Is there a way to restrict how often guests can refresh?

[spamgirl]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Spamgirl,

I think Max had an excellent idea... it may take more time to review the logs for certain guests with Paul's mod but if you do it now and find who you think the culprit is, it might help! Remember though that overseas a person can unplug their modem/router and BAM instant new IP address so if they happen to be where that can happen, lets hope they only scrape content and aren't toooooo web savvy .

FWIW, I get what Zachary is saying, but that doesn't mean I won't try to at least stem the flow. If we sit back and don't fight, we let the monsters win, and I refuse to do that in any situation. Nothing is hopeless.

Anyhoo, I agree that Max had an excellent idea! Already three IPs are sticking out like a sore thumb, and one of them seems to be the culprit (with a scraper I didn't even know about potentially being a second problem user). Based on their shitty web design skills, I'm hopeful that means they aren't tech savvy at all. Thank you all so much for your advice!

--------------- Added [DATE]1440343872[/DATE] at [TIME]1440343872[/TIME] ---------------

I've found the IPs and tried to block them with .htaccess. I included my own IP in order to test it, but I am still able to access the forum, I just can't see the CSS or images. Here is what I did:

order allow,deny
deny from ###.#.#.
deny from ###.#.#.
deny from ###.#.#.
allow from all

Does anyone know why it would be so wonky? I put it in the main folder of my forum (html1). My site is hosted on EC2, if that matters. I tried it last week and it worked, so I don't know why it wouldn't now...