Forum and CloudFlare Problem

[big-n-tall]

So last night I was reading the forum on my IPad Pro with Chrome. Suddenly, when I clicked on a forum topic to read it, the cloudflare captcha system popped up on each page I selected. I closed the browser and tried again. The forum opens up and again when I select a topic cloudflare opens. This is only happening on my IPad Pro, not any other device I use to access the forum.

Anyone else getting this problem?

[RadioRob]

We use Cloudflare as a way of helping protect the website from various types of cyber attacks.  This includes some of the bot operators that spam.  (Typically the only ones that get through now are the ones that have real humans posting the spam.)

I looked in the logs and it looks like this is occurring because it thinks you're not a human.  (It thinks you're request is coming from an automated spam bot.) 

The system is designed to not "block" the requests, but instead to present a "challenge" to them.   This means you should be given a chance to prove you're a human by completing a CAPTCHA.  It should look something like: 

In this case, you would just need to type in the phrase in the image (in the example above "MAPLE DR").  You will then be flagged as safe for the next 45 minutes and it won't try to challenge you during that time.  

Now...  I'm more curious as to why this is happening as it should not trigger for a normal browsing session.  You mention it only occurs on your iPad Pro and not other devices...  does it happen when using Safari on the iPad?

If it does not, the first thing I would suggest is clearing your temporary internet files within Chrome.  To do this:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Chrome app .
2. At the bottom, tap More .
3. Tap History.
4. Make sure there's a check mark next to "Cookies, Site Data," and "Cached Images and Files."
5. Tap Clear browsing data.

Once you do that, close Chrome, relaunch it, and try again.  Let's see if that helps clear it up for you.  

[big-n-tall]

3 hours ago, RadioRob said:

We use Cloudflare as a way of helping protect the website from various types of cyber attacks.  This includes some of the bot operators that spam.  (Typically the only ones that get through now are the ones that have real humans posting the spam.)

I looked in the logs and it looks like this is occurring because it thinks you're not a human.  (It thinks you're request is coming from an automated spam bot.) 

The system is designed to not "block" the requests, but instead to present a "challenge" to them.   This means you should be given a chance to prove you're a human by completing a CAPTCHA.  It should look something like: 

In this case, you would just need to type in the phrase in the image (in the example above "MAPLE DR").  You will then be flagged as safe for the next 45 minutes and it won't try to challenge you during that time.  

Now...  I'm more curious as to why this is happening as it should not trigger for a normal browsing session.  You mention it only occurs on your iPad Pro and not other devices...  does it happen when using Safari on the iPad?

If it does not, the first thing I would suggest is clearing your temporary internet files within Chrome.  To do this:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Chrome app .
2. At the bottom, tap More .
3. Tap History.
4. Make sure there's a check mark next to "Cookies, Site Data," and "Cached Images and Files."
5. Tap Clear browsing data.

Once you do that, close Chrome, relaunch it, and try again.  Let's see if that helps clear it up for you.  

Yeah it works in Safari. It's only in Chrome I'm having the Cloudflare issue. I'll try what you suggested and update what happened.

[+ JoeMendoza]

3 hours ago, big-n-tall said:

Yeah it works in Safari. It's only in Chrome I'm having the Cloudflare issue. I'll try what you suggested and update what happened.

all those xtube porn u're watching on chrome got u good! lol

[big-n-tall]

1 hour ago, JoeMendoza said:

all those xtube porn u're watching on chrome got u good! lol

Boobalah Xtube is no longer active. Try again. 😛
 

Anyway, @RadioRob’s suggestion worked. I’m currently not getting the cloudflare window on the iPad. Thanks.

Edited September 25, 2021 by big-n-tall

[RadioRob]

[+ JoeMendoza]

4 hours ago, big-n-tall said:

Boobalah Xtube is no longer active. Try again. 😛
 

Anyway, @RadioRob’s suggestion worked. I’m currently not getting the cloudflare window on the iPad. Thanks.

my bad...I meant myvidster

[boldfacealbie]

The solution doesn't work in Microsoft Edge on a PC.  I cleared the entire cache from all time and the same thing occurs.

[diehard_002]

I could not access the forum at all when traveling in South Asia. No captcha, just a blocked message straight up.

I tried different browsers and locations. 

[RadioRob]

The only blocks we enforce regarding geography are Russia, China, and India.  

It's possible whatever country you were in was blocking access to our website.  

[diehard_002]

Thanks, that explains it technically.  I was in Mumbai, India.   May be this is not a topic for this sub-forum but wondering why we would equate India with the other two non-democracies. Has this site experienced many hacking attempts from India ? I had a good time in Mumbai and everyone was very nice and polite. There is a good gay scene and more freedoms compared to Russia and China. 

[RadioRob]

1 hour ago, diehard_002 said:

Thanks, that explains it technically.  I was in Mumbai, India.   May be this is not a topic for this sub-forum but wondering why we would equate India with the other two non-democracies. Has this site experienced many hacking attempts from India ? I had a good time in Mumbai and everyone was very nice and polite. There is a good gay scene and more freedoms compared to Russia and China. 

It has absolutely nothing to do with political reasons.  It was not even regarding "hacking" because we have very robust security controls that will identify and stop malicious requests.  

It was because of the amount of spam registrations generated.  In regards to site traffic, the US represents about 90% of all requests.  Canada and the UK represent about 5%.  Between those 3 countries, that means 95% of all traffic comes from those three countries.  No other country represented more than 1%.

Now...  those countries that were blocked however represented about 75% of all spam registrations we saw where someone would create an account to use it to post links to other sites promoting stuff despite not representing even 1% of our traffic.  Starting in around July last year (a few months after I took over the site following Daddy's death), I blocked those countries in an effort to cut down on spam and the efforts needed by the moderators to clean it up.    

With that being said however, in January of this year...  I setup a new tool that uses machine learning to help identify and stop spam registrations (and contact us submissions).  It seems to have been pretty effective!  I've never gone back to revisit the geo blocks since adding that new system.  I've removed the geo blocks for now and will monitor if the new machine learning tool is still able to be effective with the spam that comes from these areas.  If it's not, I may need to reinstate the block.  (It's been nice having almost no spam at all getting through for the last nearly two months!)

[diehard_002]

Understood and Thanks !

 

[RadioRob]

I have had to re-add India as in the last two weeks, there have been 7 fake registrations that have been submitting spam o the site.  It looks like they're actual human requests, which bypass some of the automated machine checks that I do to look for bots.  

It looks like spammers are paying people in India to actually complete CAPTCHAs, fill out email verifications, etc.