42 lines
8.3 KiB
HTML
Executable File
42 lines
8.3 KiB
HTML
Executable File
<html>
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<head>
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<title>introduction and statement of principles</title>
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<link href="hydrus.ico" rel="shortcut icon" />
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<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="content">
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<h3>on being anonymous</h3>
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<p>I am convinced that anonymous speech is incredibly valuable to the modern development of free culture and society.</p>
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<p>When people have no fear of personal repercussion, they reveal corruptions and admit truths they otherwise never would. Their words are insightful and stupid, convincing and hurtful, hilarious and ridiculous. Anons can discuss problems and collaborate on solutions without having to conform to laborious social norms. When they lie, it is usually less for vanity and more for fun.</p>
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<p>Nearly all forums and social networking platforms use the same username/password archetype, and nearly all of them have the same problems with egotistical mods, sockpuppets, and drama. Everyone has a name to make and defend.</p>
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<p>This is not to say that I believe in mandating anonymity; I think people should always have the <i>option</i> to be anonymous, and people should always have the choice to not view anonymously submitted material.</p>
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<p>There are several online platforms that support anonymity, usually through a web browser, but most have terribly inefficient code, and their actual anonymity is often impotent window dressing, an afterthought. Collaboration is awkward and ephemeral.</p>
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<p>I think we can do better.</p>
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<h3>the hydrus network</h3>
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<p>So! I'm developing a platform that helps people work together anonymously. My concern is in enabling you to do what you want. I don't want to record metrics on users, nor serve ads, nor charge for my software.</p>
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<p>There are a number of new concepts, and it can get as complicated as you like. If you are totally new to it, I advise you start slow, go through the getting started guides, and experiment doing different things.</p>
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<p>There is a server executable, which can run any of a number of different services I have designed, and a client application, which can plug into as many as you want (including none). I run a tag server that you are welcome to access and contribute to.</p>
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<p>A <b>server</b> will have an address, such as 98.214.1.156 or hostname.net. A <b>service</b> hosted by that server will have a port, such as 45871. <b>Access keys</b> are non-identifing random numbers that grant a client certain permissions on a service. They look like this: 4a285629721ca442541ef2c15ea17d1f7f7578b0c3f4f5f2a05f8f0ab297786f.</p>
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<p>Combining these three values like so:</p>
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<ul><li>4a285629721ca442541ef2c15ea17d1f7f7578b0c3f4f5f2a05f8f0ab297786f@98.214.1.156:45871</li></ul>
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<p>gives your client sufficient credentials to access and use the service. All the clients connecting to a particular service can collaborate on a particular problem, such as "Post funny pictures of dogs." or "Let's collect our cosplay pictures and tag them."</p>
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<p>I call what I have made the <i>hydrus network</i>. Right now, the platform lets you collect and manage your images, then share those files, and any tags you give them, with other users anonymously. Clients can also communicate with each other, although this feature is prototype. I have much more <a href="future.html">planned</a>.</p>
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<p>Here is a shot of the client, with a very general search:</p>
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<p><a href="example_lib.png"><img src="example_lib.png" width="960" height="600" title="WELCOME TO INTERNET" /></a></p>
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<h3>statement of principles</h3>
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<p><i>Skip past this if you don't want to read some sanctimonious bullshit.</i></p>
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<p>Anyone following internet news knows our rights are under constant attack. Some seriously bad dudes are very content to wreck others' lives for marginally larger slices of extremely inefficient political and economic markets. They are desperate to replace our net-liberty with old, ruinous broken systems. I personally don't think it is anyone else's business whether you search for queer pornography, religious iconography, or daisies. I have designed the hydrus network as such. I strongly believe that permitting anonymity makes for strong society.</p>
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<p>I care about empowering you to do whatever you want with whatever you own, and I don't want anyone (including myself!) peeking in on it. Whenever someone wants your personal data and they don't <i>absolutely need it</i> to get their job done, you are about to get screwed. Your oddities will be measured and broadcast. Your vulnerability will be encouraged and leveraged. I think we are on the verge of some pretty cool stuff, and I reckon <i>Amazon, Facebook et al.</i> could well be some insidious runaway badness.</p>
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<p>I think the internet works best where we have specialised servers run by different people (especially yourself!) doing specific jobs. One-stop-shops like your typical social network and the old Yahoo! and AOL portals are tepid at their best and promote biased ignorance at their worst. I very much admire the way irc has grown, for even though there are giant irc servers hosting countless channels, the standard is open and anyone can start their own server or write their own client with just a bit of brainpower. You can be anonymous and talk about whatever you like, or identified and talk about one particular subject politely, or any of the infinite combinations between. The people have the power. MediaWiki is similar: Don't like wikipedia? Make ED. Don't like OhI? Make ED.ch. Contrast this with the inflexibility of modern social networks. Or to how unreceptive large ISPs (who, these days, are nearly always also content providers) are to non-standard traffic.</p>
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<p>My dream internet would have most users running their own servers. All their content and social media would be stored on and served from computers under their control. Their business would be no one else's.</p>
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<p>Having said that, I use gmail and youtube just like pretty much everyone. But I would rather be using different systems, especially in ten years. No one seemed to be making what I wanted, so I decided to do it myself, and here we are.</p>
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<p>Hand in hand with privacy goes free expression; I will never remove a mapping from my public tag repository because someone finds it not to their taste; I'll only grant petitions if they point to an objective error in tagging. Banning speech only makes a few ignorant more satisfied with their own fears. Please note that the guys running the file repositories might count as ISPs in their jurisdictions, so may have to bow to DMCA and whatever else is supposed to halt the tide. I wish I could have written the file repository to mandate IP-anonymity, but I can't, so I've given the individual administrators the option. They will likely make their own rules (e.g. no jb/cp, or 'copyrighted content') which you would be very wise to follow, or simple content guidelines ('This is a repository dedicated to slash of Hokuto no Ken. Only for fan-made MM images relating to Hokuto no Ken.') which you should not break if you want to keep your access key.</p>
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<p>Another concern of mine is simple speed. If you want bells and whistles, go somewhere else. There will never be a skinnable client, nor one that posts your recent 'achievements' to some social network. I want rich queries that return thousands of results in moments. Easy navigation and sharing. No ads. That said, I realise I have zero aesthetic range, so if you are an artist/designer and the mood hits you, please do not shy from emailing me thoughts on usability or my diagrams or new icons or whatever.</p>
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<p>I'd like to eventually set up a paypal/kickstarter-similar way for people to gibe moni plos, but it'll be totally voluntary.</p>
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<h3>license</h3>
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<p>These programs are free software. They come without any warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/COPYING for more details. Do what the fuck you want to, and if shit breaks, <span class="dealwithit">DEAL WITH IT</span>.</p>
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<p class="right"><a href="getting_started_files.html">Happy? Go on to the getting started guide ----></a></p>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html> |