Heyo!
I run the @[email protected] bot.
Until now it has worked by grabbing the comic for a given date from gocomics. As of today they seem to have quite successfully blocked my efforts to continue doing so. For a while the “comics” python library solved the problem but this no longer works either.
So, at least for now. I’ll be stopping the bot.
I’ll likely be adapting the way my code for [email protected] works, but this requires having all the strips. And for CnH I’ll need them by original date.
If anyone has that, let me know.
Edit: aw heck, I did a full rip to prepare for this eventuality and forgot, switched the bot over to using that
I don’t like this. If Watterson wanted to release it under a permissive license, he would. We’re not entitled to consume it any way we please just because we enjoyed it when we were kids. Maybe it’s indeed time to take the hint.
I don’t know how closely you’ve been following the enshittification of GoComics…
But they have aquired the digital distribution rights of a bunch of older comic strips, and have been tightening the screws for years.
This isn’t coming from Watterson. GoComics has been slowly cutting away at any other ways to read these classics in order to make a monthly subscription the only way to access them.
If you want to support Watterson, buy physical print.