We've been having a number of periods over the last few days where Videokarma would only load a message to the effect of " servers too busy try again later" no matter which page you tried to visit. This lasted a few hours around noon today.

Is audiokarma having maintenance and everyone there trying to log in here or is something wrong with the server.... Inquiring minds wish to know.

We've been having a number of periods over the last few days where Videokarma would only load a message to the effect of " servers too busy try again later" no matter which page you tried to visit. This lasted a few hours around noon today.

Is audiokarma having maintenance and everyone there trying to log in here or is something wrong with the server.... Inquiring minds wish to know.

I wonder if it's related to the two day outage AK had a couple of days ago ?

I ran into that the other day on spiritualforums.com (VBB)

Nothing but "Server too busy" messages.....

What exactly does that mean??

Something has changed. They won't take jpg attachments bigger than 600 x 900.

Ah man!!

I just bumped into that resolution limit....Super annoying, needs to go!

I just checked and it says 900x900 for JPG and JPEG (The others dont have limits set)

Now its telling me the file size for jpgs has to be less than 146.2 Kb.

I ran out of my space limit a long time ago. Now I just link to the photo on Flickr.

I ran out of my space limit a long time ago. Now I just link to the photo on Flickr.

I need to do that too, but uploading to flickr via smartphone and using it is significantly clunkier than than PC and all my pics are now phone pics since my Nikon died.

I need to do that too, but uploading to flickr via smartphone and using it is significantly clunkier than than PC and all my pics are now phone pics since my Nikon died.

I have the Flickr app on my Samsung Android phone. Now when I open the camera app and view a picture, one of the share options is Flickr. Only takes a few clicks.

For uploading picture I've been using https://postimages.org/ or https://imgbb.com/ for years now. You don't even need to have a account with either of them and there is photo resize options in the menu and once uploaded there's a forum hotlink code that you can just cut and paste into your post.

I re-sized my images using Paint that's within Win7 to 640x480 and I was able to post them.

Videokarma has been throwing a lot of server too busy messages again...

Yup I have been getting that alot lately on inthe00s.com and I mentioned the other day how we are getting them here also....

Boy last night was scary.. For several hours all I got was this message..... I emailed Dave and told him in case he didnt know.......


I noticed politicalchat.org was slow also........


Im glad things are ok now!!!

I love VK and politicalchat.org like crazy :)

How busy is "too busy"?

Yeah, a lot of times this message are displayed last days. "Server too busy".

DDoS attack.

It's still ongoing. Just got the message again. Yeesh.

Chinese and/ or Russian hackers.
We should cut these bastards off from the internet.

That would be a good thing!!

STILL an issue. All I get most of the time is "server is too busy" If it is kind enough to let me search... I hit a wall when trying to read the threads

If you can't get into VK, you might want to check out the CRT collective on FB. Mostly a bunch of gamers and enthusiasts and some technical people.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/444560212348840/

There is definitely an odd repeating pattern here, it has happened 3 days in a row now, same sequence of events, first at about 11-12 CST, the error "server is too busy" comes up constant, and won't clear no matter what you do for hours, then 5-6 hours later, 4-5 PM, things degrade to "database error" which will last until 1-2 am, then clear. :tears:

Then the entire thing starts over again at the exact time again the next day.
I highly expect it to do it again this Sunday.

so far, I have heard no word as to what is causing this. :tears::tears:

I started a thread here on AK.
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/videokarma-org-has-crashed.1091056/

Hi to all,

outages probably caused by a mix of DDS attacks & massive "Bot" data mining.
In the last few days, between times when the forums were accessible & outages, the user count hovered around 40 thousand.

Look at the forum Stats below, vintage TV may be popular but i seriously doubt that the quoted maximum user connections (guests) were 60 thousand on august 1st 2025.

Bots are probably counted as users...

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

I could understand it if this was a government or corporate website but this is a hobby/ enthusiast website. So what is the point???

There has to be a way to stop these attacks from taking the site down, and it do believe they are attacks, as they are happening on a predictable basis now. :thumbsdn: :tears:

Hi to all,
Hi Yamamaya42,

One method is to identify the country or continent from which attacks or massive requests are coming and forbid anything coming from that area.

Two Radio/TV British sites i used to visit now do this to protect themselves (and i can't access anymore).

As a side question, who is the web Admin for VideoKarma?
it used to be Kamakiri but that was eons ago.

If we knew who's running this site, we could get some answers about the What/When/Who/How causes these periodical malfunctions and what strategies will be implemented to counter the threats.

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

PS : from the EU, VK totally unreachable Sunday Aug 3rd 2025

Maybe some answers here:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/

I believe Grumpy is the site administrator. And if this persists it might be worth having a conversation with him.

I just got another server too busy message. All this weekend all I could get was server too busy or database error and mostly the latter.

If upgrading the forum software allows better tools to stop this nonsense and clears up the attachment issues then it's probably high time for an upgrade.

It's taken me 4 days to finally get through. One day I got to the main page and the site was being hammered by 22000 "guests". Right now it's about 15000.

I do hope this gets fixed, but the reality is it's gone on for quite a while and it's more likely they'll close this place rather than fix it. The lack of solutions and input from administration are big red flags that this place is nearing the end.

I'm sure they're on top of it. This is something that will have to be solved by their ISP provider.

The lack of solutions and input from administration are big red flags that this place is nearing the end.

I thought the same thing when audiokarma split away some years ago but to be honest I've not seen nearly as much activity here as before the split. What I do know is I've been a member since Jul 11, 2006 but let things go until I began to tackle my old Magnavox Astro Sonic combo and that's when I noticed my user name never followed so I had to rejoin under the videokarma banner.
Still the same software hosting the forums with the same image size limits. There isn't a camera or phone out there now that does anything below a few megs and this is one reason I've chosen to move my Magnavox posts elsewhere.

Personally I'd like to see this venue active again but on a newer server with security protocols, again I vote for verticalscope but that's biased being I'm on the administration team.

Hi to all,

i hope VK can be archived by some web preservation service or museum entity, there are more than 25 years of precious vintage TV info and it would be a shame if it disappeared forever.

Maybe the ETF, i don't know.
They have some personal web sites archived such as Pete D's CT-100 site, Peter Y's mechanical TV and Roger D's mechanical TV site.

host checker data :
https://hostingchecker.com/

"Who is" data about VK host :
https://uk.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.videokarma.or g%2F

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

I sent 15 private messages to a moderator from January 24, 2024 to February 10, 2024 advising of the problem we are now experiencing was happening. I saw 600K (no exaggeration) views to a certain thread in about a week. The site would go down temporarily. I monitored that thread and every hour, 50K more views. This went on for weeks. The moderator said he was only a mod and couldn’t do anything about it and he did not know who ran the site.

So I started a thread “Attention Administrators” and so far silence. Your silence gives the impression you don’t care. Possibly the ADMISTRATORS can't do anything because possibly they don’t own the site, either way, NOT GOOD!

BTW, that tread has over *1 million views without commentary post activity!

*CORRECTION: over 11 million plus views, last post 12/28/2023.

I suggest members take a look at this information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBulletin

We're not the only ones. Go here:
https://threatmap.checkpoint.com/
On the left is current DDoS activity.
Quite a bit of it and it updates quickly.

I dont see how they are doing this.... It only says 1193 Guests right now........

Another VBB site im on has over 10,000 guests and no slowdowns......

Look at the footer found on pages of this site:


If the entities listed on the footer are accurate, as best as I can tell, London based Jelsoft Enterprises LTD. was dissolved 6/18/2013 and sold to MH Sub 1, LLC d/b/a Internet Brands, a software company based in El Segundo, California. On 6/3/2014, Internet Brands was acquired by an American private equity, venture capital firm, Kolhberg Kravis Roberts based in NYC. vBulletin is a software package and the latest version is 6.1.1.

Based on Jerome’s post, the second link is broken, but my own search of “Whois” reveals the domain name “VideoKarma.org” will expire on August 13, 2025 if not already renewed.

In my last post where I reported about a certain forum thread; when I began monitoring that thread on January 24, 2024, it had about 90K views and the last post was on 12/28/2023. Today that same thread has over 11.4 million views and the last post continues to be on 12/28/2023.

Hi to all,
Hi E-type2, Marshall,

There is a thread about VideoKarma on ARF's TV forum.
https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=449878&start=40

Post#45, Aug 13th 2025 informs that the VK hosting rights have been renewed just days before expiration.

I find it disturbing and downright rude that Admins HERE offer no explanation, corrective action nor excuses for the mess of the last month and a half.

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

2nd that.

I created my last post August 10, 2025. Wasn’t able to post until about 30 minutes ago.

Yes. The domain was renewed for one more year after new search just moments ago.

Domain search: August 11, 2025: https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_8828.png

Someone is doing this because my friend Pauls site is also being hit... (cableforum.co.uk/board)

I got on for a few secs earlier and there was over 40,000 Guests!!!!!

Isnt there anyway to track this illegial activity??

It doesnt matter what SW the site is on,DDOS can happen anytime!!

Moderation/Administration team: this site has been basically inaccessible for the past 2 weeks from DDOS attacks and You've been silent. Please update us on what's being done to fix this. The silent treatment is only acceptable when an issue lasts less a full day.

Site is working at this moment 11:32 pac.hopefully problems are over?I see a few members have joined ARF. Antiqueradios.com RonL

Im talking to Ms Grumpy about this... (Daves wife)

She is trying to get it resolved here........ She told me it isnt as easy as raising the max load limit sadly......

Lets hope it keeps working! -- No where near the traffic needed that should cause these messages all the time......

They know about it now.... Lets hope they get it fixed :)

Hi to all

Hi @Dude 111,

ask Dave's wife to contact IT Admin Halilesen at ARF radio forum :

halil AT antiqueradios DOT com

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

https://videokarma.org/images/IMG_9167.png

Wow! It's working. 8AM (ET) 8/28.

Woohoo, I'm in!

.

Working right now.how long will it last? RonL

Its working at 12:19 am pac.how long will it last?

Don't think that we have given up. We have been working on this issue and we are hoping that we can have it corrected sooner than later.

I'm in again.

Looks like grumpy is still trying to work it out.

Grumpy: If you haven't already seen the thread on Antique Radio Forums, you have their web site person willing to help solve the issue. See Here: https://antiqueradios.com/p3890629


https://www.videokarma.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=207358&stc=1&d=1758262287

Thanks for the feedback Grumpy.We are standing by.working right now( 11:20 pm pacific).RonL

Are we officially back to normal?

.

I hope so. RonL

Its been working for over 1/4 hour!I just posted about my Edison cylinder player.first post I created here in month's! RonL

It is a work in progress. I have been working with our hosting company and finally dug deep enough to find the root cause. They found the variable which sets what vBulletin expects for the load limit is named "loadlimit". When searching through the code they found the operations which set this flag to "true".

Basically the code says if the operating system is NOT Windows, and if the 'loadlimit' value is greater than zero, and if the 'loadavg' value is greater than the 'loadlimit' value, then set the 'servertoobusy' flag to 'true'. This flag controls whether the "too busy" message is displayed on the site. The interesting thing is the 'loadlimit' value is set in the database to '0', meaning this feature "should" be disabled.

So it seems to be an issue with vBulletin interpreting the environment, or a vbulletin issue in general. For now, I have manually turned off the load limit process in vBulletin. We will see how things run or if this creates other issues. Server load will be monitored on the server side.

Unbelievable!

We're back baby

Thank you Grumpy and Wardsweb for bringing Videokarma back to life!!

Thanks for bringing Videokarma back!Lots of info and helpful members here. RonL

Yep, Thanks!

is it really fixed?

Thanks for your hard work!!

Thanks!!!!!

It is a work in progress. I have been working with our hosting company and finally dug deep enough to find the root cause. They found the variable which sets what vBulletin expects for the load limit is named "loadlimit". When searching through the code they found the operations which set this flag to "true".

Basically the code says if the operating system is NOT Windows, and if the 'loadlimit' value is greater than zero, and if the 'loadavg' value is greater than the 'loadlimit' value, then set the 'servertoobusy' flag to 'true'. This flag controls whether the "too busy" message is displayed on the site. The interesting thing is the 'loadlimit' value is set in the database to '0', meaning this feature "should" be disabled.Thank you Wards....... I knew it had something to do with server load limits and I thought it could be done from admincp!! (Sadly Daves wife didnt know how to do it (and I didnt know exactly what to tell her))

Thank you Wards,we love ya buddy!!!!!

Don't think that we have given up. We have been working on this issue and we are hoping that we can have it corrected sooner than later.Thank you David..... I was really trying to help.... When I started talking to your wife,I found out she is as nice as you are :)

We love ya both so much buddy!!

Thank you......

Many thanks! Sure missed this site!
Again, THANKS!

Yay!! Back on business :) Thx for the enormous effort!

Wow, still cannot believe it, will it stay?:tresbon:

Regards,
TV-collector:stupid:

Wew! It's so nice to see the site up again!

We all love it here!

I had been hanging out over at the CRT Collective:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/444560212348840/
Mostly gamers but some crt technology enthusiasts there also.

Wow it's great to be back. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes keeping this place running.

Hi to all,

"Thank you Grumpy and Wardsweb for bringing Videokarma back to life!"

it would be wise to have direct Mail addresses for these two gentlemen in case internet mischief happens again.

Any possibility to increase the size of jpg/bmp/pdf attachments to attain the convenience of more recent forum engines?
increase in number of pixels and file size would be great.

A backup of the entire site as of today for read-only access.
Would the ETF be willing to host?

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

Another thing for the future is getting SSL up and going, as well as moving the server through a service such as Cloudflare.

Services like Cloudflare have mitigations for these types of attacks built-in. Perfect? No but its better than taking on the load of opsec yourself.

Videokarma already serves over TLS/HTTPS, but the webserver is not configured to redirect HTTP -> HTTPS

Good there is no reason to.........

All newer browsers will goto HTTPS automatically......

Im on IE6 and im glad the site doesnt block HTTP,I would have to go thru a proxy to get here otherwise.......there is no reason to on a site like this...

I had been hanging out over at the CRT CollectiveWe are glad everyone is back......

73s

Wow, so great to have these forums back. I was beginning to think this site was lost forever.
Thank you!

As an IT troglodyte, yet electronic engineer by profession, I am grateful for this site. Thank you Grumpy and Co for your diligent efforts to get us back in!!

Some recent posts by Ms Grumpy on AudioKarma regarding VideoKarma, including a current link for donating via PayPal:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/videokarma-org-has-crashed.1091056/post-17985030

You are not being ignored. We are reading and listening. There is a link below that will take you to AK Charities and Christmas. In that thread you will find a post that says Videokarma. In that post you will find a link if you would like to help with the work needed on Videokarma.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-help-videokarma.1093991/

If you would like to help Videokarma you can click on the link below. Paypal please.

Thank you for your support.

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/KDGUCVQWSMC9L
One of the main issues that VK has been having is that it has been bombarded by bots and overloading our server. Because of the overload, whenever anyone went to the main page it would say something to the effect "Server is busy, try again later". Sometimes it was hit with up to 1,600% more than we are alloted on the server for the site. We have implemented some things and are looking at upgrading the software to help with this as well as just making the site more current.

The 503 server is busy is the result of some high volume attacks on the site. We are working with our hosting company to block these.

Thanks for all your work! :thmbsp:

Thanks for all your work! :thmbsp:

Ditto.

Thank you.

Thanks for all your work! :thmbsp:

Ditto.

What happened to VK classifieds and "found curbside"?

They are both there for me

So glad to see the site up and going again. Thanks to the crew that was working on getting it back up and running again. Your hard work is appreciated.

What happened to VK classifieds and "found curbside"?

You have to be logged in for those to be visible. If you only log in when writing a post, or don't have the keep me logged in box checked when you log it that could explain it.

Ah-ha!!

They must be on a different server now. There's a restaurant that I go to that could not access videokarma (or Ebay). But now I CAN access videokarma there but still can't access Ebay. So something has changed.

I'm just glad it's back.... I was very bummed when I thought it was gone for good.