Recently, when I post the new #HashTagGames post at 9PM est, it has taken 15 minutes or longer for all instances on the #Fediverse to get it. I determined the reason why is because my #ActivityPub #WordPress enabled site is getting overwhelmed due to the sheer number of instances trying to communicate with us when the game goes out.
I have taken some measures to prevent this and tonight we will see how it goes. If it is still slow, I will continue to tweak things.
Just know, the game is going out on time, the post should arrive shortly each evening, and I will try to get this resolved one way or another.
If you have any tips on ActivityPub and WordPress, let me know at my personal account below.
Your host, @paul
8 responses
@hashtaggames @paul@oldfriends.live @paul@hashtaggames.online thanks for the update!
@hashtaggames @paul@oldfriends.live @paul@hashtaggames.online
Thanks!
@hashtaggames @paul Thank you for explaining the issue. And thank you for the #HashtagGames!
@hashtaggames @paul@oldfriends.live @paul@hashtaggames.online
Regarding the timing, at worst you could schedule it 15m early. FWIW, I rarely see your prompt. I just look to see what the usual suspects are posting.
I guess it's not surprising that #Mastodon has this sort of hub & spoke bottleneck. It suggests a tacit assumption that popular posts originate from larger instances that can more easily handle the load.
@hashtaggames
"Recently, when I post the new #HashTagGames post at 9PM est, it has taken 15 minutes or longer for all instances on the #Fediverse to get it … why is because my #ActivityPub #WordPress enabled site is getting #DDoS due to the sheer number of instances trying to communicate with us when the game goes out."
I often check for details when I see posts like this, in the off-hand chance I might learn something
You seem to be on a single-user host via Namecheap
Assuming you're posting using TCP/IP, each packet you send out to the Fediverse requires an ACK packet in return before it continues, and most transactions involve scores of packets
Have you used something like Wireshark to look at exactly what you're sending out and receiving?
I doubt you're being DDoSsed so much as your very small instance is suddenly talking to tens of thousands of other instances, each one of which is trying to talk back to you all at once
Shorter: the Internet is not instantaneous
cc @paul
@hashtaggames
Also, to look at your instance on Fediverse Observer, your Latency more than doubled between January 2025 and February 2025, from 131.97 to 473-490 ms, and hit a peak of 757 ms on Jan 2026
Most recently: 538 ms @ Mar 2026
Here: https://fediverse.observer/hashtaggames.online
cc @paul
@FinchHaven Thanks. I changed the wording to the post. I just started troubleshooting the issue this morning and did a few things until I can break it down later overnight and troubleshoot more.
I added caching and going to add persistent object caching soon. I also notice php had low memory permissions so it was bottoming out quickly. I fixed that.
The WordPress instance sat idle until mid-February which explains why the jump is Latency.
I'm hosting on a VPS server through Namecheap at this time. Ubuntu 22.04, 12 GB ram, 8 CPU cores.
@HashTagGames
@paul
Good luck with it
Those were just my first, easiest thoughts
Dropped out of network troubleshooting a good long while ago…
cc @hashtaggames