<![CDATA[Bot Attacks]]>I’m starting a new thread to give you updates on bot attacks.

Generally speaking, we want some bot traffic. The reason is that it brings search traffic (Google) and other traffic to the site. More traffic brings in more people into the community. If I turn of bots completely, the long term outlook would be bad.

For instance, I had to turn off Applebot because they ignored the rate limits and kept hammering the site. The downside is, we may not be involved in whatever they’re building.

Occasionally, when visiting the site, you may see a message from CloudFlare briefly pop-up. That means we’re under attack and that pop-up is blocking bots good or bad. It also means the site will be pretty snappy.

Updates

  • April 29 at 3:21 pm: added some new rules and turned off Under Attack Mode
  • April 29 at 3:43 pm: turn Bot Attack Mode back on
  • April 29 at 3:50 pm: enabled a rule that might allow TripleA traffic to work, must be 2.6 or later
]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/42468/bot-attacksRSS for NodeFri, 01 May 2026 02:49:29 GMTTue, 28 Apr 2026 23:53:06 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Fri, 01 May 2026 02:22:56 GMT]]>@crockett36 Thanks I appreciate it. It feels like I’m playing a war game with these stupid bots.

Me: turn off Singapore, China, and Brazil
Bots: hmmm
Me: Phew it looks like it’s getting bett…
Bots: Launch Agentina, Vietnam, Mexico, Chile, Japan, …
Me: <censored>

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800719https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800719Fri, 01 May 2026 02:22:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:53:56 GMT]]>thanks for all you do.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800710https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800710Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:53:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:53:57 GMT]]>@VictoryFirst It’s because of the bot attacks on the site. The AI crawlers are effectively DDOSing the site taking it down. However the thing that prevents this also prevents TripleA from working.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800640https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800640Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:53:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:45:00 GMT]]>FFS, it’s getting worse. It seems like all the countries in the world are attacking the site.

This is a 22 minute snapshot:

122b0d40-ac41-463c-bde8-ad310e8dc95b-image.png

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800638https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800638Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:45:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:22:21 GMT]]>New update posted in the first post.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800636https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800636Wed, 29 Apr 2026 22:22:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:16:42 GMT]]>What does the following error mean and why does it happen so frequently recently? It sometimes shows when trying to access the site and I keep getting it for like 15 minutes before the site loads again.

94a66fae-bcbf-4572-a163-270e85d065b9-image.png

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800633https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800633Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:16:42 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 09:28:43 GMT]]>thank you sir!

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800565https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800565Wed, 29 Apr 2026 09:28:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:59:52 GMT]]>@barnee Not at all. :-)

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800561https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800561Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:59:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:47:26 GMT]]>@djensen

Right Arm rightarm.png

I hope I didn’t come across too negative. I didn’t mean to :(

You’re a smart Guy :) You’ll get it sorted :)

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800560https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800560Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:47:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:40:23 GMT]]>@barnee said in Bot Attacks:

If people can’t access the site, Bot advertisement isn’t gonna make a difference :)

Agreed. That’s why I’m going to keep “Under Attack Mode” on. If you see some slowness or traffic spike or don’t see the CloudFlare, you know I’m either working on it or trying something.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800559https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800559Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:40:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:39:10 GMT]]>@barnee NodeBB got slammed hard so I hard to reboot. The timing of your message is roughly around when that happened.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800558https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800558Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:39:10 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:12:39 GMT]]>Wow I just was able to get on again :) Can you create your own Bot Army to attack them :)

The inverse of what I mentioned above, would be too shut all bots down, except for the 3-4 hours of lowest user times.

Idk if you can automate that though. But yea, it’s pretty rough. Maybe have a Bot day once a week where they can nutup and shut them down otherwise.

If people can’t access the site, Bot advertisement isn’t gonna make a difference :)

Just some thoughts

P

lol and now 503 won’t even let me post this. I’d turn those bots off until you find a solutionScreenshot from 2026-04-29 02-22-11.png

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800557https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800557Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:12:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:01:33 GMT]]>@barnee The bots are supposedly being auto-blocked but a lot get still get through. I’m working through some solutions. For now, I’m going to keep on “Under Attack Mode” while I’m “away” from the site not working on the problem.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800556https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800556Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:01:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:08:22 GMT]]>Thank you for the heads up DJ.

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800536https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800536Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:08:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Bot Attacks on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:12:15 GMT]]>@djensen

would it be possible to look for the 3-4 hours most people are on and have the bots auto block during that period ?

]]>https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800524https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/post/1800524Wed, 29 Apr 2026 00:12:15 GMT