It turned out to be a remarkably brief absence after all!
After much testing, I am comfortable in saying that the Wellesnet Message Board has returned – hopefully for good.
As previously stated, the forum was once a vibrant hub for Orson Welles enthusiasts. However, as social media platforms gained in popularity, participation dwindled. Far, far more importantly, the aging software was no longer compatible with newer site infrastructure, which contributed greatly to aggressive bot activity and months of repeated website crashes. I reluctantly pulled the plug on July 20.
Long‑time users were understandably disappointed — and I don’t blame them. I had wanted a more modern, secure forum myself. But because we’ve been running phpBB since 2001, much of the original content wouldn’t migrate cleanly to a new, more secure platform. A simple upgrade of the existing software was not feasible. To preserve the incredible archive of information from the past 14 years, I opted to install the latest version of phpBB. The old posts, passwords and member IDs were carefully copied and uploaded to the new forum.
But, during initial live testing of the forum with its improved security measures, thousands of aggressive bots, mostly from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, descended. The entire website crashed again. The phpBB forum software does not have an effective filter-by-country block and the IP ranges of the offending bots were numerous. I consulted with two web developers and support staff specialists to create an effective bot block in the .htaccess file. Nothing they suggested or drafted for me worked.
So, I called on Artificial Intelligence and petitioned our Robot Overlords for help. The initial suggestions failed miserably. I uploaded Wellesnet visitor logs detailing months of bot activity, server information and all previously failed counter measures to ChatGPT. It created numerous blocks for me to try. A dozen failed right out of the gate with one actually increasing bot activity! I uploaded the data on the failures to the AI for further analysis.
ChatGPT came up with a novel approach to protect the Wellesnet Message Board and I was stunned with the results. Upon installation of a carefully crafted file unique to Wellesnet and its server, the number of “active visitors” dropped from 1,465 to 825 to 600 in mere seconds. I purged all sessions and the logs showed just one user – me. Since then, there have been a few minor swarms, but I was able to make adjustments. I realize it will require constant policing.
I didn’t want to announce the return of the Wellesnet Message Board until it successfully survived weeks of rigorous testing and traffic analysis – though at least one loyal user noticed it was active and posted. (I’m talking about you JasonH!)
While I do not expect the forum will become as active as it was during the Alex Fraser aka Glenn Anders era, it remains a valuable resource worth preserving and protecting. Unless you are a bot, you are always welcome to lurk or post!
– Ray Kelly
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