For a while I set the forum to member viewing only to try and keep out the bots and reduce the load on the server so it loads pages faster. It worked, however I knew there were probably people who wanted to read the forum that couldn't get in. I finally had a little time to address this issue more deeply, I put the forum back on public viewing and within a day the guest list was over 8000 when I checked again.
Next step, I asked AI how to get rid of the bots and spammers. I was advised to add some code to the .htaccess file to block known asian email hosting and effectively hundreds of international, primarily asian IP addresses used by bots. I've added additional code blocking known bots a couple times now and the guest list is down from over 8000 to less than 3000 the last time I checked. Load time for the forum is excellent now, around .2 second.
I'll continue to monitor the forum and take additional steps as needed. Most importantly, I need to know if anyone is having any difficulty accessing the forum?
