[Alex Pepple]

Dear Eratosphereans,

It has been verifiably brought to my attention that Google no longer appears to respect the no-index code that I had hardcoded into the workshop forums' threads (Metrical, Deep End, Non-Metrical, Translation, and Fiction).

I believe this is part of the new age of the AI race, with Google and similar companies ramping up their web scraping by several magnitudes to feed their data-hungry AI machines.

No matter—I've now done what I've always tried to avoid: implemented a members-only policy for viewing the workshop threads. In other words, only logged-in users can now view the thread contents. It's a drastic solution, but it should resolve the issue once and for all—especially by holding in check, at least somewhat, the floodgates of AI companies assaulting the Sphere with thousands of bots scraping it at any given time!

So, just remember: you now need to be logged in to view the contents of the workshop threads. This will also block Google and other indexing bots from accessing and indexing those threads. For now, this limitation applies only to users in the Unregistered/Not Logged In state, but it may be extended to unapproved new registrations if those begin to pose abuse problems.

Cheers,
...Alex

[Glenn Wright]

Thanks for your cyber-vigilance, Alex!

[Alex Pepple]

You're most welcome, Glenn! --Alex

[Hilary Biehl]

It's too bad the situation calls for this, but it does seem like it calls for it. Thanks, Alex.

[Max Goodman]

Thank you, Alex!

[Susan McLean]

Thanks, Alex.

Susan

[Julie Steiner]

I like it.

Of the venues don't agree with our insistence that online workshopping does not make a poem "previously published," many specifically exclude password-protected sites [from that prohibition], and the rest—well, how would they know, unless the editors are also members here?

I will definitely workshop more of my higher-quality poems here, if the password protection remains. Starting today.

[Richard G]

Thanks Alex.

[Alex Pepple]

Great! Thanks, Hilary, Max, Susan, Julie, and Richard.

Given your reactions, I don’t feel quite as bad about this second blow to what was hitherto universal access to Eratosphere. I say “second” because I never got around to announcing the first such limitation I implemented a couple of months ago:

Certain countries are now blocked from accessing Eratosphere. This came about after the site database began crashing repeatedly due to excessive spam and web-scraping bot activity. We had never encountered this issue before the recent surge in aggressive bot scraping driven by the AI arms race. Before that, we’d typically see fewer than a thousand such bots at any given time. Suddenly, that number spiked to over 100,000. Since implementing the country restrictions, the number has dropped to under 10,000—still high, but no longer enough to cause frequent server overloads.

In brief, to better protect our forums from overwhelming botnets and malicious traffic, I’ve recently blocked server access from the following countries: China, Russia, Ukraine, North Korea, Iran, Brazil, Turkey, India, and Vietnam. This measure helps keep Able Muse/Eratosphere stable and secure for our members. If anyone is inadvertently affected, please contact me directly with details so I can review and advise. Also, if you know of any legitimate user from one of those countries, let me know—I may be able to unblock their specific IP address to restore access.

🌍 Banned Countries (via IP-level firewall blocks)

Country Reason
China 🇨🇳 High volume of botnets, scraping, and state-sponsored intrusion attempts
Russia 🇷🇺 Frequent brute-force attacks, spambot floods, and state-level threats
Ukraine 🇺🇦 Surging botnet activity since wartime instability
North Korea 🇰🇵 State-sponsored hacking and malware distribution
Iran 🇮🇷 Persistent malicious traffic and brute-force login attempts
Brazil 🇧🇷 High botnet traffic and DDoS origin points
Turkey 🇹🇷 Spam campaigns, fake account generators
India 🇮🇳 Web scraping, ad click fraud, unsolicited traffic
Vietnam 🇻🇳 Credential stuffing, botnet deployment

As an aside, the USA is actually in the top five for malicious bot activity… but no one bans the USA!

Cheers,
...Alex

[Jim Moonan]

.
Thank you, Alex. I had no idea how vulnerable Erato is to the AI glutton. Thanks for making this safe and secure as possible. Storms are everywhere.

.