logoalt Hacker News

CrimsonRain • today at 6:46 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

I'm one of those who have enabled cloudflare on all of the sites I maintain. Additionally, Added turnstile on every form.

I know some actual users get blocked. But the amount of spam we get without it, the amount of bot traffic simply overwhelming the server... It is just too much.

Recently I also hard blocked all IPs from china Singapore India Pakistan Russia and whole of africa. Do I want to do it? No. But the amount of bot traffic and corresponding spam is a bigger problem :(

Replies

dotancohen • today at 8:45 PM

  > I know some actual users get blocked. But the amount of spam we get without it, the amount of bot traffic simply overwhelming the server... It is just too much.
So why not just shut down the website? Or remove the form entirely? That will ensure that you get no spam, right?

One of the core tenets of system design is Availability. If your service is not available - if your forms are blocking legitimate users - then why are you pretending to have a form submission feature at all? Just to frustrate users?