Forum hanging when posting

[xantia_v6]

As we have all noticed, the forum software has for some time had a tendency to hang, sometimes causing a Cloudflare timeout, leading to duplicate posts. I investigated this a month or so ago, but did not reach any definitive conclusion about the cause, although my main suspect is the we server package.

Early today I rolled back that package to an earlier version to test for a few days. Please report any cases where the forum hangs for more than 15 seconds, or triggers a Cloudflare timeout. Don't bother reporting shorter delays, as they could be due to other causes.

[mickthemaverick]

All good here this morning!

[xantia_v6]

i have also re-enabled the web-server cache (which has been switched off for a couple of years), and it has reduced the server load by about 90% (which says quite a lot about the coordination between the 100s of "guests".

[xantia_v6]

The forum performance seems to be somewhat improved.

You may be interested to see the server CPU loading graph for the last week, the flat portion at the end corresponds to the enabling of the page cache. A page cache would not have that dramatic effect with real uer traffic, but the bots tend to repeatedly ask for the same pages.

[furriegurrie]

There is something different for me since a couple of days. I’m no longer getting the ‘verify that you’re human’ check when I open a post. But all posts do not show the pictures. When I click on one of the questionmarks that show instead of the picture I then get the Cloudflare check. After passing the check, the picture loads. When I back out of that by using the back button on the Iphone and refresh the page the picture is on, the pictures in the thread show as normal. Not a big issue of course, just less convenient.

[xantia_v6]

There is something different for me since a couple of days. I’m no longer getting the ‘verify that you’re human’ check when I open a post. But all posts do not show the pictures. When I click on one of the questionmarks that show instead of the picture I then get the Cloudflare check. After passing the check, the picture loads. When I back out of that by using the back button on the Iphone and refresh the page the picture is on, the pictures in the thread show as normal. Not a big issue of course, just less convenient.

I need a bit more information, as there are several mechanisms involved.
Which country is your IP address associated with? Are you using a VPN?
If convenient, can you test using a VPN?
Are you using a PC or phone?
Can you provide a link to a post where you see this issue? (we have more than one method of embedding images in posts).
When you get the Cloudflare challenge, do you always need to click in the box, or does it pass without action from you?
Do you have a specific privacy blocker on your browser?

[furriegurrie]

I’ll try and get you all the info you ask for. Will be tomorrow. Some answers now: I’m based in The Netherlands, I do need to check the checkbox, it’s been with several different posts.

At first I thought something was wrong with the uploaded pictures. But all posts I looked at didn’t show pictures. I tried clicking a picture and that triggered the check.

I mostly use my IPhone, no vpn.

[xantia_v6]

Thanks for the update, it gives me some clues.
Can you try another device or browser?
Is anyone else seeing similar issues?

[Paul-R]

I mostly use my laptop when on the forum. It's still a bit hesitant when making a post. I've also noticed that when I click on a post to open it to read (actually control-click as I open up another tab) there's a slight pause before the tab stats loading.

When I'm using my Android phone (as I am now) I don't do anything clever so not really noticed anything. Images display without a problem when on the home WiFi. When I'm roaming on 4G pictures don't display on my emails but I don't know about the FCF which I suppose means it's probably OK as well.