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Has there been an 'upgrade'?

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Reply 20

Original post
by DataVenia
I've viewed four threads so far this morning, and have received a Cloudfare robot check three times so far. That's been fairly typical of the last few days.

It seems to be related to how fast I move around the site. If I move around too quickly I apparently look like a robot.

If someone within TSR hasn't "tweaked" any settings to cause this, then someone at Cloudfare has.


Yeah it looks like you have to wait a couple seconds (at least for me) before you move around different parts of the site and you don’t get the pop-up.

This works for me waiting at least ~5 seconds between each click then I’m able dodge the popup.

I think that I’ll need to do this until further notice as I’m kind of getting sick of the popup on ST2.
Original post
by Talkative Toad
Yeah it looks like you have to wait a couple seconds (at least for me) before you move around different parts of the site and you don’t get the pop-up.

This works for me waiting at least ~5 seconds between each click then I’m able dodge the popup.

I think that I’ll need to do this until further notice as I’m kind of getting sick of the popup on ST2.

As am I. It's not always "hands off" either. I often need to click "I am not a robot", then wait whilst it refreshes a few more times; it then asks again, and only on the second or third time decides I'm human.

It's also far more likely to appear when I'm using the web site from my mobile than from my laptop, from the experiments I've done. I suspect we're stuck with it for at least the next week or so, as there's going to be nobody around to fix it.

Reply 22

Original post
by DataVenia
As am I. It's not always "hands off" either. I often need to click "I am not a robot", then wait whilst it refreshes a few more times; it then asks again, and only on the second or third time decides I'm human.

It's also far more likely to appear when I'm using the web site from my mobile than from my laptop, from the experiments I've done. I suspect we're stuck with it for at least the next week or so, as there's going to be nobody around to fix it.

I normally don’t consciously wait a few seconds before clicking something else again.

When I do consciously wait a few seconds, I’m able not to get the popup and if I get it again, it’s only because I was too fast and forgot to wait a few seconds.

So your theory of people being too fast might be true because when I slow things down, I’m able to dodge the popup.
Original post
by Talkative Toad
I normally don’t consciously wait a few seconds before clicking something else again.
When I do consciously wait a few seconds, I’m able not to get the popup and if I get it again, it’s only because I was too fast and forgot to wait a few seconds.
So your theory of people being too fast might be true because when I slow things down, I’m able to dodge the popup.
Wouldn't this have been noticed before now?

Reply 24

Original post
by Geo Lover 7
Wouldn't this have been noticed before now?

What do you mean?
Original post
by Geo Lover 7
Wouldn't this have been noticed before now?

It seems likely that something has changed, triggering this behaviour. For example, if a web site is being hit 10 times a second by a particular IP address then it's reasonable to conclude that it's a robot at the other end rather than a human user. But what about being hit 10 times in 10 seconds? That could be a human user clicking a link, scanning a message, then clicking another link, etc. in rapid succession.

It's likely that Cloudfare (or TSR) has tweaked the threshold at which the speed of usage implies the user is a robot. So one has to use TSR at a slower-than-normal rate to avoid breaching this threshold - a threshold which has only recently changed.
Original post
by DataVenia
It seems likely that something has changed, triggering this behaviour. For example, if a web site is being hit 10 times a second by a particular IP address then it's reasonable to conclude that it's a robot at the other end rather than a human user. But what about being hit 10 times in 10 seconds? That could be a human user clicking a link, scanning a message, then clicking another link, etc. in rapid succession.
It's likely that Cloudfare (or TSR) has tweaked the threshold at which the speed of usage implies the user is a robot. So one has to use TSR at a slower-than-normal rate to avoid breaching this threshold - a threshold which has only recently changed.
Oh, that makes sense. Very annoying though.
Original post
by DataVenia
If someone within TSR hasn't "tweaked" any settings to cause this, then someone at Cloudfare has.
Original post
by threeportdrift
To be fair, I've also had my suspicions on that one 😮
Confirmation was given to me on 17th December that the cloudflare had been stepped up for a reason. I don't think I am able to share that reason publicly but it seems odd that we have communication suggesting the opposite.

I hope, the post on the previous page saying "nothing has changed recently that would impact performance in that way" is referring to the other issues ReadingMum has listed, including typing lags and the survey of doom reappearing constantly. Not the cloudflare issue.

I've had a lot of cloudflare checks too, I've had the survey of doom once but then I have changed wifi location which I assume is what's responsible in my case. The typing errors I haven't seen.

Reply 28

Original post
by 04MR17
Confirmation was given to me on 17th December that the cloudflare had been stepped up for a reason. I don't think I am able to share that reason publicly but it seems odd that we have communication suggesting the opposite.
I hope, the post on the previous page saying "nothing has changed recently that would impact performance in that way" is referring to the other issues ReadingMum has listed, including typing lags and the survey of doom reappearing constantly. Not the cloudflare issue.
I've had a lot of cloudflare checks too, I've had the survey of doom once but then I have changed wifi location which I assume is what's responsible in my case. The typing errors I haven't seen.


Yes, that was referring to the performance issues with typing, and the survey appearing more than usual :yep:

Reply 29

Original post
by Talkative Toad
The cloud fare issue yes (dozens and dozens of times a day), and I’m being asked to fill details about my educational status daily (on the old version of TSR that I’m on).
I refuse to fill in the details about my educational status and

Hi. When you say the old version of TSR do you mean you are seeing this popup asking for data on older pages? I'm looking into the newer version on the react thread pages to check if there is a problem with that but just wanted to check if you mean this one?
Screenshot 2025-01-02 092446.png
Original post
by PurpleAndGreen
Hi. When you say the old version of TSR do you mean you are seeing this popup asking for data on older pages? I'm looking into the newer version on the react thread pages to check if there is a problem with that but just wanted to check if you mean this one?
Screenshot 2025-01-02 092446.png


I assume old version of TSR means ST2

Reply 31

Original post
by 04MR17
I assume old version of TSR means ST2

Yep, I assumed that too but just wanted to be sure since we have two popups and I didn't want there to be any confusion as to which we were talking about 🙂

Reply 32

Original post
by ReadingMum
Cloud flare robot check every day.
I answer that I am a parent to the purple questions most days. Typing lag is not currently happening but was bad a couple of days ago - I could enter a whole sentence, one finger typing on my iPad, before I could see anything

Hi. We haven't changed anything that would make the parent/student data popup show more frequently. There is a cookie that should mean it only shows at most once a week but if you log in on different devices/browsers or clear your cookies then you would see it more frequently than that. I will ask the dev team if there is anything we can do about this since I know its not the intention to show it users every day and understand it must be very annoying!

Reply 33

Hey folks, sorry about the Cloudflare gate. We had an unreal amount of bot traffic in the run up to Christmas so you might have been unlucky enough to be sharing an ISP with the troublemaker. We've relaxed the rules again now so hopefully it makes things smoother especially for those still on ST2.

Reply 34

Original post
by Goose Operator
Hey folks, sorry about the Cloudflare gate. We had an unreal amount of bot traffic in the run up to Christmas so you might have been unlucky enough to be sharing an ISP with the troublemaker. We've relaxed the rules again now so hopefully it makes things smoother especially for those still on ST2.

Is there any chance in the future of clearly announcing when you do this? Clicking "Im not a bot" isnt anywhere near to what happened last year, but this "often" occurs with replying to a thread and the reply disappears so its either typing out the reply again or not bothering. Ive done the former, but getting close to the latter.

Reply 35

Original post
by mqb2766
Is there any chance in the future of clearly announcing when you do this? Clicking "Im not a bot" isnt anywhere near to what happened last year, but this "often" occurs with replying to a thread and the reply disappears so its either typing out the reply again or not bothering. Ive done the former, but getting close to the latter.

Absolutely - I agree that we didn't communicate this well but am planning to take this away to discuss with the other techies 🙂

From my understanding we did make a change before christmas to exclude posting for this reason - have you been seeing that happen in the last week or so? If so I'll make sure that we update the rules to fix this ready for the next time we have to turn the gate on (hopefully a long time from now!)

Reply 36

Original post
by PurpleAndGreen
Hi. We haven't changed anything that would make the parent/student data popup show more frequently. There is a cookie that should mean it only shows at most once a week but if you log in on different devices/browsers or clear your cookies then you would see it more frequently than that. I will ask the dev team if there is anything we can do about this since I know its not the intention to show it users every day and understand it must be very annoying!

I am on an iPad- eyesight not good enough to read it on a phone 🤩

Reply 37

Original post
by PurpleAndGreen
Hi. When you say the old version of TSR do you mean you are seeing this popup asking for data on older pages? I'm looking into the newer version on the react thread pages to check if there is a problem with that but just wanted to check if you mean this one?
Screenshot 2025-01-02 092446.png


Yes I mean that one. ST2 one.

Reply 38

Original post
by PurpleAndGreen
Hi. We haven't changed anything that would make the parent/student data popup show more frequently. There is a cookie that should mean it only shows at most once a week but if you log in on different devices/browsers or clear your cookies then you would see it more frequently than that. I will ask the dev team if there is anything we can do about this since I know its not the intention to show it users every day and understand it must be very annoying!


Will there be an option in the future to permanently disable the popup via profile settings or something similar for example? As I’ll probably never fill it in and I can imagine that there’s others in my position or there’s students who have filled it in so having it popup for them again once a week or more is pointless.

I also seem to be getting the cloud fare verification way less on mobile in the UK compared to if I’m abroad (in the EU), is that normal? We’re talking exponentially less (from 50-100+ times a day to like under 5-10 times a day on ST2).
(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 39

Original post
by Talkative Toad
I also seem to be getting the cloud fare verification way less on mobile in the UK compared to if I’m abroad (in the EU), is that normal? We’re talking exponentially less (from 50-100+ times a day to like under 5-10 times a day on ST2).


The verification has been reduced across the board, as per Goose Operator's post above! :smile:

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