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A simple web we own

rsdoiel.github.io

171–180 of 240 posts

Re: A simple web we own

#171
post #72

As someone who is roughly in the same age group as the author and who was running a BBS, has witnessed the rise of IP4 networks, HTTP, Mosaic etc. let me provide a counter-point. The democratization ends at your router. Unless you are willing to lay down your own wires - which for legal reasons you most likely won't be able to do, we will hopelessly be dependent on the ISP. (Radio on free frequencies is possible and…

I think some of those barriers are going away ( in the UK it's now possible to get symmetric full fibre at a reasonable price ), static IPs, ISP's without filtering etc.

I think the main barrier is still the complexity of running your own service - it's a full time job to keep on top of the bad actors.

For example, if you have your own domain it's perfectly possible to run your own email server - however it's quite a lot of ongoing effort - it's not just set up and forget.

Re: A simple web we own

#172
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In short: there's no hope of getting a world-wide, free, uncensored, unlimited IP4/6 network back. We never had it in the first place. We can build such a society. I am not sure why you think this is never possible. People can work for a better world. That sometimes works, too.

The assertion that an uncensored internet is a better world should probably require some motivation. If everyone was a normal (as far as anyone is normal) law abiding citizen perhaps I would agree, but sadly that is far from the case. I think history has quite clearly shown that there is a minority of people out there that will take advantage and ruin things for everyone else. It's the same reason we have militaries,…

Especially when the censored internet already exists, the selection pressure is going to make the uncensored internet the CSAM distribution channel.

Re: A simple web we own

#173
post #72

As someone who is roughly in the same age group as the author and who was running a BBS, has witnessed the rise of IP4 networks, HTTP, Mosaic etc. let me provide a counter-point. The democratization ends at your router. Unless you are willing to lay down your own wires - which for legal reasons you most likely won't be able to do, we will hopelessly be dependent on the ISP. (Radio on free frequencies is possible and…

I think some of those barriers are going away ( in the UK it's now possible to get symmetric full fibre at a reasonable price ), static IPs, ISP's without filtering etc. I think the main barrier is still the complexity of running your own service - it's a full time job to keep on top of the bad actors. For example, if you have your own domain it's perfectly possible to run your own email server - however it's quite a…

[dead]

Re: A simple web we own

#174
I what the article proposes is the wrong direction:

Instead of every single person to maintain an offering a vertical slice through the whole stack, we should make it easier to publish content in the first place.

The real issue that this pushes the burden of maintenance and infrastructure on the individual; But this should be a shared responsibility.

Instead we need:

- A federated content/file system - An open standard for viewer/app definitions (hosted on this system)

Re: A simple web we own

#175
post #174

I what the article proposes is the wrong direction: Instead of every single person to maintain an offering a vertical slice through the whole stack, we should make it easier to publish content in the first place. The real issue that this pushes the burden of maintenance and infrastructure on the individual; But this should be a shared responsibility. Instead we need: - A federated content/file system - An open standa…

Ex. Content can be in Git repo. Site can be build via static site generators + automated via CI update site when add new content to Git repo. We only need good blog theme, photo albums theme and profile theme to replace FB, Linkedin even TikTok. Publishers have full control on their own data.

Re: A simple web we own

#176
post #72

As someone who is roughly in the same age group as the author and who was running a BBS, has witnessed the rise of IP4 networks, HTTP, Mosaic etc. let me provide a counter-point. The democratization ends at your router. Unless you are willing to lay down your own wires - which for legal reasons you most likely won't be able to do, we will hopelessly be dependent on the ISP. (Radio on free frequencies is possible and…

Yeah, it's kinda sad reality and I suddenly felt gloomy. Do you have a more optimistic view that you can share?

Let me introduce you to the decentralized alternative to ISPs, connecting and collaborating with the new-ish wireless mesh networks that are still active and maintained. The three biggest AFAIK are Freifunk (Germany), Guifi (Spain) and NYCMesh (NYC/US?).

Basically, you can as a private individual set up a wireless node, talk with your nearest node that you have a visual line of sight to, and get connected to a completely separate network from the internet, where there is a ton of interesting stuff going on, and it's mostly volunteer run.

Re: A simple web we own

#177
post #72

As someone who is roughly in the same age group as the author and who was running a BBS, has witnessed the rise of IP4 networks, HTTP, Mosaic etc. let me provide a counter-point. The democratization ends at your router. Unless you are willing to lay down your own wires - which for legal reasons you most likely won't be able to do, we will hopelessly be dependent on the ISP. (Radio on free frequencies is possible and…

Instead of thinking about cables, have we considered the idea of satellites getting cheap enough to launch?

Or use WiFi and decentralized networks, Freifunk, Guifi and NYCMesh already demonstrated it's possible, and you can easily with consumer hardware setup 1km links with directed antennas, so as long as you have line of sight to another already connected node, you too can participate and help build another network that is separate from the internet :)

Re: A simple web we own

#178
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In short: there's no hope of getting a world-wide, free, uncensored, unlimited IP4/6 network back. We never had it in the first place. We can build such a society. I am not sure why you think this is never possible. People can work for a better world. That sometimes works, too.

Kumbaya is never a motivator. Now, self-interest, on the other hand...

...just like the divine right of kings!

Re: A simple web we own

#179
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In short: there's no hope of getting a world-wide, free, uncensored, unlimited IP4/6 network back. We never had it in the first place. We can build such a society. I am not sure why you think this is never possible. People can work for a better world. That sometimes works, too.

Honestly if we could have we would have, we can't even tax the people destroying our world, how are we going to create utopia

> we can't even tax the people destroying our world

You* maybe cannot, but that certainly isn't everywhere.

Re: A simple web we own

#180
post #72

As someone who is roughly in the same age group as the author and who was running a BBS, has witnessed the rise of IP4 networks, HTTP, Mosaic etc. let me provide a counter-point. The democratization ends at your router. Unless you are willing to lay down your own wires - which for legal reasons you most likely won't be able to do, we will hopelessly be dependent on the ISP. (Radio on free frequencies is possible and…

I think some of those barriers are going away ( in the UK it's now possible to get symmetric full fibre at a reasonable price ), static IPs, ISP's without filtering etc. I think the main barrier is still the complexity of running your own service - it's a full time job to keep on top of the bad actors. For example, if you have your own domain it's perfectly possible to run your own email server - however it's quite a…

> however it's quite a lot of ongoing effort - it's not just set up and forget.

I have seen those kinds of opinions on internet already few times. No it is not that complicated. Yes you need to buy server. Yes you need to setup the DNS. Yes you need to maintain, and update server and its software. But this is like that with everything you selfhost.

Beside that you need mostly 1 time operations like: - setup domain entries - setup SPF - setup DKIM - setup certs - install server (of course) - test if this works - setup some Google Postmaster account because they do not like new domains sending them emails

I do not remember anything else beside some administrative tweaks here and there. But!

I never attempted to run postfix, dovecot combo myself. I was aiming to run whole thing on Docker and forget about configuring dozens of config files on Linux host. With docker you can just migrate whole set of volumes to new machine and that is it. I am running Mailcow BTW.

Lately I moved whole thing to new machine by just running one script https://docs.mailcow.email/backup_restore/b_n_r-coldstandby/...

On the other hand you need to have some technical knowledge, but I do not think this is harder then any other containerized software.

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