
"Linked to the recent bot attacks unfortunately, I've had to set a time limit for being 'logged in' (which in reality is simply a session on the server even if you're just sat looking at nothing at all as a guest user). This used to be ten minutes, it's now about two minutes. Reducing the amount of time seems to have really helped get rid of the bots taking up all the server bandwidth.
When you log in, click the 'Remember Me' tick box and that should solve getting logged out early as a guest."
https://mk1-forum.ne...=353627#p353627

How long before the bots "learn" to tick the box.

Edited by Gaz66, 30 May 2025 - 04:05 PM.

[timmy850]

In the case mentioned above the bots are only visiting as a guest user, and don’t have an account. Most of the forum is visible without an account

 

New record: +27000 users online on the 2nd of June 2025

Edited by timmy850, 05 June 2025 - 08:08 AM.