Pandas, spam, and a few updates in Site Updates
- July 1, 2021, 10:56 a.m.
- |
- Public
Hey everyone,
Hope your summer is going well — and isn’t too crazily hot. Mochi and I made the move to TX at the height of the pandemic last year, and I thought we were the ones with the terrible summers. All in due time, I suppose..
Alrighty, first I wanted to give y’all (do you like it? i’m trying it out) a heads up that I’ve been seeing a strange server issue over the last few days. For reasons as yet unknown, the server CPU has been almost maxing out again — the first time that’s happened in a few years.
So I’ll ask: have any of you seen the panda in the last few days? If so, do you remember the time of day it happened? The developer and I have our deerstalker hats on, but any leads you might be able to provide would be helpful.
Worst case scenario, we can beef up the server and this will be a non-issue, but I’d like to get to bottom of it now rather than kicking the can down the road.
One possible theory I have is that this could be related to the ever-growing influx of spam we’re seeing lately — something I’ve been working to cut down on.
This leads me to my next item of discussion: In the next month or two, I will be rolling out a few changes that will make it considerably harder for spam users to create new accounts.
First, new users will be required to verify their email address is a real one before they can fully join the site. Next, I intend to add a 3 day waiting period (still nailing down the exact length of time, this may change) before new users can comment on other users’ entries or post their own public entries. I’m hoping this will not only cut down on spam, it will cut down on users creating new accounts specifically to keep arguments going after they’ve been banned by another user.
Finally, I’m happy to share that Entry Search and Diary Export are both fully functional once again! Hopefully these both are now fixed permanently, the developer put a considerable amount of time into rewriting their architecture.
That’s all I’ve got for now, will write more soon about some upcoming features and changes.
Before I go, though, here are some shots from my travels with Mochi:
<3,
-J
ConnieK ⋅ July 01, 2021
Mochi is obviously doing a great job of guarding you against goat attacks!
TellTaleHeart ⋅ July 01, 2021
No panda sightings here, but I'll let you know. Thanks for being on top of things!
•kitkat• ⋅ July 01, 2021
Ok, the fact that you linked to a picture of Wishbone is like the best thing EVER.
Mochi is adorable.
I'm all for the changes. The amount of spam accounts popping up is staggering. I think email verification is probably one of the easiest starts to helping prevent it. No pandas here, though. There's been a little lag in loading but that could be on my end.
EchoSeven ⋅ July 01, 2021 (edited July 01, 2021)
Edited
No pandas so far! I do, however, get super lag sometimes when I'm writing longer entries. No exact dates or times, it just seems like when I am on the entry creation screen for a long time it will freeze up and take a few minutes before I can type or do anything again. Thanks for the update and letting us know there's effort toward cutting down the spam accounts. Good stuff! And thanks for the pictures of Mochi!
Teflon Superhero EchoSeven ⋅ July 01, 2021
I have the same issue! It seems like when it's trying to auto save or something it stalls out the entry box and you can't input any text until it finishes the save.
7puddingcups EchoSeven ⋅ July 29, 2021
Yup. I've been having this issue for a few months now, actually.
Lobbastah ⋅ July 01, 2021
If I’ve seen a panda lately, I don’t recall, but ditto on the slowness this morning.
Love the potential spam features. I’ve been seeing entries on the front page that are clearly spam, and I personally have been blocking them.
Always Laughing ⋅ July 01, 2021
No pandas just slower than normal for me in the 5-8 pm range eastern time zone. Love the Mochi pics.
mcbee ⋅ July 01, 2021
Good stuff you are planning. All has been normal when I've been on the site. Mochi is great. Thx for all you do.
Camdengirl ⋅ July 01, 2021
How is the Mochster liking the heat? It sometimes takes a while but you can put a cooling gel pad in his bed.... (oh lets be honest, these wee dogs almost always make it into our beds, right?!)
Blue Echo ⋅ July 01, 2021
No pandas here! Occasionally when I log in it will sit for a minute before taking me to the front page, but that’s the worst I’ve experienced lately. And cutting down on spam and drama in one move sounds like a terrific idea!
Jodie ⋅ July 01, 2021 (edited July 01, 2021)
Edited
The only issue I have been having is that this site is being non responsive but after reading this I am wondering if it's because of all the spam? or could it be because of my ad blocker I have? or is it because of something from your end?
I haven't seen any pandas. By the way do they need feeding?
janeanger ⋅ July 01, 2021
I haven't seen the panda at all.
SarahBeth ⋅ July 01, 2021
No pandas on my end, but thanks as always for staying on top of it!
Also, OMG that photo of Mochi with the goat. I cannot.
Firebabe ⋅ July 01, 2021
Got the sad panda around roughly 10:00 AM, EST this morning, but tried the site again about ten minutes later and had no problems.
Love the email verification and waiting period. I haven't really seen a lot of spam but that could be coincidental, or perhaps my reputation has preceeded me and the spam-verse has gotten wind of that time in Wichita where I got accosted by a spammer, so I took a turkey baster and... Well, I mean, it got stuck... And then the mime sort of... At any rate, they didn't find his pants for days.
Oh Mochi, I knew you were the GOAT. That picture just proves it. 🧡
woman in the moon ⋅ July 01, 2021
No pandas. No complaints. You even seem to be holding my unsaved entries better than you used to. Thanks.
TrippyNina ⋅ July 01, 2021
Lagging site this morning but no panda sighting.
Ferret Mom ⋅ July 01, 2021
No panda for me and I'm on this site multiple times per day. :)
Mehuh 2.0 ⋅ July 01, 2021
Hello!
No pandas for me. I haven't been on as often lately though. Haven't had any issues really - though I think those are great ideas!!
And Yay Mochi!
GypsyWynd ⋅ July 01, 2021
No sad pandas here, just wonderful Mochi pics!
Nash ⋅ July 01, 2021
3 day waiting period! You shouldn't be able to buy a gun faster than you can comment on an entry. :)
sassafras ⋅ July 01, 2021
No Pandas here. You're the best!! Hi Mochi!! <3
rhizome ⋅ July 01, 2021
diary export!!! hooray!!! you guys are the best. <3
all my love to mochi
Deleted user ⋅ July 01, 2021
No Pandas, but I've been blocking spam diaries on and off for about two weeks now. It has only been diaries. I have not received spam comments. And really? People create new accounts just to keep arguments going? Oy.
Leanne 🌈 ⋅ July 01, 2021
I see no pandas.
Mr. Mofo ⋅ July 01, 2021
Really just here for Mochi pictures.
No sad pandas. Not even any murder hornets.
Most of that electro stuff you talked about flew way over my head, I have noticed a few new people in here though.
Without doxxing yourself, where in Texas do you live?
simple mind ⋅ July 01, 2021
Glad to see you and Mochi are well.
I've noticed a lot of spam diaries that never even show up on the main page. They're created for the sole purpose of writing a public book description with backlinks to their websites (SEO crap, I don't think Google even looks at that any more since it's abused so much). You might consider disabling linking in book descriptions.
music & dogs & wine ⋅ July 02, 2021
I love your dog and I love goats. Best pic EVER!
A Pedestrian Wandering ⋅ July 02, 2021
It's probably good that I don't know what a panda is? Thanks for all your hard work. Mochi is living the life!
Adira ⋅ July 02, 2021
No pandas in recent memory. Mochi remains adorable! Y'all will grow on you ;)
|amphetamine| ⋅ July 02, 2021
just gonna assume the server is running linux, so - are you ever on the server at the same time as the spikes? if you are, you should be able to just run top (or similar) and see the top CPU consuming processes.
or to get a glimpse of the top CPU-consuming processes at a particular snapshot in time (say if you log on after it's already happened) you may want to look into atop to start logging them regularly: https://lwn.net/Articles/387202/
sorry if any of this is unsolicited advice, i just do/did linux things for years and it was the first thing i thought of when i saw this.
Anit ⋅ July 02, 2021
We are in San Antonio and about to leave and are not sorry about it. ;) We, at least, we not made for such heat! And I miss snow. Anyway, no pandas here, and I like what you have planned for new diarists.
Jinn ⋅ July 03, 2021
No pandas !! Glad to hear from you and see Mochi !
crystal butterfly ⋅ July 04, 2021
I have not seen the Panda, but I do stay logged in and have had to relog in a couple of times.
feels like hope ⋅ July 04, 2021
No sad pandas 🐼
Gangleri ⋅ July 05, 2021
That poor goat.
Bomb Shell ⋅ July 05, 2021 (edited July 05, 2021)
Edited
Happy to report I haven’t seen any pandas lately. It was a bit laggy yesterday, I’m afraid I can’t remember the time.
Parliament ⋅ July 06, 2021
I saw the panda pretty regularly in the last month. My bookmark to PB was always to my favorites page, which brought the panda. I switched to the main page for my bookmarks, and that seemed to do the trick.
Ophidia ⋅ July 07, 2021
You tell that goat what’s what, Mochi!
(Your 3-day waiting period is a great idea.)
Oswego ⋅ July 07, 2021
No pandas here. Good improvements! Thanks for doing a great job with the site.
DimMeOut ⋅ July 08, 2021
Luckily I haven't seen the Panda. Hope you and Mochi had a good move!!
nothispenelope ⋅ July 11, 2021
Your dog [he? she?] is cute and looks soft. I like the 'y'all' i use it a lot. since you'd asked. :)
Florentine ⋅ July 12, 2021
I always feel like the lucky oblivious one because I'm always late to the comment party and I have experienced zero troubles with the site. No pandas, no lag, no sticky loading pages. It's running the same as always for me.
crystalwatkinson ⋅ August 02, 2021
I just couldn't pass by. What a wonderful photos of a dog! Cutie!
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Edited
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