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[King Zultan]

History channel had some phases

Phase 1: History channel
Phase 2: Hitler channel
Phase 3: ALIENS
Phase 4: ICE ROAD TRUCKERS WHO ALSO FISH

You forgot about the sharks, I think they came in between 2 and 3. I remember back when they had historical stuff on there, damn that was a long time ago.

I also remember when the Travel channel was about travel, and when the DIY channel was about making stuff rather than selling houses.

[methylatedspirit]

Bay12 is experiencing an extremely-high influx of visitors (will attach image later). Holy shit. 3917 peak, as of this posting. Did someone big mention DF? Did DF just release on Steam?

If that's the case, we just got Slashdotted. ~20 minute downtime because of the ludicrous traffic.

Edit (5:11 pm UTC+8) : Still ongoing. Whatever the server people did to make the servers more stable (compared to what happened in 2019), they've done an amazing job.  We're still going! 4204 peak!

Edit 2 (5:37 pm UTC+8): Okay, I think the numbers are back to normal now. I've taken many screenshots documenting this odd event. I won't promise it, but I'll probably release the data of the number of active people over time for this event if I get around to doing that. For the record, the current peak (to make searching easier: Most Online, Users Online) is 4417, set on 19th of May 2021, 05:16:15 pm UTC+8.

Edit 3: So if I got my data right, there was a sudden jump in active whatevers so high that it crashed the server for ~20 minutes, then when it went back online, it showed an absolutely monumental amount of people, 3817, at first screenshot (timestamp unreliable). Then it climbed higher and higher, hitting a peak of 4417. After that, the count began a 15-minute decline back down to normal levels. This is consistent with a large influx of users. It wavered a little bit as the number fell, but I'll wait to look through the screenshots and extract data before I'll make any judgements on that.

[voliol]

Bay12 is experiencing an extremely-high influx of visitors (will attach image later). Holy shit. 3917 peak, as of this posting. Did someone big mention DF? Did DF just release on Steam?

If that's the case, we just got Slashdotted. ~20 minute downtime because of the ludicrous traffic.

Edit (5:11 pm UTC+8) : Still ongoing. Whatever the server people did to make the servers more stable (compared to what happened in 2019), they've done an amazing job.  We're still going! 4204 peak!

Edit 2 (5:37 pm UTC+8): Okay, I think the numbers are back to normal now. I've taken many screenshots documenting this odd event. I won't promise it, but I'll probably release the data of the number of active people over time for this event if I get around to doing that. For the record, the current peak (to make searching easier: Most Online, Users Online) is 4417, set on 19th of May 2021, 05:16:15 pm UTC+8.

Edit 3: So if I got my data right, there was a sudden jump in active whatevers so high that it crashed the server for ~20 minutes, then when it went back online, it showed an absolutely monumental amount of people, 3817, at first screenshot (timestamp unreliable). Then it climbed higher and higher, hitting a peak of 4417. After that, the count began a 15-minute decline back down to normal levels. This is consistent with a large influx of users. It wavered a little bit as the number fell, but I'll wait to look through the screenshots and extract data before I'll make any judgements on that.

Whoah! That’s strange. Even more so that none of them decided to be a member.
Actually, with that in mind I wouldn’t call it strange, but alarming. Even if the influx came from a demographic not familiar with traditional forums (such as the mostly kid audience of some big minecraft streamer?), some of them should have registered. This indicates bots.

[Kagus]

That, or there's been another article about dangerous online cults and people followed the link here again.

[methylatedspirit]

After 3 hours of carpal tunnel-inducing manual data entry, I've extracted the data I promised (is there a weaker word than "promise"?). Both of my hands hurt right now. Here:

Original data, including "Most Users Ever" count.

Merged data. Used for the chart below.

And here's a chart:

Spoiler: Very bright (click to show/hide)

If anyone wants the original screenshots for further data analysis, I can send cropped versions.

To corroborate voliol's claim, yes, zero users registered during this giant 50+ minute spike, at least for the portion I was able to capture. 56830 members at the start of my recording, 56830 members at the end. Not a single new member registered.

Only 8 posts were made during the span of this recording. Eight.

[martinuzz]

grisha5

[methylatedspirit]

Nearly 4000 copies (baseline user count is ~500) of grisha5? Damn. I think we might need Toady to limit the rate at which new accounts can be registered, just in case they (and this time it's not singular) try spamming the registration form later.

[wierd]

A more worrisome possibility:

A SQL injection attack was performed by a hacker, to embed a command and control payload for a botnet into an otherwise innocuous forum post or section.

Then the bots connected to get their instructions.

Toady should investigate the server activity logs to see what files, if any, were accessed the most during the peak activity period.  If it is all over the place, then it is probably actual users. If it is just one specific page thousands and thousands of times, then its suspect, and he needs to investigate.

[heydude6]

What is the best way of contacting Toady do you think? It seems like this isn't something that should wait.

[Draignean]

While a PM might be in order, the other possibility is that the Toad is stress-testing the server prior to the steam release. Not all scenarios are apocalyptic.

[George_Chickens]

A more worrisome possibility:

A SQL injection attack was performed by a hacker, to embed a command and control payload for a botnet into an otherwise innocuous forum post or section.

Then the bots connected to get their instructions.

Toady should investigate the server activity logs to see what files, if any, were accessed the most during the peak activity period.  If it is all over the place, then it is probably actual users. If it is just one specific page thousands and thousands of times, then its suspect, and he needs to investigate.

I can't believe Israel attacked Bay12.

[ArchimedesWojak]

the Toad is stress-testing the server prior to the steam release.

I personally believe this is the case (when is the steam release?) but the fact that Toady didn't tell us kinda makes me think otherwise

[heydude6]

I think Toady not telling us is a pretty significant red flag.

[MrRoboto75]

I can't believe Israel attacked Bay12.

I can't believe it's not butter.

[TamerVirus]

Have we been compromised?!? Time to bug out, lay low, and wait until the heat dies down.