This comic follows on from the Previous comic which will almost certainly provide context.

You might not wanna be famous, but when you’re level 10, every organization within a mile is watching what you’re doing.

  • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
    0·
    4 months ago

    Here’s a short little “meanwhile” comic as a bonus, since it’s been a while.

    Oh, apologies about my personal website. My hosting is done by a friend with a small server, and… well basically every wordpress site in existence is now under constant effective-DDoS by AI bots trying to scrape all the data. They’re not subtle about it, and just try to download all the pictures simultaneously. My server is too small to handle that load, so just reboots when that happens (it’s usually down for about a minute).

    The fact that it’s near constantly down is just a product of how often I’m getting these requests.

    • Godort@lemm.ee
      0·
      4 months ago

      Welcome back. I love these comics. The website situation is super shitty, I wish you luck on that endless battle.

      I ended up just switching to your Tumblr page in my webcomic rotation to get around it.

    • Forester@yiffit.net
      0·
      4 months ago

      This won’t fix it but it might help.

      Make sure you have a robots.txt file with a crawl delay set for all agents once every 30 seconds and that you are disallowing most of the WordPress directories such as WP admin, the media directory, etc.

      I would also strongly recommend that you use a caching system if you are not using one. It’s a lot more efficient to serve the same image a hundred times to different bots from the ram than loading it off your drive.

      Just my personal opinions working in a web hosting environment.

      That’ll probably help if it’s i/o issues.

        • Forester@yiffit.net
          0·
          4 months ago

          Whoever their host is, they already appear to have some type of load balancing based on the four IPS. But I would also agree that a free cloudflare account does wonders for most WordPress users. But that’s probably mostly because it filters out a shitload of bots and known bad actors. Just make sure you set up your origin certificates if you use a cloudflare account.

      • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
        0·
        4 months ago

        most of these AI scrapers don’t respect robots.txt, so I’m not sure that really helps much, but… we have tried doing all of these things.

        • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          0·
          4 months ago

          Someone on lemmy suggested to create a dummy endpoint that normal people won’t be able to navigate to, and disallow it in robots.txt

          Then when somebody crawls it you know they are ignoring robots.txt, and you ip ban them

          • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
            0·
            4 months ago

            That’s pretty clever.

            I think that these AI scrapers might be smart enough that this doesn’t really work though - at least if I were designing them I’d have them all come from dynamic IPs and not have any of them bother hitting the same target more than once. These things are very dedicated to acquiring content without consent, and if they’re capable of causing problems for (say) Reddit, I’m not sure my little website is going to have much luck deterring them.

            Honestly a better strategy might be to just glaze everything I draw.

            • Johanno@feddit.org
              0·
              4 months ago

              I am not sure if it costs money, but you could implement captchas.

              Or use cloudflare to do that bot detecting for you.

              Worst case you make it so you need to create an account to see content.

              • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
                0·
                4 months ago

                Well, we are already using cloudflare, that’s one of the other reasons why the site is so slow… I don’t think the other two suggestions prevent a scraper from requesting the information from the server… I think they’d just make it more arduous for real people to access the content.

            • MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network
              0·
              4 months ago

              Honestly a better strategy might be to just glaze everything I draw.

              I doubt that will help, they can still scrape the site and then wait until whatever version of Glaze was applied is cracked.

            • Lumisal@lemmy.world
              0·
              4 months ago

              Instead of a tech solution, why not a legal one? Place somewhere in the website that refusal to follow your robots.txt is agreement to pay you x amount of money for your content. Then combine that with the dummy page solution the other person brought up so you can record the IP address, then take them to court so they pay you. Has potential to bring you a really really nice chunk of money.

              • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
                0·
                4 months ago

                I believe that there are multiple very high profile billion-dollar lawsuits being run against AI companies right now. I don’t really have the budget to sue these companies.

  • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
    0·
    4 months ago

    Your comics are so cute.

    Also man. I was part of 1(one) campaign that made it to high level. And it is a bit of a magical experience.

    When our crew of sky pirates flew into town everyone immediately knew who they were, local authorities and groups of people were always either trying to court their favour or get rid of them at any cost, they never needed to introduce themselves – They were the Monarchs of the Storm, and their career had started with them causing an entire criminal empire to crumble (specifically because they’d messed with their friends), and only gotten more intense and destructive from there.

    Shame one of our players disappeared because of Life :tm: and so we haven’t played in almost a year.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
      0·
      4 months ago

      That’s sad. I discuss openess to new people to the group in a new group, as I think Life™️ naturally diminishes groups; best to stay open for new people coming in, no?

      Also, why do people write numbers both on digits and letters sometimes? Is it to avoid confusion? I’ve only seen it happen in English, though, where numbers can never be confused for other words…

  • jounniy@ttrpg.network
    0·
    4 months ago

    Thats funny, because I’ve seen some DMs where nobody cares wether or not lvl. 10, they still treat you as if you were lvl. one and don’t know sh*t about you. (Mainly in campaigns where the characters travel a lot. I still find it weird. Rumors spread quickly.)

    • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
      0·
      4 months ago

      Some ideas for GMs of high level parties:

      • Low level party seeks our your party for advice, or help with something outside of their abilities
      • Newspaper reporter seeks interview for puff-piece about adventurer lifestyles
      • Newspaper reporter seeks interview so they can write hit-piece on a party member
      • Fans of the party’s exploits show up and ask for autographs
      • That play scene from Avatar the Last Airbender
      • Merchants keep pitching increasingly plausible investment opportunities
      • Party encounters someone dressed up as the most famous member of the party, using their identity to claim free drinks at the pub
      • Unskilled squire requests to join party to help with their adventures
      • Legendary Swordsman seeks out party member for a duel
      • Everyone you meet asks for money
      • ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        My last character who was getting well known in the local area was also well known for blowing his gold on booze and gambling at every available opportunity, which is a good way to deter the money-seekers!

  • AVincentInSpace@pawb.socialEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    …isn’t…all of that a reason why she’s not a disposable scapegoat? Isn’t the fact that she’s a public figure the best possible refutation of any of the criticisms just listed?

    • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
      0·
      4 months ago

      Well that, but also she’s still a goblin. Religious institutions in the Forgotten Realms traditionally view goblins as less than worthless, and most people in Waterdeep think of Goblins the same way, regardless of the person’s actual accomplishments.

      Most people would assume that the church would be willing to abandon a goblin at a moment’s notice to protect their reputation - especially if they’re not familiar with the people involved, or the full extent of her deeds. Honestly, most people in Waterdeep think the church is tarnishing its reputation by having a goblin in their ranks in the first place.

      • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
        0·
        4 months ago

        I suppose as a coda… Real world conspiracy theories often take root more strongly when they don’t make complete sense. They’re often self-selecting for irrational actors.

        If rational people are quick to point out flaws in your conspiracy theory, it feels more like there are powers trying to cover something up.

        • AVincentInSpace@pawb.socialEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          That, though, raises another question, because if the conspiracy theories are so easy to debunk that no rational person believes them, why worry about their existence? Unless the population is majority conspiracy theorists.

          As for the church being ashamed to have a goblin in their ranks. She summoned an angel, presumably without outside help. Have the church very publicly say she’s one of their best spellcasters, not to mention a pillar of community, and they’re proud to have her in their ranks, doubly so after this generous contribution of much-needed funds. If it comes out that she was cheating, or the church helped her, well, that’s now a problem for the whole church. They wouldn’t put themselves in that spot.

          If you didn’t want it to look like the church was easily bought, have the “pillar of community” press release precede the donation.

          • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
            0·
            4 months ago

            I think I’ll answer this in two separate answers, so as not to conflate in-game issues with real-world issues.

            To address the issue in the game world,. it’s not quite as easy as issuing a statement of support. After all, It’s already known that the church supports Konsi, a lot of people won’t see the statement, and nothing they could say would come close to measuring up to open recognition of her deeds by the Open Lord…

            The issue isn’t really about Konsi’s character at all, the issue is that there’s an opportunity for opponents of the church to run a smear campaign, and there’s no shortage of people who might want to do that.

            Agents of Beshaba will not care if the majority of people believe them, and won’t be trying to convince everyone. They just want to publicly allege corruption, throw in some doubt and confusion. They want to give ammunition to those who want to be convinced that the church is bad to back up those views. Give them ammunition to reinforce their existing beliefs.

            There are plenty of people who dislike how much power the Tower of Luck has, especially over the gambling industry in Waterdeep. Some people don’t want to pay fees or employ members of the tower to oversee games, it’s almost like guild dues. Some people want to run crooked games, but find it difficult to find marks when all the reputable games are sponsored by the church. Some people believe that it’s not the place of the church to be doing any of this, the size and power of the Tower of Luck isn’t at all consistent with how the faith is normally represented - there are theologians who argue that Waterdhavian Tymoran faith is a heretical sect.

            Some of the nobles who lost in the tournament might have a bit of a bruised ego from “losing to a goblin” - if they can cause a controversy about the match, claim there was a fix they can convince people around them, and themselves that they didn’t “really” lose.

            And… of course, those people who just absolutely hate, hate, hate goblins (of which there are many) will be inclined to believe the worst, no matter what anyone says or does.

            If such attacks were made, would it seriously damage the church? Probably not - but it’ll cost them a few people here and there. Worse, it could form the foundation of a sustained assault on the position and power they hold in Waterdeep, and it’s the job of the church’s leaders to protect that.

            I imagine, if anything does happen, there will be more specific details in future comics…

          • Ahdok@ttrpg.networkOP
            0·
            4 months ago

            I think I’ll answer this in two separate answers, so as not to conflate in-game issues with real-world issues.

            Let’s talk a little about how real-world conspiracy theories work, and the dangers therein. I don’t want to get too into this, because I don’t think this is the right forum for such things, but there’s some important things to consider.

            1. Nobody is a fully rational actor all the time. Regardless of how “easy” something is to debunk there’s always going to be a few people here and there who hear it from a source they trust and believe it. It’s incredibly wearing to have to independently check every single thing you hear to see if it’s true.

            2. It’s a widely known problem that when presented with a narrative about something they have no experience of, most humans will subscribe to the first viewpoint they’re exposed to, and it’s significantly harder to convince a person that they’re wrong once they’ve formed an opinion - reason and logic be damned. Plenty of otherwise-rational people might subscribe to something that makes no sense if they’ve heard it a few times without any pushback.

            3. The idea that if it’s “only a small number of people” it’s not dangerous is a little flawed. Some conspiracies are silly and mostly harmless, and don’t put other people in danger. However, conspiracies about a specific person or place can lead its subscribers to “take matters into their own hands”, endangering those people or places. We’ve had plenty of examples of this that have cost lives.

            4. A lot of the time, it’s less important how many people are subscribed to an irrational or easily debunked crackpot theory, but who those people are. We’ve seen examples in most developed nations of legislators up to the highest levels promoting baseless and dangerous rhetoric that influences a large number of people to action. Certain celebrities on social media are known for directly making baseless conspiratorial attacks on people, that drive their fans and supporters to take up those attacks as a cause.

            I’m refraining from specific examples, because I don’t want this to degenerate into an argument about specific examples, however I hope that this makes sense without the need for such.

        • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
          0·
          4 months ago

          I remember when I was called a wack job for claiming we invaded Iraq under false pretenses.

          Today, I’m called a wack job for purchasing a firearm. They drug a black man into a corn field and killed him a few weeks ago. The news spent a few seconds on it before moving on to a story about puppies.

          It’s not rational to continue to trust governance. Yet, here we are still demonizing all that refuse to do so.