"Mod Security" and you

[Andon]

The webhosting used for these forums runs software called "Mod Security." This software monitors submitted content for forbidden words and phrases. If it finds them, it causes the submission to fail. Sometimes, this can cause a post to fail with a 403: Forbidden error.

If you get this 403: Forbidden error, there is something in your post that tripped Mod Security. Unfortunately, as the website is on shared hosting, the webhost cannot disable it for just us. It's something we have to live with. In the past few years it seems to have become better, but there are still occasional things that will trip it.

The biggest thing that'll trip Mod Security is including more than three links in a post. Beyond that, including discussion of things such as drugs, illicit pictures, and the like may or may not trip it. I can't exactly post a list with specific examples because Mod Security is something running on the server - Even I cannot get around it.

If you get a 403: Forbidden error my suggestion is to hit the 'Back' button, copy and paste your post into Notepad, and then go through it with a fine-toothed comb to see what triggers the Mod Security.

If you want more information on Mod Security, you can visit their website at https://www.modsecurity.org/