We've recently had some repeated and harsh data mining on our licence database through the community licence check API. Because of this, and the problems it's caused, I'm sad to say we've had to introduce a credits and IDKey system with immediate effect.

The interface has changed slightly, and you now have to send two name/value pairs. The licence ("?licence=") or team name ("?team=") you're seeking and also an IDKey, ("?idk="). eg: /community/teamcheck.asp?team=Concept%20Racing&idk=17dhsjks984k3n2, or /community/licencecheck.asp?licence=samh&idk=17dhsjks984k3n2

ID Keys are available from me via PM, and are specific to your LFS licence. Extra credits are also available (default is 2500 queries, but if you think you'll need more in the short term then talk to me). Queries are tarpitted at a maximum one query per 5 seconds.

I very much regret having to do this, but we are left with no option.

^^^

All that went straight over my head
Damn, i feel stupid at times

Quote from SamH :

I very much regret having to do this, but we are left with no option.

Pity. Oh, wait. I have no clue what so ever what you just said.

Could you explain it shortly with words I could understand without a manual? Does it affect normal CTRA users in any way?

Nahh, it doesn't affect normal CTRA users at all. It only affects a few team websites etc, and won't affect them significantly

Quote from SamH :

... it doesn't affect normal CTRA users at all.

Thank goodness for that.

I was gonna enrole on a computer course, just to see if I had anything to worry about!

Quote from dungbeetle :

I was gonna enrole on a computer course, just to see if I had anything to worry about!

Same here. I started to use google to translate some of the words.

Im prolly gonna sound a stupid one here, but whats 'Data mining'?

Edit: Hmmm...

Quote :

Data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but it is increasingly used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods. It has been described as "the nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data" and "the science of extracting useful information from large data sets or databases". Data mining in relation to Enterprise Resource Planning is the statistical and logical analysis of large sets of transaction data, looking for patterns that can aid decision making.

I dont see anything wrong with that?

Seeing there's tarpitting implemented, it's probably more to do with excessive use of resources like bw, processing powah etc., rather than the concept of data mining.

Quote from mcgas001 :

Im prolly gonna sound a stupid one here, but whats 'Data mining'?

"Data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information ..."

I dont see anything wrong with that?

Ah, now this is something I do know about!

Apparently it uses lots af what's called 'bandwidth', which I think is a very rare and precious metal used in computers.

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

Seeing there's tarpitting implemented, it's probably more to do with excessive use of resources like bw, processing powah etc., rather than the concept of data mining.

Sorry, but no.

Tarpitting (or more accurately 'tar-pitting') is how they mine for 'bandwidth'.

Quote from dungbeetle :

Sorry, but no.

Tarpitting (or more accurately 'tar-pitting') is how they mine for 'bandwidth'.

One of the uses of tarpitting is to prevent spammers from flooding the server with connections (and requests) by delaying the next time they can do something. Since there's the ID key too, everyone will be 'known', and anon attempts to flood will not work, resulting in less wasted resources?

Basically our server allows teams to pull information for their drivers. That takes bandwidth, bandwidth we don't really have so Sam had to take steps so we can control the amount of bandwidth being used for looking up license information for team members.

Not hard to work-around with a daily cache or something, so it's not going to effect 3rd party sites that badly - they just need to code their pages a little more considerately .