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If you are still using Chattable at this time, expect chats to not render on some page loads (because of connection queues) and double rendering of all messages (known issue on my end, happens during high traffic)

Was the limit for february reached or for march already? I thought it was already at the limit when the chat was down for a few days this month. The traffic has been really high for sure

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Kuroi, brother, I don't even know. The limit for March hasn't been reached because the limit is supposed to be a full-stop when met. Like, when I reach this monthly limit it's supposed to full stop until it resets... but it didn't. Next month my limits will reset, they'll be the same limits but with a new balance at 0 bytes of data downloaded. Firebase rules seem to just be ignored for my project, however,

The concurrent active user limit seems to be harshly enforced. 100 users at any given time. If 100 users are online (including anons across all chats), other users will see a chat that is blank (no messages) when loading the page. It seems to be the only limit being enforced and there is absolutely 0 people online who have reported similar behavior.

According to Firebase: I'm allowed 360mb of download per day. I'm at 100+ GB of download for this month. It's been 25 days. Do the math, and you'll notice something is wrong. I have no idea how or why Chattable is able to send or receive messages still, this month has a recorded 224,000 monthly active user which is an all time high.

I can't begin to imagine what it's like to host so many users, but have you thought about moving to a dedicated server (i use railway). A simple Node.js server with socket.io might suffice, for little money. You could also optimize your queries and think about implementing throttling, if you are still have griefers? Apologies if this all sounds obvious or unreasonable, just wanting to help :)

We finally found the 'dystopian future' shown in sci-fi stuff and games. Theres a good reason it was originally fiction.

Still planning on re-enabling most features on Feb 1st regardless of this

To combat this, anon account creations are also disabled. What this means for you: New visitors to your site won't be able to read your chat though they can still send messages due to the server processing that and not the client.

By February 1st, all services will be restored except email sign up & chat creation. The project will remain on the free plan and will remain subject to daily limits as mentioned in the article below https://iframe.chat/updates/article/shutdown-info.html

I am also aware of being unable to login from your chat, I may work on this later. If you're tech savvy enough, you can copy your Firebase login/account cookie from the dashboard to your website (or your chat) then you won't need to sign in.

tfw i uploaded with no article title. nice. fixing now

I don't use it personally, but isn't that a damn shame

So sorry this is happening. You will figure it out I know it :]

thanks so much for all the work you've put into maintaining chattable for so long. very sad to see it go :(

Totally fair and understandable update. Hate that it got to this point but you have a solid project that is really well made. Not for nothing, but have you ever considered making the back end a docker container for users to have the option for self-hosting? Might sound like overkill but I'm having a hard time finding an alternative. The simplicity of yours isn't really matched and that's what I like most about it.

Thank you for the update :( I'm sorry stuff has been so rough to maintain.. You mentioned downgrading to the free plan database and I'm wondering if maybe there could be a way the admin could host their own database? At least to aleviate some of that burden

I perfectly understand if this would require a lot of code rewriting and whatnot though!

such a shame seeing this go, hope it gets better. Is there a way to donate? Because I know if i could i would

Please open the donations back up. I wish to help you out, even if it isn't with Chattable.

thank you for all your hard work :( i'm sorry things have had to turn out this way

@tommypanzram unfortunately dockerization isn't a viable alternative. While it would work to clone most of Chattable you'd still need to setup a Firebase account with specific configurations across auth & rtdb, and then you'd need to edit front & backend code to point everything to the new database. Which isn't something I plan to provide support on

thanks for all the fun times, im will miss you chattable :(

I am really glad to see that Chattable will continue! Downgrading to a free tier plan is kinda genius.

Oh my god, this makes me so sad :( Chattable was such an amazing service and it's so sad to see that some people just want to ruin everything for no reason.

We are approaching some hard monthly limits. The first 3 days of January consumed 85% of the monthly hard limit for resources. Chattable will have to stretch the remaining 15% of resources for the rest of the month to remain online

To alleviate this, new accounts are disabled. This means no person can sign up and new anonymous users can't read chats. This will be reverted next month.

your project was the best free chat to use i really hope this doesnt mean the end...

Thank you for the incredible work you've done on this project over the years. It's a shame that bad actors have ruined such a great resource. We will support you in your future endeavors either way!

The database will remain down until further notice.

Cloudflare an option you're open to? I know their free plan has ddos protection.

Also, Discord?

NOOO I was just planning to add a chatbox :<

Have you reached out to Google/Firebase on the matter? Can't you ban their IP/email?

I have reached out to Firebase, the attacker has been jumping VPNs since their home IP was leaked. Firebase won't do anything, Firebase also can't be looped through cloudfare, the server is fine but the database is hosted by Firebase which offers no spam protection

The only real option is to prevent the public from reading chat data directly from the database and loop all read requests through my server. I did this with writes when I switched to a backend. So expect a similar amount of downtime since then

Hmmm. You could 1) Firebase App Check. A good way to block scripts/bots regardless of their VPN 2) Backend Proxy. Moving reads to your backend, and then you could use Cloudfare Free Bot Shield 3) UID Ban in Rules. Hardcode a "deny" in your security rules? Firebase wont charge for requests blocked by rules.

* This Immovable Object Must Be: Terminated * I Don't Have Any Cages LMAO

I thought I messed up my code, but it's apparently broken on all of chattable? I hope this issue will be resolved soon, good luck!

Can someone please explain to me why, WHY is someone attacking a free chat tool FOR WEEKS? Hope you can sort this out soon :/

The following steps will be to migrate from Firebase and fully host the database on my server. Bear with me, as it will be a lengthy process leaving Firebase. If you need any data (chat data or account data) from our database (or want it removed) email us

So sorry Andrew :/

Why the flip would somebody attack a free service like this? Sorry you have to go through this Andrew.

so sorry this is happening!! hope you can figure it out soon, big chattable fan over here :)

To put into perspective, with tens of thousands of users costs usually float around $0.03/day or $0.40/month for the database alone. I also have to maintain server costs, domain costs, private email costs, and more

What would 1 year of operations costs be for you, all things considered?

Without the attacks, all costs considered rounds up to about $810/yr ($65/mo for my server, $15 for yearly domain registration, $15 for email, and $10 maybe for database costs) however, with attacks inflating costs for Firebase due to excessive logins & reads, that adds $75/mo which adds another $900 annually. Not something I'd ask the public to fund. It's best to solve the problem than succumb and pay.

That's only to mention $75 at the current rate of attacks, if an attacker had more machines they could exponentially inflate these numbers even more

Oh hey wait, are you sure you should've put their Ip and email publicly here? Not trying to accuse you of anything I'm just curious if putting this information could lead to people finding them. It doesn't make sense why somebody would attack a free service like this, I'm genuinly curious why.

Holy crap, dude please set up a patreon or other monthly contribution page. A reward could be as simple as access to a community discord. I admire you for providing a free service, but you don't have to take on that financial burdon to provide it. I know you have a ko-fi link on your page but a $1 per month subscription seems like it could be more reliable than a one-time $10 donation.

Shiiii I thought Chattable was just broken, knowing a bad apple has been DDosing Chattable is just vile... hoping you can find a way to fix this mess, even if it means donating to help!

sorry to hear youve been dealing with hell for no reason besides someone deciding to be malicious. we appreciate your free service dev!

ETA: I have no timeline for this. With a change of work hours last year and a lack of motivation on my days off, paired with the amount of time & effort required to rewrite as much as I need to (to patch the abusable exploit) I just can not faithfully provide an ETA. It could be days, or months.

hi spamton

I think it's jevil pretending to be spamton

wait are we just ignoring the very obvious mettaton

I want to emphasize my commitment to user privacy and will not explicitly allow mods or owners to peek at other people's private conversations.

You won't let me invade people's privacy? How dare you? Lol people are insane

this is so real thoughhh i can never focus on one project for more than like a week at a time

valid af tbh

maybe we all have undiagnosed ADHD

Truth be told, I was diagnosed as a kid but as I grow older I think most ADHD symptoms are symptoms of just being human and that the diagnosis itself was invented to sell pharmaceuticals.

I agree with the comment above me. Moneyyyy, get awaaay.

woah this is so cool :D

neat!