Vanilla forums 'security checks' becoming excessive?

Danikat · July 2

Has anyone else had this problem? Recently when visiting the forum or even clicking between pages once I'm already on it I get hit with a kind of 'loading screen' informing me that it's verifying I'm human, or just saying it's running a security check. Sometimes it seems to get stuck on that page and I have to close the tab and open a new one to get to the page I wanted to look at.

Just now I tried to post a reply and when I clicked the button it instead came up with an overlay on the left side of the screen that said "just a moment" and showed me my IP address and something called a Ray ID, which didn't go away until I clicked the little X in the corner of that window. After that I was able to post, but it was an annoying delay, especially since it didn't seem to be doing anything.

I don't know if I've done something to get the forum software to flag me as a potential bot, or if it's producing false-positives after an update or what, but it's annoying and if anyone knows a way to stop it I'd appreciate knowing.

Grizzbeorn · July 2

No, I haven't had that at all.

adriant1978 · July 2

Seen this once when using my phone, I think after I changed from one public Wi-Fi to another.

Never seen it while using my computer.

Maitsukas · July 2

Never encountered this issue, on my PC or on my phone (desktop view).

ForumBully · July 2

I've never seen anything like that....the matrix has you.

LunaFlora · July 2

i do not remember ever needing to verify being a human on the ESO forums.

Elsonso · July 2

I have not seen this. Are you sure you are human? Please identify the fire hydrants in the following picture:

whitecrow · July 2

No, but I do get the annoying popup about cookie policy all the time.

freespirit · July 2

I did get a very weird quite scary one just a couple of days ago, whilst using my tablet in desktop view.

If I'm honest I closed it quite fast and re- clicked the link I had just clicked and I haven't seen it again.

All I can remember is it was bright orange, it was from vanilla forums and it said something along the lines that my previous action had been deemed a security risk and I was banned from using vanilla forums. It had a list of things to do/try if I disagreed with this.

As I said I closed it pretty fast, closed and re-opened forums and have seen nothing similar simce! 🤞

vrumpet · July 2

Yes, I am getting the same "Verifying you are human" page on both pc and my phone when initially visiting. Both using Firefox

My phone seems to struggle more with it, sometimes gets stuck and will take a few refreshes before it goes through.

It happens while not logged in, so don't think it's an account issue.

I haven't seen the Ray ID thing, just the verifying page.

StormBlade512 · July 2

I get this when I'm on mobile data, but not on my home WiFi.

metheglyn · July 2

I've never seen this. I only use my desktop for forum interaction, never my phone.

ApoAlaia · July 2

I don't get this at home, where the gateway settings are are pretty 'relaxed', however I do get it at work where things are a lot 'tighter'.

Started recently (for me) too.

wilykcat · July 2

Maybe vanilla is cracking down on possible ai/bot accounts?

Four_Fingers · July 2

Probably Cloudflare doing that.

SilverBride · July 2

I've never gotten this when going to the forums, on my computer or my phone.

LootAllTheStuff · July 2

Do those having issues with this use a service that routinely rotates IP addresses in order to provide the appearance of private browsing? Alternatively, are they on mobile and accessing the forums in situations where they may regularly appear to be connecting from different locations? Either of those could trigger systems designed to catch AI scraper bots, which have rapidly become a major aggravation to many content-heavy websites. Apparently, many of the worst offenders will use multiple IP addresses to get around direct blocks, and don't honour site robots.txt files.

Danikat · July 2

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

Do those having issues with this use a service that routinely rotates IP addresses in order to provide the appearance of private browsing? Alternatively, are they on mobile and accessing the forums in situations where they may regularly appear to be connecting from different locations? Either of those could trigger systems designed to catch AI scraper bots, which have rapidly become a major aggravation to many content-heavy websites. Apparently, many of the worst offenders will use multiple IP addresses to get around direct blocks, and don't honour site robots.txt files.

My IP doesn't routinely change, but it does change periodically (I'm not sure why, it's standard BT home internet), but usually when that happens I get prompted to do two-factor authentication for ESO and various other things, which hasn't happened recently.

Also it usually changes once then stays the same for at least a few weeks before changing again, so it shouldn't trigger frequent checks.

LootAllTheStuff · July 2

Danikat wrote: »

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

Do those having issues with this use a service that routinely rotates IP addresses in order to provide the appearance of private browsing? Alternatively, are they on mobile and accessing the forums in situations where they may regularly appear to be connecting from different locations? Either of those could trigger systems designed to catch AI scraper bots, which have rapidly become a major aggravation to many content-heavy websites. Apparently, many of the worst offenders will use multiple IP addresses to get around direct blocks, and don't honour site robots.txt files.

My IP doesn't routinely change, but it does change periodically (I'm not sure why, it's standard BT home internet), but usually when that happens I get prompted to do two-factor authentication for ESO and various other things, which hasn't happened recently.

DHCP lease expiry/purging? It's something ISPs can do.

Also it usually changes once then stays the same for at least a few weeks before changing again, so it shouldn't trigger frequent checks.

It could be that a bot or DDoSer is using multiple source IPs in the same address block, so everyone connecting from that block gets a second look. There was a new traffic record for a DDoS set recently by a botnet using compromised home/small business routers/gateways. It all just keeps getting worse.