What Are Wormhole Codes

Okay, so here’s the difficult situation that I find myself in:

1. Scraper bots have been paired with generative neural networks to create a proper nightmare through a one-two punch of employment threats and legal attacks.
2. I do not want to expose my home IP address.
3. I do not want to expose my Google accounts.
4. I do not want to upload my stuff to file hosts that would arbitrarily decide to erase entire swaths of voices, as censorship continues to clamp down on the internet.
5. I do not have money in my bank account for renting a remote server.
6. I do not have hardware for 24/7 self-hosting behind Cloudflare.
7. When I used to put stuff on various file hosts, I noticed that people only downloaded stuff when it came up in conversation, so the file host became unnecessary baggage.
8. I do not want to force someone to jump through all the hoops of social anxiety to find me on a messaging platform, just to get a file from me, on the rare (and valid) occasion that a download is desired without friendship as a prerequisite.
9. I do not want to open up my socials for the minimum interaction required for file sharing.
10. I respect Neocities’ request to not be a file hosting platform.

Behold, the sacrificial email: two_bugs_in_a_wormhole@protonmail.com

Some of you already know where this is going…

Wait, aren’t scrapers going to immediately ruin that email inbox?

Yeah, they probably will, but you and I are gonna play a little game together! If we play this correctly, then the only spammers who will email me would also be specifically targeting me, and they would hopefully need to solve this with a human brain, or an expensive LLM session.

1. The subject line needs to be the third word of this page’s title, followed by the fourth word from the previous list’s tenth reason. This should bounce the majority of scrapers. Can’t stop spammers, though.
2. Your entire email packet must not exceed 128 bytes. I used several email providers to send some tests to myself, and empty emails seem to average about 80 bytes in size.
3. Your message must contain only a wormhole code. I have trained myself to enter a deep trance while going through this inbox. If it’s not a wormhole code, then I am not reading it, and I will not remember receiving it. Am I joking? I leave this as an exercise to the reader.
4. You are allowed to send BINGUS to simply receive confirmation, regarding whether or not you’ve figured this out. A confirmation will simply be one word: seen.
5. It might take up to 72 hours for me to send a wormhole link or confirmation in a reply.
6. Wormhole links are valid for 24 hours (which is outside of my control).
7. If I am getting absolutely swamped with emails, then I am closing the wormhole, and possibly changing the rules of the game, or considering other options (depending on the reason for the number of emails).
8. If you are already able to contact me on any social communication platform, then please send me a wormhole code there, instead. The above email is a proposed solution to reduce social barriers for a remarkably-small number of private strangers, who happen to be asking for downloads.
9. Do not send me social messages with this email address. Again: I will not remember them. This is not an email for chatting. I have plenty of other ways to cherish my friends and form new friendships.
10. Please be considerate. This is not an automated process (trance state notwithstanding). I am only doing this because I do not aim for fame, and this is best solution to resist bots and scrapers, while also providing neat stuff to anonymous net-surfers.

1. Your email address will not be recorded outside of the inbox.
2. I am completely deleting the email from the inbox as soon as I reply, or as soon as my trance state decides not to reply.
3. I will never use this email account to contact you for any interaction outside of providing a link.
4. I will not send any pleasantries in the reply. You have no reason to wonder how to say hello. Don’t. Just send a wormhole code; that’s all.
5. Any other reply you might receive will be from the automated filter, which sometimes sends error messages back.