Hey, I'm sorry, this isn't really my forte, so unfortunately, I can't help you with that --- but I just wanted to say that I love the site and thank you so much for all you do and pay in order to maintain the site --- just want you to know that there are people out there like myself that appreciate the work you do.
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That kind of puzzles are the problem.
Just because you feel entitled to try dozens of combinations and increase server load, there should be an announcement if the site wants to block DoS behavior?
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Suddenly I feel like I wanna donate money to support Steamgifts, I'm not even kidding.
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I saw cg post a picture in chat the other day, showing how much extra load was caused by a person (or people) trying to bruteforce giveaway links. I didn't save the picture/link, unfortunately, but it looked pretty bad, and obviously was bad enough that he had to block people from doing it.
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I don't doubt it but I think it is worth distinguishing between users who are running such scripts for long periods of time with little/no delay between requests and those who run such scripts for short periods of time with a reasonable(TBD?) delay between requests.
When I think about a web site with 100k+ active users, I just don't see how 60 requests spread out over a few minutes can even be distinguished from "normal" traffic.
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try to imagine, if 500 people do this...server will have serious problems, and it is good, that they make temp bans for it.
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quick guys, download LOIC and put steamgift's IP so you don't get IP blocked as well.
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You are suprised, that you got temp ban for using automated script, that loads pages? lol.
Bruteforce is not solution to puzzles - and if it is, than it is bad puzzle.
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Maybe you should try solving the puzzle like the creator intended instead of brute forcing it.
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Within the last day or two, new site functionality was introduced which blocks a client IP address if it makes too many server requests within a certain period of time (see screenshot below). While attempting to solve an SG puzzle, I have been blocked twice today: the first time for 10-15 minutes and the second time for 2.5-3.5 hours.
While I was using a script to automate the guessing of the missing character in a giveaway code associated with a puzzle, I always use a delay between my requests in an effort to minimize any possible impact on the SG web server(s). After working through hundreds of puzzles here on SG, I believe there are less than a few dozen regulars who possess the knowledge and the inclination to create and run this type of script. And keep in mind that such scripts are not running 24/7, rather a few minutes while testing a finite number (i.e. 60-100) of possible GA codes.
I find it hard to believe that short-running scripts used by SG puzzle solvers have any measurable impact on server performance. I suspect it is the nefarious users who run similar scripts for long periods of time looking for private giveaways to enter. On the surface, it may be difficult to discern between the two but I think the duration of the script execution is a clear and determining factor.
In any case, I am disappointed that such a change was made without warning. Could someone from support please provide some guidance of what is considered an "acceptable" number of requests over a given time period?
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