ScribLink · Stage Two · In development

One permanent link per image, and a record of everyone who opens it.

scrib.link/a7f2k9 Live
Time Requester Verdict
14:02:11 A person, in BerlinSafari 17 Allowed
14:01:56 Google's image crawlerGooglebot-Image Obeyed
13:58:04 A script, not a browserpython-requests/2.31 Ignored rules
13:57:49 Same network, 4th visit178.62.4.x · hosting provider Trapped
13:55:20 Didn't say who it wasno user agent Watching

Decision one

What kind of visitor is this?

Every visit to your link is checked — what it claims to be, where it came from, whether it obeyed your rules — and filed as one of four, with a timestamp.

Verdict
What gave them away
They get
A person
A real browser, behaving like someone looking at a picture.
The image
A bot that asked first
It read the rules you publish for crawlers, and stuck to them.
The image, logged
A bot that didn't
It went where your rules said not to, or opened a file only a scraper would look for.
Whatever you choose, below
Not sure yet
Too little to go on. Kept under watch, grouped with visits from the same network.
The image, for now

Decision two

And what should it get?

For the visitors you refuse, five responses, mildest first. Per image or across your whole library.

Response
What they get instead
When to use it
Cost to them

Turn them away

A flat refusal, straight away.

The default. Clear about what happened.

Send them nonsense

A broken file instead of your picture.

When you'd rather spoil their copy than say no out loud.

Swap in a notice

A picture that reads "this image was scraped".

When the copy ends up somewhere public.

Send them in circles

A chase that never arrives anywhere.

For bots that keep retrying after a refusal.

Slow them to a crawl

A download so slow it never finishes.

Repeat offenders. Ties up their machine, not just yours.

Every rule takes an expiry date, so nothing you switch on is permanent. Named for what they are in the settings: block, garbage, decoy, redirect loop, tarpit.

What's in the box

Permanent short links

A scrib.link URL per image that never changes, wherever you paste it.

Compliance reports

Which crawlers respected the rules you publish for them, which didn't, and when.

Traps, already set

Files only a scraper would go looking for. Open one and the block applies itself.

Block by visitor, address, or network

One image or your whole library, each rule with its own expiry date.

Live and historical views

A running traffic stream, per-image analytics, and worst-offender lists.

90-day retention

Long enough to spot a pattern, short enough that we're not hoarding your data.

Nothing here works if you can't see the traffic

Blocking is the easy half. The hard half is knowing which requests deserve it — which is why the log comes first and the defences come second.

ScribLink is in development. The form at the top of this page is the Scribbiter updates list — the same one ScribShield uses, so you only need to be on it once.