Simtropolis Error 403

[simmering 2,744]

I keep encountering another type of error on Simtropolis, 403: Forbidden. It happens when I click links to Dependencies on STEX.

One examples would be the link to PEG PPond Scows on 

Before posting this I searched the forums, but I only found older messages like this one related to an outage in 2018. It said that this was temporary.

@Cyclone Boom, are you aware of this error still happening? Are these simply broken links? Should we report them as well, like 520s?

[CorinaMarie 29,902]

Thanks for the report.

I see the underlying linky there is the old style. Long ago CB coded a reformat which works in real time to convert to the current version. I clicked said linky and it works for me so that implies it's a permission level glitch. As such, hold off reporting any others as I'm sure it's likely to be a toggle setting somewhere which'll prolly fix them all.

[CaptCity 4,916]

The link isn't working for me either. Could we change the links when they are brought to our attention and the item is available? The PPonds Scows upload is here. I know having a general way of clearing up old links would be easier (we can't realistically go looking for all the old links), but we could spot-fix things when we hear about them...

Just a rambling thought... 

[CorinaMarie 29,902]

1 minute ago, CaptCity said:

(we can't realistically go looking for all the old links)

(Oh ye of little faith! I'm sure CB can dive into the deep dank dark depths of the database and replace them all at once. The on-the-fly conversion always worked before tho so there really wasn't any need.)

So yeah, we could fix them manually as they are found, but I suspect CB'll just do some magic.

[Cyclone Boom 17,032]

/me returns from the deep dank dark depths of the database...

I'm confident this will be fixed now for the old STEX link redirects.

It was due to any URL containing the .cfm file extension:

www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22893

This was onset by new bot blocking mechanisms I've introduced server side. These are a set of rules which add another layer of security to the site, to prevent bots trying to overload the server. The instance here was part of the blocked file extension requests rules, and some of them are a little overzealous. This is still a work in progress with fine-tuning, so it's possible there might be other 403 errors occasionally for obscure URLs. At first it was blocking .dat extensions too, which was no use for the Maxis Files page.

Please let us know to confirm it works, and if there's any related issues we'll fix them too. Thanks!

[simmering 2,744]

Sorry, I meant to respond sooner. Yes, it does work with the STEX links. Thanks for fixing it, @Cyclone Boom!

However, I have come across the error again:

URL: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=41238
Location: https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/21308-isaidnoeurosetmodd/

Perhaps another old-style URL?

 

[CorinaMarie 29,902]

12 hours ago, simmering said:

Perhaps another old-style URL?

Yep, with the idealbb part in the old linky I know it was way before my time.

This one seems like an oddity since the ID number is different (41238 vs 21308). I'm fairly sure the redirect code CB wrote assumes the same ID and then patches up the rest. Do you have a linky to the post on ST with that old style linky? If it's just one instance I can go patch it up manually. (I did search for it without any luck.)

Edit: Oh! The location you listed is where the bad linky is found.

I somehow read that to be where it should go instead.

So, this'll be one pointing back to an old development thread. I'll look into it from that angle.

 

Edit too: And I've come up empty handed. The name of the modd isn't mentioned anywhere else on the site that I can find nor did @RalphaelNinja create a topic specifically for it. I'll now guess it might've been part of a team style thread and I've no idea what that might be. Unless someone else has an idea, we should prolly remove the linky or redirect it to the STEX Custodian General Support Topic.

[CaptCity 4,916]

3 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

So, this'll be one pointing back to an old development thread. I'll look into it from that angle.

...The name of the modd isn't mentioned anywhere else on the site that I can find nor did @RalphaelNinja create a top specifically for it...

Don't know if this would help, but WayBack has a hit on the link:

(Link to page)

Yes, it's a very old version of the site; maybe the original... The forums have obviously been restructured compared to then. I went back through the early posts in the current 'Bugs & Technical' sub-forum but didn't see anything (thought maybe a search wouldn't pull up old hidden topics).

For what it's worth.

[CorinaMarie 29,902]

22 minutes ago, CaptCity said:

I went back through the early posts in the current 'Bugs & Technical' sub-forum but didn't see anything

Nice find!

That prompted me to check their content by Posts since we now have exact dates. None from the WayBack thread you found are in our records. I'll guess that's one which got clobbered during the ST Crisis.

Before we change the dead linky, we can see if CB has any database magic for this. I suspect it's long gone tho so not only won't there be a rabbit pulled from a hat, the hat itself is also lost.

[simmering 2,744]

Above and beyond responses from both of you!

5 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Oh! The location you listed is where the bad linky is found.

I could have made that clearer sorry.

1 hour ago, CaptCity said:

WayBack has a hit on the link

Thanks a lot.

[Cyclone Boom 17,032]

Thanks @simmering for letting us know, and good find Capt with the archived Wayback page.

I've added a redirect server side for these old "IdealBB" URLs which then attempts to query the Wayback automatically. So for instance if clicking the topic link, it then looks up whether it was previously archived, and tries to fetch the most recent instance.

Another example is for:
https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=62070

Alas, there will be many of these which weren't saved at the time, so it'll lead to a "not archived" message. Still that's better than a generic error here on ST and maybe there's still some info to be found from older topics which aren't available live anymore.

Something else to mention is the Wayback sees the whole URL in its entirety. I've tidied up some of these older ones in attempt to make them more findable. For instance, if there's additional parts such as &sessionID= and so forth, it's much more likely these weren't saved (given they were unique at the time).

Random tip: I learned something new today from all this...

In order to locate the most recent version of an archived page, add the 2oe parameter:

web.archive.org/web/2oe/https://community.simtropolis.com/files