Future of TC (and Me)

Wojee · **Joined:** Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:17 am **Posts:** 35135

CK95 wrote:

Wojee wrote:

but that coincides with the app having more and more intrusive ads

Glad it's not just me, was wondering about that

Trying to force people onto the Pro version I reckon.
The free version is painful now.

Lace Out · **Posted:** Sun Oct 27, 2024 9:10 am

Tapatalk works fine for me, have been using pro version for years.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

sinbagger · **Posted:** Sun Oct 27, 2024 9:40 am

I was using Tapatalk for many years but the recent move to intrusive ads drove me back to the web version which is pretty good on my iPad. I very rarely use my phone anymore to read tc.

bluechucky · **Joined:** Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:29 am **Posts:** 13693

website has been struggling of late. I took the liberty of bouncing the server but that doesnt seem to have helped.

The IT support staff flagged that the server is running very old software, but we are stuck as the site is on old software too.

Anyone heard from Headplant? I know he was looking into the site upgrades last season.

GMCbris · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2025 5:45 pm

Gents

Ive offered help in the past with this, but have never been given any access to things to be of any real use.

The slowness of the forum isnt the software (phpbb3) so much but something that feels like a denial of service attack - something that can be managed with the htaccess file or a robots file in the server.

I have tried disabling guest searching abilities, but that hasnt changed the performance, and I will try blocking all guests to view forums.

This of course is not ideal - but seeing if we can get some useability back to the posters at least.

Let me know if I have overstepped

G

GMCbris · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2025 5:53 pm

GMCbris wrote:

Gents

Ive offered help in the past with this, but have never been given any access to things to be of any real use.

The slowness of the forum isnt the software (phpbb3) so much but something that feels like a denial of service attack - something that can be managed with the htaccess file or a robots file in the server.

I have tried disabling guest searching abilities, but that hasnt changed the performance, and I will try blocking all guests to view forums.

This of course is not ideal - but seeing if we can get some useability back to the posters at least.

Let me know if I have overstepped

G

The site is now faster, but that fix should be seen as temporary

G

Sidefx · **Joined:** Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:55 pm **Posts:** 7020

Good work.

Sidefx · **Joined:** Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:55 pm **Posts:** 7020

There is still a large amount of guest on the forum, crazy.

GreatEx · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2025 11:08 pm

Nice one Chris, looking good so far

CFC8795 · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2025 8:29 am

Thanks GMChris!
The site is much faster today!

bluechucky · **Joined:** Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:29 am **Posts:** 13693

GMCbris wrote:

Gents

Ive offered help in the past with this, but have never been given any access to things to be of any real use.

The slowness of the forum isnt the software (phpbb3) so much but something that feels like a denial of service attack - something that can be managed with the htaccess file or a robots file in the server.

I have tried disabling guest searching abilities, but that hasnt changed the performance, and I will try blocking all guests to view forums.

This of course is not ideal - but seeing if we can get some useability back to the posters at least.

Let me know if I have overstepped

G

The site is now faster, but that fix should be seen as temporary

G

The old software isn't just the phpbb3 - its the server its running on, which yes, is leaving us vulnerable.

Quote:

Additionally, we noticed that the server is running CentOS 7.9.

Kindly note that the support time for CentOS 7.9 has reached its "End of Life,” and Red Hat no longer provides updates or security fixes for your operating system. This may result in a lack of support for some modern features/issues. We highly recommend upgrading to the latest CentOS version to ensure your system benefits from the latest updates.

Headplant was in the process of updating the site which requires a whole heap of changes and each step is a minefield as it is. I thought he was close to finished back in October/November last year but I don't know where its at right now.

GMCbris · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2025 10:13 am

Noted

Just helping where I can

sinbagger · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2025 10:51 am

Thanks Chris! Massive improvement in performance

CK95 · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2025 11:21 am

GMCbris wrote:

Gents

Ive offered help in the past with this, but have never been given any access to things to be of any real use.

The slowness of the forum isnt the software (phpbb3) so much but something that feels like a denial of service attack - something that can be managed with the htaccess file or a robots file in the server.

I have tried disabling guest searching abilities, but that hasnt changed the performance, and I will try blocking all guests to view forums.

This of course is not ideal - but seeing if we can get some useability back to the posters at least.

Let me know if I have overstepped

G

The site is now faster, but that fix should be seen as temporary

G

Braithy · **Joined:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:42 pm **Posts:** 7348

yeah, it's running pretty sweet. still clogs up like our forwardline here and there, but much improved!

The Blueseum · **Joined:** Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:02 am **Posts:** 1627

Bots are out of control in the last couple of years.

On the Blueseum I have had to lock down whole countries and implement a whole heap of new severe controls to stop them.

They are so bad, especially since AI learning is happening that it was basically like a DOS attack on your site every day.

Your only crime is having a website with thousands of pages and links.

If aggresively crawled by a number of bots it acts exactly like a DOS attack for even pretty decent servers.

Running big websites is SO MUCH more complicated than it was years ago.

It is scary, it would have scared off and destroyed so many mid sized interesting site over the last few years.

camel · **Posted:** Tue Jul 22, 2025 2:10 pm

Yikes. Way over my head.

Headplant · **Posted:** Tue Jul 22, 2025 4:13 pm

Yeah, it's difficult to do much about them. A lot of it is due to AI search bots which may just relentlessly search, ignoring the generic search engine rules. The required login we have in place seems to be woking reasonably well, but the problem becomes just the volume of attempts.

missnaut · **Posted:** Wed Jul 30, 2025 2:29 pm

I'm struggling with the site lately, either via Tapatalk or mobile/laptop.

missnaut · **Posted:** Wed Jul 30, 2025 2:29 pm

I'm struggling with the site lately, either via Tapatalk or mobile/laptop.

Future of TC (and Me)

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