509
Based on this graph, and this graph alone, guess at what time I completely blocked OpenAI crawlers
(jlai.lu)
I really hope they die soon, this is unbearable…
this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
509 points (98.8% liked)
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It's best to use either Cloudflare (best IMO) or Anubis.
If you don't want any AI bots, then you can setup Anubis (open source; requires JavaScript to be enabled by the end user): https://github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis
Cloudflare automatically setups robots.txt file to block "AI crawlers" (but you can setup to allow "AI search" for better SEO). Eg: https://blog.cloudflare.com/control-content-use-for-ai-training/#putting-up-a-guardrail-with-cloudflares-managed-robots-txt
Cloudflare also has an option of "AI labyrinth" to serve maze of fake data to AI bots who don't respect robots.txt file.
If you're relying on Cloudflare are you even self-hosting?
Yes if it's tunneled to your self-hosting setup. With CGNAT you have to use similar services if you want to self-host.
If you build a house, but hire a guard for the front gate, do you even own the house?!
If you use DNS at all, do you even own your street address!?!?
Pretty sure I've repeatedly heard about the crawlers completely ignoring robots.txt, so does Cloudflare really do that much?
Like a lock on a door, it stops the vast majority but can't do shit about the actual professional bad guys