Hi. yesterday and today, I noticed that until I logged in, only SOME of the forum boards were available to view.
[None of which were interactable, of course.]

Is this a new feature ??

I was having a lot of trouble with the site last night, Mad. Not what you are describing though. Everything seems okay now for me.

Edit: Re-reading Mad's post which says before logging in. I was logged in at all times, not logged out.

I'm in the same boat as Mad with a condensed, limited view of the forum boards to view -Casual games,The trading post, Mixed Bag and Hall of fame only appear. Only if I click on active threads am I able to see today's responses in other forums. Those computer gremlins must be at it again!

All of the forum boards are showing for me. Hmm.

I was having the same issues. My login page was also way off to the left instead of center. It seems ok now

I never stay logged-in at any site. So every time I log-in I do the whole “user name and password” thing and that applies to Gameboomers too.

So it was handy to be able to just glance at the various forum boards - without actually having to log-in.

Well, I did also notice that there were more than 6,000 guests online at the time I was having trouble. Maybe a bot issue or something?

I haven't heard of any attacks on the website last night but it's possible if there were 6000 guests online. They try and bombard the server to overload it and crash the site. They aren't hacking in, they just and try and take it down. We aren't alone in that, the other adventure gaming websites have the same problem.

Mad, you could always view the forums if you aren't logged in. It's a public forum. What you can't do if not logged in is post, view profiles or get your PM's. There is no need to log out of GB, I never do. We don't store any private info here so no harm if you stay logged in.

Ana

Well, this is what I got a couple of times while trying to post something or change to a different forum. Wasn't sure if I should post it but here it is anyway:


We encountered a problem. The reason reported was:
Database error only visible to forum administrators

Return to the previous page or use search if you are looking for something specific.

Ob, I was getting that exact same message last night, but so far nothing like that today. This message occurred for me when I was trying to look at the forums.

I haven’t seen any messages of that nature at all 🙄

It’s been a long time habit for me to not stay logged in anywhere.
(And whether it’s necessary or not - I don’t think it’s a bad habit 😉)

And obviously I’m aware that GB is a public forum and all that that implies.
But I like having the direct link on my Desktop …. which just goes to show how lazy I am ….

Yes, Marian. I just figured maybe some maintenance was going on but I did also see that pretty high number of guests.

Mad, that is just Dedication, not laziness!

Yeah, these idiots are attacking forums everywhere, even measly adventure gaming forums. They were successful in knocking Mystery Manor off for about 4 days. Ghostlady finally got us back up and running, but had to make some major changes. We migrated to a different server that was more responsive to issues and started using a free version of CloudFlare. It's made all the difference in the world. Most of the attacks were coming from Taiwan and China, so GL blocked all domains from there.

But, that doesn't explain Mad's issue (or michele rose's)

I was having troubles last night also. I wrote it off as possible internet connection problems and moved on to something else. It seems to be working OK tonight.

Previously, the off-line appearance was the same as being on-line. It now differs dramatically. That preview of all forums without being on-line was a feature I will definitely miss.

Interesting. We haven't changed anything on our end so I'll reach out to our server host and see if he's done anything.

Today I am getting that limited view with Casual at the top. When I go to login it is to the left on the side with no option to click "Keep me logged in". The login page is correct, in center, if I am on any GB page and want to login

OK, I just finished chatting with my IT guy.

We were indeed being attacked by AI Bots from China and in order to help cease the attack, he changed forum settings so in order to view all you need to be logged in. It is a safety feature until he feels we are cleared of these attempts. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in with anything technological.

For now you will need to either log on to view or just stay logged in. We do not have any personal info of yours ever gathered, no real names, no credit cards, nothing traceable so staying logged in is not such a big deal versus other websites.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Ah-ha...AI, the double edge sword rears its ugly head on Gameboomers!

Thanks, Ana for getting to the bottom of this and heads up to your IT guy for putting us in the safe zone!

Thanks for that reassuring info, BrownEyedTigre 👍

Thanks for looking into this for us, Ana. Good to know what's going on.

Thanks Ana!

Yup... no question this was caused by bot attacks and a change had to be made.