Cloudflare Sightings?

[Tom]

Can you all let me know if you’ve been seeing any Cloudflare error messages and/or “are you human” challenges over the past week or so?

I’ve been working on blocking AI bots and also chasing a possible hosting issue, so I’d really appreciate if you could just click Yes or No in this poll.

If you click Yes, any details you can share here (or email to [email protected]) would be very helpful:

Where you’re located
Rough time it happened
What you were doing
Screenshot (especially helpful)

Cloudflare is set to be more aggressive outside the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Australia (which covers ~99% of registered users). Within those countries, the goal is for it to be basically invisible.

My current suspicion is that Cloudflare itself is behaving, but the host server is very occasionally not responding, which can trigger a 522 timeout. So if you see “522” anywhere, that’s particularly useful to know.

Thanks -- we’re building Carpokes together, one day at a time — and this is one of those days where a little feedback from everyone could help a lot!

[dr bob]

Hi Tom, I previously reported none, but just now saw the verifying page a for a few seconds as it checked me for a recognizable pulse. First time in a long while. The verify page, not the pulse...

[Tom]

Hi Tom, I previously reported none, but just now saw the verifying page a for a few seconds as it checked me for a recognizable pulse. First time in a long while. The verify page, not the pulse...

Thanks dr bob, I had to put Cloudflare in full combat mode this morning to fend off the bots. The site was barely reachable this morning as bots were basically overwhelming the host server. Might be time to buy stock in Cloudflare -- I'm seeing it everywhere these days. It's starting to feel a bit like white noise on the internet, so I figured better to let Cloudflare do it's thing than let the site go sketchy. Still very much working to reduce or eliminate those Cloudflare challenges, but wanted to keep the lights on in the meantime.... Sigh...

[blueline]

Hi Tom, I previously reported none, but just now saw the verifying page a for a few seconds as it checked me for a recognizable pulse. First time in a long while.

The verify page, not the pulse...

[blueline]

Hi Tom, I previously reported none, but just now saw the verifying page a for a few seconds as it checked me for a recognizable pulse. First time in a long while. The verify page, not the pulse...

Thanks dr bob, I had to put Cloudflare in full combat mode this morning to fend off the bots. The site was barely reachable this morning as bots were basically overwhelming the host server. Might be time to buy stock in Cloudflare -- I'm seeing it everywhere these days. It's starting to feel a bit like white noise on the internet, so I figured better to let Cloudflare do it's thing than let the site go sketchy. Still very much working to reduce or eliminate those Cloudflare challenges, but wanted to keep the lights on in the meantime.... Sigh...

As you mentioned, Cloudflare challenges/checks are becoming very common these days and besides, it's fast. I'm glad you have that option as it's much better than the interminable page load slowdowns. Molasses might be good on pancakes but it's a pox on websites...

[Tom]

Hi Tom, I previously reported none, but just now saw the verifying page a for a few seconds as it checked me for a recognizable pulse. First time in a long while. The verify page, not the pulse...

Thanks dr bob, I had to put Cloudflare in full combat mode this morning to fend off the bots. The site was barely reachable this morning as bots were basically overwhelming the host server. Might be time to buy stock in Cloudflare -- I'm seeing it everywhere these days. It's starting to feel a bit like white noise on the internet, so I figured better to let Cloudflare do it's thing than let the site go sketchy. Still very much working to reduce or eliminate those Cloudflare challenges, but wanted to keep the lights on in the meantime.... Sigh...

As you mentioned, Cloudflare challenges/checks are becoming very common these days and besides, it's fast. I'm glad you have that option as it's much better than the interminable page load slowdowns. Molasses might be good on pancakes but it's a pox on websites...

Unfortunately, I can't be sure the new combat mode is actually working until the next attack. I think it is, but time will tell. Working on a server upgrade in the meantime....again....

[dr bob]

I just so miss getting to spend quality time and $$ on server upgrades and replacements. You have all my respect and more for doing that.

----

I've been leasing out two short racks of R700-class machines for five and eight years, respectively. Clients have been asking about hardware upgrades, mostly thanks to corporate IT who don't care to work on things there before they were. I remind them not to touch them. They run VM's for process sims and operator training in power plants, so not exactly mission-critical. I'm more than tired of supporting them, and ponder the next big question: Do I even want them back? Support contracts have expired. Leases were up at the end of 2025. Shipping is probably more than they are worth.

[Tom]

I just so miss getting to spend quality time and $$ on server upgrades and replacements. You have all my respect and more for doing that.

----

I've been leasing out two short racks of R700-class machines for five and eight years, respectively. Clients have been asking about hardware upgrades, mostly thanks to corporate IT who don't care to work on things there before they were. I remind them not to touch them. They run VM's for process sims and operator training in power plants, so not exactly mission-critical. I'm more than tired of supporting them, and ponder the next big question: Do I even want them back? Support contracts have expired. Leases were up at the end of 2025. Shipping is probably more than they are worth.

So you're saying we should run Carpokes on your servers?

[dr bob]

So you're saying we should run Carpokes on your servers?

It -might- work, but...

-- Ten-plus year old server hardware,
-- Sitting in Maryland and Tennessee,
-- In secure equipment rooms in power plants,
-- NOT connected to the outside world at all,

Would likely be a poor hosting choice for CP. It would run, but would never be busy.

[Tom]

So you're saying we should run Carpokes on your servers?

It -might- work, but...

-- Ten-plus year old server hardware,
-- Sitting in Maryland and Tennessee,
-- In secure equipment rooms in power plants,
-- NOT connected to the outside world at all,

Would likely be a poor hosting choice for CP. It would run, but would never be busy.