*KICKS DOOR DOWN*

Hey everyone! Hate AI web crawlers? Have some spare CPU cycles you want to use to punish them?

Meet Nepenthes!

https://zadzmo.org/code/nepenthes

This little guy runs nicely on low power hardware, and generates an infinite maze of what appear to be static files with no exit links. Web crawlers will merrily hop right in and just .... get stuck in there! Optional randomized delay to waste their time and conserve your CPU, optional markovbabble to poison large language models.
Nepenthes - ZADZMO.org

Making web crawlers eat shit since 2023

@aaron @bersl2 this is like barrier mazes in ghost in the shell
@oceanotter @bersl2 LOL never thought of it that way, but yes!
@aaron @bersl2 that's so freaking cool. It's even being used in the same way it would be in the show.
@aaron @bersl2 the offensive method is almost functioning like an attack barrier too. Neat!
@oceanotter @aaron Not almost. It *is* an intended DoS counter-attack that they're describing there.