The Energon Pub

[Seibertron]

Minor issue, but the "tongue" emoji keep outputting as the "razz" emoji. (The "razz" emoji itself works properly.)

[Seibertron]

Minor issue, but the "tongue" emoji keep outputting as the "razz" emoji. (The "razz" emoji itself works properly.)

I'm pretty sure that's how it's supposed to work. that's how it's setup. If you can show me the raw images, i can take another look at it.

[Sabrblade]

Minor issue, but the "tongue" emoji keep outputting as the "razz" emoji. (The "razz" emoji itself works properly.)

I'm pretty sure that's how it's supposed to work. that's how it's setup. If you can show me the raw images, i can take another look at it.

The one on the left is supposed to be while the one on the right is showing up as the correct one. You can quote this post to see the difference in code between the two.

This is actually been happening for a number of years, now. I myself just never thought to report it as an issue since it's such a small thing.

[Glyph]

HMW missions currently aren't processing - looks like it started with mission #348131 at approx 6pm site time. Every mission since then has been 'Unknown' and no log or XP/energon rewards.

I presume it's the per-minute cron job having issues (if it were just timing out part way through, we should get some missions processed but not others - instead, no mission results are getting recorded at all).

[steve2275]

HMW missions currently aren't processing - looks like it started with mission #348131 at approx 6pm site time. Every mission since then has been 'Unknown' and no log or XP/energon rewards.

I presume it's the per-minute cron job having issues (if it were just timing out part way through, we should get some missions processed but not others - instead, no mission results are getting recorded at all).

If it isnt 1 thing its another

[Seibertron]

HMW missions currently aren't processing - looks like it started with mission #348131 at approx 6pm site time. Every mission since then has been 'Unknown' and no log or XP/energon rewards.

I presume it's the per-minute cron job having issues (if it were just timing out part way through, we should get some missions processed but not others - instead, no mission results are getting recorded at all).

If it isnt 1 thing its another

It was resolved earlier. should be back to normal. there was a conflict with the 3 different versions of Seibertron that are currently running right now. There's the old version with outdated database functionality, the old version that uses modern database functionality, and then the new version that uses modern database functionality. When I reorganized some core code in the main "heart" of Seibertron.com, there became a conflict with the site's version controls and it created errors in files like the cron tasks that run on the server.

[Glyph]

HMW missions currently aren't processing ... I presume it's the per-minute cron job having issues

It was resolved earlier. should be back to normal.

Still broken, sorry. It looks like it was working from about midnight to 2am site time, but it's been returning Unknowns again since then.

[Omegatron.]

There's something strange going on with the layout of the topic list:

For comparison, here's how it used to look:

Nothing serious, just a small cosmetic issue.

[Seibertron]

There's something strange going on with the layout of the topic list:

chrome_cCSFN820nc.png

For comparison, here's how it used to look:

chrome_HCiDVo201v.png

Nothing serious, just a small cosmetic issue.

Thanks for the heads up. Its on my list to fix if its something simple to fix. The "golden age" of seibertron code has broke in some places where I'm not accounting for the old styles in seibertron.com code. I'll have to see if the silver age code can be easily adapted for our forums.

Ive been working on completely redoing the news section. Came up with something really cool earlier today that I think you guys will like.

[Seibertron]

Thanks for the heads up. Its on my list to fix if its something simple to fix. The "golden age" of seibertron code has broke in some places where I'm not accounting for the old styles in seibertron.com code. I'll have to see if the silver age code can be easily adapted for our forums.

Wow. This turned into an insane project that was far more intensive than I ever would have anticipated. It should have been a simple style (CSS) update but it turned into a massive issue untangling the old site from the new site. I spent 20 of the last 24 hours working through this. I'm exhausted. Resolving one problem, just made other problems crop up, plus I had an issue where I couldn't login to my copy of Seibertron.com on my laptop in my local environment so I had to figure that out, and I ended up sucking more of phpBB into official Seibertron.com code as I changed another core part of phpBB that dealt with the config database and how the forums work with that database and code, which impacted all of our sessions and cookies as well. Now the same version of phpBB operates on the server and my local environment with no work arounds. This will enable me to continue gutting phpBB throughout this year to convert this into modern social platform.

On the other side of this, I think I've got the old site (and more importantly the content in the main content area) isolated so that if you are viewing the new site (version 15) but the page hasn't been converted yet to the new version of the site with updated pages (version 15.02 or greater), then the content SHOULD look the same as it did previously, even though you are viewing that content on the "new" site (version 15). I'm sure there are pages I will need to address after these changes but I've got the process of fixing the styles pretty down pat now.

[megatran]

Anyone else had issues trying to log in yesterday? I had Error 500 or something like that. I'm assuming the system upgrade played a part? Appears fixed now.

[Seibertron]

Anyone else had issues trying to log in yesterday? I had Error 500 or something like that. I'm assuming the system upgrade played a part? Appears fixed now.

Yah, sorry about that ... lots of bugs will keep cropping up as I maintain 3 different versions of Seibertron.com currently.

[megatran]

Anyone else had issues trying to log in yesterday? I had Error 500 or something like that. I'm assuming the system upgrade played a part? Appears fixed now.

Yah, sorry about that ... lots of bugs will keep cropping up as I maintain 3 different versions of Seibertron.com currently.

All good. Bit of teething issues for the long term gains.

[Seibertron]

I ended up reworking a key part of the forums last night after discovering an issue that has quietly been causing problems for a long time. It's the same one that’s affected users like chuckdawg, who first reported it back in 2015. Since then, it’s been triggering the firewall and blocking some of you from accessing parts of the site. ScottyP was also a recent victim of the firewall of doom due to a similar issue with our admin section.

The issue has to do with how the forums handle SEO-friendly URLs. Most of the time things work as expected, but in certain cases, the system can't properly find some of phpBB’s internal files, like the print stylesheet. These missing file requests happen repeatedly, and eventually the firewall flags that behavior as suspicious.

I was originally going to just loosen the firewall rule, but I decided it made more sense to fix the problem at the source. What I thought would take about 15 minutes turned into six hours of work, and I’m still not completely finished. The current solution seems stable, but phpBB is complicated, and I can’t realistically test every possible situation.

If you come across any errors or run into issues, please take a screenshot or copy the message and let me know. That will help me continue tracking this down and making sure it’s fully resolved.

---

Here's a more detailed breakdown of what I've been working on ...

Forum Error Debugging and Infrastructure Update

Issue Origin:
This investigation began with a 503 error reported by Ruthless Cynic yesterday morning, but similar issues were also reported by ScottyP in late May 2025 and even earlier by chuckdawg1999 as far back as 2015. These long-standing problems involved users being randomly blocked from accessing the site or encountering 503 errors while browsing the forums.

Root Cause:
The forums were occasionally attempting to load internal phpBB files—such as print.css—using broken relative paths, especially when SEO-friendly URLs were enabled. These failed requests would repeat with each page load, eventually tripping mod_security on the server, which then blocked the user or returned a 503 error.

Historical Context:
The issue appears to stem from an SEO mod added many years ago to generate cleaner forum URLs. While generally beneficial for search visibility, it unintentionally introduced path resolution inconsistencies that have quietly caused problems for a decade.

Actions Taken:

• Log Review and Replication:
  Confirmed the issue by reviewing server logs and replicating it locally using SEO-formatted forum/topic URLs. Verified that repeated attempts to access non-existent internal files (like stylesheets or resources) were being flagged by the firewall.
  
• Improved Error Handling:
  Refined /errors/ to provide cleaner and more informative 503 and 404 error pages. Adjusted environment settings so local development surfaces PHP errors more transparently, rather than showing blank screens or triggering 503s.
  
• Firewall Analysis:
  Reviewed mod_security triggers and determined that relaxing the rule would reduce security posture unnecessarily. Instead, prioritized fixing the underlying file path issue.
  
• Server Variable for Path Resolution:
  Introduced a new server variable (e.g., $_SERVER['SEIBERTRON_ROOT_PATH']) to act as a consistent reference point for phpBB includes and templates. Updated parts of phpBB that were relying on fragile relative paths to use this new root path instead, preventing the failed file lookups.
  
• Targeted Updates:
  Applied the path fix in specific areas like BBCode rendering and template loading where path resolution was most likely to fail. Chose not to apply this globally to reduce the risk of side effects across phpBB's sprawling architecture.
  
• Testing and Validation:
  Tested various SEO and non-SEO forum paths, including rare features like the print view. Monitored for recurrence of 503s or blocked access.

Status:
The updated logic has been deployed and is currently active. While the fix appears stable, full validation across all phpBB edge cases is impossible given its complexity and age. Users are encouraged to report any new 503 errors or access issues via screenshot or copied message for further investigation.

[Emerje]

Going from the "forums" dropdown menu to "Transformers Related" I'm getting this on a white screen:

[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(): Failed opening '/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/plesk/php/5.6/share/pear')

Fatal error: Class 'bbcode' not found in /var/www/vhosts/seibertron.com/httpdocs/energonpub/includes/functions_content.php on line 475

Emerje

[Silver Wind]

https://www.seibertron.com/features/ returns a 404 error. I discovered this when I mistook it for the Forums website tab and opened it in a new browser tab. (Lousy sleep sure is annoying.)

Going from the "forums" dropdown menu to "Transformers Related" I'm getting this on a white screen:

[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(): Failed opening '/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/plesk/php/5.6/share/pear')

Fatal error: Class 'bbcode' not found in /var/www/vhosts/seibertron.com/httpdocs/energonpub/includes/functions_content.php on line 475

Emerje

This same error appeared when I tried to visit the HMW forum.

[megatran]

Yeah, intermittently getting 503 error screen. Seems to be resolved.

But that's the least of the problems in the world right now.

[ashe5k]

HMW Forum keeps returning

[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_content.php on line 470: include(): Failed opening '/energonpub/includes/bbcode.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/plesk/php/5.6/share/pear')

Fatal error: Class 'bbcode' not found in /var/www/vhosts/seibertron.com/httpdocs/energonpub/includes/functions_content.php on line 475

[Glyph]

^ HMW Forum and RPG Forum both doing this, for nearly two days now. I thought it was everywhere, but appears to be just those two forums.

[Sabrblade]

While doing a search through past news articles (including ones as recent as this week), every image in every news article appears broken. Going to each individual news article shows the images working fine, but on the search pages the images are broken.

Examples:
https://www.seibertron.com/news/index.php
https://www.seibertron.com/news/index.php?f_cat=5

[Seibertron]

While doing a search through past news articles (including ones as recent as this week), every image in every news article appears broken. Going to each individual news article shows the images working fine, but on the search pages the images are broken.

Examples:
https://www.seibertron.com/news/index.php
https://www.seibertron.com/news/index.php?f_cat=5

Thanks. This has been fixed. It was something I broke last night when I was trying to resolve a problem with lazy loading of images.

[Emerje]

The "view the latest post" buttons seem to pick a random dates or maybe a date that's cached somewhere, often at the beginning of June. Even does this on some topics I've since posted to.

Emerje

[Glyph]

The "view the latest post" buttons seem to pick a random dates or maybe a date that's cached somewhere, often at the beginning of June. Even does this on some topics I've since posted to.

Is it at least linking to the right page of the topic? I had some issues with it before, but now it seems to load the top of the page and then scroll down to the actual latest post once that section has loaded (which may take several seconds depending on connection speed).

I sometimes find it loads the page, scrolls down as far as it can, then scrolls again when the actual last post has been loaded. Not sure if that means the anchor is initially loaded at one position and then pushed offscreen by DOM updates / lazy-loading.

[Emerje]

The "view the latest post" buttons seem to pick a random dates or maybe a date that's cached somewhere, often at the beginning of June. Even does this on some topics I've since posted to.

Is it at least linking to the right page of the topic? I had some issues with it before, but now it seems to load the top of the page and then scroll down to the actual latest post once that section has loaded (which may take several seconds depending on connection speed).

I sometimes find it loads the page, scrolls down as far as it can, then scrolls again when the actual last post has been loaded. Not sure if that means the anchor is initially loaded at one position and then pushed offscreen by DOM updates / lazy-loading.

It always starts at the top of the page, though whether or not it's the top of the correct page depends on how popular the topic is.

Emerje

[Seibertron]

The "view the latest post" buttons seem to pick a random dates or maybe a date that's cached somewhere, often at the beginning of June. Even does this on some topics I've since posted to.

Emerje

I'll add this to my growing list! Thanks for letting me know, Emerje. I don't use the links like "view the latest post" so it always fascinates me when you guys mention something like that which is a key part of how forums like phpBB work, yet I don't use them at all. I'm the odd one regarding this subject.