A large number of pages on debian.org websites are no longer
accessible, and internal links on those pages which are accessible are
broken.
This includes the "submit" function of the BTS search form on
www.debian.org/Bugs, so I cannot check whether this problem has been
reported already.
Specific broken links/pages include:
- The BTS search form, as described above
- packages.debian.org/sid/all/yt-dlp/download (from search engine)
- www.debian.org (from www.debian.org/Bugs/pseudo-packages)
- bugs.debian.org/general (from www.debian.org/Bugs/pseudo-packages)
- wiki.debian.org/Teams/Debbugs/ArchitectureTags (from www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting)
The problem in all cases is the same: Instead of the expected page, I
am redirected to something called *.debian.org/internal/challenge.html.
This shows as a blank grey screen with no content on it at all.
Inspecting the page source reveals that this is because of a piece of
broken javascript embodying various false assumptions:
- It assumes that cookies are enabled, or alternately, that instructing
the user to "enable cookies" is in some way acceptable.
- It assumes that javascript is enabled, or alternately, that instructing
the user to "enable javascript" is in some way acceptable.
- It assumes that ES6 is supported.
- It assumes that javascript crypto functions are supported/enabled.
- It assumes that the only cases it needs to cater for are "javascript
works flawlessly" or "javascript is disabled". It does not cater for
"javascript does not work". The "noscript" tag is not adequate for
this.
And most fundamentally:
- It assumes by default that the user is a bot, and that the
unavailability of javascript and/or cookies is infallible
confirmation that the user is indeed a bot, whereas any human user
must necessarily not only have them but have them turned on.
None of these happen to be true.
From the page source I see that the "noscript" tag contains a snarky
message about "AI crawlers break the web". What actually breaks the
web is blocking humans from sites because they don't allow sites to
run code or store state on their machines, on the principle of "guilty
until proven innocent" using a fundamentally broken method of "proof".