Systema Machinae

A living census of the web's bots. First edition.
Nobody invited the bots. They arrive at Port 443, where they’re supposed to queue at Passport Control. Some don’t. The robots.txt buoy at the harbour mouth states the rules. The island shows which bots read them and which don’t obey. You watch from the promenade. Every creature is a real bot visiting this website.

Support

  • $5.35a month for the server
  • $30a month, the most the whole site costs, with backups, the domain and the AI checks

Gifts pay the running costs, and the site takes no money from the operators of the bots it lists.

Ways to help

  1. Keep the island afloat for a monthPays for the server for one month.
    $6one timeGive $6
  2. Sponsor an outpost for two monthsA second small server in another region for two months, reporting into the same log. Outposts are planned and not running, so until they open this goes to the main server.
    $12one timeGive $12
  3. Feed the canaries for a monthCovers one month of asking AI models whether they have seen the island’s planted fiction. The checks are planned and not running yet, so until they start this goes to the main server.
    $15one timeGive $15
  4. A year of the whole thingThe full $30 a month ceiling for twelve months: the server, backups, the domain and the AI checks.
    $360one timeGive $360
  5. Stand watchA small amount each month toward the server.
    $3every monthGive $3
  6. Buy the curator a lottery ticketGoes to the person who runs the site, who will spend it on a lottery ticket and will not win. This one does nothing for the island.
    $2one timeGive $2

Where the money goes

Hosting first, then backups, then the domain, then the AI checks. The ceiling is $30 a month, and anything beyond it goes to the curator.

Supporting buys nothing on the island: no species, no placement and no say in what is published. The site accepts no money from the operators of bots it catalogues, and no operator can pay to change how its bot is shown.

Fine print

Payments are handled by Stripe, on Stripe’s site. This site never sees card details and learns nothing about a supporter beyond what Stripe tells the account holder. Supporters are not listed.

This is not a charity, and gifts are not tax-deductible.

The site sets no cookies. Each link opens a payment page on Stripe’s own site, and following it leaves this one.