This may end up being a controversial change but I had to do something to fight the explosion in database load lately:
API calls (that is, JSON/XML requests) to post listings are now throttled on a per IP address basis, limited to 1 call per second. If you try to make calls more often than this you'll get a blank 503 page.
Someone keeps attempting searches like source:http://img35.pixiv.net/img/shikishima_e/21274264* which unfortunately is fairly slow. It's spread across multiple IP addresses which makes me think this isn't some isolated service just leeching the site.
For this reason, post XML/JSON feeds are now restricted to members only. An easy way is to just pass in login and password_hash params along with your GET request.
Provided you are authenticated, I've removed the request throttle, although please still limit your request rate.
Someone keeps attempting searches like source:http://img35.pixiv.net/img/shikishima_e/21274264* which unfortunately is fairly slow. It's spread across multiple IP addresses which makes me think this isn't some isolated service just leeching the site.
I'm sorry to ask, but to those of us who only use the site for commenting and browsing purposes, and who are oblivious to all the terminology of the site scripts and what-not. What does this mean for us?
This is fantastic. For months now I haven't been able to perform any sort of in-depth tag searches (say, searching my favorites for more than one tag), and now I can. No more timeouts, no more failures.
As far as I'm concerned this is a hugely positive change for actual site usage.
I noticed that I can call APIs with an incorrect password hash. Then I experimented a bit and found out that feeding a username that doesn't exist doesn't affect API calls either. It this intentional or a bug?