Add archival message

README.md

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 # Country IP Blocks
 
-## IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO USE THE IPS FOR GEOBLOCKING, THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT. READ THE NOTE BELOW!
+I've decided to retire this project due to the massive amount of people unable
+to understand that the IP lists generated are not suitable for the purposes they
+use it for - often geoblocking. Despite repeated notices many just keep ignoring
+them.
 
-You want to use <https://ipbl.herrbischoff.com/geoip/> instead.
+Moving off GitHub was one of the best decisions ever to aid in reducing
+signal-to-noise ratio. But I still receive emails about supposedly missing IP
+blocks for certain countries.
 
-## Information
+I'll be continuing this project privately. In the interest of not disrupting
+things too drastically and giving everyone an opportunity to notice and migrate,
+I'm going to leave this repository in place for the time being. But I cannot be
+clearer than this: **It may go away at any time.**
 
-These have a thousand and one uses but are surprisingly hard to come by in
-bulk.
+If you have a use-case beyond geoblocking for the data, I'd like to hear from
+you. I will gladly restore read-only Git access to the up-to-date private
+repository for you.
 
-* IPv4 and IPv6 ranges available.
-* Compiled directly from AFRINIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC and RIPENCC data.
-* Deduplicated and subnets merged for efficiency.
-* Simplified and sorted by country TLD.
-* CIDR notation.
-* Updated hourly, commits only appear when there are changes.
+You can find IP lists suitable for country-level geolocation and geoblocking
+here:
 
-## Note
+<https://ipbl.herrbischoff.com/geoip/>
 
-There are more than a dozen commercial IP geolocation database providers, and
-the accuracy of each provider is different. They get IP address information
-from the RIRs, but the assignment changes regularly as some companies release
-unwanted IP addresses and others obtain a new block of IP addresses.
+Make sure you adjust to using them from now on.
 
-The blocks of IP addresses assigned to many companies can, in turn, assign them
-to their users however they want without geographic boundaries. This makes
-pinpointing geolocation of an IP address rather difficult. The accuracy of
-geolocation data differs by provider. You can generally expect a 95% to 99%
-accuracy for the country level. The more granular you get, the less precise the
-data becomes.
+The same limits as always apply. If you download them in bulk or aggressively
+probe for updates, you **will** get blocked. The IPs are updated at most once
+per day, often even less than that.
 
-This projects downloads the information directly from the local RIRs and is as
-accurate as the data provided. More often than not, the country attached to an
-IP range is the one the registering company is located in. There is no reliable
-way to determine the physical location of any IP without tracing it separately.
+I can also only repeat encouraging you to become a supporter by setting up a
+recurring donation on GitHub. I chose GitHub sponsors since it's the easiest
+to handle and they also absorb all the risk of credit card transactions. I'm
+doing all of my public work while living off social security (if you call that
+"living" and which is about to run out anyway) and fighting off depression
+caused by existential dread. Many days I wake up questioning my will to go on.
 
-For an alternative source, please see the companion repository which is likely
-more accurate with regards to the expectations of many users.
+I'm aware that it's hard for many right now. Money's tight, I get it. I have
+20 years of experience working in IT. I couldn't get a job despite trying hard.
+There's a difference between cutting back on luxuries and having to take on a
+minimum wage job as a grocery store clerk just to make ends meet while still
+living below the official poverty line despite working. Which is me right now.
 
-<https://herrbischoff.com/code/me/country-ip-blocks-alternative>
+<https://github.com/sponsors/herrbischoff>