Merge branch 'kh/doc-column-markup-fix': The Unyielding Defense Against Automated Web Scrapers

You are seeing this message because the administrator of this website has taken drastic measures to protect their server from the scourge of AI companies that have been aggressively scraping websites. Anubis, a cutting-edge defense system, has been set up to safeguard the site against these malicious activities. This measure may cause downtime for the website, making its resources inaccessible to everyone.

Anubis is not just another security tool; it's a game-changer in the fight against automated web scraping. By employing a Proof-of-Work scheme similar to Hashcash, Anubis makes it exponentially more expensive for AI companies to scrape websites on a large scale. At individual scales, this additional load may seem insignificant, but when mass scrapers are involved, the consequences become dire.

The underlying concept behind Anubis is straightforward: at small scales, the extra load generated by the challenge proof of work page can be ignored, but as the numbers grow, it becomes a significant burden that makes web scraping much more costly. This hack-like solution serves a greater purpose – to delay the inevitable. The real intention of Anubis is to provide a "good enough" placeholder solution, giving developers more time to focus on fingerprinting and identifying headless browsers (like those using font rendering techniques). By doing so, they can avoid presenting users with unnecessary challenges.

However, there's a catch – Anubis requires the use of modern JavaScript features. Unfortunately, plugins like JShelter will disable these features, making it impossible to bypass the challenge without enabling JavaScript. In other words, you must allow JavaScript to get past this hurdle, which is necessary due to the changing social contract around website hosting. For now, a no-JS solution remains a work-in-progress.

It's essential to note that Anubis is not designed to be an ideal or permanent solution but rather a stopgap measure to safeguard the server against AI companies' aggressive scraping activities. The ultimate goal is to create a more robust defense system that doesn't rely on Proof-of-Work schemes, but until then, Anubis will continue to serve as a crucial deterrent.