[Rose76]

Lately, I'm facing a security verification wall every time I try to get to MSF. It says it has to make sure I'm not a bot. When did this start? Why? Is everyone seeing this?

It has gotten time consuming and annoying.

[divine1966]

Everyone gets them.

Dr. John spoke about it on one of the threads that people started when it first came about. He mentioned that it’s for now and it has to be done but it won’t be forever.

Read posts #7 and 10, click on this link
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[DocJohn]

I'm very sorry for this inconvenience.

Actually, not everyone gets them. Our firewall provider has rulesets & logic that shows the verification to certain users based IP history, geographic location, and a bunch of other factors in an ongoing effort to weed out bad actors from accessing our website. When I access the site from home, I don't get it. When I access it from my mobile phone when I'm out running an errand or something, sometimes I do get the check.

If you are accessing our community from home or another place where your internet address likely doesn't change much, I can add your IP address to our whitelist, which should bypass this check for you. PM me for instructions and we'll see if I can't get rid of this annoyance.

This is for anyone who gets the check and accesses our website from one primary location.

[divine1966]

Oh I stand corrected. Not “everyone”. But it sounds as many of us do. I only ever use a phone for it and am rarely in one place so I get it all the time nowadays

[Pfrog]

A rather small inconvenience to keep bad actors out, in my humble opinion!

Thank you, @DocJohn...

[Discombobulated]

I get it all the time on my phone, I too move around a lot and I think my phones security system changes my ip address so it’s not the same.

[SmugBRAT]

Cloudflare, aka to some of us nerdy types, clownflare. Many sites are using it to weed out the chaff and it works. I get it every time and I don't mind at all. Thanks DocJohn for keeping this place safe.

[Nammu]

I get it multiple times. Like if I wait to long to post I get it again, but I don’t mind. What was more alarming to me was that err message messing up the headings. But you already took care of that. Thanks! I only access the site from home on my iPad.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I get it nearly every time and I'm glad for it. I'd much rather wait a few seconds than to have the site go down because of bots.

[nonightowl]

Originally Posted by Rose76

Lately, I'm facing a security verification wall every time I try to get to MSF. It says it has to make sure I'm not a bot. When did this start? Why? Is everyone seeing this?

It has gotten time consuming and annoying.

I understand the purpose, really, and appreciate it, yet it IS annoying nonetheless. Normally I access it on my phone using Safari, and I get that message. It will come up, like Nammu says, if I wait too long to post. Say I open a thread, and don't post right away, as I read the most recent posts since my last visit. After a couple of minutes, it will come up.

I stay signed in on my phone, but I refresh the site if I haven't been on it so new posts will appear. Then that message comes up. Not always, but sometimes it will come up when I just click on a thread or the index. Sometimes it's slow, and it has a link to click on why it's taking so long. I lose my patience and try later. I don't have the fastest or strongest cell signal at home and can't afford better.

Right now I'm at the library, and using Chrome. (They don't have Safari) I got a huge error message saying "You have been blocked" and Cloudfare was in tiny print at the top of the screen. I had to wait for the librarian to come and fix it, but she was helping someone else first. It wastes time and is frustrating, as I have a time limit on here. She removed some kind of filter. I thought filters were for teen computers only, but I guess this is a different kind of filter.

It's the bs people out there making life and technology more difficult than it already is. Now there's 2 factor authentification and sometimes I can't get into my email. These days I curse technology and plan to use very little over the weekend.

[lizardlady]

Thanks for the explanation Doc John.

First time it popped up this week it spooked me. Then I thought the site might be under attack. It's nice to know it's to help keep us safe.