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There's a lot of creative ideas out there for banning and/or harassing bots. There's tarpits, infinite labyrinths, proof of work || regular challenges, honeypots etc.

Most of the bots I've come across are fairly dumb however, and those are pretty easy to detect & block. I usually use CrowdSec (https://www.crowdsec.net/), and with it you also get to ban the IPs that misbehave on all the other servers that use it before they come to yours. I've also tried turnstile for web pages (https://www.cloudflare.com/application-services/products/tur...) and it seems to work, though I imagine most such products would, as again most bots tend to be fairly dumb.

I'd personally hesitate to do something like serving a zip bomb since it would probably cost the bot farm(s) less than it would cost me, and just banning the IP I feel would serve me better than trying to play with it, especially if I know it's misbehaving.

Edit: Of course, the author could state that the satisfaction of seeing an IP 'go quiet' for a bit is priceless - no arguing against that



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