Doudlah Farms Website Performance Cleanup & Checkout Issues

Overview

In November 2025, Mark Hope performed a major server cleanup on the Doudlah Farms Organics website, resolving severe performance degradation caused by accumulated log files and bot traffic. The cleanup dramatically improved load times and reduced site size, but inadvertently broke the WooCommerce checkout page, requiring an immediate follow-up fix.

This work was discussed in the ^[1] operations review meeting.

Problem: Pre-Cleanup State

The site had degraded significantly before intervention:

Metric	Before	After
Site size	380 MB	66 MB
Page load time	6s+	< 2s
Database queries per load	~900	< 200
502 errors	Frequent	Resolved

Root cause: Accumulated log files and other non-essential server files were consuming memory, causing the server to return 502 errors under load. Bot traffic was compounding the problem by hammering the checkout endpoint with repeated failed order attempts.

Bot Traffic / Failed Orders

The site was targeted by automated bots running card-testing scams — repeatedly attempting checkout with invalid payment details. This generated hundreds of failed orders and contributed to server overload.

Mitigation steps taken:
1. Removed the gift card product (initial bot target)
2. Bots shifted to popcorn gift boxes — CAPTCHA added
3. Cloudflare Turnstile attempted (insufficient)
4. Alternative CAPTCHA implemented — bogus orders stopped

Cleanup Actions Taken

Deleted accumulated log files and junk server files
Reduced site from 380 MB → 66 MB
Achieved load times under 2 seconds
Reduced database queries from ~900 → under 200 per page load
Resolved 502 / server memory errors

New Issue: Broken Checkout Page

Status: Requires immediate fix.

Post-cleanup, the WooCommerce checkout page is broken — customers attempting to check out encounter a freeze or blank screen at the checkout step. At least one customer reported the issue directly to Mark Doudlah via email.

Mark Hope confirmed he was able to check out the afternoon before the meeting, suggesting the breakage occurred during or after the final cleanup pass.

Likely cause: A plugin conflict or configuration change introduced during the cleanup/CAPTCHA work.

Mark Doudlah also reported being unable to log into the WooCommerce admin panel — a password reset sent by Mark Hope resulted in an unexpected prompt rather than a working login. This needs to be resolved alongside the checkout fix.

Action Items

[ ] Fix WooCommerce checkout page — diagnose and resolve the post-cleanup breakage (@Mark Hope)
[ ] Resolve admin login — investigate the broken password reset flow for Mark Doudlah (@Mark Hope)
[ ] Verify site post-cleanup — full walkthrough of all site functions to catch any other regressions (@Mark Hope)

This cleanup was part of broader website and infrastructure work for Doudlah Farms, which also included:

^[2] — meeting where this was discussed
^[3] — concurrent infrastructure project
^[4]

Generalizable Insight

Server cleanup on WordPress/WooCommerce sites carries regression risk. Removing files, changing CAPTCHA plugins, or modifying .htaccess and caching configurations can silently break checkout flows — which are the highest-value page on an ecommerce site. Any cleanup of this scope should be followed immediately by a full end-to-end checkout test before the session ends.

See also: ^[5] for the broader pattern of card-testing attacks on small ecommerce sites.