this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Have you considered alternatives to Cloudflare? (programming.dev)
submitted 3 weeks ago by xianjam@programming.dev to c/meta@programming.dev
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Hi there, I wouldn't be making this post if I saw another one about it, but...

I both dislike centralization and nonfree Javascript. I believe the spirit of Lemmy embraces both ideals, however, Cloudflare both promotes a centralized internet that requires the execution of nonfree scripts to interact with it. I understand that bots (epsecially LLM powered) are a pervasive issue that plagues this (and many other) communities. I also understand that being logged-in prevents the requirement of using Cloudflare's captcha, so that only a one-time login is required, although I'm constantly blocking requests to cloudflareinsignts.com.

Finally, I understand that I the alternatives are not necessarily effective, although it seems to work for many projects. I'm not saying other solutions are better for short or medium term, but I was wondering if the management were planning on eventually replacing it.

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[–] Feyter@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

OK, if there is a monopolistic instance between you and the rest of the world that decides who can reach you and who not and you are depending on that single monopolistic instance, I think we all agree that this is a bad thing.

Potential threads from this are (but not limited to):

  • cloudflare going up in price and you have to take it.
  • cloudflare is blocking or restricting access to your page, because of political dispute.
  • cloudflare collects meta data to reconstruct user behavior and social relationship and uses it to pressure individuals.
[–] lysdexic@programming.dev 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

OK, if there is a monopolistic instance between you and the rest of the world that decides who can reach you

It's the site owners who are rolling out anti-abuse systems. They picked a vendor to meet their needs. I don't think Cloudflare put a gun to their heads to force them to onboard their services. Do you?

Potential threads from this are (but not limited to):

You mean "hypothetical", not "potential".

Meaning, they are imaginary scenarios, and they represent the worst case you could think of.

You need to ask site owners what is their policy for these hypothetical scenarios you invented. On a technical side, removing anti-abuse protection is all it takes to fix it. This means that no action is required to address any of your hypothetical concerns.

[–] Feyter@programming.dev 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I really don't know what you are aiming for...

Concerns about cloudflare becoming an issue are totally valid. Good day.

[–] lysdexic@programming.dev -1 points 3 weeks ago

I really don’t know what you are aiming for…

If you need anyone to spell it out to you, you are mindlessly complaining about programming.dev adopting anti-abuse services from a service provider. When lightly pressed on the topic, you fail to present a single problem of doing that or even a single coherent argument against it.

In short, you failed to point out any problem involving or any reason to replace an anti-abuse system. And yet you argue the service should be replaced.

Is "why" such an insurmountable challenge?