Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2025 December 26

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December 26

Blocked by Cloudflare

When trying to access the page "Will of Elizabeth Barnard, Shakespeare's granddaughter and his last surviving descendant: original copy" on the website Shakespeare Documented, linked to from the Wikipedia article Shakespeare coat of arms, I get this message from Cloudflare: "Sorry, you have been blocked / You are unable to access folger.edu ... This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data." It also tells me how I can resolve the issue: "You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up". Other links on that page to Shakespeare Documented give the same reaction. So I think this is the message I should send: "Dear site owner, please unblock me. A Sorry you have been blocked page came up when I was trying to access your site. For your information, what I was doing when the message came up was, I was trying to access your site." Now who should I send it to? Who is the site owner and how can they be reached? More seriously, is anything known about what might trigger such an excessive display of security?  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:00, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I have just browsed successfully to that URL (from UK, no VPN, Chrome on Windows 11). At the foot of the page, it states: "FOR ANY QUESTIONS OR INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT SHAKESPEAREDOCUMENTED@FOLGER.EDU". On other pages at folger.edu, the email address webmaster@folger.edu is given for various subscription and privacy issues. -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 16:47, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

@Lambiam For your last question: it's up to the web developer who configured Cloudflare's firewall most probably - nothing you can control directly and nothing you did wrong. Many administrators (or their managers) decide on overzealous policies. You can suggest that to them in the email and give them your IP address which might help them diagnose the issue (if you are comfortable associating your IP address with your email and identity).

What I usually do is not bother with that, and use workarounds such as: a different VPN or the Internet Archive or archive.today -- or even put the page into Google Translate, which sometimes gets past the block. Another possible workaround without contacting the web admin is to change your own IP address, which might not work even if you manage to do that (because you might be blocked based on the subnet or autonomous system of the ISP). How to change your IP address (and whether it's possible) depends completely on your ISP. For me, mine changes if I change my router's MAC address (be careful) and restart the router & cable modem. Komonzia (talk) 09:16, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. If the block can be based on nothing I did, but solely the IP address, Cloudflare's "The action you just performed" is not only uninformative but downright misleading.  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:19, 1 January 2026 (UTC)