New anti-spam defenses

Submitted by Lothere on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 08:34.

I have been getting a ton of automated requests to the site lately, probably from spammer bots looking for new places to add spam comments and new email addresses to send spam to. As a result the database has crashed twice in the last couple days due to the overload.

To attempt to ward off the bad guys I've added the Bad Behavior anti-spam-bot plugin to the main site. I have no idea whether or how much this will help, and I don't know whether it will cause problems for real visitors either, but it's a widely used WordPress plugin so if it is broken it's probably my fault.

If you suddenly are unable to visit the main site or can't post comments or something, you can let me know in the forum, since it isn't enabled over here.

As a totally random bonus feature, this site upgrade includes a fix to the bio pages. I had long meant the "Living Relatives" page to show aunts, uncles, and cousins as well as direct ancestors and descendants, so that has been enabled now. Proof that Leofric is more closely related to Ogive than to Sigefrith! And that everyone in Aed's clan really is "Cousin" with everyone else!

The Site

Stupid bots But the new

Submitted by maruutsu on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 13:02.

Stupid bots

But the new feature is great! *checks the bios*

Wow, they really are all related I find the inter-generational differences very interesting. For example, Connie's first cousin is Malcolm's mom! How weird is that? She is fourteen, and the woman is what, fourty? Large families are awesome.

rattles saber This thing

Submitted by Lothere on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 13:20.

*rattles saber* This thing is actually working! It has already stopped 28 attempted spam comments. It's better than Akismet since it actually stops the bot from posting at all -- previously the spammy comments were usually hidden, but they still clogged up the database and chewed up processor cycles. So I am pleased so far.

Gog and Magog are Connie's first cousins, too. I find that even crazier, since we know them. They're easily old enough to be her father. Like Cearball said, the closest thing Connie has to a brother is actually... Gog.

Good to see that

Submitted by Van on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 15:26.

Good to see that everything's working again

Is it just me, or does Connie look quite a bit like her oldest sister? And is there something rather Wulf-like about this girl's face? But then again I thought Anson looked like Druze, so it's already been established that I'm crazy and I might be waaaaaay off the mark here.

I find that all of Connie's

Submitted by Lothere on Fri, 09/11/2009 - 16:50.

I find that all of Connie's sisters either look like Cat or look like Flann. I think it's the skin.

Speaking of skins, I think that's the link between "this girl" and Wulf.

In other news, I wrote up a quick relationship calculator script, so now when you look at someone's living relatives (for example using one of the two links I gave above) the relationship name (like "first cousins") is now a hyperlink. Click on that link and you will go to a page that shows the path between the two people, with their closest common ancestor at the top and their two family lines going down. Check it out.

Relationship between Vash and Lar (first cousins, once removed)

Relationship between Murchad and Cearball (second cousins)

Relationship between Eirik and Sigefrith (second cousins, once removed)

Relationship between Dunstan and Eirik (eighth cousins, once removed )