IMPORTANT: Scripts and Aut-Refreshing our Store

Note: This is posted in the Announcements section as well, but I was asked to make sure that everyone saw this. (By the way, if you use our site it’s a really good idea to check the announcements section from time to time!!) It’s important because if you do it (even innocently) our server host is taking a zero-tolerance policy and is banning IPs… please read on!

Hello everyone!

This is an important announcement, and while it will probably only effect 1% of our users, we need to make it just in case!

Some of our more computer-savvy users have discovered how to write a script (this is a mini computer program that runs by itself after you set it up, more or less) that automatically refreshes the Windstone site (store) at a regular rate. We are guessing this is a way to see when new items are added to the store. We also understand that none of you would do this to intentionally harm Windstone and that you are just excited about collecting our pieces. That means a lot to us! 🙂

Unfortunately… running these auto-refresh scripts ARE creating a drain on the server, impacting the infrastructure, and have to be stopped before it affects not only our site but the others that are hosted by our host server. When a script auto-refreshes it requests information from the site and server each time it refreshes, and when it does this often enough it causes a problem! It’s actually seen as a low level attack on the server.

If you are running a script to auto-refresh the store, your IP (your computer, more or less) will be blocked by our host and you will not be able to use any part of the Windstone site. This is NOT us trying to be mean or punish you! This is us trying to protect our site from going down or causing problems for all of our users.

If you find you are blocked, please cease use of your script and write or call Susie so she can coordinate with our host to get you unblocked.

What is okay: Refreshing the store manually (by clicking reload/refresh on your browser) a few times a day is okay as long as you are not doing it hundreds of times a day. 🙂

If you have any questions please let us know!