At work I was asked by a different team how we can deal with bots, because someone in my team remembered that I knew how to do it.

I reluctantly suggested Anubis because I got shit for it last time, This is the URL https://anubis.techaro.lol/

This is the 2nd and last time I will ever recommend Anubis anywhere at work to deal with bots because of how unprofessional, un-serious and weird others perceive it.

image
The mascot being a ~10 year old "cutsie" anime cat girl is weird in a work setting.
I will never put myself in a situation again where I have to explain that it's not weird to anyone again, same for that URL.

What is a professional looking open-source alternative to Anubis?

Edit: No I can't just send my colleges here https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper The issue is they find the Mascot and domain weird, they will still run into both.

My Goal: Recommend a Open-Source bot protection tool

The Issue: When I send my coworkers to https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper they find the mascot and URL weird.

Result: They don't see Anubis as a serious tool and turn away from it

What is a professional looking open-source alternative to Anubis?

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[–] [M] 31 points 4 days ago

I want to remind everyone to keep on topic. Disparaging people for whatever reason is not on topic.

If you see something problematic, please report rather than respond. Your comment in response will be nuked along with the original problem comment.

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  • [–] 41 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    The Issue: When I send my coworkers to https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper they find the mascot and URL weird.

    You've decided without listening to the responses

    https://botstopper.net/

    Botstopper doesn't have the .lol domain, and doesn't use the anime cat girl splash

    It's not even expensive

    You don't have to tell your peers it is just a rebadged version of the same website, just say "look I've found another one that does the same thing but without the domain and splashscreen probs you complained about"

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  • [–] 25 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    It's like homophobia, but whimsyfunphobia

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    [–] 203 points 5 days ago (39 children)

    Well you can pay 50 USD / month to remove the anime jackal girl and apply your own branding. I think its a fair system: hobby & FOSS projects don't have to mind being cringe and profit-oriented operations that need to look professional can spare some of their profit for this cool service.

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    [–] 160 points 5 days ago (5 children)

    I think people are right that the solution here isn't to try a different project.

    Instead of being confrontational about it, though, I'd recommend a different aproach.

    evelyn: .lol 😜

    you: I know! I know. The branding is pretty silly. But this really is the right tool for the task. Unesco and Wikimedia use it. And we can do our own branding for $50/month. 🤷

    A lot can be fixed by just acknowledging people. They're trying to evaluate something they don't understand, and having a reaction. It's not even unreasonable. The right thing to do is just acknowledge and move on.

    Usually that's all it takes. Don't let yourself be embarrassed when you're being reasonable. If they won't move on, that's the point where I start thinking about job applications somewhere else.

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    [–] 66 points 4 days ago (5 children)

    The type of folks who avoid Anubis because of the mascot don't deserve good bot protection anyway. Its like reverse gate keeping, the corpo dorks filter themselves out.

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    [–] 19 points 4 days ago (8 children)

    they see a mascot that dont like and then dont use that software because that? how unprofessional

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  • [–] 54 points 4 days ago (4 children)

    If you want serious and professional: Pay for it!

    If you want it free, you get the anime girl.

    This is an exclusive choice.

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    [–] 25 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    The mascot is part of the repellent. It will repeal the tech and finance bros.

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    [–] 79 points 5 days ago (21 children)

    @Ek-Hou-Van-Braai Hi, tomska's law is in play and I have been linked this thread. I am the Anubis dev. I am having my agent work on a soulless generic corporate website for BotStopper with one of the most painfully boring layouts imaginable, including a random WebGL effect on the homepage for no reason.

    I couldn't get a .com so I hope the corporate drones you work with will not balk at the sheer horror of a .net domain.

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  • [–] 27 points 5 days ago

    Just wanted to chime in and say that OP's experience is exactly how it would go down at my workplace too, despite the deluge of downvotes they're getting, and I also likely would have looked at alternatives instead of proposing it, for the sake of my professional reputation. I think it's likely true for a ton of people.

    That's not to say that people aren't being over-serious if they see the original branding and balk at it, but that's out of OP's hands.

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    [–] 100 points 5 days ago (4 children)

    Anubis is not out to make money, as such it has absolutely no obligation to try to appeal to corpos who would use it without contributing back to it.

    Either your coworkers have to get over their hangups (have they not noticed that some of the best software that exists is made by furries?) or you'll have to re-implement something yourselves.

    Anubis is open source. You COULD fork it and modify it for your own purposes.

    If your coworkers can't separate what a piece of software is able to do from how it is branded, that's their problem.

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    [–] 6 points 3 days ago*

    I get it that you want to be a worker with a good idea, but after that reaction, I would not give a fuck anymore about what this company needs.

    I worked at 'company' once that felt bad because it used Blender, not an expensive 3D software, so they bought 3DsMax license only for it to lie down and being unused, but the boss ego was a bit less scratched by using Free stuff. Like those people are fucked up.

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  • [–] 87 points 5 days ago* (6 children)

    "Look, we don't need to use Photoshop for our shop. There's an open source option that matches our use case perfectly."

    "What's it called?"

    "Gnu Image Manipulation Program."

    "That's an awfully long name. They should have a shorter one that's less of a mouthful to say."

    "...they do not."

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    [–] 20 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    OP, anubis is not a catgirl. She is a jackalgirl.

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    [–] 11 points 3 days ago

    This is the 2nd and last time I will ever recommend Anubis anywhere at work to deal with bots because of how unprofessional, un-serious and weird others perceive it.

    tell them its professional enough for kernel.org, qemu.org, the freedesktop gitlab server and several other serious software projects.

    but I understand it. I just find tye priorities funny.

    what kind of company is this? do you believe your work benefits the public? if yes, have a look at gandalf from nerdvpn, but I guess they'll laugh just the same. if no, you are better off not recommending them effective bot blockers.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 days ago

    I install gimp on my work PC. Anubis isn't weird enough.

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  • [–] 40 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (15 children)

    the insane smugness and inability to comprehend that money isnt everything for the creator is astounding "Waaahhh Anubis isn't gonna get my money cus they chose to look UNPROFESSIONAL" this is why everyone hates corpo guys

    edit: I forgot to add the comments elsewhere downright accusing the creator of being a pedo for having an anime furry mascot yeah you guys arent subtle at all

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  • [–] 37 points 4 days ago

    There is a debranded version you can pay for

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  • [–] 63 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    I also find the logo weird. They call it Anubis, but use an anime girl instead of a sexy, shirtless jackal man like Neferu.

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    [–] 67 points 5 days ago (4 children)

    I imagine Anubis looking like that is because professional settings really should sponsor when using open source.
    https://anubis.techaro.lol/docs/admin/botstopper/
    https://github.com/sponsors/Xe

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    [–] 20 points 4 days ago

    Life is too short to be all serious all the time, love Anubis logo!

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  • [–] 56 points 5 days ago* (7 children)

    Look, you suggested software that does the job. The issue is not the software, its that your colleagues are being dismissive and disrespectful.

    Instead of looking for other alternatives, you need to be more assertive in your job and career. Tell them you offered an option that does the job and if they have better options its on them to offer them. And also tell them you dont appreciate "lol" as a response to a work suggestion.

    Scrambling to find an alternative because your work colleagues are too immature or arrogant to get past an animal character really doea not reflect well on you. Instead you can tell them the company can pay a small amount to have their own branding, or they can go with a more expensive option like cloudflare, just because they can't be bothered to engage with the cheaper option.

    But whatever you do, do not accept this dismissive treatment by your colleagues. You're just setting the standard that they can just laugh at you and insult you. That is the unprofessional behaviour by them, not some projects mascot. Do not tolerate that BS.

    You've been perfectly williing to argumentative with people here. Apply that attitude to your colleagues who are the real issue.

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    [–] 38 points 5 days ago

    2026

    mistrusting a firewall because of a changeable anime catgirl when there's technofascist executing and leading technofascism on IT all abroad

    Your teammates are stupid (not to mention they are probably projecting their own fetishes, denialists and negationists are like that) and they deserve to be derided. Changing the logo of a program these days is, like, two lines in a script.

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  • [–] 53 points 5 days ago (17 children)
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    [–] 32 points 5 days ago

    "You can change the logo bruh"

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  • https://codeberg.org/wheresalice/go-away
    Even if you didn't have the issues with branding, this is just generally better than Anubis.

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  • [–] 22 points 4 days ago (4 children)

    Your work environment is bad if they are so easily distracted by branding and can't deal with 'unporfessional' and 'weird' things.

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  • [–] 26 points 4 days ago (3 children)

    Brother I hear you, I do. The problem isn't the workplace, the problem is that some people will find this unprofessional enough to bitch. Any public facing anything for any company will be heavily scrutinized by a subset of people who actively look for things to bitch about.

    The professional, whitewashed and soulless veneer on every professional website is the direct result of hoards of bored idiots with nothing better to do than bitch about any perceived insult, however slight. You either have an organization that absolutely revels in it, or you end up with the same safe corporate bullshit everyone else has.

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  • [–] 27 points 5 days ago (4 children)

    Sounds like you need to explain the difference between a serious tool and a serious looking tool. They can frump about it being weird but it is the foss option.

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