Can't post comments

[VoidSpawn]

As the title says,I can't post comments on the Guest Comments box.Like here:"https://fuwanovel.net/novels/a-kiss-for-the-petals-sweet-grown-up-kisses"

 

When I try to post a comment,it disappears when I click Save.What's the problem?

[Nayleen]

TL;DR: The problem lies with the IP address bans and having Cloudflare serving as a reverse proxy for the site nowadays.

 

Long, technical explanation:

Cloudflare acts as Reverse Proxy / CDN for Fuwanovel, meaning accessing https://fuwanovel.net gets resolved to Cloudflare's IP address and server, which shows you either:

• A cached version of the site
• The cache ran out / you accessed a dynamic site: A "fresh" version of the site is loaded from the actual server and then displayed to you

The problem lies in the second case: When Cloudflare loads the fresh version of the site, it does so acting as a proxy for the user - the Fuwanovel server only ever sees Cloudflare's IP, unless specifically told "This IP is acting as a proxy, you can get the real IP *here*" (via an HTTP header).

 

So: The Fuwanovel server and code only ever sees one IP address, no matter which user accesses the site, meaning if one person triggers a ban, everyone gets banned. For 30 days.

 

The site has been sitting behind Cloudflare's server since switching to Checkmate's server a few months back, which is out of my control unfortunately. I never considered this scenario when I put the guest comments and IP bans in place, back when the site was hosted on Aaeru's server.

 

This would need either a server-side configuration change (which only Checkmate can do at this point) or a change to the code to check for the proxied IP address of the user (which... only Checkmate can do at this point), so it's not going to happen until I get access to make changes to the server end code.

 

Thing is, the guest comments are also going to be removed as soon as I have access to the server again. So this problem isn't going to be fixed, as they'll be gone soon afterwards.

[VoidSpawn]

Where did you get that info?

[Nayleen]

I'm the guy who programmed it, and knew what was up when Down asked me this in TS:

 

<11:53:15> "Down": Nayleen, in the fuwa admin panel for guest comments

<11:53:31> "Down": Do you know what the IP in front of each comment is supposed to indicate?

<11:53:41> "Down": because it's the same everywhere

 

Every user appears to have the same IP, only logical conclusion: Cloudflare's reverse proxying is the problem, since one guy triggering the ban locks everyone else out as well.

[Kendjin]

Part of me is glad comments are going. Would like to see more forum topics to replace comments. We can support better that way. Just don't put in a ticket system or we'll be having words

[Nayleen]

We're using JIRA at work, so I know where you're coming from... but we could always just have one thread per game on the main page and have those auto-created by the admin panel if need be. No guest posting obviously.

 

It still requires more effort from a person having problems, but if they want them fixed they better take the minute to set up an account if they don't have one yet. This is definitely helping to introduce people to the forums, reduce spam and have more people able to respond to technical difficulties, since not too many people are actually keeping track of the guest comments.