So I guess I'm famous now :)

https://www.heise.de/en/news/AI-bots-paralyze-Linux-news-site-and-others-10252162.html

To be clear, LWN has never "crashed" as a result of this onslaught. We'll not talk about what happened after I pushed up some code trying to address it...

Most seriously, though: I'm surprised that this situation is surprising to anybody at this point. This is a net-wide problem, it surely is not limited to free-software-oriented sites. But if the problem is starting to get wider attention, that is fine with me...
@corbet So, what's the downside to going login-only? Most social media and news sites are like that these days. Pure nostalgia for the wide-open Internet is not a good enough reason. We used to have http: at one point too, but we moved on. Do you reap anything from that openness?
Follow

@pro
I guess you mean log-in to read even for non-subscribers. Something like a Hubzilla site. Maybe invite-only like lobste.rs' posting requirement, but even for reading.
@corbet
How would/do captchas like type-in-the-number-in-the-image or do-this-simple-arithmetic-in-the-image do as deterrents?

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.