<p>Clearly the server-client model has failed us, for there is no reason why potentially thousands of people should be affected by the whims of one person, and there is <em>especially</em> no reason why anybody should be at the mercy of another just because they do not have the money or the skills to stake out their own little piece of whatever network they’re using. This throws out the fediverse- really, anything on the clearnet, since the server-client model is the very <em>backbone</em> of the modern Internet.</p>
<p>This leaves peer-to-peer services like Freenet, <ahref="https://beakerbrowser.com/">Dat</a>, and <ahref="https://zeronet.io">ZeroNet</a>. I can’t recommend Freenet since, <ahref="https://web.archive.org/web/20200407181754/https://www.pcworld.com/article/2040278/find-your-own-private-internet-with-freenet.html">by design, you don’t have granular control over which files you’re seeding</a>, which means you could be complicit in hosting disgusting materials like child pornography without your knowledge or consent. Dat and ZeroNet, however, let you choose on a site-by-site basis what you want to seed.</p>
<p>Both Dat and ZeroNet are well-suited for hosting static websites, so I have a <ahref="http://127.0.0.1:43110/1MeeJWbbQHArbqD6UUHSjh9EVycvnTUBFa/">mirror</a> on both <b>(EDIT 2020-04-07: the Dat mirror is dead, lmao)</b>. ZeroNet requires JavaScript to be enabled in the browser, which might be a privacy nightmare for some, but one can go into the data folder for each website and see all the source files for each website, so it’s not that big of a deal if one’s running a sufficiently up-to-date browser. Dat doesn’t require JavaScript, but the Beaker Browser, the easiest way to access the Dat network, doesn’t support extensions last time I checked. (This <em>could</em> be worked around with <ahref="https://github.com/sammacbeth/dat-fox">the Dat extension for Firefox, but it requires some <ahref="https://github.com/sammacbeth/dat-fox-helper">command line trickery</a> to get it to work properly, and you won’t have access to all of Beaker Browser’s features.)</p>
<p>Both Dat and ZeroNet are well-suited for hosting static websites, so I have a <ahref="http://127.0.0.1:43110/1MEYNetHZVbtYLoPc6sJAP2e8EzH8qJF8x/">mirror</a> on both <b>(EDIT 2020-04-07: the Dat mirror is dead, lmao)</b>. ZeroNet requires JavaScript to be enabled in the browser, which might be a privacy nightmare for some, but one can go into the data folder for each website and see all the source files for each website, so it’s not that big of a deal if one’s running a sufficiently up-to-date browser. Dat doesn’t require JavaScript, but the Beaker Browser, the easiest way to access the Dat network, doesn’t support extensions last time I checked. (This <em>could</em> be worked around with <ahref="https://github.com/sammacbeth/dat-fox">the Dat extension for Firefox, but it requires some <ahref="https://github.com/sammacbeth/dat-fox-helper">command line trickery</a> to get it to work properly, and you won’t have access to all of Beaker Browser’s features.)</p>
<p>Neither are completely free from paywalls, however. Dat allows you to <ahref="https://web.archive.org/web/20200407182024/https://beakerbrowser.com/docs/guides/use-a-domain-name-with-dat">use an existing domain name</a> to point to a Dat share, which means, if you already have a domain, you don’t have to buy another one. ZeroNet requires you to purchase a special Namecoin domain on the Namecoin blockchain if you <ahref="https://zeronet.io/docs/faq/#how-can-i-register-a-bit-domain">want a fancy domain</a> that doesn’t look like spaghetti and you can’t run <ahref="https://github.com/samr7/vanitygen">vanitygen</a> for some reason. And if you want to keep your site seeded when your computer is off, and you don’t have a bunch of friends to help you seed it for free… you’re back to being a second-class citizen. Going the Dat path, you could use <ahref="https://hashbase.io">Hashbase</a> to seed your website, but that requires registration, and free accounts can only go up to a hundred megabytes of storage. And if Hashbase decides they don’t like your site, they have full freedom to shut it down and stop seeding whatever it is you were hosting. ZeroNet has some user-run proxies that can be used as a seeding peer, most of which disable site deletion on the user side, and the admins don’t seem too interested in pruning sites from all the “this site you are seeding is on a blacklist” messages that popped up when I last used one.</p>
<p>ZeroNet has a few glaring advantages suitable for would-like-to-not-be second-class citizens, though, and one’s that, in case you ever <em>do</em> get your own server, it’s <em>exponentially</em> easier to use it as an extra peer. You download the same bundle as you would use on a computer, <ahref="https://zeronet.io/docs/faq/#is-it-possible-to-install-zeronet-to-a-remote-machine">rename a plugin directory to enable it</a>, and then pass a few extra command line flags. Dat, on the other hand, <ahref="https://github.com/beakerbrowser/homebase">requires up-to-date Node.js packages and use of their special process manager</a>. The second is that, if you’re switching machines or distrohopping, taking your ZeroNet data with you is as simple as copying the “ZeroBundle” folder wherever you downloaded and extracted it onto the new computer. Beaker Browser requires that you hunt for its data folder. On Linux, I know it’s in “~/.config/Beaker Browser”, but I have <em>absolutely no</em> idea where it might be hiding on Windows or Mac.</p>
<p>This peer-to-peer strategy can be extrapolated onto other non-website networking things, like Syncthing for files and <ahref="https://github.com/39aldo39/DecSync">DecSync</a> for calendars and contacts and RSS, but non-social things are separate issues to be dealt with separately.</p>
I previously published a different key. I am having problems with it, so I have edited the original to disable the expiration. Please use the older one until further notice.
@ -9,16 +9,11 @@ just remember how you swore to with your own hands the heavens tear
=> books/ Books
=> poetry/ Poetry
Note: I write my prose in Markdown, so I highly recommend a client that can render it as formatted text with soft wrapping, like Kristall. (I promise my inline links are minimal and non-intrusive.) If gemtext supported italics, I would use it, but it doesn't, so I won't.
=> flashfiction/ Flash Fiction
=> tutorials/ Tutorials
=> vow.asc.md vow
=> https://letsdecentralize.org Let's Decentralize (the new home of the Hidden Rollcall)
<p><ahref="https://deadendshrine.online">Dead End Shrine Online</a></p>
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