I just published a blog post summing up my most pertinent thoughts about dealing with badly-behaved web-scraping bots:

https://cryptography.dog/blog/AI-scrapers-request-commented-scripts/

It isn't exactly a Hallowe'en-themed article, but today is the 31st and the topic is concerned with pranking people who come knocking on my website's ports, so it's somewhat appropriate.

#infosec #bots #halloween #scrapers #AI #someMoreHashtagsHere

3% of requests to www.bbc.co.uk & www.bbc.com have a `user-agent` of OKHttp.

Part of that 3% is a single IP in Turkey which is making nearly 3 million request per day using OKHttp on it's own.

Being on the internet is fun.

#WebStats #WebDev #BBC #Bots #WhoRuinedTheInternet

3% of requests to www.bbc.co.uk & www.bbc.com have a `user-agent` of OKHttp.

Part of that 3% is a single IP in Turkey which is making nearly 3 million request per day using OKHttp on it's own.

Being on the internet is fun.

#WebStats #WebDev #BBC #Bots #WhoRuinedTheInternet

"Musk’s latest feature on X has had some shocking and unintended consequences.

Starting Friday, X users were able to use a new 'about this account' feature to see what country accounts were based in. And for many 'America First' posters, this revealed an inconvenient truth…."

Namely that many of these MAGA accounts operate from Russia, Nigeria, India, Thailand, and other countries….

~ Rachel Kahn

#trolls #MAGA #bots
/1

https://newrepublic.com/post/203562/maga-trolls-elon-musk-x-new-feature

"Musk’s latest feature on X has had some shocking and unintended consequences.

Starting Friday, X users were able to use a new 'about this account' feature to see what country accounts were based in. And for many 'America First' posters, this revealed an inconvenient truth…."

Namely that many of these MAGA accounts operate from Russia, Nigeria, India, Thailand, and other countries….

~ Rachel Kahn

#trolls #MAGA #bots
/1

https://newrepublic.com/post/203562/maga-trolls-elon-musk-x-new-feature

@Codeberg my problem ain't #scrapers - otherwise I'd #SelfHost my stuff in my own home LAN - but rather #bots flooding #Issues and #PullRequests with garbage.

• Cuz I do expect #bots to scrape #FLOSS which I permissively licensed...

The problem I dread is once people start abusing their " #AI" #bullshit and #FloodTheZoneWithShit aka. " #AIslop" for no good reason.

• Kinda like @bagder had to deal with "AI" slop #SecurityReports that didn't even try to show #ProofOfConcept or actually evidence their claims in a scientifically reproduceable fashion but merely wasted lifetime of maintainers!

And @Erpel 's original issue is just that: #spam in the #IssueTracker...

@Erpel because the spammers are assholes?

• I wished @Codeberg had some #AI #bot / #blocklist feature to flatout block #spammers and #bots cuz given the fact that #GitHub refuses to allow blocking #Copilot, this may be the straw to move the projects over there if I can't be assed to #SelfHost and merely abude GitHub as a #CDN!

• Which I certainly would intent…

You all know what to do when you hear the magic word, right?

https://botwiki.org/bot/conky-3000/

Follow: https://beep.town/@conky_3000

#bots #CreativeBots #CreativeCoding #fediverse

You all know what to do when you hear the magic word, right?

https://botwiki.org/bot/conky-3000/

Follow: https://beep.town/@conky_3000

#bots #CreativeBots #CreativeCoding #fediverse

Messing with Scraper Bots

https://herman.bearblog.dev/messing-with-bots/

#HackerNews #Messing #with #Scraper #Bots #tech #news #web #scraping #security #bots

How to spot a nonconsensual porn account:

0. They're posting photos/clips of *someone else*.

1. They're not part of the community (they don't reply to posts, and they're hardly following anyone).

2. They do a *lot* of hashtag stuffing (30+ hashtags, and they're all NSFW).

3. They post nudes with no credit or attribution (some provide a nod to the model or site, but no links to support them).

4. They don't provide alt-text (because, again, they don't care about community or accessibility).

5. They have wording like "I don't claim to own any of the images I post", and "DM me to have photo removed".

6. They have account names like "XXXPornBot", "Hot4Dick", or "BigNaturals".

7. Their profile photo looks like it was scraped from OnlyFans (and probably was).

8. They post porn photos/clips *prolifically* (and the format is nearly identical).

If you see accounts displaying these behaviors, please report them. They're stealing other people's work and posting photos of their nude bodies without the subject's' consent. It's wrong, and in many places, illegal.

Mods like actionable reports, so be sure to tag appropriate posts and leave a note like "Reposting porn without subject's consent", so we can quickly determine the best course of action.

Lastly, if you like porn, support original content by local creators. There's plenty of it if you look,nand who knows, maybe you'll find some awesome folx and help build a better Fedi in the process.

#DamnTheBotsSaveTheBoobies #SexWorkIsWork #SaveSexySelfies #Porn #Bots #Admins #Moderation

Hey Canadian data nerds! Anyone know of an open data source for flight delay/departure/arrival data for Canadian airports?

#bots #airports #canada #Data

Hey Canadian data nerds! Anyone know of an open data source for flight delay/departure/arrival data for Canadian airports?

#bots #airports #canada #Data

How to spot a nonconsensual porn account:

0. They're posting photos/clips of *someone else*.

1. They're not part of the community (they don't reply to posts, and they're hardly following anyone).

2. They do a *lot* of hashtag stuffing (30+ hashtags, and they're all NSFW).

3. They post nudes with no credit or attribution (some provide a nod to the model or site, but no links to support them).

4. They don't provide alt-text (because, again, they don't care about community or accessibility).

5. They have wording like "I don't claim to own any of the images I post", and "DM me to have photo removed".

6. They have account names like "XXXPornBot", "Hot4Dick", or "BigNaturals".

7. Their profile photo looks like it was scraped from OnlyFans (and probably was).

8. They post porn photos/clips *prolifically* (and the format is nearly identical).

If you see accounts displaying these behaviors, please report them. They're stealing other people's work and posting photos of their nude bodies without the subject's' consent. It's wrong, and in many places, illegal.

Mods like actionable reports, so be sure to tag appropriate posts and leave a note like "Reposting porn without subject's consent", so we can quickly determine the best course of action.

Lastly, if you like porn, support original content by local creators. There's plenty of it if you look,nand who knows, maybe you'll find some awesome folx and help build a better Fedi in the process.

#DamnTheBotsSaveTheBoobies #SexWorkIsWork #SaveSexySelfies #Porn #Bots #Admins #Moderation

How to spot a nonconsensual porn account:

0. They're posting photos/clips of *someone else*.

1. They're not part of the community (they don't reply to posts, and they're hardly following anyone).

2. They do a *lot* of hashtag stuffing (30+ hashtags, and they're all NSFW).

3. They post nudes with no credit or attribution (some provide a nod to the model or site, but no links to support them).

4. They don't provide alt-text (because, again, they don't care about community or accessibility).

5. They have wording like "I don't claim to own any of the images I post", and "DM me to have photo removed".

6. They have account names like "XXXPornBot", "Hot4Dick", or "BigNaturals".

7. Their profile photo looks like it was scraped from OnlyFans (and probably was).

8. They post porn photos/clips *prolifically* (and the format is nearly identical).

If you see accounts displaying these behaviors, please report them. They're stealing other people's work and posting photos of their nude bodies without the subject's' consent. It's wrong, and in many places, illegal.

Mods like actionable reports, so be sure to tag appropriate posts and leave a note like "Reposting porn without subject's consent", so we can quickly determine the best course of action.

Lastly, if you like porn, support original content by local creators. There's plenty of it if you look,nand who knows, maybe you'll find some awesome folx and help build a better Fedi in the process.

#DamnTheBotsSaveTheBoobies #SexWorkIsWork #SaveSexySelfies #Porn #Bots #Admins #Moderation