Post game titles, users name the game they want in the comments. You PM the code, then respond in the comments with some sort of “PM sent” response so other users can see it was already claimed. It avoids the bots automatically claiming them, but is a lot more work on your end.
Yeah, looking at the commit history from before db0 was officially blocked is interesting. It started with a content warning system. It was designed to give users a “be cautious when interacting with this instance, they encourage violence against people they disagree with” warning. Conveniently omitting that the “people db0 disagrees with” are typically straight up neo-Nazis and supes. Apparently the dev takes issue with “punching Nazis is okay” types of comments. And then a later update silently added the blocklist instead of a content warning.