TalkChess.com Web Site Issues

[JoAnnP38]

After being restored to service following the site being down for a day or two, whenever I try to use this site from my mobile devices (iPhone or iPad) I am challenged to indicate that I am human and not a bot by CloudFlare. After that I am directed to the site, but it seems like all of the style sheets are being blocked. Just to be sure I have refreshed my mobile browser (I've tried from both Chrome and Safari) with no luck. Instead, I am forced to use the site looking like this.

[DrEinstein]

After being restored to service following the site being down for a day or two, whenever I try to use this site from my mobile devices (iPhone or iPad) I am challenged to indicate that I am human and not a bot by CloudFlare. After that I am directed to the site, but it seems like all of the style sheets are being blocked. Just to be sure I have refreshed my mobile browser (I've tried from both Chrome and Safari) with no luck. Instead, I am forced to use the site looking like this.

You can try to change to 'https://' by just typing an additional 's' and return.

[hgm]

The CloudFlare account was switched to defensive mode, because TalkChess was under persistent DDOS attack. I don't know why it loses the style sheets. On my Android tablet it looks normal. Perhaps it is a browser problem; you could try another browser.

[Ajedrecista]

Hello:

Thank you HGM for explain a little what is going. <ironic mode=on>We all know that TalkChess is the centre of the universe and whoever controls it will control everything<ironic mode=off>. Sigh!

There is other thread about CloudFlare captcha at 'Forum Help and Suggestions' subforum:

Cloudflare prompt when visiting TalkChess

I also faced that 'fishy looking site that indicated the domain was for sale' that Tony wrote in the OP, also the same day than him. It was off-the-air.com or something like that in my case... I guess that it was for everybody.

Regarding the odd look noted by JoAnn: I also get it sometimes, in my case with Chrome (both under Windows and Android). Usually, if I start with the odd look, it remains during all my visit to TalkChess, which is shorter than used to be because it is a pain to browse through the forum in these conditions, let alone trying to post. It is true that the more common visit after CloudFlare captcha is the normal view of the forum, with the exception of this exact time, when I started with the odd look that reverted to the normal look after some clicks here and there browsing the forum.

To sum it up:

2023/03/18 → off-the-air.com site telling talkchess.com site was for sale.
2023/03/18 → CloudFlare captcha later that day, with normal look of the forum.
2023/03/19 and 2020/03/20 → CloudFlare captcha always, more times with normal look of the forum that odd look.

When the odd look is present, the captcha is asked with any browsing between threads; also for loading pgn4web boards (always failing load them when the captcha is validated).

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You can try to change to 'https://' by just typing an additional 's' and return.

Regarding 'https://' trick: I get the captcha anyway when I type 'http://' and 'https://'. However, I might not fully understand the trick: once I type 'https://' (press Enter) and the captcha appears, then going to the previous web in the web browser (usually a button with an arrow pointing to the left) in an attempt of still being at TalkChess, but bypassing the captcha? I have not tried it yet.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

[Eelco de Groot]

You can try to change to 'https://' by just typing an additional 's' and return.

Regarding 'https://' trick: I get the captcha anyway when I type 'http://' and 'https://'. However, I might not fully understand the trick: once I type 'https://' (press Enter) and the captcha appears, then going to the previous web in the web browser (usually a button with an arrow pointing to the left) in an attempt of still being at TalkChess, but bypassing the captcha? I have not tried it yet.

Regards from Spain.

Ajedrecista.

I think it was meant for the stylesheets only because the captcha seems to be standard at the moment. I have no stylesheets in Chrome but strangely it does go to http:// in Chrome, that is what I linked to, but usually Chrome redirects to the secure connection. (Edit: now the stylesheets are back again and the redirection) In Firefox everything looks normal and also http:// there is possible, so diagrams

[Modern Times]

I found that if I don't use https:// then I get these issues. Using it, far less problems if any.

[Steve Maughan]

I've had several endless loops asking for human verification. Clearing the cache worked a couple of times but several times I had to give up.

Steve

[Steve Maughan]

Couldn't get in at all using Chrome — endless verify human requests. I've had to switch to Firefox.

[Modern Times]

Couldn't get in at all using Chrome — endless verify human requests. I've had to switch to Firefox.

I had that in Edge, but it went away on its own.

[chrisw]

Couldn't get in at all using Chrome — endless verify human requests. I've had to switch to Firefox.

I had that in Edge, but it went away on its own.

If only