Merge branch 'ds/maintenance-loose-objects-batchsize': The Unseen Battle Against AI Scraping

You're seeing this page because the administrator of this website has taken measures to protect its server against the threat of aggressive scraping by AI companies. This is a necessary compromise, as it ensures that the website remains accessible to everyone.

Anubis, the system in place, uses a Proof-of-Work scheme inspired by Hashcash to deter mass scrapers. The idea behind this solution may seem counterintuitive at first – after all, individual users shouldn't be significantly affected by the added load. However, when it comes to AI companies scraping websites on a massive scale, Anubis's cost-benefit analysis is starkly different.

By making the challenge proof of work page require JavaScript, Anubis aims to weed out legitimate users who might otherwise be served this page unnecessarily. This is an important step in fingerprinting and identifying headless browsers – those stealthy browser types that can load web pages without displaying any visible content.

However, there's a catch: Anubis requires modern JavaScript features to function, which means plugins like JShelter will need to be disabled for this domain. Disabling such plugins is essential because no-JS solutions are still in the works and wouldn't provide adequate security against AI scrapers.

Ultimately, Anubis represents a temporary fix – a placeholder solution that allows developers more time to work on fingerprinting techniques and identifying headless browsers. The challenge remains: how can websites protect themselves against AI-powered scraping without sacrificing user experience or usability?

Takeaways:

• Anubis uses a Proof-of-Work scheme inspired by Hashcash to deter mass scrapers.
• Individual users shouldn't be significantly affected by Anubis's added load, but AI companies scraping websites on a large scale is a different story.
• JShelter and other similar plugins must be disabled for this domain to work around Anubis's challenges.
• No-JS solutions are still in the works, so developers need time to refine their techniques.

This unseen battle between website administrators and AI companies highlights the ongoing struggle to find a balance between security and usability. As technology evolves, it will be interesting to see how Anubis adapts and whether its compromise proves effective in protecting websites from harm.