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IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

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41–50 of 56 posts

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#41

Man I wished we can go back to IRC, compared to the shitshow that is discord ! Slow client, stupid login circle-jerks, desktop-clients-vs-webclient and and and. Yea yea I'm old, but dammit in "my day", it was easier to communicate and the "tech" didn't get in your way. IRC was basically a "done product" and new features were usually spearheaded via "scripts" from users with a need. It seems the "new features" in disc…

I still use IRC, and I think that it is better than the other ones. I also use NNTP (I also have my own NNTP server for discussions about my own projects, but hardly anyone uses them so far).

> I wished there was a product manager (I'm looking at you Spotify, netflix etc) that said, ok these next few quarters we are going to reward ourselves for 'REMOVING Features'.

What is needed is to avoid adding bad features and avoid removing good features.

> We need the area of "Bring your own client" to really take off.

Yes, I agree. Allow that you can bring your own client, with your own features.

Make a protocol and file formats that is simple (but not too simple) and capable of better end user controlling, and then make the implementations, too.

(Also, some features can be made optional if that would help, too.)

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#42

Man I wished we can go back to IRC, compared to the shitshow that is discord ! Slow client, stupid login circle-jerks, desktop-clients-vs-webclient and and and. Yea yea I'm old, but dammit in "my day", it was easier to communicate and the "tech" didn't get in your way. IRC was basically a "done product" and new features were usually spearheaded via "scripts" from users with a need. It seems the "new features" in disc…

There are I think two useful features things like Slack and Discord have brought to the table.

1. Pinned messages. Yes, to an extent Channel topics can serve this way, but the limited space in IRC leads to "Use !jabberbot help for a list of commands, and !jabberbot faq so we don't ban you for asking the same thing for the 40th time." Slack and Discord suffer from people who don't read pinned messages but it can at least help deflect repeat stuff.

2. Threading. In some contexts, it makes sense to take a follow-up loosely "private" in the sense of not messaging to everyone else in the channel.

Other than these IRC is superior in basically every other way.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#43

Sounds like a massive pain in the ass for just messaging friends. Both IRC and Tor are pretty mobile hostile. Would be much more practical to use an end to end encrypted IM platform on the clearnet. Matrix fits pretty well here. That said, I'm told almost the majority of traffic observed through tor is IRC. For botnet control.

Note for mobile users: you can setup quassel server to connect to IRC and use the quassel client on your phone. The quassel server acts as an intermediary that keeps the IRC connection stable.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody on IRC uses OTR, people just talk unencrypted, trusting the server. It isn't that bad tho when its your friends IRC server.

Exactly. People should use IRC as a tool for communications that don't really need encryption. If you are someone's high-value target, don't use IRC.

I think the point is more - there is no point end to end encrypting if the middle man (the irc server) is also part of the conversation (your friend). encryption cannot protect you from the person you are talking to only from the people trying to evesdrop.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss IRC too, but I don't miss the doxxing and DDoS nonsense. I don't have to setup a znc bouncer to connect to Discord. I don't have to take any precautions. It just works. I hate the client though, so I feel you on that. The lack of terminal integration with Discord is painful.

People can still get your ip and ddos you on discord. its just a little expensive. theres a forum where you can pay $500 for someone to send an EDR to Discord from a police email. Also there was a file attatchment bug in the wild that leaked your ip as recently as 6 months ago which im not sure was even fixed. A guy I befriended in a hacking community proved it to me.

$500 seems cheap to hire someone to impersonate a police officer. Isn't that go to jail for a long time territory?

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I wish you would come back to IRC. Who else started using it in 1996, and never stopped? Lots! Who else never touched any of the social media sites. Lots! Discord is a frustrating UI experience for me on all levels, so I just can't bring myself to even open the software. IRC was and is awesome. Caveat: use it for casual socializing. If you need tools for risky things like political activism, business, security,…

any good servers/networks you could recommend?

Libera chat is rad, though channels are a mixed bag on IRC servers. I've met awesome people with whom I've been in IRC channels now for... phew... 25 years, on Undernet of all places.

I find it hasn't changed all that much over the years, if at all, so some should be warned - it does remind me of the early wild-west days, which I love.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#47
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The behavior you describe with cell phones is also how overall internet access works in many geographic regions. There are areas where residential internet is fast and reliable, but if you’re building a service that sucks on bandwidth/energy/throughput constrained links, you’re building a service that’s not viable for tons of users.

You're right. In the last decade or so the capabilities of the average internet user have degraded significantly. Should we handicap all software to accommodate these people? Profit motive says yes and incorporated entities surely will do so. But it is not the right move for human persons.

How exactly is it handicapped? Last I saw, modern software like Matrix does everything IRC does and 100x more.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People can still get your ip and ddos you on discord. its just a little expensive. theres a forum where you can pay $500 for someone to send an EDR to Discord from a police email. Also there was a file attatchment bug in the wild that leaked your ip as recently as 6 months ago which im not sure was even fixed. A guy I befriended in a hacking community proved it to me.

$500 seems cheap to hire someone to impersonate a police officer. Isn't that go to jail for a long time territory?

Its a highly illegal felony, yes. but take into account the value of a human life is low as $226 in some countries. These operators are in foreign countries and dont care.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they do? You can install system wide Tor on android. If you are referring to the fact that phones emit signals that can be triangulated, that doesn't interfere with anonymity in and of itself.

I mean, it literally interferes with anonymity in the most fundamental way. "Everywhere you go, even when you're not actively using your phone, it's still listening." - Edward Snowden With a SIM card, you are by definition always tracked and identified individually. It's how the technology is designed to function. You can remove the SIM card, harden your OS, randomize your Wifi MAC but at that point you aren't really…

You could use the same argument for the radios in your home and WiFi. And anonymity is about your name. If they can locate your phone but not be used to identify you then it doesn't break anonymity.

Re: IRC Server as Tor Hidden Service on OpenBSD

#50

Man I wished we can go back to IRC, compared to the shitshow that is discord ! Slow client, stupid login circle-jerks, desktop-clients-vs-webclient and and and. Yea yea I'm old, but dammit in "my day", it was easier to communicate and the "tech" didn't get in your way. IRC was basically a "done product" and new features were usually spearheaded via "scripts" from users with a need. It seems the "new features" in disc…

There are I think two useful features things like Slack and Discord have brought to the table. 1. Pinned messages. Yes, to an extent Channel topics can serve this way, but the limited space in IRC leads to "Use !jabberbot help for a list of commands, and !jabberbot faq so we don't ban you for asking the same thing for the 40th time." Slack and Discord suffer from people who don't read pinned messages but it can at le…

I looked at the Clone Hero discord server recently and despite it using pinned messages and having a lot of info in Getting Started + FAQ channels, that info still gave many !commands for paragraphs of text and various images that were only available from the bot. I couldn't understand why.
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