Re: <nettime> Seeking alternatives: Artistic portfolio infrastructure against AI scraping and platform enclosure

[Geoffrey Goodell via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Dear jfgg

What problem are you trying to solve?

---

If it is hosting some static public web pages without mass commercial servers,
then why not host it yourself, either on your own hardware (in your home,
office, or colocation facility) or even in a rented VPS (for example, one
provided by OVH, which is admittedly commercial, but not really like the
examples you mentioned)?

If the problem is that you do not want to pay anything to anyone and still host
content, then you can always go to a cafe with free Wifi and fire up a web
server on a laptop running a Tor onion service.  You can even use a random MAC
address.

---

If it is about sharing content with people that you authorise, then how about
Nextcloud?  Nextcloud offers a user-friendly interface for ordinary filesharing,
including permissioned accounts, anonymous uploading, and even polls, forms, and
live editing.  Maybe solutions like this will gain adoption after France
transitions away from Microsoft and Google solutions:

https://tech-insider.org/france-ditches-windows-linux-2-5-million-devices-digital-sovereignty-2026/

I note that you can also run Nextcloud on a webserver as a Tor onion service in
the hypothetical cafe above.

---

If it is about avoiding web-scraping bots, then consider that bots are
ultimately just agents of humans.  Anything that we do that can be described as
an algorithm can be automated, including visiting web pages, so web scraping
bots are ultimately just a part of life.  Proprietary mechanisms, such as
browser detection and fingerprinting employed by content distribution networks,
such as Cloudflare and others, with the purpose of reducing access by web
scraping bots, are among the key services that large platforms with proprietary
solutions provide.  In many ways, stopping bots is precisely the service that
web administrators are paying CDNs to do, particularly in an era when ordinary
hosting (including self-hosting) is so cheap.

If your concern about bots is that you want to know who is looking at your
website, then there is really nothing strategic you can do other than put it
behind an authentication portal, or participate in an arms race that is
ultimately unwinnable.

But if your concern is really only about denial-of-service attacks, then there
are two approaches.  One is to use a rate-limiting mechanism (which probably
means something horrible like proof of work, or certainly proof of consuming or
staking some external resource).  The other is to not have a web page with fancy
server-side scripts that are subject to amplification attacks.  The choice is
yours.

Best wishes and thanks again --

Geoff

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 at 08:00:46AM +0000, tt.garnet282--- via nettime-l wrote:
> Hello Nettime community,
> 
> I am currently reflecting on the material conditions of digital artists in the age of generative AI and platform capitalism. Specifically, I am looking for alternative network protocols to host and give visibility to a personal artistic portfolio while actively evading automated scraping bots and mass commercial servers (M, A, G, A, etc.).While tools like Glaze or Nightshade offer data-poisoning defenses at the file level, I am interested in exploring infrastructural resistance. I have been looking into the "Small Web" and decentralized alternatives (p2p, Gemini, Gopher, etc.).
> 
> Does anyone have a similar experience?, Do you know any appropriate network for this?, What other protocols or low-tech alternative networks are artists currently deploying to reclaim control over their digital spaces?, What do you think? I look forward to hearing your insights, projects, and critical perspectives. Thank you very much!
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> jfgg
> -- 
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# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
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# contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org