Board temporarily unavailable

[DanCR]

Over the past week, maybe a bit more, I constantly have been getting this screen / message when I open the board. There's a link to the board index and if I click on that enough times, I'm in, but it can take one click or a dozen. To clarify, this only happens when I first open the board, either by typing in the url on my computer or hitting it as a favorite on my phone. Once I'm in, then I'm in, there's no further issue.

Raising this because the logs have been on fire recently with new and returning members and it would be an extra shitty time for the board to go down.

[Michiganian]

I've experienced this several times, myself, over the past week or so. Usually just hitting "reload" on the browser fixes it. Usually.

[mgil]

Possibly related:

The amount of bullshit accounts trying to register has gone awry. Literally 31 accounts in one day. Time to shut off registration for a while.

[Michiganian]

Might be bad timing to do that.

I'd planned to post about this if it continued for another week, but it looks like the bodybuilding.com forums may be well and truly gone. They've been down for a week.

Many (?) (ex-?) users there may soon be looking for a new home.

[mgil]

Might be bad timing to do that.

I'd planned to post about this if it continued for another week, but it looks like the bodybuilding.com forums may be well and truly gone. They've been down for a week.

Many (?) (ex-?) users there may soon be looking for a new home.

I’ll think about it but it’s a pain in the butt to sort through these accounts.

[Clearwater47]

Might be bad timing to do that.

I'd planned to post about this if it continued for another week, but it looks like the bodybuilding.com forums may be well and truly gone. They've been down for a week.

Many (?) (ex-?) users there may soon be looking for a new home.

Yes, I've been referring some people as well. Literally just shared links with a couple of people within the last 5 minutes.

[Michiganian]

I’ll think about it but it’s a pain in the butt to sort through these accounts.

Understood. Ya gotta do what you gotta do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, I've been referring some people as well. Literally just shared links with a couple of people within the last 5 minutes.

There was a thread over there last year about this time, referring people here. Several people tried and ran into Problems Registering New Accounts. The email problems have long been solved. (I get email notifications reliably, now--at least so far as I know. DKIM, SPF, and DMARC all pass).

Some of them, though, simply weren't interested in moving to a new home. Seems they'd rather give up on on-line body building forums entirely than move.

[mgil]

@Clearwater47 and @Michiganian I have reopened registration. Let your friends know. If I get a ton of spam I’ll shut it down again

[Clearwater47]

@Clearwater47 and @Michiganian I have reopened registration. Let your friends know. If I get a ton of spam I’ll shut it down again

Cool, thanks! And I totally understand about the spam. I have a forum I run and I know how much of a pain in the backside that can be.

[Clearwater47]

There was a thread over there last year about this time, referring people here. Several people tried and ran into Problems Registering New Accounts. The email problems have long been solved. (I get email notifications reliably, now--at least so far as I know. DKIM, SPF, and DMARC all pass).

Some of them, though, simply weren't interested in moving to a new home. Seems they'd rather give up on on-line body building forums entirely than move.

Yeah, I was the one that was referring people, lol. I'm somewhat running into the same thing again - many people just aren't interested in getting involved in a new community. It seems like some are interested and willing though, so hopefully we'll have a few more join up here yet.

[DanCR]

Over the past week, maybe a bit more, I constantly have been getting this screen / message when I open the board. There's a link to the board index and if I click on that enough times, I'm in, but it can take one click or a dozen. To clarify, this only happens when I first open the board, either by typing in the url on my computer or hitting it as a favorite on my phone. Once I'm in, then I'm in, there's no further issue.

Raising this because the logs have been on fire recently with new and returning members and it would be an extra shitty time for the board to go down.

This has been happening again for the past week or so, but worse than last time - this time it does also occur even after I’ve logged in. I understand that it’s not just me. Flagging it for the same reason as last time - boards have been real active and it would suck bad if they went down.

[Clearwater47]

Probably worth noting that once again the bodybuilding.com forums seem to be having major issues. Not sure if it’s just a coincidence or not…

[GlasgowJock]

This has been happening again for the past week or so, but worse than last time - this time it does also occur even after I’ve logged in. I understand that it’s not just me. Flagging it for the same reason as last time - boards have been real active and it would suck bad if they went down.

I cleared my Google Chrome browser cookies yesterday and it's cleared the issue so far. Prior to this it was happening to make several times/ day for the past few days.

[DanCR]

This has been happening again for the past week or so, but worse than last time - this time it does also occur even after I’ve logged in. I understand that it’s not just me. Flagging it for the same reason as last time - boards have been real active and it would suck bad if they went down.

I cleared my Google Chrome browser cookies yesterday and it's cleared the issue so far. Prior to this it was happening to make several times/ day for the past few days.

I’m on Safari on my phone mostly - not sure how much gets saved in private mode but just cleared it anyway. Let’snsee if that helps. Thanks!

[Michiganian]

Probably worth noting that once again the bodybuilding.com forums seem to be having major issues.

It was only a matter of time, really. Moderation has been mostly MIA for the two years I've been a member there, so the spam has been out of control. At least twice, during that time, the forums have been down entirely for a week or two at a time. For the past month or so (?) topic indexing appears to have been broken, so you couldn't tell when a thread had new posts without actually opening the thread and manually navigating to the end of it.

Now their forums URL displays "Hi Team, No good growth came without change. We’re building new ways to connect our global community. ..." This suggests to me they're tossing the old forum software entirely and replacing it with God knows what.

So, yeah: ES might see some refugee traffic.

[mgil]

Updating here…

I woke up to a spam report. Russian account.

Checked the members list and there’s about 200 (no bullshit) inactive accounts made in the last couple of weeks or so.

Locking registration down again.

[DanCR]

Updating here…

I woke up to a spam report. Russian account.

Checked the members list and there’s about 200 (no bullshit) inactive accounts made in the last couple of weeks or so.

Locking registration down again.

I don’t understand why they all actually fill out profiles (and weigh 762 lbs - but I guess fine if you’re benching 835).

Anyway, in case anyone else has had this issue: for weeks I’ve had a very hard time with the board not loading when I’m on my iPhone. Yesterday I finally grew a brain and remembered that I’ve got Chrome on here, and problem solved. No idea what the issue is with Safari.

[Michiganian]

I don’t understand why they all actually fill out profiles (and weigh 762 lbs - but I guess fine if you’re benching 835).

Scammer trick. They create an account. Fill in a profile. Let it sit fallow for a while. Maybe as much as a year or more. Then use it to try to perpetrate a scam. Usually trying to scam members posting WTB adverts. The mark checks, sees the account is a year old or better, fails to notice no posting history, takes the bait.

This is why, whenever you're transacting business on a web board it's best to stick with known, established members with an active, and recent, posting history.

The "recent" part is important, too. On another board we've at least twice seen accounts the true account holder had stopped using. A scammer somehow compromised the login credentials, and successfully used the legitimate member's account to perpetrate their scam. On another such attempt somebody noticed there'd been no activity on the account until it responded to a WTB advert out of the blue, became suspicious, alerted board administration, they checked and found the IP address was offshore. Scammer was busted.

[DanCR]

I don’t understand why they all actually fill out profiles (and weigh 762 lbs - but I guess fine if you’re benching 835).

Scammer trick. They create an account. Fill in a profile. Let it sit fallow for a while. Maybe as much as a year or more. Then use it to try to perpetrate a scam. Usually trying to scam members posting WTB adverts. The mark checks, sees the account is a year old or better, fails to notice no posting history, takes the bait.

This is why, whenever you're transacting business on a web board it's best to stick with known, established members with an active, and recent, posting history.

The "recent" part is important, too. On another board we've at least twice seen accounts the true account holder had stopped using. A scammer somehow compromised the login credentials, and successfully used the legitimate member's account to perpetrate their scam. On another such attempt somebody noticed there'd been no activity on the account until it responded to a WTB advert out of the blue, became suspicious, alerted board administration, they checked and found the IP address was offshore. Scammer was busted.

I get the scam; I just don’t get the necessity of completing a total nonsense profile in perpetrating it. Those that do amuse me, along with our resident bots who talk to each other. They’ve been quiet for a minute, but I’m sure that they’ll be back.