Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

Update re: That "You're Banned" Error


Dev

Recommended Posts

  • Admin

Morning y'all!

 

It seems the forums are telling people they're banned much more often than they ever used to.  This has been a randomly occurring issue for a couple of years now, in which people visiting the forums see a message telling them they've been banned instead of the usual forum content.  This happens to both members and unregistered visitors.  The important part of the problem is that it's displaying this message to people who are not, in fact, banned.

 

You can read about the corrective steps we know of in the red announcement posted at the top of each forum page.  These are solutions that have done the trick for people who've contacted us about this issue up to now, but we have now had at least one person for whom they didn't work.

 

So everyone is aware, I just opened a support ticket with Invision, the people who develop the forum software we use.  I also gave them an admin account so they can log in and poke around our settings.  Hopefully the information I've managed to gather from people this has happened to up to now will be enough for them to point at something and say "that's breaking it."

 

In the meantime, if you run into this issue, please check that red announcement - if there are any new things you can do to get past the problem, I'll update that to let you know what they are as I hear about them.

 

Please accept my apology for the confusion around all this.  I know it's not pleasant to see "BANNED" in big letters, especially when you know you haven't posted anything even remotely controversial, never mind rude.  We are on it, though, and I'll keep everyone posted as things develop.

Link to comment

I’m not a huge IT expert but have a little bit of experience under my belt and one of the possible culprits could also be how the server resolves addresses in the flurry of packets sent back and forth when a user attempts to connect. Sometimes the software misdiagnoses a normal connection as a spoof or illegal connection, which can happen very often these days for many reasons. Most often with cel phones and how the carrier routes the packets. For instance my google keeps placing me in other cities even though I keep correcting the zip code. It’s been as bad as me being placed in China which can cause issues with over paranoid network settings. All of this is most likely going to be in a constant state of flux because it seems protocols and updates to them are happening on a daily basis. As of right now my phone is nagging me about getting the OS updates so that might clear up some of the issues. It’s difficult to tell what exactly causes all of this but there’s many moving parts and not all network rules can keep up with the changing environment.

Link to comment

Its only ever happened to me twice when I've been logged on at home, close the tablet without closing down the browser  and then refresh the site from a different wifi connection - my assumption was that it just spots that the cookie is invalid from that IP and instantly blocks as it always works fine when I come back home.  If I've shut down properly I do not get the same errors.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

I would think similar too as, although I am lucky in not having issues here yet, I have noticed that on some sites content is restricted after a while. Shutting the browser down and restarting does not usually sort this (I delete cookies on exit so this isn't the problem). Shutting the computer down will sort though, so I think more in terms of dynamic IP address. What happens if you get allocated an IP address previously used by a banned member?

 

Tracy

Link to comment

I don’t think it works like that. I think actual banned addresses are based on trace route to the ISP, country and sometimes even MAC address. A dynamic IP address can change. It’s not a very good way to block unwanted traffic.

Link to comment

The way that I finally got back onto the forum was to switch my internet hub off for a couple of hours, so that when it was switched back on, I was given a new IP address.  I have no idea why it made a difference, but it worked, so I was happy.

 

Robin.

Link to comment

It sounds like they need to reset all the IP’s that are banned and set new rules based on better criteria. If it’s based on blocking specific IP’s that can dynamically change by switching off a router, or using terminal/command prompt, then that makes it easy for unwanted traffic to bypass an actual ban for spam or because an admin actually blocked the dynamic IP. I’m guessing most of this stems from the rules that automatically block spam. 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   5 Members, 0 Anonymous, 129 Guests (See full list)

    • MaybeRob
    • Karen Carey
    • Ashley0616
    • Adrianna Danielle
    • April Marie
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.5k
    • Total Posts
      767.2k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      11,944
    • Most Online
      8,356

    taxicab
    Newest Member
    taxicab
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Amyjay
      Amyjay
      (58 years old)
    2. bettyjean
      bettyjean
    3. Breanna
      Breanna
      (52 years old)
    4. Emily Ayla
      Emily Ayla
    5. JET182
      JET182
  • Posts

    • LC
      That is wonderful. Congratulations!
    • Heather Shay
      What is relaxation to you? Nature? Movie? Reading? Cuddling with a pet? Music?
    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
      Having just a normal emotional day.
    • Heather Shay
      AMUSEMENT The feeling when you encounter something silly, ironic, witty, or absurd, which makes you laugh. You have the urge to be playful and share the joke with others. Similar words: Mirth Amusement is the emotional reaction to humor. This can be something that is intended to be humorous, like when someone tells a good joke or when a friend dresses up in a ridiculous costume. But it can also be something that you find funny that was not intended to be humorous, like when you read a sign with a spelling error that turns it into an ironic pun. For millennia, philosophers and scholars have been attempting to explain what exactly it is that makes something funny. This has led to several different theories. Nowadays, the most widely accepted one is the Incongruity Theory, which states that something is amusing if it violates our standards of how things are supposed to be. For example, Charlie Chaplin-style slapstick is funny because it violates our norms of competence and proper conduct, while Monty Python-style absurdity is funny because it violates reason and logic. However, not every standard or norm violation is necessarily funny. Violations can also evoke confusion, indignation, or shock. An important condition for amusement is that there is a certain psychological distance to the violation. One of the ways to achieve this is captured by the statement ‘comedy is tragedy plus time’. A dreadful mistake today may become a funny story a year from now. But it can also be distant in other ways, for instance, because it happened to someone you do not know, or because it happens in fiction instead of in real life. Amusement also needs a safe and relaxed environment: people who are relaxed and among friends are much more likely to feel amused by something. A violation and sufficient psychological distance are the basic ingredients for amusement, but what any one person find funny will depend on their taste and sense of humor. There are dozens of ‘humor genres’, such as observational comedy, deadpan, toilet humor, and black comedy. Amusement is contagious: in groups, people are more prone to be amused and express their amusement more overtly. People are more likely to share amusement when they are with friends or like-minded people. For these reasons, amusement is often considered a social emotion. It encourages people to engage in social interactions and it promotes social bonding. Many people consider amusement to be good for the body and the soul. By the end of the 20th century, humor and laughter were considered important for mental and physical health, even by psychoneuroimmunology researchers who suggested that emotions influenced immunity. This precipitated the ‘humor and health movement’ among health care providers who believed that humor and laughter help speed recovery, including in patients suffering from cancer1). However, the evidence for health benefits of humor and laughter is less conclusive than commonly believed2. Amusement is a frequent target of regulation: we down-regulate it by shifting our attention to avoid inappropriate laughter, or up-regulate it by focusing on a humorous aspect of a negative situation. Interestingly, amusement that is purposefully up-regulated has been found to have the same beneficial physical and psychological effects as the naturally experienced emotion. Amusement has a few clear expressions that emerge depending on the intensity of the emotion. When people are mildly amused, they tend to smile or chuckle. When amusement intensifies, people laugh out loud and tilt or bob their head. The most extreme bouts of amusement may be accompanied by uncontrollable laughter, tears, and rolling on the floor. Most cultures welcome and endorse amusement. Many people even consider a ‘good sense of humor’ as one of the most desirable characteristics in a partner. At the same time, most cultures have (implicit) rules about what is the right time and place for amusement. For example, displays of amusement may be deemed inappropriate in situations that demand seriousness or solemness, such as at work or during religious rituals.
    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
    • Heather Shay
    • April Marie
      Good morning, everyone!!! Two cups of coffee in the books and I am just feeling so wonderful this morning. Not sure why, but I'm happy and smiling.   Enjoy this beautiful day!!!
    • Heather Shay
      A U.S. dollar bill can be folded approximately 4,000 times in the same place before it will tear. -You cannot snore and dream at the same time. -The average person walks the equivalent of three times around the world in a lifetime. -A hippo’s wide open mouth is big enough to fit a 4-foot-tall child in. -Chewing gum while you cut an onion will help keep you from crying.
    • Susan R
      Love it! This is great news. We need more of this to combat the excessive hate-filled rhetoric and misinformation. 👍
    • Susan R
      The experience was the same for me @April Marie. I slept much deeper and I woke up each morning feeling so much more restful sleeping with forms solidly in place. For me, wearing breast forms at night started when before I was a teenager. I had no access up to modern breast forms and certainly no way to buy mastectomy bras back then. I wore a basic bra my mom had put in a donation box and two pairs of soft cotton socks. I have some crazy memories of things I did in my youth to combat my GD but regardless, these makeshift concoctions helped me work through it all.   All My Best, Susan R🌷
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Colorado isn't exactly a Republican place, and won't become one anytime soon.  I think those folks might be better off not spending their time playing Don Quixote.    We certainly have our share of California "refugees" moving into where I live, so I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing Coloradans too.  I suspect the trend over the next few years will see the blue areas getting more blue and the red areas getting more red as anybody who can relocate tries to find a place where they fit better.   
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Well, at least it'll be a place some folks could choose.  Options are a good thing.
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      My family would have gobbled that jar up in a minute or two.  When we do have pickled herring, its usually for Christmas.  I didn't grow up with that particular dish, but I grew up in a Greek family so I like just about any kind of fish if I can get it.  However, ocean fish and freshwater fish taste so different.  We usually have more catfish and tilapia to eat than anything else.    What I can't quite get used to is the tons of cabbage my GF insists on eating.  When you live with a Russian, there is always cabbage soup.  Always.  When I first moved in with her, breakfast was "shchi" for soup and either bread or "kasha" which is a bowl of boiled buckwheat with butter and salt.  Those dishes can be made in any number of ways, some are better than others.  In the winter, it can even be salty and sour like kraut.  Not exactly sauerkraut, but packed in tubs with vinegar and salt so it keeps partially for the winter.  But I drew the line when the cabbage soup included pieces of fried snake one day.  😆
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...