obsrcdsucks on Show HN: I built an SDK that scrambles HTML so scrapers get garbage

Comment on Show HN: I built an SDK that scrambles HTML so scrapers get garbage

    function decodeObscrd(htmlOrElement) {
      let root;
      if (typeof htmlOrElement === 'string') {
        root = new DOMParser().parseFromString(htmlOrElement, 'text/html').body;
      } else {
        root = htmlOrElement || document;
      }
    
      const container = root.querySelector('[class*="obscrd-"]');
      if (!container) { return; }
    
      const words = [...container.children].filter(el => el.hasAttribute('data-o'));
      words.sort((a, b) => +a.dataset.o - +b.dataset.o);
    
      const result = words.map(word => {
        const chars = [...word.querySelectorAll('[data-o]')]
          .filter(el => el.querySelector('[data-o]') === null);
        chars.sort((a, b) => +a.dataset.o - +b.dataset.o);
        return chars.map(c => c.textContent).join('');
      }).join('');
    
      console.log(result);
      return result;
    }

larsmosrOP6mo

Yep, that works. The data-o attributes are readable in the DOM so you can reverse it with custom code. That's in the threat model. The goal is raising the cost from "curl + cheerio" to "write a custom decoder per site." Most scrapers move on to easier targets.

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