RE: SteemSearch Update v1.3.8
Hey! Hi and sorry for the (partial) off-topic :)
First of all, I can't recall if I greeted you for the new 2026 so just in case I haven't, I wish you all the bests to you and your beloved ones!
I have a few questions and observation.
1- In the area I live the best ISP requires an extra payment for a static IP address, so am I correct this is the reason I see this screen below several times a day? Basically, every time I open the browser (Brave) and try to use your frontend, I get it. Sometimes that's very slow, waiting for more than a half of minute as it first loads this, then when I click on the checkbox, again I am waiting.
2- On your frontend, about the half of the times, when I upvote a post or a comment, the interface doesn't reflect my vote, the upvote icon doesn't change and the value isn't updated. I can see on steemworld.org my vote is broadcasted to the blockchain. It feels as the UI isn't waiting long enough to reflect my vote. Quite interestingly, as steemit.com was obviously fixed and works better since the beginning of the year, I cannot replicate that issue there, on the official frontend.
3- I've been thinking lately how to contribute to the community a bit more and as I have an old gaming laptop I do not use, Lenovo Y500 with upgraded hardware but no SSD, I believe it is suitable for a backup witness. As we own a small (5kWh) photovoltaic farm, electricity isn't an issue but I am not sure the lack of a static IP address won't be a problem. Also, as this is a metered connection, do you have any idea what monthly traffic a backup witness would generate, give or take? This local ISP provides "unlimited" traffic but once 10GB per day are used, it limits the speed to 128kb/s for the rest of the day, which may be a separate issue.
Thanks in advance for your time and response! :)
Thank you very much for your New Year's greetings!
I'll see if I can help you with your questions.
1
I can't tell you if and when the checkbox will appear. I'm now protecting my pages with Cloudflare because of numerous bot requests. Before your request is forwarded to my server, Cloudflare checks whether a human is sitting in front of the computer or whether the request is coming from a bot. I can't tell you exactly how it does this. I suspect it's based on mouse movements or scrolling or something else that human actors do when they're working at the browser.
Just today, bot activity has increased significantly again:
To prevent my servers from becoming overloaded, I have to block bot requests. That's why users like you see this checkbox.
If the check was successful, the page should load just as quickly as before. Unfortunately, I can't tell you why it's taking longer for you. Perhaps it's due to your internet connection.
2
We have observed this behaviour when someone uses the current Keychain extension. Is this also the case for you? We have already discussed this with the developer. It is exactly as you describe. The extension does not wait for feedback from the chain that the operation was successful. The extension then reports the successful operation back to the page. At that moment, the page loads the current data from the chain, which has not yet been processed there. This is why your vote is not displayed. We have reproduced this in detail and already communicated the solution. As far as I know, it has not yet been implemented.
3
For a witness node, the internet connection must be very stable and have low latency. Each witness node is located in a p2p network that constantly exchanges data with each other. This is very time-critical. Remember that a new block is generated every 3 seconds. The witness whose turn it is to generate the block must create it in time, otherwise the block is considered missed. This is not good for the stability of the blockchain.
I would also not recommend an HDD. The node constantly generates read and write accesses to the disk. Every 3 seconds, a block and some operations are saved to your disk.
A changing IP should not be an obstacle, as you are constantly communicating with the p2p network anyway. However, the internet connection is interrupted when the IP changes. This is more critical, as your node then has to reconnect to the network.
I checked the data volumes (for 24h) on my provider's site (only the witness node runs on that server):
0.00 SBD,
4.58 STEEM,
4.58 SP
Hey, thanks for the comprehensive answer! This has put me into a lot of thinking...
2- I logged into the two frontends by both methods (with and without Keychain) and they actually behave in a similar manner in that regards. I couldn't replicate the issue when logging without Keychain so I can confirm your conclusion - the problem sits around Keychain...
3- Traffic doesn't seem to be a bottleneck and your server is a top witness. All witnesses carry the same traffic load? While I could easily resolve both the lack of SSD and the dynamic IP address with a small investment, the latency seems to be the show-stopper for the moment, if that's critical. Unfortunately the best providers here offer wireless internet only, last year I asked around, no plans for any major upgrades, it's a low populated area, still. For instance, the best response time I get is above 30ms, the average is like 60-70ms and often it's even in the 3-digits range :( Upload/Download ratio is 1/5 but I guess that's not an issue.
What would be your advice, should I give it a try or wait until I get better connectivity?