Problem with uploading files and site loading

[Nikas Kunitz]

Wanted to quickly upload a changed file by attaching it in a mod discussion, packing it into .zip or .rar, but it can't upload. It quickly, as it should, goes to 100%, but doesn't complete, freezes for a minute and then turns to look like "an uploaded file" while it actually is not (it should look different when it really is uploaded), not posting. Also, the site works unstable, sometimes page doesn't load at all or takes longer than it should. Overcoming this instability, two days ago I managed to upload the archived file as I wanted, but it was a wrong file and now I can't upload new, correct one. Also, I have issues with uploading images, it seems it can't upload anything larger than "pixelart" size images (like 200x100 pixels), it just stops uploading at around 2-5%.
What happened with the forum? It used to work normal just a year ago, or more specifically, last summer. But now it is very unstable and doesn't work at all in many ways. That is especially sad considering I have quite some content and a project to work on and share here.

 

[The_J]

I think we have a limit for the attachment size of... I think 20 mb? Or was it 50? EDIT: 30.000kb, so approx 30 mb.
If your attachment is bigger, then the upload will fail. From my XP it seems the software cannot check beforehand the size, and will try to upload until it fails, and then doesn't give a proper response.
Could this be the case here?

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

I think we have a limit for the attachment size of... I think 20 mb? Or was it 50? EDIT: 30.000kb, so approx 30 mb.
If your attachment is bigger, then the upload will fail. From my XP it seems the software cannot check beforehand the size, and will try to upload until it fails, and then doesn't give a proper response.
Could this be the case here?

The file I'm trying to attach is just one archived .py file that is just 82/92 kb (rar/zip)

 

[The_J]

mmmhhh.... yeah, that should absolutely not be an issue.
Given that nobody else has an issue, it could also be on your side. I think the Russian government is also doing some filtering. Do you have a VPN, via which you could try to upload something?
(sorry, just guessing around now, I have no clue)

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

mmmhhh.... yeah, that should absolutely not be an issue.
Given that nobody else has an issue, it could also be on your side. I think the Russian government is also doing some filtering. Do you have a VPN, via which you could try to upload something?
(sorry, just guessing around now, I have no clue)

Well, VPN (or rather a full connection redirect program) I use that allows me to use YouTube and Discord doesn't affect performance of the site in any way.
I just tried an obvious thing - maybe something is with the browser, but the site works the same on another browser too

 

[The_J]

In that case I'm right now a bit lost what it could be :/.
It's nothing systematic from our side, and I would not even know what could be causing this.
Could you try another upload? If this one fails, and uploads a corrupted file, then I'd like to have a quick look at that file.

 

[Nikas Kunitz]

In that case I'm right now a bit lost what it could be :/.
It's nothing systematic from our side, and I would not even know what could be causing this.
Could you try another upload? If this one fails, and uploads a corrupted file, then I'd like to have a quick look at that file.

I tried uploading various files but all fail. As I described above, .zip or .rar archives go to 100% only to not load properly, while images stop loading at 4-5%. Only file that seemingly uploaded successfully was minuscule image around 200x100 pixels, that honestly wouldn't be useful as an image attachment.

 

[The_J]

Please give the latter a try. I wonder if the upload is incomplete or not.

 

[Quintillus]

Have you tried it without the VPN, or with a different VPN? It could be the VPN itself is taking steps to prevent the upload of more than small amounts of data. Alternately, perhaps trying from a library or coffee shop would have a positive effect.

I can see that new files containing tens of megabytes are being uploaded to the Downloads Database this week, so, aside perhaps from short-term blips of a few minutes (which happen from time to time), I don't see any indication of a general problem on the server side.

The other thing you could try is hosting the files or image externally and linking to them from CivFanatics. This is possible within the Downloads Database and the forums. I've done this a number of times over the years.

 

[magic9mushroom]

I am also having trouble uploading images; just tried to upload a 500kB PNG and it broke on upload (specifically, the uploaded file was 96.3 kB and useless).

Was able to upload it to an image-sharing site, so it doesn't seem to be on my end.

 

[The_J]

okay... this is getting confusing.
Must be some interaction between the browser and the website.
I would guess... you got an adblocker or other modifying software installed? I wonder if some issues with reloading the ads could have something to do with the connection breakdown, but I'm now wildly guessing, based on nearly nothing.

 

[magic9mushroom]

I would guess... you got an adblocker or other modifying software installed?

I'm running IceCat, which comes with LibreJS (similar to NoScript) and a third-party request blocker. My usual is whitelisting CFC in LibreJS but not doing anything to the third-party request blocker.

Upon turning both of them off entirely, uploading seems to break entirely rather than uploading broken files. *shrug*

If you want wild guesses from me as well, I notice that you have an avatar size limit quite close to the size the images seem to be getting truncated at. If that size limit is being applied to all images, and doesn't apply to staff, that'd explain why you can't replicate it.

 

[Broken_Erika]

The site goes completely unresponsive for like 5 seconds when ads load/reload. And clicking on a thread before the ads completely load takes me to a different thread/forum, i.e. i click on Off Topic and i end up in either Imperium Offtopicum or Humor and jokes.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Slow slow slow this at the moment.

 

[The_J]

If you want wild guesses from me as well, I notice that you have an avatar size limit quite close to the size the images seem to be getting truncated at. If that size limit is being applied to all images, and doesn't apply to staff, that'd explain why you can't replicate it.

That was a good idea, but our rules there are outdate , and there are currently no restrictions, as the system does not anymore allow to set restrictions.
I've dug a bit through the admin options, I find some caching options, which are deactivated and set to 5mb. There are no dimension restrictions for images, besides the limit of 30 mb for file size (why did I set it that high ?). Other optimization features are deactivated.

I think it must be some weird interaction between the forum, the browser and something else, as it's not widespread... but no idea.
Does this affect all file types for images, or also other files like savegames?
(there is some thumbnail creation mechanism for images which has once caused issues)