[RFC] support searx-qt in filtron rules

[unixfox]

I came across this project: https://notabug.org/CYBERDEViL/searx-qt. Basically it's a graphical interface for using Searx.

Unfortunately it doesn't work on the public instances using the built-in filtron rules of searx-docker.

Is it a good idea to whitelist its user agent so that it works with most of the public instances on https://searx.space?

[dalf]

The code is public: it would provide actual working code to break the current filtron rules (whatever they are).

Ideally, the tokens are answer: https://searx.github.io/searx/blog/private-engines.html

But on a public instance it is not workable.

To sump, I don't have a straightforward answer:

• that would provide access to searx-qt
• that would deny access to the bots

A registration mechanism to provide tokens may break the privacy of the searx-qt user or to be too easy to bypass.

[unixfox]

Technically our filtron rules are also public, and I bet if someone would want to bypass the current filtron rules he will find searx-docker before finding searx-qt.

I don't see filtron as a way to entirely block bots but more like reducing this amount. There will always be some bots that are crafted with filtron in mind.

I think it won't harm public instances if searx-qt is whitelisted only for the RSS/JSON/CSV endpoints but is still rate limited with the current amount of requests per seconds.

My opinion is based on an experience of a Searx public instance maintainer for 2 years and I can assure you that filtron is really not as effective as you would think against bots. That's mainly why I want to revive antibot-proxy, but I'm getting off-topic here, so I'll stop.