Merging Branch 'lo/json-writer-docs': Understanding the Anubis Protection Measure
The administrator of this website has implemented a security measure to protect against AI-powered scrapers that have been aggressively targeting websites, resulting in downtime and inaccessible resources for users. This compromise is known as Anubis, a Proof-of-Work scheme designed to make mass scraping more expensive while still allowing individual-scale scraping with minimal impact.
The idea behind Anubis is to create an additional hurdle for AI companies that attempt to scrape websites en masse, making it more costly and time-consuming for them to do so. At the individual scale, however, this added load is negligible, making the system "good enough" for legitimate users. The real purpose of Anubis lies in its ability to provide a precursor to fingerprinting and identifying headless browsers – technologies that enable AI companies to render fonts and other graphical elements without rendering them manually.
For Anubis to work effectively, it requires the use of modern JavaScript features. However, plugins like JShelter have been known to disable these features, making it difficult for users to access certain websites. As a result, it is essential to disable JShelter and other similar plugins when visiting this website.
"Unfortunately, users must enable JavaScript to bypass the Anubis challenge," the administrator notes. "This measure is necessary due to changes in how AI companies have renegotiated the social contract around website hosting." While a no-JS solution remains a work-in-progress, the implementation of Anubis serves as an interim step to protect against abuse and ensure that users have access to essential resources.
By understanding the purpose and mechanics behind Anubis, we can better appreciate its role in safeguarding websites from malicious activity. As the online landscape continues to evolve, measures like Anubis will become increasingly important in maintaining a balance between accessibility and security.