I’m getting really tired of “verify you’re not a bot” checks everywhere.
I understand these checks help prevent bots, but they seem to appear on so many websites now. Does anyone else find them frustrating?
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2026
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Ah well I'd suggest for Lemmy make sure you're logged in. Many instances will bypass checks if the right cookie is set. Not always the case, as each instance would need to implement the bypass themselves. I'm not sure if Lemmy.world has done this.
On browser at least, lemmy.world -- OP's instance and my own -- only requires a bot check if you're not logged in, even if you're behind a VPN (I am). I never see a bot check unless I am going in via a different browser or device where I am not logged in.
Cool, thanks for confirming.
Bot checks will only be for the website in a browser. Apps connect to the API, and you can't really put a visible check in a silent background request.
The fediverse also is built on computers talking to each other, things like cloudflares bot blocking will sometimes kill federation because ultimately it's bots talking to bots. But it would make no sense to connect to the API for scraping, if you are specifically targeting lemmy by calling its API, then you might as well just make your own instance, and then all the other instances will freely send you everything.
Makes sense. I knew bot traffic is an immense problem but this thread is up to date and has been informative. Thanks for explaining.