Ongoing Problem with Bots / Reading Forum when Not Logged In

[Mike Naberezny]

Quote:

Most users ever online was 4657 on 24 Feb 2026 11:41 pm

After blocking many problematic IP ranges in August and September, we had several months that were mostly problem-free. We hit a new record of "users" yesterday, however, which made the forum unusable for about a half hour. All of the requests were coming from either cloud hosting providers or VPN services. Blocking the offending IPs has made the forum usable again.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Mike Naberezny wrote:

Quote:

Most users ever online was 4657 on 24 Feb 2026 11:41 pm

After blocking many problematic IP ranges in August and September, we had several months that were mostly problem-free. We hit a new record of "users" yesterday, however, which made the forum unusable for about a half hour. All of the requests were coming from either cloud hosting providers or VPN services. Blocking the offending IPs has made the forum usable again.

Reminds me of the nuclear arms race of the 1950s and 1960s. 

I suspect with the relentless push to build more AI data centers, things are going to continue percolating.  In a perverse way, the attention 6502.org is receiving from these bots is good...it suggests interest in the 6502 remains high and that this place is a prime source of stuff for filling up the data centers’ mass storage. 

[Mike Naberezny]

Quote:

Most users ever online was 7882 on 28 Feb 2026 03:23 am

We were down again for about an hour yesterday until thousands of additional IP addresses could be blocked.

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Mike Naberezny wrote:

Quote:

Most users ever online was 7882 on 28 Feb 2026 03:23 am

We were down again for about an hour yesterday until thousands of additional IP addresses could be blocked.

So I noticed...attempted accesses repeatedly timed out for a while.  Any idea where these IP addresses have been registered?  Do you think it might be advisable, again, to require registration in order to access any of the site’s content?

Shame there isn’t something that could be done through the legal system to require data center operators to obtain written permission from website owners before doing any data mining.  Perhaps if a lawsuit barrage could be launched, this nonsense could be abated.  I’ve even seen bot activity on my own little SBC website. 

BTW, a recent newsite article about the AI bot problem blamed Meta for causing over 50 percent of the traffic.  Perhaps someone should find Zuckerberg and have a Leonid Brezhnev “discussion” with him.  Those of us who have been around long enough to recall the Brezhnev era in the old Soviet Union know what that means. 

Edit:

Quote:

In total there are 1156 users online :: 1 registered, 1 hidden and 1154 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 7882 on Fri Feb 27, 2026 9:23 pm

[Mike Naberezny]

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

Any idea where these IP addresses have been registered?

 
They are overwhelmingly from cloud hosting providers and VPN service providers, i.e. not residential.

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:

Do you think it might be advisable, again, to require registration in order to access any of the site’s content?

 
I'd rather not do that again if I can avoid it.