What the heck happened? A denial of service attack, program glitch? I really missed the forum! I know the problem started a few hours before it crashed, I could no longer post on the site, except for PMs (asking what the heck was going on).
I was already logged in when the problem started, so I didn’t have any problems there. However, one minute I could post messages, the next I could not. Preview worked fine, but actually trying to post a message would just put the page on an endless “loading” cycle. It wouldn’t even timeout like when other pages are having trouble.
The next couple of days after that, the whole site was down. All I would get was a single line of text informing me the database could not be found, contact technical support, etc, etc.
It was probably just some kind of server malfunction, but the paranoid conspiracy theorist in me thinks it was an intentional Denial Of Service attack by fundies! Can fundies do that? Are there fundie hackers?
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P.S. Thanks to the mods for merging my thread. Sorry for the hassle.
But yeah, there are fundie hackers. There are all kinds of hackers and fundies.
What all did everyone experience with this? I first tried logging on here and it was telling me my account was unavailable. At first I assumed I’d been banned, but since I couldn’t think up a reason why (well, not a good one anyway) I tried again later. The second time I simply couldn’t access anything on the board. It told me everything was unavailable. Later on I couldn’t even access the CFI, Skeptical Inquirer, CSI, or CFI/Michigan sites. Or when I could they would be completely blank of everything, but the basic pictures and buttons. No scripts were running and trying to change to another page of the site would give me an error. I’m at a loss.
Honestly, I’m just kind of glad I wasn’t the only one having the problem.
Should we use this thread, Hardcore’s “Inquiry stifled for two days in July…” thread, or just merge them? I really don’t want to switch back and forth. Although that could develop into some interesting tribal action.
“My thread is the best!”
“Your thread is teh suck!”
“Your face is teh suck.”
“FAIL!”
Also, I keep getting an odd error that gives me a blank page with only “You have exceeded the allowed page load frequency.” at the top. I’ve only been getting it since the board has been back up and I get it most often in the Philosophy section. Going to another site then back tends to clear it for a while, but it keeps coming back. Is anyone else getting that?
That “exceeded” thing occasionally occurred when I tried to post, it didn’t accept it so I tried again immediately. If I did as you did, it cleared up. When I had to problem logging on, I KNEW something was wrong with the board. After all, they COULDN’T ban me, could they?
I haven’t heard what the problem was, but everything seems to be running reasonably well now, although I get the feeling that the program is still a little tender from the earlier damage.
Occam
Wordpad Damn, it just rejected my post. See what I mean.
FWIW I’ve heard nothing and have no idea what happened. I alerted CFI central immediately when I noticed the site was down, and it seems as though I was (among) the first to notice ...
But again FWIW this has happened before, and similar things have happened to other sites with which I’m familiar. I wouldn’t immediately assume it was an attack of some kind. It can just as easily be some software glitch.
The glitch is getting worse. Almost every time I’ve tried to post today, it erases my post and gives me a new blank screen. Fortunately, I always copy them, but it’s still annoying. I hope our gurus can track it down.
Oh so that was you guys.
I feel better now too. I was in a area with spotty reception, one day I could log on and look at posts, but it wouldn’t allow me to send anything out - which may have been some weird connectivity problem I don’t understand.
Then the next day, in the same area, it was total denial, well not actually - the discussion menu came up, but clicking on topics opened to an error indicating that NO threads had been posted yet.
Very weird… i missed you guys, since my current “within reception range” is limited to small windows of opportunity. Pretty soon I’m going to get one of those nifty WIFI card thingies for my MacBook and I’ll be able to sit on a mountain top and converse with you fancy city confined folks all day long.
The glitch is getting worse. Almost every time I’ve tried to post today, it erases my post and gives me a new blank screen. Fortunately, I always copy them, but it’s still annoying. I hope our gurus can track it down.
Weird, I haven’t had a problem. IIRC that was an issue with the Internet Explorer browser in particular, at least in the past. (I use Safari).
That “exceeded” thing occasionally occurred when I tried to post, it didn’t accept it so I tried again immediately. If I did as you did, it cleared up. When I had to problem logging on, I KNEW something was wrong with the board. After all, they COULDN’T ban me, could they?
I haven’t heard what the problem was, but everything seems to be running reasonably well now, although I get the feeling that the program is still a little tender from the earlier damage.
Occam
Wordpad Damn, it just rejected my post. See what I mean.
I think it’s time to start getting a little paranoid…
