archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog
gyrovague.com
Around January 11, 2026, archive.today (aka archive.is, archive.md, etc) started using its users as proxies to conduct a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against Gyrovague, my personal b…

Disclaimer: This is not technically a privacy matter for the reader, but I believe it is adjacent and important enough for this community.

Around January 11, 2026, archive.today (aka archive.is, archive.md, etc) started using its users as proxies to conduct a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against Gyrovague, my personal blog. All users encountering archive.today’s CAPTCHA page currently load and execute the following Javascript: setInterval(function() { fetch(“https://gyrovague.com/?s” + Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 3 + Math.random() * 8), { referrerPolicy: “no-referrer”,…

Far too many netizens still try to ignore this or even come up with reasons why gyrovague is the bad guy here.

Alternative archive pages:

archive.org
ghostarchive.org
archivebox.io (self-hosted)

But how else to bypass a paywall?

I’ve read relevant articles and clicked old links - they all seem to be history. The only ones that still work just look for the article in various archives - the subject of this post always amongst them. The same applies to this article, but there’s still some good tips.

Here is the original article from 2023: https://gyrovague.com/2023/08/05/archive-today-on-the-trail-of-the-mysterious-guerrilla-archivist-of-the-internet/ and what Patakallio has to say about it today:

The post mentions three names/aliases linked to the site, but all of them had been dug up by previous sleuths and the blog post also concludes that they are all most likely aliases, so as far as “doxxing” goes, this wasn’t terribly effective.

Here is a relevant ArsTechnica article: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-archive-today-after-site-executed-ddos-and-altered-web-captures/

Wikipedia editors discovered that the archive site altered snapshots of webpages to insert the name of the blogger who was targeted by the DDoS.

archive.today (.ph, .is, .md, .fo, .li, .vn) also loads a pixel and javascript from mail.ru. The script mentions lamoda.ru, kommersant.ru, dzen.ru, ad.mail.ru, vk.com, vkontakte.ru, ok.ru, odnoklasseniki.ru. I haven’t researched this further, but I think one can assume that your IP address will be spread across all relevant Russian websites. 10 years ago I would have said “so what? The Russians have social media too” but today you can safely assume that all this data is available to the government itself and is actively contributing to the hybrid war.

All in all, archive.today has always been in the “too good to be true” category. Call me suspicious.

And once again because it’s important:

The Wikipedia guidance points out that the Internet Archive and its website, Archive.org, are “uninvolved with and entirely separate from archive.today.”

  • HamartiaEnglish
    57·
    2 days ago

    I do wonder what the motivation of gyrovague to dox the owner of archive.today was?

    From Hacker News:

    “Gyrovague”, the author of the post we’re commenting under has for reasons unknown engaged in targeted harassment of the owner of “archive.today”. Now the owner of archive.today is attempting a rather lazy DoS attack against gyrovague.com. A rather mild response to gyrovague attempting to bring the archive.today owner physical harm by spreading potentially identifying information about them.

    There’s really very little to be said about this whole thing besides that Gyrovague should try to be a less awful person in the future.

    It is relevant to this discussion to mention that archive.today keeps in the public sphere that which governments and powerful people have scrubbed out of general awareness by applying various forms of pressure. So we should expect them to come under pressure too.

    Maybe related, maybe not: Wikipedia’s owner came under pressure it seems to muddy the debate around the genocide in Gaza. Archive.today will hold a record of the propaganda warfare in mainstream media and more ephemeral web content like videos/blogs uploaded from within Gaza. So by excluding this particular archive Wikipedia seems to be prioritising media sources that are manipulated by governments and the powerful.

    • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipOPEnglish
      54·
      2 days ago

      “Gyrovague”, the author of the post we’re commenting under has for reasons unknown engaged in targeted harassment of the owner of “archive.today”. Now the owner of archive.today is attempting a rather lazy DoS attack against gyrovague.com. A rather mild response to gyrovague attempting to bring the archive.today owner physical harm by spreading potentially identifying information about them.

      There’s really very little to be said about this whole thing besides that Gyrovague should try to be a less awful person in the future.

      I disagree with any attempt to portray this as some sort of tiff between netizens. No, gyrovague is very clearly being attacked because whoever runs the archive got angry, scared, who knows, for someone doing journalism on them. Over two years later, too.

      Their original article from 2023 totally endorses archive.today, and there is no doxxing happening there. According to the article linked in this post:

      The post mentions three names/aliases linked to the site, but all of them had been dug up by previous sleuths and the blog post also concludes that they are all most likely aliases, so as far as “doxxing” goes, this wasn’t terribly effective.

      And, having read that older article, I totally agree.

      Since many many people use this archive service every day, there’s also justified and legitimate public interest.

      No, whoever runs archive.today turned negative attention on themselves through their reactions. Keep in mind, they now not only DDOS but also manipulate archived pages to further disparage gyrovague.

      • HamartiaEnglish
        54·
        2 days ago

        I disagree with your disagreement :p

        It is a common manipulative method of praising something right before landing a substantive blow on it as a way lending your argument credibility.

        Anonymouse has the most wonderful posts I have ever read, however I believe in this case he is down playing the threat to the owner of Archive.today that is represented by doxing them. Snowden isn’t hiding in Russia because he loves the weather. Assange didn’t hide in the Columbian Embassy because he liked their exercise bike. There’s a reason that the person who released the Panama Papars is only know as John Doe. And why can’t Francesca Albanese’s bank cards no longer work. Amongst the powerful elites are psychopaths.

        Acting as if doxing someone who undermines the elite’s grip on PR is some benign act and irrelevant to the owner of archive.today’s reaction is a leading distortion of the reality of the situation.

            • Voxel@feddit.ukEnglish
              31·
              2 days ago

              So you avoid my question, together enough reason to block you.

              • HamartiaEnglish
                1·
                1 day ago

                Block away. The doxing is obvious, you’re just trying to seal lion.

        • pharEnglish
          42·
          2 days ago

          Is there some evidence of this doxing?

        • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipOPEnglish
          22·
          2 days ago

          It is a common manipulative method of praising something right before landing a substantive blow on it as a way lending your argument credibility.

          Yeah you clearly didn’t read the original article.

          There is no “substantive blow”, he ends it with announcing that he will buy them a coffee on buymeacoffee.

          • HamartiaEnglish
            11·
            2 days ago

            You responses are most helpful and you are, no doubt, a charming fellow however you don’t seem to understand that doxing can be a very serious problem for some people. Maybe I’ll buy you a coffee!?