Hungangels Website Blocked

[hardiron4u]

This past weekend I tried to sign on to the HA website using my mobile phone which is a USA (Florida) number using data and got a message that the website was blocked in my location (see the link below). I am currently in the Philippines not in the US.

https://global.grooby.com/blocked.php

“THIS WEBSITE IS BLOCKED FOR YOUR LOCATION

The politicians in your state have decided that all adult content be blocked unless we can verify your age via a specialist company.
As this is a free site, and we need to pay each time we verify someone, we made the decision (like many other adult sites) to block in your state.
If you have any complaints please address to the Governor and politicians in your state, and your friends and family voted for them.
You can read more at www.freespeechcoalition.com/faq (https://www.freespeechcoalition.com/faq)”

Several hours later I tried to log on using my laptop via my local ISP and got the same blocked message that I got earlier on my mobile device using Google. I then tried using Bing with the same result. I switched to a pocket WiFi using a Philippine number and was able to log on.

This issue relates to various U.S. states that have enacted legislation that is currently in effect or will be in effect later this year or in 2025. The above link to www.freespeechcoalition.com/faq (https://www.freespeechcoalition.com/faq) provides greater detail on this subject.

Which states require age verification?
As of today (May 29, 2024), age verification laws are in effect in:


Arkansas
Louisiana
Montana
Mississippi
North Carolina
Texas
Utah
Virginia




Laws will go into effect on July 1, 2024 in Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, and Kansas.
Nebraska’s law goes into effect on July 14, 2024.
Kentucky’s law takes effect July 18, 2024.
Alabama’s law goes into effect October 1, 2024.
Oklahoma’s law is effective on November 1, 2024.
Laws will take effect January 1, 2025 in Florida and South Carolina.


I would not be surprised that similar laws will be passed in all remaining states a sometime or another and your access to HA will be blocked.

I exchanged messages with GroobySteven about this mainly because Florida does law doesn’t go into effect until January 2025. His position on the age verification issue is reasonable and understandable since its a free site.

As a free site, Grooby is a business and they are in this business to make money. If this site goes to a paying site I would not hesitate to pay.

If you live in any of the above listed states you are or will be blocked from accessing this site.

As of this afternoon I am able to log in without any problems or messages. I may continue to access the site as long as I'm not in any of the above states!

[ceejay100]

If you subscribe to a VPN, you will be able to use servers outside your jurisdiction, thus negating the need for age verification

[filghy2]

Age verification laws are also under consideration in a number of other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_verification_system

HA has already been in steady decline as a free site. There's no way it could survive as a paysite.

[hardiron4u]

Age verification laws are also under consideration in a number of other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_verification_system

HA has already been in steady decline as a free site. There's no way it could survive as a paysite.

Not so sure HA is in a decline! Recently HA has had days with record number of users online at one time. As of 10 hours ago there were 38,186 users online, of which 16 were members.

There are many people coming to the site but they don't register! HA will only last as a free site as long as its not a financial burden to Grooby. If many of these unregistered users sign up for other Grooby paysites then HA can survive!

[hardiron4u]

Wasn't apply to edit the above to include the following.

The large number of users online at one time is the reason why in past few days I have gotten messages saying that "the server is too busy at this time. Please try again later".!

[filghy2]

Not so sure HA is in a decline! Recently HA has had days with record number of users online at one time. As of 10 hours ago there were 38,186 users online, of which 16 were members.

There are many people coming to the site but they don't register! HA will only last as a free site as long as its not a financial burden to Grooby. If many of these unregistered users sign up for other Grooby paysites then HA can survive!

There's something odd going on there. I'm getting the 'server busy' message all the time, but it only started in the last 2 days. I don't think there's 38,000 real users here.

The site is definitely in decline in terms of posting, especially of comments rather than just pictures.

[hardiron4u]

Users are defined as being online. The posters are the members.

As of this writing there are 31,698 users online of which 20 are members.

The decline in postings is do to the percentage of members (a total 163,101) being 0.0006% that are online.

The number of nonregistered users that are on the site puts a strain on the server and it isn't able to accommodate so many users at one time!

[Stavros]

There are numerous reasons why the site gets a lot of visits but few comments. Some browsers may not want to post something in case someone they know googles their ID to find that in addition to HA they post messages on Jesus is my Saviour, TrumpForever, or the website of the Conservative Association of Bracknell. Others might want to, but are aware their views on gender or politics are closer to that famed monster of the past Attila the Hun, than Thomas Jefferson, or worse. Does it matter? When the owner wants to, it can be shut down.


As for accessibility, maybe the problems lie with the servers in the US, and the fifth columns who spy on Americans doing things that are not approved on. Or just technical incompetence.

Big Brother is Watching You!

[filghy2]

You can check on these 'guests' here.
https://www.hungangels.com/vboard/online.php?order=asc&sort=username&pp=40&page=1

At the moment, it's showing a large number of guests, who all logged on 29 minutes ago. Also, they seem to be looking at random threads - not the recent ones. That's why I think it looks suspicious.

[hardiron4u]

There are numerous reasons why the site gets a lot of visits but few comments. Some browsers may not want to post something in case someone they know googles their ID to find that in addition to HA they post messages on Jesus is my Saviour, TrumpForever, or the website of the Conservative Association of Bracknell. Others might want to, but are aware their views on gender or politics are closer to that famed monster of the past Attila the Hun, than Thomas Jefferson, or worse. Does it matter? When the owner wants to, it can be shut down.

I like your train of thought!!! The owner has control and can do whatever he wants, we are just guests on the site!

As for accessibility, maybe the problems lie with the servers in the US, and the fifth columns who spy on Americans doing things that are not approved on. Or just technical incompetence.

I am accessing the site through an ISP in the Philippines! US serves should not be involved!

Big Brother is Watching You!

As usual he is everywhere!!!

[Stavros]

Ok, I thought you were in the US.

[Fitzcarraldo]

You can check on these 'guests' here.
https://www.hungangels.com/vboard/online.php?order=asc&sort=username&pp=40&page=1

At the moment, it's showing a large number of guests, who all logged on 29 minutes ago. Also, they seem to be looking at random threads - not the recent ones. That's why I think it looks suspicious.

Bots and spiders.

[Fitzcarraldo]

It seems like every time there's a server backup (Friday evenings it seems), the site is screwy for a few days. Overnight I got some new error message and couldn't log in. Often today I get "server too busy" messages.

[filghy2]

It seems like every time there's a server backup (Friday evenings it seems), the site is screwy for a few days. Overnight I got some new error message and couldn't log in. Often today I get "server too busy" messages.

I've don't think I've ever had as many 'server too busy' messages as over the past 3 days. I also never paid any attention to the number of 'guests' before. Is it normal to have this many (currently about 28,000)? The site is almost unusable at the moment.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I've don't think I've ever had as many 'server too busy' messages as over the past 3 days. I also never paid any attention to the number of 'guests' before. Is it normal to have this many (currently about 28,000)? The site is almost unusable at the moment.

I just got another one when I tried to open this topic!

[filghy2]

The busy server problem seems to have gone away, even though there are still 25,000 'users' showing. It looks like either that wasn't the real cause, or the server can handle 25,000 users but not 30,000.

[Fitzcarraldo]

The busy server problem seems to have gone away, even though there are still 25,000 'users' showing. It looks like either that wasn't the real cause, or the server can handle 25,000 users but not 30,000.

As I said before, it seems like every time there's a server backup, the site is screwy for a few days. It still forces me to log in twice since one of the backups that knocked the site out for a few days months ago.

[filghy2]

Interestingly, it's happening again, and the number of 'users' is back over 30,000.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Yeah, I'm dealing with it now. I got the message when I tried to log in, but it let me log in. Then, when I selected topics to view, I got the message again. After a few refreshes, they worked.

[rodinuk]

there was a server move recently, perhaps some fine tuning required on the settings? otherwise it may be a downgrade?

[filghy2]

Why is it that IT 'improvements' so often seem to do the opposite?

[Fitzcarraldo]

Why is it that IT 'improvements' so often seem to do the opposite?

I think this is ancient bulletin board software, which doesn't help.

Funny, it just let me log in with one attempt.

[hardiron4u]

Why is it that IT 'improvements' so often seem to do the opposite?

I'm not sure its due entirely to improvements. The amount of users is having an impact on the ability of the server to handle the volume. There hasn't been this many users online in years. Curious as to why there are so many users (non members) come to the site within past week!!!

[Stavros]

I wonder if Russian and Chinese funded web bandits try out their software on websites that don't attract millions, eg the BBC. Hungangels could thus be a guinea pig. It's not like they flood the site with troll posts or replies, they just need to see if they can get through, and clog up the server. Or it could be Evangelical Christians from the US outraged at the shocking immorality that Hungangels, represents. They are trying to rescue Judeo-Christian Civilization from terminal decline. Now X has agreed to amend its algorithms to 'protect' under-18s from accessing X sites that include, well, hung angels, among others.

[hardiron4u]

I seems that things are back to normal!!!

Total users online at this time is 1131 down from 31,000 plus just over 2 hours ago!!!

[filghy2]

I think you are right that the problem was caused by the number of users - apparently some automated program rather than actual people. We'll probably never know why, but hopefully whoever was doing this has moved on to other targets.

[GroobySteven]

Man ... you people can take some leaps.

Age Verification will be in place in approx 20 stats by Jan 1st. For us to put AV on this site, isn't worth it - because none of you are paying to be here. I can't tell you how to circumvent it but it's not hard. We have it on our pay sites, and there is a cost to us for each verificaiton. Verification is secure, and details deleted once verified.

The site had one of it's periodic blocks earlier this week, with too many requests (to load a webpage) coming in at once. It wasn't a DDOS attach but we did have to block some IPs to stop it. This isn't uncommon - and when I'm not as busy as I was this week, I often spot it and get it fixed within a short period of time.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Ha, just prior to opening this I looked up DDOS:
https://www.akamai.com/glossary/what-is-an-http-flood-ddos-attack

[MrFanti]

Man ... you people can take some leaps.

Age Verification will be in place in approx 20 stats by Jan 1st. For us to put AV on this site, isn't worth it - because none of you are paying to be here. I can't tell you how to circumvent it but it's not hard. We have it on our pay sites, and there is a cost to us for each verificaiton. Verification is secure, and details deleted once verified.

The site had one of it's periodic blocks earlier this week, with too many requests (to load a webpage) coming in at once. It wasn't a DDOS attach but we did have to block some IPs to stop it. This isn't uncommon - and when I'm not as busy as I was this week, I often spot it and get it fixed within a short period of time.
Appreciate everything that you and your team do for us here with this FREE website! 🏆

[filghy2]

Man ... you people can take some leaps.

Age Verification will be in place in approx 20 stats by Jan 1st. For us to put AV on this site, isn't worth it - because none of you are paying to be here. I can't tell you how to circumvent it but it's not hard. We have it on our pay sites, and there is a cost to us for each verificaiton. Verification is secure, and details deleted once verified.

The site had one of it's periodic blocks earlier this week, with too many requests (to load a webpage) coming in at once. It wasn't a DDOS attach but we did have to block some IPs to stop it. This isn't uncommon - and when I'm not as busy as I was this week, I often spot it and get it fixed within a short period of time.

It's just human nature. If there's an information vacuum on something that affects them, people will fill it with speculation. I don't think anyone thought the two issues were related.

If it's not DDOS that causes these big spikes in requests, do you know what it might be?