i popped in tonight to quickly re-read something in a forum, but when i tried going to the forum, i was forced to log-in, which hasn't been the case prior to tonight.

i don't always log-in - maybe i should start there... whatever...

anyway, i tried again, without logging in, same result...

then i tried to go to the galleries, same result...

i was freely able to go to without logging in were the MP and Freestuff... and i think i was also able to land on the news tab/link, but i had to fight my way through numerous 500 and 504 bad gateway errors, so now i'm not sure i'm remembering correctly due to all the distractions...

so is this just me? or some weird glitch?

or has some fundamental change occurred, and if so, i'd like to know the reasoning for it, if possible?

and everything is sooooo painfully s-s-s-s-l-l-l-l-o-o-o-o-w-w-w-w

It's not just you. The dev is aware and working on it.

I had to do the same thing on being forced to log in also, with so many 500 errors given prior to singing in. If people are being forced to log in just to check out this site, I can easily see how that will discourage many more outside guests from visiting this site. I hope us having to sign prior to viewing this site is just a glitch and not a requirement.

Giana posted at 9:35 PM Mon, 23 February 2026 - #2998264

i popped in tonight to quickly re-read something in a forum, but when i tried going to the forum, i was forced to log-in, which hasn't been the case prior to tonight.

i don't always log-in - maybe i should start there... whatever...

anyway, i tried again, without logging in, same result...

then i tried to go to the galleries, same result...

i was freely able to go to without logging in were the MP and Freestuff... and i think i was also able to land on the news tab/link, but i had to fight my way through numerous 500 and 504 bad gateway errors, so now i'm not sure i'm remembering correctly due to all the distractions...

so is this just me? or some weird glitch?

or has some fundamental change occurred, and if so, i'd like to know the reasoning for it, if possible?

Unfortunately we are experiencing some bot crawler attacks. To help alleviate this, the galleries (for right now) have been restricted to 'user-only' areas. The devs are in the process of putting other fixes in place to alleviate the 500 code errors. Thank you for your patience! 

thanks for the replies!

what are bot crawlers, and what do they do, or what is the concern?

and like i said, i noticed it through trying to get to the Poser forum, not the gallery area initially...

Giana posted at 8:07 AM Tue, 24 February 2026 - #4504202

thanks for the replies!

what are bot crawlers, and what do they do, or what is the concern?

and like i said, i noticed it through trying to get to the Poser forum, not the gallery area initially...

oh, ok... again, i greatly appreciate your attentive response!! thanks so much :))

probably just more joys in regard to AI and more and more AI bots being generated daily...

I only noticed it today, but was thinking about the hackers or bots for the reason why. I don't always loggin when I'm in a hurry but wish to check something, but I prefer thatto the 500 pages I saw few weeks ago. Take your time to fix it.

Is that why I get the 403 when trying to post to the gallery?  Makes sense now... it was driving me nuts!

i just don't get how this site has gotten this bad, despite explanations...

there are extremely few sites i even bother coming online for these days, and though those sites are mostly other "art" type places, this is the only site that seems to be experiencing these issues.  so if it's a ton of crawlers, why aren't those other sites also being hit - some sites are larger than Rendo, some smaller, all have markets & galleries...

and as a site whose parent company, Bondware, is one that deals with CMS and hosting, i would assume [apparently wrongly] that solutions for such problems would already be in place and be a bit more sophisticated than locking everything down the way it's been done, which hasn't really reached the goal of resolution...

this site was once pulsating with engagement and activity.  i get things change, folks move on, or pass away, etc., but over these last few years, well, there's just been such a steep decline in 'community'.

and now, today, to me, it feels like Rendo is in its own Covid19 quarantine and things are even more fractured and isolatory... 

so sad... :((