Don't allow guests

[himarry 124]

I am not sure if this has been suggested but if you limited the reading of the forum to being logged in wouldn't this negate the bots?

[GhoulGlitch]

huge support!!! this is my theory as well; ai scrapers likely won't go through the efforts of making an account just to scrape the website so I think it could be a really good way to fight back!

[axelandria]

I just want to say that I know there are lots of people who just browse CS and adopt pets without ever making an account, and some eventually make an account after a while of browsing. People do just like to browse without being logged in.

[Spookattz]

the bots could definitely be partially alleviated if there was some kind of captcha system in place when an account is opened on a cookieless browser

[azemyc]

I just want to say that I know there are lots of people who just browse CS and adopt pets without ever making an account, and some eventually make an account after a while of browsing. People do just like to browse without being logged in.

Unfortunately for the casual guest browsers, no one logged in has given their consent to these bots to scrape data or images for building AI. I have to say that I feel that users' rights to privacy and their data + art overrules the convenience of browsing the forums logged out.

At the very minimum certain boards (roleplays, oekaki, art sections, UMAs, etc) should be locked to log in only if locking all forums isn't possible.

[Shadow17]

i support this, i'm worried for the artists on here. or at least a captcha

[wwwhales]

i also support a captcha to reduce bots!! the trend of AI art has made me worried :c

[Queen Vivane]

I support locking the forums, so non logged in users cannot get access them. If not the entire forums, just the oekaki boards, I've seen too many closed species adopts being put up on pinterest or free png sites. I saw an edited one on some random tiktok account!

[Lunarrmoth]

Definitely support, at the very least the creative forums need to be locked down

[bark]

I just want to say that I know there are lots of people who just browse CS and adopt pets without ever making an account, and some eventually make an account after a while of browsing. People do just like to browse without being logged in.

Unfortunately for the casual guest browsers, no one logged in has given their consent to these bots to scrape data or images for building AI. I have to say that I feel that users' rights to privacy and their data + art overrules the convenience of browsing the forums logged out.

At the very minimum certain boards (roleplays, oekaki, art sections, UMAs, etc) should be locked to log in only if locking all forums isn't possible.

Seconding, I definitely don't consent to having my posts/art being scraped by AI bots. I fear what info of mine is being used...