v. 3.2 Broke My RSS Feed

  • Resolved gwkopy

    (@gwkopy)


    7 years, 6 months ago

    Hey:

    Version 3.2 of StopBadBots broke my RSS feed. Hootsuite stopped scooping stories. MailChimp stopped scooping stories. Visited the W3C and discovered the feed was invalid.

    Did not have time to track this down. Someone responded after seeing my query in another forum here. Paid that company to find out what was wrong with the feed. They turned off some plugins. When they turned off StopBadBots, the feed came back.

    Something needs to be done.

    GK

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Plugin Author Bill Minozzi

    (@sminozzi)

    Hi Gwkopy

    Sorry hear about your problem.
    You can go to bots table and deactivate their bot (hootsuite).

    We put this info at our start up guide:

    Check the bot’s table frequently, especially in the first days.Confirm if you want block all that bots.

    We put also that information at at plugin Details page at wordpress.

    Anyway, i will today add the RSS feed to the text.

    StopBadBots it is a powerfull tool. Then, like all tools it is necessary to use with care and attention.

    The sites are attacked daily by thousands of bots. Bad bots consume bandwidth, slow down your server, steal your content and look for vulnerability to compromise your server.

    We are working hard to help people and protect them against the bad bots. Use ours tools with attention.

    Cheers,
    Bill

    Plugin Author Bill Minozzi

    (@sminozzi)

    Hi GK,
    I just release the version 3.3 with a awful yellow background at the StartUp Guide where i put the warnings.
    I improved also the text of the plugins’s description page to emphasize for the people to be carefull with our powerfull tool.
    I hope we can avoid some people spend time for block some usefull bot.
    Thanks again for your feedback,
    Cheers,
    Bill

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Bill Minozzi.
    Thread Starter gwkopy

    (@gwkopy)

    Hi, I appreciate what you’re saying about this “powerful tool,” but my issue was not really Hootsuite or MailChimp. It was the fact that the W3C validating tool said the feed was invalid UNTIL StopBadBots was deactivated.

    https://validator.w3.org/feed/

    Once the feed was valid, the other services were able to read it.

    I did not get invalid feeds until after the last update of your plugin. Something changed on your end. What was that?

    Plugin Author Bill Minozzi

    (@sminozzi)

    It is not about version.
    If you Participate in the Real-Time Bad Bots Security Network, you receive bot’s table updates around each 3 days. This is optional. Check your General Settings tab.
    It is necessary check what bots you need deactivate.
    We don’t touch feeds or site html. Our job is only block bots.
    If you take a look at bots table, click the header num blocked, you are able to see what was blocked and many times.
    Then, you can manage it.
    or
    You can also deactivate all bots and begin to activate only the bots abusing of your site. You can know it by check your visitors log. Talk with your hosting provider about it. You can all set to receive one email each time one bot is blocked. This is usefull to understand what happens.
    I’m working hard on this because i’m atonished with the quantity of bots visits daily (and also hackers). It is 100 times more than yours normal users. It is crazy thing.
    A lot of people think is normal build one bot and steal your information.

    Plugin Author Bill Minozzi

    (@sminozzi)

    Maybe they use this bot: FeedValidator/1.3 (try deactivate validator)

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Bill Minozzi.
    Thread Starter gwkopy

    (@gwkopy)

    I activated StopBadBots. Deactivated Hootsuite and W3C. Deactivated validator.

    Works fine now. Thank you.

    Did not know Hootsuite was treated as a bot. Thought they were reading my RSS like anyone else might.

    Much obliged.

    Plugin Author Bill Minozzi

    (@sminozzi)

    You are welcome.
    I’m happy it is working fine for you now.
    Thanks for help us to clear about that things.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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