I'm not sure who would need to look into this.
SHORT VERSION: Only TG is treated as a text-only website only when I use Google Chrome on my Win10 Desktop.
LONG VERSION:
It is ONLY TolkienGateway that is doing this. Every other site works perfectly fine.
Starting today, ONLY on Google Chrome on my PC Desktop, when I try & click any page, for about 5-10 seconds I get a white screen that says:
(quote)
Checking your browser before accessing tolkiengateway.net. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please allow up to 5 seconds... DDoS protection by Cloudflare Ray ID: 6dc2864188ee8d3d
(end quote)
The hex number after "Ray ID:" changes every time.
After those 5-10 seconds, the TG page will come up as a text-only site. No pictures. I even clicked around within TG & went to the picture pages. No pictures. Only links (which do not open the pictures.)
I did everything I know to do, including: Searched Cloudflare for help. Googled "Chrome not opening pictures" (with & without Cloudflare). Removed my Chrome credentials. Uninstalled Chrome. Restarted PC. Reinstalled Chrome. Pasted TG URLs into Gmail & Facebook. Then clicked the links.
All of that resulted in the same results.
Complete Failures: I pasted TG URLs into Internet Explorer and the "Checking browser..." never finished. I pasted TG URLs into Excel & Word and got the error: "The site reports that the request is not valid."
It is ONLY doing it on Chrome on the PC.
Successes: MS Edge & Firefox open it perfectly with pics. My Android phone works perfectly also.
I am EXTREMELY active in the online Tolkien Community (I'm the Chad from the Prancing Pony Podcast, the Tolkien Professor, & Texas Tolkien Talk podcast) and I link to TG several times per day, including within tools I've made to help others better understand the Legendarium. I'm far from PC-illiterate but cannot figure this out- & I need to do so to continue using TG to help teach Tolkien. —Unsigned comment by Chad in Texas (talk • contribs).
- Same thing is happening with me. I use Opera.--Shivam 04:28, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- I believe that this is happening to many people. It's likely there are high demands being put on the server, driven by an increase of traffic due to the recent PR for Rings of Power. I don't know if someone has contact with Hyarion to investigate it? JR Snow 09:31, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- Same, depends on the time, but I cannot edit like this. I sent an email to Hyarion last week to ask how things are going about the Wikimedia update, and maybe the problem is caused because he is working on it. But due the timing, it is most probably because of what JR Snow says. We should prepare a funeral for the wiki when the show comes out. --LorenzoCB 09:40, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- I didn't get it, what does "prepare a funeral for the wiki when the show comes out" mean here.--Shivam 12:30, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- Shivam, I believe LorenzoCB means that we should expect traffic to completely kill TG when Amazon premieres. (also, you guys forgive (& teach) me if I'm not doing this correctly. It's my first forum post.) I was really hoping it wasn't my PC & something I wasn't thinking of. My real job is artificial intelligence programming, but that doesn't mean I would correctly diagnose something like this! (I noticed all your replies have the timestamp. Are you manually doing that? (because I don't see an automated option & I want to conform with others.))-- Chad in Texas 16:32, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- If you put four tildes (~~~~) after the --, it should automatically format your signature with the timestamp. --Grace18 16:40, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you ma'am for that tip. The problem still exists & I've had several others verify it. Annoying & impeding... --Chad in Texas 22:12, 12 February 2022 (UTC)
- I've been having this problem for a few days now, constantly having the cloudflare screen, taking either 15-20 seconds to load every page, or have a connection timeout. :( 198.41.242.152 13:59, 14 February 2022 (UTC)
- AND... It's fixed! And it's somehow faster than before? Does anyone know what happened? Chad in Texas 04:34, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
- Hyarion took care :) --LorenzoCB 08:44, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
- Yay! Thank you Hyarion! (And thank you LorenzoCB for the updates!) —Grace18 12:39, 15 February 2022 (UTC)
- Yes, thank you very much, Hyarion. And you all for your help! Chad in Texas 00:58, 16 February 2022 (UTC)