Bug Why do I get this message.

  • Thread starter Thread starter EJB
  • Start date Start date
ancient_mariner said:
I'm not sure any of the team could answer that at this stage, because it may depend on what's being done by the bots.
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The visitors are currently way over 3,000 and it's currently fine for me. :)
 
Bots again I think...

Bots Again.jpg
 
This bot business has been going on forever and it's always been a source of pain.

Many years ago, I had a contract working on a Department of Education web project. Myself and another contractor were solely concerned with the usage of the system and over several months, we built up a detailed analysis system. This was based on open source tools, which allowed us to drill deeply into what was hitting the site. We discovered, to the chagrin of the project managers, that about 1.5% of visits were from (probably) real users. The rest were all robots.

It's sad that the percentage of robots hitting Talk Photography is still so high. :(
 
The numbers have been noticeably increasing over the last couple of years.
 
Just another heads up, it was starting to sporadically do it again last night and again this morning. Seems like after a couple of refreshes it can sometimes return to normal. Comes and goes.

1773576653047.png
 
Earlier today, I created another thread .."TP Access Problens " not being aware of this one until Norkie pointed me here.

The replies show the problem is still current. I assume it's a case of just keep trying to log on.

One more query. Why can I log on with my iPad but not my iMac ? The iMac is OS system, I don't know how the iPad system is different but why will one work and the other not, considering the issue lies within TP ?
 
We believe that this issue results from some server hardening we implemented to fend off some of the bots. If it is different on different devices then I assume they are handling caching and the rate at which they download resources differently. Basically you will get this error if your device/browser tries to pull too many resources too quickly.
 
That makes sense as I'm sure it tends to happen if I'm browsing through multiple threads at pace. I thought I'd try putting it to the test and sure enough when holding down the F5 button within about ten fast refreshes it came up Forbidden. I'll need to remember that and slow down when browsing.
 
It might affect those who have set their browser to pre-fetch links on a page to speed up browsing. If your browser has the capability to prefect then probably best to turn it off for TP.
 
ancient_mariner said:
It might affect those who have set their browser to pre-fetch links on a page to speed up browsing. If your browser has the capability to prefect then probably best to turn it off for TP.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I've turned it off now and hopefully that will help.
 
On my iMac now. Just got the message re "Maybe impersonating Talkphotography" . I then clicked "Show details" which I hadn't done knowing that I wouldn't understand the language, anyway" One suggestion was that "the certificate may have expired". Obviously not.

I then had the option to "Visit the website anyway." I clicked on it and voilà ...here I am :)

Out of interest I clicked again on my TP icon in Favs. Straight here. I tried Google. The way I tried when I was having problems. Straight here..so it looks as though once it linked via ''Visit website anyway" the iMac remembered and linked me.
 
FWIW when I first tried to access the site this morning I couldn't get on, then when it finally did connect there were over 10,000 bots showing. Perhaps not intentionally, we've effectively had a DDOS attack.
 
Is it suspected A.I. crawling/scraping for content? I wonder, when the bots reach Hot Topics they do an about turn? :D
 
gman said:
Is it suspected A.I. crawling/scraping for content? I wonder, when the bots reach Hot Topics they do an about turn? :D
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They shouldn't be able to access hot topics or other members only areas.
 
ancient_mariner said:
FWIW when I first tried to access the site this morning I couldn't get on, then when it finally did connect there were over 10,000 bots showing. Perhaps not intentionally, we've effectively had a DDOS attack.
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I've just Goggled.. "what are bots ? Robots. There's a video about them. I'll look at it tomorrow.
 
gman said:
Is it suspected A.I. crawling/scraping for content? I wonder, when the bots reach Hot Topics they do an about turn? :D
Click to expand...
they probably return home, with a strong urge to sit in a bath of dettol until they feel clean again - much the same as I do, if I have to go in to moderate that cesspit.
 
TheBigYin said:
they probably return home, with a strong urge to sit in a bath of dettol until they feel clean again - much the same as I do, if I have to go in to moderate that cesspit.
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Wire brush? :D
 
I've been getting this today. No biggie, just for info if it helps.


2026-07-06 13_39_30.jpg
 
gman said:
That makes sense as I'm sure it tends to happen if I'm browsing through multiple threads at pace. I thought I'd try putting it to the test and sure enough when holding down the F5 button within about ten fast refreshes it came up Forbidden. I'll need to remember that and slow down when browsing.
Click to expand...
ancient_mariner said:
It might affect those who have set their browser to pre-fetch links on a page to speed up browsing. If your browser has the capability to prefect then probably best to turn it off for TP.
Click to expand...

Are you using a single browser tab? What browser, operating system, VPN, etc.
 
sirch said:
Are you using a single browser tab? What browser, operating system, VPN, etc.
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Single tab, Chrome, Win 11 25H2, no VPN.

I've not logged out for ages or cleared my cache/cookies etc. It's when clicking on the "likes" list.

The message is now this:

2026-07-06 13_58_34.jpg

I'll try clearing my history, logging out etc and see what happens.
 
I'm getting exactly the same issue when I click any of the liked lists on the posts above.

Single tab, Vivaldi, Win 11 25H2 and no VPN
 
Don't click on the likes then :LOL:

We were seeing a lot of bot traffic on the "reactions" for reasons only known to the bots so I over tightened access to that amongst a number of other hardening measures. I'll take a look at it when I get time
 
Deleted history and logged back in, but still there. Doesn't really impact usability of the site for me though.
 
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