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Guest ExChinaExpat

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Guest ExChinaExpat

Several weeks ago, I noticed that the behavior of this site changed. The site went down for a few days, and then a few more changes were implemented to reduce traffic and save bandwidth. However, I think all those changes managed to do was to make it more inconvenient for members here.

 

Most of the site traffic, in fact the vast majority is made by "Guests." A guest can be anyone, but probably most are crawlers searching the site for exciting new writing, the history of the world, and meaning of life. A long while back, someone decided to allow these 'crawlers' to roam freely on the site to gather information. I suppose the reasoning was to allow information and posts to be searched and found on the Web.

 

If you truly want to reduce traffic, then you should force everyone to sign in to view any and all sections of the site. Crawlers do their work automatically, and clear their cache. For that reason, changing the site settings to a max number of 10 visits without signing in only affects human beings; not machines.

 

Also, the default setting, "Remember me" is selected by default, and must be cleared by the user if they don't want to be automatically signed in the next time they open their browser and visit the site. That is a potential security risk, as anyone using their computer can logon without knowing their password. Personally, I hate that setting, and suggest you change the default setting for the options "Anonymous" and "Remember me" to be clear (not selected). If I want that option, I can select it, but having to clear the box every time I logon is a pain in the ass.

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No easy fix, no back side setting for that.

 

Here is what I found so far about it.

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/377626-remember-me-working-even-when-not-checked/

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/bugs.html/_/ip-board/remember-me-checkbox-on-log-in-does-not-work-r40926

 

Is a bug in version 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 we are running 3.4.2 hopefully the next update will fix this, 3.4.1 had a very buggy editor which had many fixes in 3.4.2.

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No easy fix, no back side setting for that.

 

Here is what I found so far about it.

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/377626-remember-me-working-even-when-not-checked/

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/bugs.html/_/ip-board/remember-me-checkbox-on-log-in-does-not-work-r40926

 

Is a bug in version 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 we are running 3.4.2 hopefully the next update will fix this, 3.4.1 had a very buggy editor which had many fixes in 3.4.2.

 

 

3.4.3 newest version is out now.

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No easy fix, no back side setting for that.

 

Here is what I found so far about it.

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/377626-remember-me-working-even-when-not-checked/

 

http://community.invisionpower.com/resources/bugs.html/_/ip-board/remember-me-checkbox-on-log-in-does-not-work-r40926

 

Is a bug in version 3.4.1 and 3.4.2 we are running 3.4.2 hopefully the next update will fix this, 3.4.1 had a very buggy editor which had many fixes in 3.4.2.

 

 

3.4.3 newest version is out now.

Looks like a number of bugs are addressed in this one, will require an hour or so to apply the update.

 

Will check it out over the weekend.

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The crawlers connect under their own names - Google, Bing, and MSN/Bing are the most frequent - so we know when they are active. Most of the guests are actually legitimate search queries entered by actual users - queries about the Chinese New Year were by far the most common. But we do see guest queries from within the Google and Microsoft domains - maybe they test their own links?

The reason the site went down was because it exceeded the server limit of 25% CPU usage for greater than 90 seconds. We are on an "unlimited" plan - unlimited disk space, and unlimited bandwidth, but a shared server. The way the service provider controls usage of these plans is through the artificial CPU usage limit. In normal use, our usage is under 1% - you can look at the bottom of the page, where I've added some diagnostic output showing the execution time, server load, and # of SQL queries needed to call up that page. There is rarely more than one or two pages called up at the same point in time, so we rarely come anywhere near the limit. I say "artificial" because if the other sites are also active, the operating system should allocate the appropriate load to each one in turn (time sharing).

While watching system activity, though, I once saw the CPU usage go over 50% for more than 10 seconds - Microsoft's Bing crawler was the only thing active at the time. So we've talked about blocking Bing. Google is by far the most prolific crawler - we logged 32,886 queries from Google, and only 7883 from Bing - but is much better behaved and much more productive (only around 1% of search traffic is through Bing).

But in normal usage the CPU usage goes up only when someone calls up a page, and only for a second or two.

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Upgraded to 3.4.3 tested the log on using a browser that has never logged into candle before, unchecking the remember me then logged out and back in and no name displayed in the log on box.

 

Recommend to log off and delete the cookies related to candle, next time you log in remember to uncheck remember me and when done log off.

 

There is not much I can do about setting default to not have the check box set, or removing remember me and anonymous from the log on dialog.

 

I did notice other sites like eBay has that "remember Me" option and set to remember by default.

 

I will have to do some research into if there is a file mod to change the "Remember Me" default.

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Did some digging, and found thread explaining that this is a skin adjustment thing, I can find the entry but changing it seems to not change this behavior, it remains checked by default.

A discussion on IPB support forum indicates checked by default is a preferred setting and caused more complaints when not checked, and it is up to the individual to unchecked this when using a shared public PC, of which most are not.

http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/309589-twisted-remember-me-sign-in-logic/

 

I believe the cookie problem has been fixed in the most recent upgrade, as I said before clear the candle cookie from your computer and try log-in and out un-checking the remember me box and see if the user name remains clear.

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