Is this Instance Down?

The cert for lemmy.sdf.org has issues. Not sure if it expired or what, but some apps report the key is unusable and only facilitate access after ~3-4 steps of authorizing the bad key. Some apps say the site is unavailable, full stop.. no option to continue.

This just started today.

504 Gateway Time-out

These are Lemmy instances with a “Sign Up” link which present you with a form to fill out to register. Then after you fill out the form and supply information like email address to the server, they respond with “registration closed”:

• lemmy.escapebigtech.info (dead node now, but got instant reg. closed msg when they were alive)
• expats.zone
• hackertalks.com
• lemmie.be
• lemmy.killtime.online
• lemmy.kmoneyserver.com
• lemmy.sarcasticdeveloper.com
• level-up.zone
• zoo.splitlinux.org

I suppose it’s unlikely to be malice considering how many there are. It’s likely a case of shitty software design. There should be a toggle for open/closed registration and when it’s closed there should be no “Sign Up” button in the first place. And if someone visits the registration URL despite a lack of Sign Up link, it should show a reg. closed announcement.

Guess it’s worth mentioning there are some instances that accept your application for review (often with interview field) but then either let your application rot (“pending application” forever) or they silently reject it (you only discover non-acceptance when you make a login attempt and either get “login failed” or even more rudely it just re-renders the login form with no msg). These nodes fall into the selective non-acceptance category:

• lemmy.cringecollective.io
• lemmy.techtriage.guru
• lemmy.hacktheplanet.be (pretends to send confirmation email then silently neglects to)
• links.esq.social
• dubvee.org

To be fair, I use a disposable email address which could be a reason the 5 above to reject my application. And if they did give a reason via email, I would not see it. Not sure if that’s happening but that’s also a case of bad software. That is, when a login attempt is made, the server could present the rationale for refusal. Another software defect would be failing to instantly reject an unacceptible email address.

It’s probably a good thing to find that nlemmy.nl is down, considering the parent of this thread was censored despite not breaking any rules.

(update) the moderator just admitted the removal was to silence an idea that clashes with the moderator’s anti-cash / pro-forced-banking view. So it was not a good place for open civil discussion.. just a black hole for msgs that oppose the mod’s world view.

I’m just noticing this instance for the first time. Judging by the hostname, it’s a node that’s devoted to #XMPP chatter. But I cannot reach it. Getting timeouts from Tor. This could mean that they are down, or it could be that they block Tor in the rudest possible way (dropping packets).

To me, it’s a ghost node because I can reach a tiny cache of posts from !infosec@community.xmpp.net locally:

https://sopuli.xyz/c/infosec@community.xmpp.net

cc: @wintermute@feddit.de

I just started using the LaTeX community (!tex@lemmy.sdfeu.org). Sad to see it go.

update

Just noticed it’s back up, but there are no communities. That’s bizarre. So if someone not on lemmy.sdfeu.org were to post to !tex@lemmy.sdfeu.org, I guess it’d still be like a ghost node because the post would have nowhere to go on the hosting node.

Nano Garden was a node for the Nano cryptocurrency. There is was a “cashless society” community which is now a ghost community:

https://sopuli.xyz/c/cashless_society@nano.garden

I would normally say refugees should move to !cash@slrpnk.net, but it looks like there aren’t many refugees. It always was relatively dead. Which is a shame. There needs to be more people talking about the consequences of #forcedBanking.

It was a Lemmy service that centered on law. Now it gives a 404.

The threadiverse is starving for small decentralized nodes with a theme focus. There are far too many general purpose nodes. It’s a shame the law node is gone. There is nothing to replace it.

No idea how long it has been down.. just noticed the escapebigtech server has been nonresponsive all day. (Could be tor-hostility as I did not test further, but I doubt it)

Just like catcatnya, infosec.exchange just gives a black page. Up, but broken, at least in my browser.

(update) browser issue. Downvoted myself on this to lessen the visibility although some may still find that interesting so I’ll let the thread live.

catcatnya.com just gives a black page. Up, but broken, at least in my browser.

(update) browser issue. Downvoted myself on this to lessen the visibility although some may still find that interesting so I’ll let the thread live.

tested from tor. Also reported down by downinspector.com.

BTW, downinspector.com is the only Cloudflare-free service of its kind, but it’s notable that noscript reports XSS scripting attempts via Google.

(edit) it came back online yesterday.

The mamot.fr website and web client seems to be up for everyone. But for the past few days the #mamot.fr API for 3rd-party apps has been unreachable. Unverified: whether Tor is a factor. It would be interesting to hear from a non-Tor user if they can reach #MamotFR from a 3rd party app.

update

mamot.fr has been unreliable for 2 weeks now for API access as well as normal web access. It’s hit or miss. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes down, slow to load, and slow to login. I’m on Tor every time so it could be some kind of tor defensive move. Like tar-pitting. I guess at this point we should consider this problem permanent. It’s much less convenient to use now.

The following fedi instances are perpetually exclusive because they sit inside Cloudflare’s walled garden:

• lemmy.world
• sh.itjust.works
• zerobytes.monster
• lemmy·ca
• lemm·ee
• programming.dev
• lemmy.zip

If you cannot reach these instances, there are many possible reasons:

• you use a VPN
• you use a browser Cloudflare discriminates against while also using Tor
• you are using a public library PC
• your ISP uses CGNAT to allocate your IP address (often in impoverished communities)
• you have disabled image loading (because you are visually impaired, or you are on a capped uplink, or you are an environmentalist), which then triggers a false positive for being a robot.
• you are a legitimate beneficial bot (Cloudflare treats beneficial bots the same as malicious bots)

The listed sites will rarely be down for everyone but will often be unavailable to those in the above mentioned discriminated demographics of people.

If you have any suggestions, critisism or questions, leave them here.

Alternatively, you can message me directly on Matrix where I’m @manucode:matrix.org if you have any ideas regarding this community. Please be aware that I’m only the moderator of this community and cannot help you with any technical problems.