Get rid of Cloudfare

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..NOW.

Is Cloudfare used to stop spambots or something? Or is it a virus that's infested the site?

It certainly is messing up this website.

No, Cloudflare is NOT a virus. Cloudflare is used to stop spam-bots. It is not 100% effective, but it is the best solution so far.

It has at best slowed spam bots. It certainly has not stopped them. More importantly, it is a significant communication impediment on a website dedicated to syndrome that is diagnosed by social communication "deficits". It seems to punish more verbose posters. It is applied inconsistenty. Some of the captchas are difficult to read. It sometimes asks for captchas when you are trying to cancel a post.

The above describes how it not working on wrong planet. The software has won numourous awards so it must be great for most websites. But I guess that like in most things I life, it is just different for us.

That's a commendably creative use of the word 'solution'.

Does anyone have a better choice that both stops 100% of the spam-bots AND does not interfere with normal member use?

Anyone?

Anyone?

As auntblabby would say, a yummy ice cream?

I can recall Fnord enumerating the characteristics of posts that don't get frequently caught and I was surprised because it doesn't seem to distinguish between my verbose posts and my terse posts and I don't generally pepper my posts with obscenity, but still get lots of captchas. Since then I have noted that quoted text and URLs included even in very brief posts are likely to trigger cloudflare.

A workaround that has been working for me is to use the browser's back function to return to the post composition screen whenever I run into a totally unreadable captcha or (using "back" twice) when the result is that my post has been erased and not posted. I just keep going back and hitting submit again until it works.

Not a great user experience, but better than just losing the text.

Considering it seems to working fine on other websites, it needs to be reconfigured or reinstalled preferably by someone who did not install and configure it on WP. Once it is "fixed" it needs the software should be constantly updated by a competent person as the bad guys are always finding ways to bypass security. That is why a 100 percent solution is probably is not likely to happen. Much more tolerable is a reasonable request.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 16 Nov 2015, 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I will also put my voice to this. It would be great if an alternative to this system could be found.
Can't see it happening though.

I just think that when you need support, it doesn't help to keep on entering the text, press send, only for Cloudfare to lose the message...repeat 10 or more times, you end up not bothering.

This site is just dodgy like the old one, because people don't want to maintain it. It's a shame.

After entering the text, press ctrl-A, then ctrl-C, then click on "Submit". If you lose the text, then open another post window, press ctrl-V, then click "Submit" again.

It's called the "Copy-and-Paste" routine.

I already do that. Thanks anyway though.

My point is Cloudfare loses the message and you keep on having to paste it, then paste it again and it takes about 10-15 tries until it accepts it. And for many users who are technophobes it isn't a choice. And I can't make posts at all sometimes, or edit them. It is very inconvenient.

I don't think Alex knows how or cares to change it. Bots are a problem on every message board but most seem to be able to handle it without Cloudflare so I am sure there are other options. Biggest problem is crap forum software.

You literally have no idea what you're talking about. It's not an anti-bot measure for web forums (cloudflare does have a security layer that filters out questionable visitors but that is just one part of it that can be turned on or off). The forum software has literally nothing to do with cloudflare so why don't you not comment on things you don't understand.

Do you realize how much of the internet is running behind cloudflare? Cloudflare is an advanced CDN that accelerates delivery of web content. It's used by tons of major sites, including Reddit and Meetup.com.