81–90 of 127 posts
If you really want a chat tool to start a revolution, meet in person with people you trust and don't bring any electronic devices with you. And only talk to people who you really trust. Forget phones.
Revolutionaries definitely had problems with surveillance and infiltration before electronics.
Hi there, I am on developement team of Newnode, a successor of FireChat founded by two of the same people ( https://www.newnode.com/ ). We now provide both, a VPN and a Messenger, with purpose to help people evade censorship and enable device-to-device connectivity. You can find the source code at https://github.com/clostra/newnode
The sign up process is surprisingly difficult and doesn't appear to be working.
The CAPTCHA is VERY thorough. I couldn't seem to get it to agree that I was human. When I finally solved it, the submit button is hidden (you have to scroll for some reason).
When I enter my phone number it prompts me to enter a code that never arrived. When I click "I didn't receive a code" the app sends me back to the CAPTCHA (lol). I complete the captcha again and request the code.
I went through this process three or four times before I gave up. This seems like an ongoing issue[1]
Does the app have many users? Any users?
The last blog post on the NewNode site was July of last year.
According to the App Store there has been three minor updates- 3, 9 and 12 months ago. No notes on the updates.
Does NewNode have a road map?
I couldn't find any write ups about the app anywhere. No press coverage.
So, why did FireChat close down?
Edit: I just completed 10 CAPTCHAs in a row.
If you really want a chat tool to start a revolution, meet in person with people you trust and don't bring any electronic devices with you. And only talk to people who you really trust. Forget phones.
Several years ago (circa 2015) I was asked to build an app like FireChat by just the _oddest_ couple of guys I've ever met. They wanted an app where you could connect to other folks just by being near them. I never could get them to agree on what exactly the app was supposed to be beyond that.
The first gentleman was a VP-type for a large company. He insisted that the app (nicknamed "Pals" at the time) was for people with similar interests to find each other and connect based on just being near the same place at the same time.
The second partner was a well-known lawyer in my city. When I mentioned their app sounds like a dating app, this guy says to the first man, "SEE! It's a dating app." And then he proceeds to tell me (in graphic detail) his proposed strategy to build a dating app that would tell you where the other person is when you go to meet them in person. He essentially wanted to be able to spy on them to see if the person matched their online description or not before committing to the date.
I thought the idea, while clever, was also super creepy but offered to build it for them. I thought if they pivoted to something like large-scale live events they might have something. Imagine going to a sporting event and having a group chat with everyone else at the stadium. Great way to make new friends/contacts to hang out with later.
They hired a marketing firm to build it instead, and last I heard they had given up on the idea. I guess the only good that really came out of it was that I had a lawyer to call when I had to go to traffic court a few years later. Turns out he was actually pretty good at his job.
If you really want a chat tool to start a revolution, meet in person with people you trust and don't bring any electronic devices with you. And only talk to people who you really trust. Forget phones.
Not having any communications at all puts you at a massive disadvantage when opposing people who do. Absolutely no revolutions were ever accomplished by improvisational means.
Anyhow, a combination of the two is likely best. It won't really help though, "back in the day" every movement had a few police informants in the mix. There's less of that now with electronic monitoring, and 24x7 tracking, but a totalitarian state likely has more of that mix.
Heck a bunch of crooks tried to rob my house, and were caught not only due to having their phones on them, but ALSO due to sending SMS messages about houses they were examining "This house looks empty!", but also because they dropped a phone outside my house, when fleeing when the alarm went off... and the phone wasn't even locked!
Just imagine in a police state. I think a lot of revolutions get stopped before conspirators even get to the "protect our comms" point.
Would Briar be a good alternative? https://briarproject.org/ edit: How it works: https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/
Hi there, I am on developement team of Newnode, a successor of FireChat founded by two of the same people ( https://www.newnode.com/ ). We now provide both, a VPN and a Messenger, with purpose to help people evade censorship and enable device-to-device connectivity. You can find the source code at https://github.com/clostra/newnode
I downloaded your app just now from App Store. When I get to the phone number step, it briefly shows a captcha screen but then transitions to the phone number screen. When I enter my phone number. Country code +47. I don’t get any sms at all. When I switch to the sms app to see if an sms arrived (it didn’t), and I switch back to your app, the counter on the screen that is counting down to allow resending code resets…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seriously though, if you are going to take a phone to a protest, buy an Android used at a bodega and don't put anything personal on it. Expect to lose it.
Even then, most burner phones have serial numbers they can track to the sale.
Hi there, I am on developement team of Newnode, a successor of FireChat founded by two of the same people ( https://www.newnode.com/ ). We now provide both, a VPN and a Messenger, with purpose to help people evade censorship and enable device-to-device connectivity. You can find the source code at https://github.com/clostra/newnode
Is it open source? Will it one day mysteriously disappear from the internet too?