100 members and 36729 guest(s) online.

[hermosabeach]

is it me.... or are the bots farming this site....

[saudadeii]

Hmmm.. a bunch must be on vacation. I've seen over 80.000 guests at times. Only 18,644 as I post this.

[Garv]

111 and 76969

time to require membership?

[Gravelman]

I always assumed the anti 2A people were bombing this place. They don’t like free speech, the 2A, organized opposition to their agenda, etc..

Anything to keep the information available and the site stable and viable is a good thing

[Nego]

I always assumed the anti 2A people were bombing this place. They don’t like free speech, the 2A, organized opposition to their agenda, etc..

Anything to keep the information available and the site stable and viable is a good thing

yeah I would agree with that sentiment

[foothillman]

111 and 76969

time to require membership?

If CalGuns could hide the majority of site would that reduce the BOTS?
Maybe have only 3-4 viewable as a guest.
OT can not be viewed by guest.

[Kyle1886]

As we have mention in other threads, membership only or hiding certain forums locks out "lukers" that so many us were before we joined. I'm not going to join a forum unseen, and if info is hidden how will I know if there is anything worth joining for?

Just a thought, I don't have an answer to the "bot" issue.

Kyle

[foothillman]

As we have mention in other threads, membership only or hiding certain forums locks out "lukers" that so many us were before we joined. I'm not going to join a forum unseen, and if info is hidden how will I know if there is anything worth joining for?

Just a thought, I don't have an answer to the "bot" issue.

Kyle

I get it but if the other site is having problems and they are running the newest/best/constantly updated................

[Kyle1886]

^^^
I still stand by my comment above.

Kyle

[MyOdessa]

Most places, including forums, these days require some sort of capcha to prove that you are human and not a bot. This allows you to visit and read forums anonymously. It does not require membership, usually just a click to check mark on empty box. It does require you to allow cookies.

I don't see why Calguns.net doesn't implement such check to filter out bots.

[user120312]

I was curious so asked the internet what it thought the most popular gun forum was and it told me AR15.com was and, never having visited there, I took a look. Here's the last page of their version of the 'help' thread CG has for distressed readers/members and I read page 83 no problem as a nobody.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/...14606/&page=83

I'll post a thumbnail of the capture, not identifying anyone overtly.

Screenshot 2026-08-30 at 7.04.16 PM.png

I took a look at Similarweb and it ranks AR15.com as number 5 in hunting and fishing and the view metrics support that, with monthly visits in the millions.

Long ago, when this forum was regularly erroring out, I suggested putting the entire forum behind a login screen so only registered members could read and post. Of course, modern bots can easily register and defeat most captcha and cloudflare type scenarios.

I did find it remarkable that the purveyor of open discourse and the sharing of information, Elon Musk, only this past week put X behind an account screen and threatened sites which aggregated X content with legal action. Someone else might've written the legal notices and pushed the buttons but the buck stops with him.

So, go with Elon or with AR-15 or try something different?

[user120312]

Noticed some sluggishness, forex this page taking between 8-10 seconds to do something after the link to it was clicked, and looked down to see our friendly horde of visitors has returned...

Screenshot 2026-09-17 at 9.30.47 PM.png

Uploading the above image wasn't too bad, not much off normal but the rest is slow.