Am I the only one who is finding that this forum has been extremely sluggish in loading pages lately???

greggerypeccary wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 9:09am:


Freediver, anyone - can someone please fix the dial-up-like slow speed of this forum? It's insufferable!!!

Captain Nemo wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 10:47am:


Any idea how?

I am trying out some things. It might only be a temporary fix.

freediver wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 11:04am:


It's greatly improved on what the speed was earlier today.

freediver wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 11:04am:


Thanks freediver.

3123 "Guests" and 7 Search Engines here when I've just signed in but the speed is back to normal for now.

Every time OzPol has an attack of the ridiculously slows we lose members.

JC Denton SAID he was leaving because of the slows and has left.

What is the path back to growing membership and post count?

Every time OzPol has an attack of the ridiculously slows we lose members.

JC Denton SAID he was leaving because of the slows and has left.

What is the path back to growing membership and post count?


Is it a DDS attack? Or bots spending too long on OzPol?

How can the slowdowns be prevented?

The slowdowns and the lousy, biased modding is causing members to leave here—like JC Denton, The Barnacle, Phemanderac and Bam to list a few just of the top of my head.

What is the path back to growing membership and post count? Or do we just let OzPol shrink?

Can we move to modern software optimised for mobile users? If not, more members will be lost.

Bobby. wrote on Oct 15^th, 2025 at 5:43pm:



It's very slow again -
taking 1 minute or more to open a page or it fails.

Who is doing it?

Be nice to know exactly what is going on.


Every time OzPol has an attack of the ridiculously slows we lose members.

JC Denton SAID he was leaving because of the slows and has left. Phemanderac, JC Denton, The Barnacle, Bam—just some of the names I remember as former members.

What is the path back to growing membership and post count?

Not as bad today but slow. Got the “No HTTPS” message.

Had to try FOUR times to flip a page!

Radical change—and a path back to membership and post count growth desperately needed!

Current slow down seems to be over.

What is the path back to rising membership and post count?

Is it not time to move to more modern software?

Only 1364 guests right now and this site is working well.

Well done FD.

Bit better now. Not good tho.

Post rate will probably decline even more after this.

Jasin wrote on Nov 1^st, 2025 at 1:15pm:




Monk is clearly not a happy chappy -

this is what he wrote today on his forum:

.

flip page

“flip”

You telling FD the YABB abandonware is faulty?

Jesus Christ - it's so damn slow today -
it took 4 minutes to make one post.

It must be a malicious cyber attack on Ozpolitic - a DoS -
denial of service attack.

The pages are very slow to load today.

Wow. It really is slow today.

Just as well that :

Time to move to modern software.

I think it might be this:

Quote:


Not a well behaved bot.

3714 "Guests" and 14 Search Engines (7 Yandex) when I've just managed to sign in again now.

Funny thing is - even with all of this 'activity' the forum speed seems fairly normal at the moment but it will probably slow down again soon.

I've noticed that over the past few days - always lots of "Guests" and Search Engines but you still manage to get short periods (like now) where the speed is almost normal.

flip page *sigh*

Carl D wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2025 at 9:06pm:



There needs to be a change in how the site works.

Maybe guests get to visit one or 2 pages unless they sign up -
otherwise they get booted off?

Now 99 "Guests".

Maybe it's Bedtime for Bots in some part of the world? 

Edit: 53 now... they must know we're on to them.

Edit: 48... no wonder the forum is so fast right now.

Carl D wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2025 at 9:15pm:




Yes - for a few short hours the guests went down to below 43
and the site worked well -
then this morning it's back up again:

Guests: 3176
Search Engines: 13
Googlebot (3), MSN Search (3), Yandex (7)

And now it's very slow again.

Frank wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2025 at 4:10pm:


Only Registered Members can access the forum at the moment, I always sign out after I leave so I had to sign in just now.

Members who never sign out probably wouldn't have noticed any change.

Thanks for doing that, freediver. It's probably a bit of a nuisance not allowing "Guests" to view the forum for the time being but it looked like there wasn't any other option.

Edit: Ah, I see Bobby beat me to it in the other thread. 

We already have missing (perceptions_now, polite_Gandalf etc) and totally incompetent MRB Mods like Jasin, Booby and Gordon and some MRB Mods missing in action.

So OzPolitic is already not that visible and now no bots? C r a s h !

You have NEVER shown I have ASPD.

I HAVE shown that YOU have ASPD, you boring high school dropout.

High time this place was put on a new path, one of growth in membership and posting rate.

Flip flip flippety flip!

Yes, YABB is for the rubbish bin!

The forum is open for Guests again.

And, the "Guest" numbers are starting to skyrocket again, I see.

Gone from about 200 to over a thousand in a matter of minutes.

Edit: Just hit 2000... wow.

No -


Let it run for a week like this and then allow guests  again.

See what happens - hopefully the 4,000 or more guest bots will have gone away.

Who the hell is doing it?    Mossad?    Russia?

Shite again



     Members: 7

Guests: 5271
Search Engines: 9
Googlebot (3), MSN Search

It just took me 45 seconds to get the 5 second IP warning. Brilliant.

As I look, I notice there are 4151 guests on board, so why are the topic views not going from 100s to 1000s ?

Mmmmm!

Speed now fast with lots of guests!

Weird!

flip

flip

Bobby it may not be a DDOS attack. It could just be badly designed bots that collect data for training AI natural language models.

Captain Nemo wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 12:17am:


So how would it work?

Set up the skeleton, members create accounts and copy across posts and threads that are active/relevant?

MRB Mods are GMods in their board with ban powers deactivated.

Bobby. wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 9:53am:


It is selfish, not malicious. They use a range of IP addresses to make it hard for websites to block them.

Bobby. wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 8:30am:





Persons and groups who abhor ALL independent views being openly, publicly expressed.

Stalinists, CCP, Marxists, ISLAMISTS, National Socialists, WOKE, LEFTIST supporters....wanna-be tyrants.

'They' [supporters of such groups] will always    seek the means to suppress    all open and publicly expressed views....
which do not align with, or would be an open challenge their own objectives and agenda.

FASCISTS.

Persons and groups.....who would justify using oppression and violence
against persons [and groups] who would support open, public expression, and open public debate.

Because all supporters of fascism, know very well,
that open, public expression, and open public debate would always threaten the achievement of their own 'social' agenda.


.


John 3:19
And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil.
20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light,
that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.


John 18:37
.....Jesus answered.......
To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world,
that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.


Psalms 25:8
Good and upright is the LORD:
therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
9  The meek will he guide in judgment:
and the meek will he teach his way.
10  All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
.......
12  What man is he that feareth the LORD?
him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
13  His soul shall dwell at ease;
and his seed shall inherit the earth.
14  The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him;
and he will shew them his covenant.


Psalms 97:10
Ye that love the LORD, hate evil:
he preserveth the souls of his saints;
he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
11  Light is sown for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart.
12  Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous;
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.


Proverbs 14:34
Righteousness exalteth a nation:
but sin is a reproach to any people.


2 Timothy 3:1
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2  For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous,
boasters,
proud,
blasphemers,
disobedient to parents,
unthankful,
unholy,
3  Without natural affection,
trucebreakers,
false accusers,
incontinent,
fierce,
despisers of those that are good,
4  Traitors,
heady,
highminded,
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
from such turn away.
6  For of this sort are they which creep into houses,
and lead captive silly women laden with sins,
led away with divers lusts,
7  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.


.


bobby,

You did ask.   !      

Well, I joined and made a post in Critters and Gardens.


Cats and Critters means, basically, Critters and Critters since cats are critters.

Critters and Gardens avoids that silliness and widens the scope of the board. Amazes me that that simple change has not been made, I asked for it years and years ago!

freediver wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 9:59am:


I think I've mentioned this before but the AskWoody site had the same problem a couple of months back.

https://www.askwoody.com/newsletter/bots-attack/

They had to use Cloudflare (which costs $$ of course) to put a stop to it... and they're still using it because it seems that as soon as they stop using it the bots return.

flip page again.

Proboards have a cleaner look than tired old YABB, have style, link, alignment etc controls arranged a bit differently but easy enough to pick up.

Under the hood I imagine ProBoards use SQL not serial file like YABB so easier, faster searching etc.

Jasin wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 10:32am:


Watch out, Jasin - PA might be next. 

I have noticed PA doesn't seem to be affected by any of this (I like to have a bit of a read from time to time) even though I believe it's on the same server as OzPolitic.

Whatever FD has done, it seems to be working. The need to login to view the forums is great idea. Looking now there are 6 users, 0 bots and 0 guests. 

Carl D wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 10:35am:

It can slow down, a bit - when Ozpol is slow.

But, but - my fans are all gone from here now.
Even Sky and ABC look in on Ozpol.

**evil laugh 😈

Well -

guests are not turned off now - we have only

Guests: 65
Search Engines: 9
Googlebot (3), MSN Search (2), Yandex (4)

Somehow we're not being attacked by bots.
What happened? - did they give up for now?

flip

John Smith wrote on Nov 4^th, 2025 at 7:31pm:



I doubt that.    

No guests but slow like molasses in January.

Carl D wrote on Nov 5^th, 2025 at 6:35am:



OK now -  FD switched guests off again:


Guests: 0
Search Engines: 0

I don’t think it matters one bit whether FreeDiver fixes the speed issue or not.

When filth like this is allowed we are not going to attract good new members:

http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1419074961/1440#14400

Hmmm 1 guest.

But FD needs to let bots like Google, Microsoft, Apple etc etc back in eventually. I mean, with idiots in charge of scientific boards there are no links to boost SEO ranking.

Environment
Economics
Health
Food

should be full of links to high quality sites.

{Sigh}

Environment is modded by an idiot, the other three boards don’t have active Mods at all.