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Update About RF: The Search Function, Email Verification, and Forum Software

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
This is a clarification on the current status of the forum software, since it is an issue multiple members have asked about.

The search function is currently not working correctly despite an earlier attempt to fix it by the tech people, while email verification is currently not working at all. The former, as I understand, partially has to do with the fact that it involves indexing millions of posts, which is a complicated task. The latter is due to spambots that flooded RF and in turn flooded Amazon's email service (which RF used for email verification), leading to Amazon disabling the service for RF.

We have contacted the owners about these issues, and they are working on a comprehensive forum update to resolve them. The software update will most likely be large and time-consuming for the tech people. It is also long overdue, which is a result of the fact that the previous owners did not carry it out even though it was needed.

The active staff have no access to the forum's backend/code, so the most we can do is communicate with the owners and inform them about such issues, as we have done over the last several weeks. They are working on the software updates, although both due to their busy schedule (they own multiple websites besides RF) and the complicated nature of the issues at hand, things are not proceeding as quickly as many of you, us, or them would like. They are definitely aware of the issues, though.

I hope this clarifies the situation. Feel free to ask if you have any questions, and please don't hesitate to report any bugs if you encounter any. Technical feedback is critically important at this time.
 

Ella S.

Well-Known Member
Ah, that makes sense. (edit: Are the issues with Amazon) why RF has implemented Cloudflare services or is that something that was already in the works?
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Ah, that makes sense. Is this why RF has implemented Cloudflare services or is that something that was already in the works?

RF has used Cloudflare ever since the software change in 2014, but I don't know whether anything has specifically changed due to the planned/upcoming software update.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Maybe the enraged uses of RF should band together, organize and take on the spam bots with lethal intent. :D:eek:
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
Does that mean that in order to get your account active and verified you need to contact the staff who will manually activate your account for you? If that is the case, RF should make it very clear that is the only way to turn on accounts, otherwise, you're going to have a lot of new people who cannot post and do not know why they haven't gotten the activation e-mail. A few months ago my friend Hayley Bartlett wanted to join this forum and did so, but only after the staff manually approved her account. Maybe there should be a forum just for accounts not activated yet that can post there, offer a short introduction and have the staff approve their accounts? There needs to be more transparency so we don't turn off good, healthy posters because of all the spam bots that have flooded the activation process.
 

Ella S.

Well-Known Member
It's slowly dawning on me that the posts weren't being properly indexed over all of these years. No wonder it's taking so long to get the search fixed. Wow.

Maybe the update will include using Cloudflare's email verification service. They're a lot less antagonistic towards clients flooding their service.
 
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