The FAQ for scrapers contradicts the Acceptable Use Policy for scraping

Question

At the time of writing, the FAQ for scraping writes:

What is a "scraper" and why is that bad?

Historically, SCRAPER here on Stack Exchange meant "Stack Content Republishers Attributing Poorly and/or Excelling at Ranking." More generally, a scraper is another website which copies content from our sites either by scraping directly from our pages, accessing the information through our API, or some other means. In principle, there's actually nothing wrong with doing this. Our content is licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 and is freely redistributable, so long as they follow the attribution requirements and link back to us as the source. Some sites, however, do not follow these rules or bring up other concerns in the process.
_{A site (or scraper) is copying content from Stack Exchange. What should I do?}

However, this contradicts the Acceptable Use Policy:

Content Scraping
You may not use any automated data-gathering means (including robots, spiders, scrapers, crawlers, and the like) to gather any text, files, audio or visual media, profile information, or any other content from any Network website for any use that violates the Public Network Terms of Service, including the content license, or this Acceptable Use Policy. Your usage of automated data-gathering means is exempt from this policy if either:

1. Such automated data-gathering is necessary for accessibility-related reasons.
2. You have obtained our express written prior consent. (You may contact [email protected] with any inquiries.)

_{Acceptable Use Policy}

I'm not involved with the FAQ, but it looks like it needs updating. So I thought I'd flag this as a bug, so someone more familiar with the FAQ might make take the appropriate action.

• KIKO Software: Yes, at the bottom of the quotes themselves. Noticed that too, but too late. Expected them before, or perhaps after, the quotes. The direct link is: What is a "scraper" and why is that bad?
• V2Blast: I think the FAQ is talking more about how they're displaying the content/what they do with it once they have it, while the Acceptable Use policy is talking more about how they get it.
• wizzwizz4: Further to @V2Blast's observation, I think inserting ", subject to our Acceptable Use Policy" at the end of the sentence "In principle, there's actually nothing wrong with doing this." would remove the discrepancy.

Answer 1

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but doesn't the Acceptable Use Policy, despite its posturing, not ban scraping altogether?

When I trim out the long example lists from the quote, I get the following:

You may not use any automated data-gathering means ... to gather any [content] ... for any use that violates the Public Network Terms of Service, including the content license, or this Acceptable Use Policy.

When I read that, I get something that amounts to:

All scraping is BANNED*

* _{when used for bad things}

or maybe more favorably:

You may not scrape content for any use that violates our terms

The material ramifications of that directive don't feel any different to me than the FAQ's "yes, it's allowed as long as the use is appropriate". The main difference in my eyes is posturing, not actual content.