1. This requires prior knowledge of your existence, it wasn't until we did proper analysis that we were able to identify the culprit of the "attack". This did expose a weakness in our monitoring systems, so we've obviously learned from this experience, but I can tell you that there are MANY webmasters on the web that aren't as savvy who can get their servers taken down easily by your service.<p>2. You should try reading your own FAQ. <a href="http://80legs.pbworks.com/FAQ" rel="nofollow">http://80legs.pbworks.com/FAQ</a> - see Rate limiting section.<p>3/4/5. The only bot I care about is Googlebot. And they do use nofollow that way, fortunately the other major bots do as well... so things have been working pretty darn great for everybody. Every other bot I don't care for, don't need, and don't want. If someone legit wants access to our data they can use our totally open and free API that actually gives a lot better information.<p>In principal I think 80legs can be used for good, however, it's like gunpowder where I question the legitimacy of real-world practical use, simply because it can be abused so so easily. I could very well be totally off base here, but that's what lack of information + bad experience gets you.<p>edit: And shouldn't the fact that you "...usually get comments like this on webmaster forums..." be a hint that maybe there's a real issue with your service?