Issue with Cloudflare

[TJ]

There were 278,444 requests from Baidu (a Chinese search engine) in the last 24 hours. I blocked them. It should be faster now with more of the US bots blocked.

You can see some big spikes in the amount of requests when it slows down.

Special thanks to opus for sending a donation to help pay for this month's Cloudflare service.

[Dude111]

Thank you Opus!!

I would like to send Todd money also if I could!! -- I SEE HOW HARD IT IS TO RUN THIS SITE!!

Todd: I left you an email on how to allow HTTP with cloudfare.. (Then your HTACCESS file will dictate things again)

[stevea]

Originally Posted by TJ

There were 278,444 requests from Baidu (a Chinese search engine) in the last 24 hours. I blocked them. It should be faster now with more of the US bots blocked.

You can see some big spikes in the amount of requests when it slows down.

Special thanks to opus for sending a donation to help pay for this month's Cloudflare service.

Looking at the "Currently Active" list, I think this was a key find--thanks!

[TJ]

Is anyone else who uses Safari on a Mac having problems accessing the site? I received the below message. I added his IP address to the whitelist.

Love your website BUT the last few days using SAFARI to access your website isn't working properly and keeps taking me to RELOAD THE PAGE which I've tried multiple times. Today I gave up and by using CHROME the problem is gone. Please look into this as I'm sure many MAC users have encountered the exact same problem, and Yes, I have the LATEST version installed.

[Dude111]

Safari works ok when I use it Todd....

[stevea]

Originally Posted by TJ

Is anyone else who uses Safari on a Mac having problems accessing the site? I received the below message. I added his IP address to the whitelist.

Love your website BUT the last few days using SAFARI to access your website isn't working properly and keeps taking me to RELOAD THE PAGE which I've tried multiple times. Today I gave up and by using CHROME the problem is gone. Please look into this as I'm sure many MAC users have encountered the exact same problem, and Yes, I have the LATEST version installed.

I'm on MacOS/Safari 26.5.2 (which is the latest release) and I have had a few messages about a reload due to the site using significant memory. It's not as pervasive as the message you attached--I had it once last night, and a few times over the last several weeks. Previous to that, I never got the message, which makes me think it's a Safari browser problem.

[opus]

Originally Posted by TJ

Special thanks to opus for sending a donation to help pay for this month's Cloudflare service.

Cool. Now when it acts all wonky everyone knows who to blame

[opus]

I got a Cloudflare question. Not here, because I have EZ Pass here, but at other sites when I get it. For example, let’s say theGangGreen.com, a Jets site, which I read but haven’t registered, just lurk (Don’t ask why, just because). Sometimes it verifies me and lets me right in, sometimes I have click I’m human. How come it varies?

[TJ]

Originally Posted by opus

I got a Cloudflare question. Not here, because I have EZ Pass here, but at other sites when I get it. For example, let’s say theGangGreen.com, a Jets site, which I read but haven’t registered, just lurk (Don’t ask why, just because). Sometimes it verifies me and lets me right in, sometimes I have click I’m human. How come it varies?

I've never had to click the checkbox in Google Chrome. It's always automatic. I went to theGangGreen.com. It took a good 20-30 seconds for it to verify.

I've had to click the checkbox on some other sites when using different browsers. I guess it depends on your browser and what you are doing at the time.

The amount of searches you do on here was probably the trigger for you getting multiple challenges.

AI Overview
Cloudflare challenges are triggered by suspicious traffic signals, bad IP reputations, and strict security settings. They serve to separate real humans from automated bots.

Common Triggers
IP Reputation: High threat scores, shared VPNs/proxies, or networks with past abuse flag the connection.

Browser and Environment Issues: Missing JavaScript, strict ad-blockers, or headless browsers/automation tools (like Selenium) fail silent checks.

Traffic Patterns: Rapid-fire requests or unusual user-agent headers look like automated scripts.

Security Rules: Website owner configurations like Web Application Firewall (WAF) custom rules, rate limiting, or high site security levels.

Why Different Challenge Types Appear
JS (JavaScript) Challenge: Runs silently in the background to test if a browser can execute simple scripts without bothering the user.

Managed Challenge: Adjusts its difficulty automatically based on how suspicious the visitor looks, ranging from invisible checks to a simple checkbox.

Interactive Challenge: Forces a manual user action (like checking a Turnstile box) when automated signals are too strong to verify passively.