Regarding Cloudflare security pages popping up on DU (NEW UPDATE 12:30AM ET JULY 15) [View all]

Last edited Wed Jul 15, 2026, 12:34 AM - Edit history (1)

NEW UPDATE: I added a custom security check so you will now be greeted at the front door by Grovelbot. I think my work here is done

(...unless anyone is having any issues, in which case please contact me directly.)


UPDATE 7 PM ET: Since this OP was posted I've made some additional changes. First, if you are a DU member then you should not receive a security challenge after you have signed in. Second, the Rec button problem that some folks experienced earlier is hopefully resolved.

If you are still experiencing issues with the Rec button, please let me know.

Thanks


ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

As part of our effort to stop bot traffic/AI scrapers from flooding DU with requests which slow the site down and drive up server costs, we've been making some configuration changes over the past few days. Currently we think we are getting things nailed down, but there might be some hiccups as we move forward.

If you happen to see new Cloudflare security pages when browsing DU -- sometimes they may ask you to confirm that you are a human, particularly if you are using a VPN -- please know that those pages are completely legitimate, and part of our security set up. Since those pages are going to be new to most people, I just wanted to let you know that they are nothing to worry about.

Thanks for your patience while we continue to work through this. Back to it....



Edited to add: The next step to improve this system is to set it up so that if you are signed in to DU, you won't even get a challenge. We'll be working on that next, but in the meantime you'll likely see these pages for a little while at least. Just know that they are a good thing and not a bad thing, in terms of protecting DU from bots

Edited again to add: It's also possible that a side effect of this is that we've fixed the 403 problem that some people were having when trying to post on DU. If you are still getting 403s please let me know -- just bear in mind that anything that was happening with regards to 403s and pages not loading prior to today is no longer valid. Please just let me know if you experience further errors going forward. Thanks.