Sorry Folks, but it's getting out of control again. I've had to lock down "Guest" access.
If you're a legitimate user who doesn't want to create an account just to browse, you can try logging in with Ghostuser as the user and password.
Older members, queue up Thin Lizzy: https://youtu.be/X5SrvSeYe9k?t=22
Younger members... here's the modern AI generated version:
Guess who just got back today? Those AI bots that went away But they were never really gone, you see Just lurking, scraping, wild and free. Trainsim.com, a hallowed place Started slowing down its pace Each page they hit, a server groan Our beloved forum, overthrown.
The bots are back in town! (The bots are back in town!) To scrape every byte, they’re breaking us down! The bots are back in town! (The bots are back in town!) Performance degradation, turning frowns!
Remember how the lag would sting? Our threads delayed, a frustrating thing. Downloading files, a crawl so slow "Is this a modem from long ago?" They’d hit the news, the screens, the hacks Leaving digital footprints in their tracks A million requests, a constant flood Sucking the bandwidth, spilling our blood.
The bots are back in town! (The bots are back in town!) To scrape every byte, they’re breaking us down! The bots are back in town! (The bots are back in town!) Performance degradation, turning frowns!
Then a whisper spread, a growing plea "We need a wall, for all to see!" A login screen, a simple gate To keep the automated menace straight. No longer free, no easy crawl You wanna browse? You gotta stand tall And prove you’re human, flesh and bone Not just a bot, all on your own.
(Guitar Solo - think Thin Lizzy, but with more synth and whirring sounds)
And now the pages load so fast The forum flows, built to truly last. The screenshots shine, the news is clear No bot can spoil our viewing here. The community's safe, the wisdom's deep The secrets that the members keep. A victory won, a battle grand For every railfan in the land.
The bots are GONE from town! (The bots are GONE from town!) We logged them out, we shut them down! The bots are GONE from town! (The bots are GONE from town!) Our performance is soaring, no more frowns!
Yeah, the bots are gone, it's true! Trainsim's back, for me and you! No more scraping, no more strife Just pure Trainsim, back to life!
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#3jbtower commentedEditing a commentI never was a Thin Lizzy fan anyway...lol -
#4dlfrenchmd commentedEditing a commentToooo good. Humor ALWAYS helps! -
#5npbruce commentedEditing a commentGreat job, Eric, keeping the site going! And you are a poet/singer/song-writer, too!
Posting comments is disabled. Try logging in if you are browsing as a Guest. -
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It's been an eventful two weeks, but it seems we are definitely now back to baseline performance, and maybe a little better..
Nerd-talk warning...
I'd been using Apache's mod_evasive module to try and trap the bots, but that didn't distinguish between a page load and an image load within a page. People reading a screenshot thread or doing a file search with lots of thumbnails to display would hit the limits in place to catch the bots largely because of the image loading.... -
Hope everyone's having a great summer. Ours has definitely had a little adventure and drama.
We currently live above a Norfolk Southern mainline, lovingly referred to as the Rathole but officially known as the CNOTP Second District. One of our resident historians, Jerry Sullivan, spent many hours inspecting these tracks when he worked for the Southern Railroad. The railroad has been good neighbors to us, and last month they took things to a new level -- a 24+ hour bonfire, complete... -
Is it just me, or has the year been flying by?... Numbers rarely lie, and yes, there's been a slight uptick in activity as we see every time schools close for the academic year... And sure enough, I noticed that the warning lights in town are dark for the school zone. Starting in a few days, we'll have a few less trips to pick up grandkids from school (they get out much later than other districts around us).
A few of us pack up and leave for the summer, sometimes to do other jobs,... -
I know, I should have posted something yesterday for April Fools, but the reality of Amtrak merging with Greyhound just didn't seem too far off anymore. Nor would telling people I sold the site to SpaceX who was going to now reform this as SpaceSim.com or something with an X in it.
Truth is I've been a bit busy the last eight weeks, mostly with finishing up stuff that needed to be done around our property. After almost a year of planning and construction, we finally moved into our... -
A slightly belated Happy New Year... and a happy Snowmaggedon if you happen to be in the current storm Fern's path. The site's servers should be unaffected, so feel free to download as long as you have power & internet...
I was ready to write this up two weeks ago, until the stunning loss in the first round of the NFL playoffs of my beloved Green Bay Packers to the soon to be Gary or Arlington Heights Bears, which had me in a mandatory mourning period.
That period... -
I was told today (and confirmed) that FlightSim.com has changed ownership yet again, and the new owners are going to be closing down both their file library as well as their forums "temporarily"....
As someone just said to me an hour ago... Imagine the situation OUR community would be in today had we not obtained our independence three years ago...
It's heartbreaking, and hopefully the forum content isn't lost forever.
If any of you are active in...