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Catavento

Bot policy

CataventoBot is the program that collects public information for Catavento. It is built to be a polite visitor: it takes only short facts, checks rarely, and stays away from anything it is asked not to read.

How to recognise it

Every request it makes carries this user agent:

CataventoBot/0.1 (+https://mb-side.github.io/catavento/bot/; housethermal.app@gmail.com)

How it behaves

  • It reads each website's robots.txt first and obeys it. If robots.txt can't be read because of a server error, it doesn't visit.
  • It makes one request at a time to each website, at least 3 seconds apart.
  • It checks each source on a schedule of days or weeks, not continuously. If a file hasn't changed, nothing is updated.
  • It never logs in, never sends cookies, and never fills in forms.
  • It takes facts and short labels, such as names, coordinates, wind directions and links. It never copies descriptions, articles or photos.
  • If a source suddenly looks very different, the update is held back for a person to check.

What it collects, and how often

These are the sources it currently collects from. The Sources page lists everything Catavento uses, including what is only linked to.

  • Sports Aviation Federation of Australia

    Club and school directories (names, state, website, the contact SAFA publishes for each, related association), upcoming events (title, dates, place, organiser, link) and the titles and dates of defect and safety notices. Never committee members' names or details, and never descriptions

    Weekly

  • Australian National Site Guide

    Site and launch names, launch positions, short fields (type, height, wind directions, rating), the contact listed for each site, open or closed status, and each site's page address. Never descriptions, hazards, rules or landing notes

    Daily (a quick "has it changed?" check)

  • ParaglidingEarth

    Sites missing from the official site guide (a separate community layer, in Australia and New Zealand), coordinates and wind directions for the New Zealand sample sites, and the site lists in the overview regions (Europe and ten other countries). Name, takeoff position and height, directions rated "good" or "possible", whether it suits paragliders or hang gliders, the kinds of flying, and landing and parking positions. Never descriptions, rules or travel notes

    Monthly

  • Club websites

    From each club or association website listed by its national body, news and event headlines with their dates and links (from its news feed or events calendar), which sites its own "sites" page names (to confirm who manages a site), and, where the main site guide gives none, a site's wind directions as the club publishes them. Never article text, descriptions or photos

    About twice a week

See all sources

How to opt out

To stop CataventoBot visiting your website, add these lines to your robots.txt. It will stop at its next scheduled check.

User-agent: CataventoBot
Disallow: /

Or email us and we'll stop, usually within 24 hours. We can also remove anything already collected from your site.

Contact

Questions about CataventoBot: housethermal.app@gmail.com