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.
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?
It is a big problem with a number of opensource projects that could get wider adoption and support, especially from businesses, but seem to, almost deliberately, work against that with their naming and/or branding.
Anubis is a perfect example. In this case the name is ok, and by all means have a cutsey mascot for the basic offering, but if they want businesses to subscribe they need a professional offering. That should be on a separate domain, styled to attract the decision makers in their target market, and that includes having a .com or similar domain name and a more serious logo. Do that, and it becomes a serious contender in the market, rather than a technically good but excessively kooky option.
The market who's responsible for fucking up the internet? The market that constantly attacks websites with crawlers to steal everything for value extraction, which Anubis fights against? The market that couldn't care less about you unless you provide value to it, and even then won't give you a penny unless forced (while building the whole internet on your shoulders)? That market?
Most FOSS devs I know who aren't forced into it couldn't give less of a fart about "the market" and capitalists with sticks in their rear ends inside it. The monetization was often just attached to a project because it makes sense given we're all trapped in capitalism and perhaps have to somehow cover project costs (probably less so for Anubis), not because it's a goal to attract investment.
People who're appaled by something so simple such as a .lol domain and a cute mascot sound awful to talk to anyway.
I tell you how that "support" looks like. Companies who adopted the software will add your maintainer Email to their business contacts. If there are issues with your software they'll then usually ignore the developer route and directly write emails to you, and if it's a big problem for them immediately blame you and threaten legal action, blahblahblah. They'll treat you like someone they have a support contract with and be completely confused when you tell them to open an issue and that you otherwise don't care. Meanwhile they'll build an empire using your software and be a persistent nuisance.
Why should anyone not desperately needing money to survive care about this.
I think they have a professional offering. You can give them a bit of your money to have a proper branding as you like, or just remove it. The cost-free version is not primarily meant for commercial use. Just stop thinking a company is non-commercial.
It is simply stupid if the companies prejudge a project in such a way, although there would be an offer for them, which is made especially for commercial projects.
Edit: but I see that there are not very much advantages when a project does it like they do at Anubis.
They do have a professional offering, but it's offered in a deeply unprofessional way. Selling to businesses means you need both the technical offering, but also the correct commercial offering. That means presenting yourself in a way that attracts the attention of the decision makers in those businesses, and telling them a compelling story of why your product is the best fit to solce their problem. A .lol domain and a cartoon catgirl doesn't do that.
I'd suggest that, for the cost of an extra domain name, and a boring logo, they could probably significantly increase their subscriber base. There's nothing stopping them keeping the current mascot on the current site at the same time.
You call it stupid to prejudge a project in such a way, but businesses need a product to buy, not a project.
Here's an idea. Do this with a giant ass logo. Put a banner underneath it with a link saying something like "Add this for FREE to your own business' website!"
It would have two main benefits. First, it's still a giant ad for their project. Second, it would shame the company into sponsoring because now everyone can see how cheap they are.
100% couldn't agree more.
They'd easily pay 1000 Euro for a tool like this, and I'd be able to sell it to multiple teams. But after my experience recommending Anubis at work, I will simply never recommend it again until they offer something like you have mentioned.
It's so frustrating.