FreedomBox makes servers accessible to everyone • /s/DecentralizeAllThings

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-11T13:19:58+00:00

I'll reiterate the point I made in the other thread, since this is the place to discuss it. We already have decentralization in that anyone can set up their own forum, and people can point their web browsers to the sites they like or subscribe only to RSS feeds they like. Your vision still allows moderators to abuse their powers. If that happens on a large scale (like it did on Reddit), that means people have to mass migrate to new forums, and that takes a long time. Platforms like Facebook and Reddit are still alive in spite of their censorship and spying on users, simply because it's hard to get people to move to alternatives. What this vision achieves is that there's a lower barrier to creating a new forum (since people don't need technical skills or a budget for professional hosting), but is this enough? Why is it important to allow moderators to censor speech?

Also, can users pick what view they want to use, overriding the moderators' decision?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-11T13:08:11+00:00

A decentralized solution is a long-term goal for me. I've been testing a couple of platforms. I haven't encountered anything yet about which I'm really content, but I'm not done exploring the options yet (and specifically IPFS is a platform I want to look into). I also have ideas for software myself. I really want to take a grand approach. But I'm not a software developer, so I can't work on this without schooling myself first. Right now I'm content with simply setting up a new forum, because it can be done straight away. I know that I have the competence to run it properly and the integrity not to sell out, and hosting it on Tor will make raids less likely; this is sufficient for me.

And in a way we already have decentralization in that anyone can set up their own forum, and people can point their web browsers to the sites they like or subscribe only to RSS feeds they like.

P.S. do you include federated software as decentralized. Because Lemmy is federated.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-08T14:27:17+00:00

Hey Jason. A few things I wanted to tell you. First of all, don't worry about a decentralized Wiki. Larry Sanger is working on the Encyclosphere, which will aggregate content from all online encyclopedias. He recently gave a good interview on Timcast where he introduces it. I'll set up your Wiki where you can articulate your ideas, and then you can let Sanger catch up with you regarding decentralization and visibility in a network.

Secondly, creating a new sub for new projects is neat in that the information is aggregated in one place, but the downside is that it has less visibility. How do you feel about x-posting new /s/Cassy threads in /s/Internet and new /s/PhoenixForum threads in /s/DecentralizeAllThings?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-08T12:56:42+00:00

(it isn't ideal for a free speech platform for various reasons)

If you're talking about the word filter: there's Lenny that fixes it.

there's virutally nobody getting the word out there

You don't need to rely on others to do it. Anyone who sets up their own instance can promote that (as they would with any other software they set up), and the entire network gains visibility as a result. It has to start somewhere.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-08T12:49:36+00:00

Hey fschmidt. Jason and I are working on things. We're making great progress. We've basically got the server set up, and I could start hosting things right away, although I'd like a reinstall with a different partition layout. My main project will be a PhpBB forum that's focused on actual discussions about conspiracies (rather than link aggregation), as well as philosophy, religion, spirituality, and related topics. Stay tuned for a proper announcement about this.

I'm also going to set up other software for people as a community service. Some people have expressed interest in a Lemmy instance. I may set that up as well, but I'd need to find other people who are motivated to keep the community engaged, as PhpBB will be my own focus. Would you like to be involved?

Are you able to get Session working? Jason gave me your ID and I added you to our group, but you never said anything.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-08T10:05:21+00:00

More like Lemmy know.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-07T20:10:00+00:00

Is it called MentOS because it breaks easily and you have to constantly perform a fresh install?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-07T12:51:16+00:00

Friedrich Nietzsche is not amused.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-06T14:40:55+00:00

Lel.

Edit: do you guys know people like this character? I don't personally, but the beard type brings up a lot of faces for me. I wonder to what degree the stereotype applies to people who look like that.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-06T14:39:36+00:00

Fuck, that looks good.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-06T14:29:29+00:00

Interesting fact: the biggest outcry in Guantanamo Bay came not from waterboarding, but rather when a woman smeared a man's face with fake menstrual blood. That's terrifying uncleanliness is to them.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-06T10:28:01+00:00

To clarify: my previous assumption was that users like Dipshit are minimum wage workers, and it's now dawning on me that they're more likely to be mostly bots, with perhaps a human co-piloting now and then.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-05T17:07:57+00:00

I just assumed they were minimum wage workers.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-05T16:55:39+00:00

I agree. There are times when you'll want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But when I analyze his post history at a random moment, he seems like a bot, and that's telling.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-05-03T21:59:01+00:00

It's a scary thought. Does the immediate link clicking reveal them to be bots, though? It could be that the shills have scripts in place that do automated posting, while it's still primarily a human that makes the comments. It could be that they use software that simply clicks links for analytical purposes.

To what degree do you guys think this is going on here? Are some of the shills, such as Chipit, actually bots? I'm looking at his comments a little bit. He resorts to personal attacks, and refrains from refuting anything. His comments are very similar to each other, especially the personal attacks he makes. And when he gets called out for anything, he never defends himself properly. His commenting really is of a level that AIs must be capable of.

Comments are more telling than posts, but we can infer things from posts as well. Chipit is guilty of voatification, posting headlines that this site's userbase would welcome, but it's always the most polarizing stuff, and he makes it more polarizing on top of that through deceptive titles. Here's a recent example. Unto itself, the title seems to follow his trend of first giving the actual title of an article he's linking to, and then giving a short summary. When you click it, you discover that it's just a short entertainment video that invites you to laugh at a protester, instead of having actual content. The title isn't an appropriate description at all. So where does it come from? It turns out to be assembled from the video title, the first line of its description, and a random comment to the video, all concatenated. Who comes up with that idea? It really is bot-like behavior.

I've posted another example 5 months ago here.

It's starting to make sense to me. Why would adversaries pay people to comment on sites like these full time when they can just pay devs once to write and train AIs to do then do it for free?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-29T21:58:19+00:00

Maybe this.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-29T11:37:53+00:00

No idea who that is but the page sure made me puke.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-28T21:10:42+00:00

How is that a protest sign.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-28T07:01:26+00:00

They make these mistakes rather often... And why the nervous smile at the end?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-27T06:09:52+00:00

That's the kind of thing I want to avoid. The only thing that terminology achieves is that it polarizes people even more, so it's pretty stupid.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-27T00:43:10+00:00

What's sad is that there's propaganda dismissing warnings about this as 'transphobic'. I don't know to what extent, but I encountered an instance of this, where someone who recently transitioned (for lack of a better term; it sounds like newspeak where approval is built into the very definition, but I'm not aware of any good alternatives) and also works for the entertainment, said people have warned her about these regrets, but just labeled it as transphobic and countered it by citing establishment statistics about most people not regretting it.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-25T15:56:30+00:00

There's actually pretty much the same story between my two brothers. My eldest brother spent a lot of time with a caterpillar and became almost obsessed with it, and then my brother who's slightly my elder entered the scene out of curiosity, asked "what's this?", and instantly squashed the insect with his thumb. It made a huge impact on my animal loving brother. I believe their ages were similar to you and your brother's as well. (They're a few years apart in age.) I was too young to remember the event myself, but my mother tells people the story regularly.

When I was in elem school, I was that kid who was the annoying bug lifeguard in the swimming pool - every damn bug that flew into the pool, I stopped whatever games we were playing so I could save it, even if it was a bee lol.

I was actually a bug lifeguard in high school. There was a wasp on the window and the girls sitting in front of me were afraid. One of them stood up with a sheet of paper in order to do something about it. Sometimes they put the sheet behind the insect and trap it a cup or something in order to free it. But in this case, she just had a sheet and it appeared she wanted to squash it behind it. So I said "what the hell do you think you're doing?", gently picked up the insect with my thumb and index finger, and let it out the window after which it quickly flew away. It's a pretty exciting thing to do. The moment you put it between your fingers, it'll frantically flap its wings, which makes a loud buzzing noise and gives you the impression it's about to sting you, but you've got to simply not let that intimidate you. If you keep your fingers steady, it can't do anything.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-24T07:56:38+00:00

Yes, that's what I said. You're still a shill, though.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-20T18:01:08+00:00

Fantastic host.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-20T14:27:15+00:00

Tags instead of subs seems better, and links to other information, discussions and mirrors.

Both are useful. Tags are implemented on various sites, such as Twitter, but that's obviously different from a subreddit. The former is a way of finding information; the latter is a community. If a website has tags, people can talk about #archery, but if one want to start a new community dedicated to archery, it'd feel out of place to start using a (hash)tag for the name of that community. Although I suppose it's possible. But a big difference is that the person starting that tag won't be able to moderate it, and that makes it less attractive to establish the community on that site (or platform, if that's what you're making). I'm not sure how I feel about that, in all honesty, because moderators in general tend to abuse their power. Maybe a decentralized moderation system could work, such as what Aether uses.

Like James Corbett is also in the open.

A big difference is that you have to subscribe / donate before you can comment on his website. That keeps out the shills. But ideally we don't create a barrier to entry like that.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-18T19:35:53+00:00

I thought henna was calling whistlepig a bot. Calling Anon a bot doesn't make sense either; his recent comments are real ones (just like his earlier ones).

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-18T10:34:22+00:00

Don't get paranoid. Look at their profile to see that it's a real person. Especially the fact that they're moderating a real sub. His point is valid as well. The solution to the voting system being abused is a weighed voting system, where established members have more voting power. Paired with growing the site, so that there are enough real people to vote things properly.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-15T08:37:00+00:00

Physical recipe books still have value for this reason. Also because there's a bias toward edgy recipes on the Internet.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-12T17:57:33+00:00

What's the solution?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-12T17:56:40+00:00

Are you making your own board games? What are they like?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-12T17:21:49+00:00

For the most part I've been looking into forum software and decentralized apps such as Retroshare and Aether. I want to set up a community for conspiracy conscious people. Such as this site, basically, but more focused on discussions.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-12T10:39:36+00:00

Bad shill!

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-12T10:38:17+00:00

Aaaaaaand it's gone.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-11T07:21:27+00:00

The macOS version from their website didn't work for me, but v0.6.6 does. You still need to install libnettle using Homebrew first, though.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-11T06:49:26+00:00

It's not that difficult if you go through it step by step. But anyway, you're 100% sure you can boot from those same GNU/Linux images on other computers? If you get into a grub terminal, that's an indication you booted from it. Some images are like that. I recommend that you try it with Trisquel or GNU/Linux Mint.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T22:21:16+00:00

We're testing it now.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T22:09:26+00:00

I take the credit for discovering it. It looks fantastic with all the features that it has. Currently testing it with people. Wanna try it out with me? PM me for my ID.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T22:02:09+00:00

So the only problem is that we need to learn to share the planet? That'd mean it's a matter of organizing ourselves differently, rather than inherent, meaning the world is not overpopulated. Do you agree?

My political stance cannot be captured in a spectrum and there's no group I align myself with.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T21:46:34+00:00

I was just archiving it in this particular sub. I didn't mean to hit the frontpage again...

Hm, 14 upvotes while the sub has only 7 readers. I think it's astroturfed.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T16:05:15+00:00

Yep. The FBI approached moot from the very beginning and he always complied. There was a whistleblower who claimed the FBI forced moot to let them take over moderation on /b/, and he provided some evidence for this, such as the fact that during the janitor applications, you can apply to be janitor for any board except /b/. And around 2015 (IIRC), there appeared tests with automated posts on /pol/, where it'd always be the same OP, and then later on someone would bring up Columbia. Censorship also increased over the years. Red flags abound.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T13:25:23+00:00

Try to understand the problem. ReeferMadness may have a point when he says it's a virus (a rootkit, I suppose). Maybe Windows corrupts it each time on boot, or maybe it never really got out of a corrupted state. It's curious that it fails to boot multiple GNU/Linux distros, even after a BIOS update. To be safe, it's okay to assume that it's both of these issues, and to find a solution for them both.

I will say that if this is a rootkit, it's a really advanced one. I've never encountered that. But it exists. You want to do the flashing independently of the BIOS itself (since a rootkit in the BIOS may corrupt the update process otherwise).

Option A: backup BIOS

Some motherboards have a backup read-only BIOS which you can use for recovery. Check if yours does (by finding out the model name and looking it up, or by checking the manual), and if so, look up how to boot it.

Option B: DOS

If you only have one BIOS, you can flash it from within FreeDOS, if you have the appropriate program. For Gigabyte boards, the program is called Efiflash, and there's probably an equivalent for boards from other companies. You also need to download the latest update for your BIOS from your an official website. So put FreeDOS on a USB stick or CD-ROM drive alongside the flasher program and a BIOS image (and put those two in the same folder).

Then you need to find a way to boot into it. What you can try is to disconnect all your HDDs / SSDs and boot with just the stick / CD connected. In fact, if you have some other media which you're 100% sure your PC should be able to boot from, you can try it with that media first. If it doesn't work with that, there's no use in trying it with FreeDOS.

Option C: USB programmer

But if the above options are both unavailable, you'll have to resort to flashing with a USB programmer. This is more difficult, but I can guide you.

Please let me know if either option A or B is available. If so, I recommend that you don't actually do it, but that you instead make backups first and wipe the disk with Windows on it. Then you flash your BIOS. If both those options aren't available, it may be worth your while to try the BIOS update again like before, but this time perhaps only after wiping your disk. Alternatively, I can explain how to do it with a programmer.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T10:14:56+00:00

I'm writing something up for you. I just gotta leave for a couple of hours. This is nothing that can't be fixed.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-10T08:50:52+00:00

I do not.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-09T23:03:56+00:00

X-posting this because it stays archived here for a longer time, for people who browse this sub manually.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-09T22:26:20+00:00

Try this first.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-09T16:06:07+00:00

Can you boot into Windows? On many computers, it controls the BIOS boot process. So you can look for the option to reboot into BIOS settings from there. And why not just make backups and then wipe your drive?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-09T15:57:57+00:00

“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation.” - Prince Phillip

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-08T22:11:31+00:00

The point is that it diverts attention away from more important things, such as people having been lied to their entire lives, the money creation process, 9/11 being an inside job, the NWO, i.e. things that can unite the masses against the upper class, if people would but face the reality of it.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-08T13:55:26+00:00

Don't do what it says.

It's obviously a phishing message. The account is 5 hours old. The script changes the form such that it sends your credentials to woridi5084@0pppp.com. Please upvote the OP to bring this to people's attention.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-08T13:51:01+00:00

Right, well spotted.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-08T13:42:53+00:00

Please simply remove the code you pasted, in case anyone tries. I hope you haven't done what it says. If you have: please change your password ASAP.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-08T13:40:38+00:00

Don't do what it says.

It's obviously a phishing message. On his profile it says:

saiditter for 5 hours

It's clearly from an adversary, that's why you didn't get it from /u/magnora7. The instructions will change the code such that the form will send the information to woridi5084@0pppp.com, so that they have your login credentials. Good that you're bringing it to people's attention.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-08T12:51:44+00:00

Shame that Airbus troll, Chipit bot, and socks shill are still here.

It's worse than that. Dipshit is gaining m7's trust through low effort comments, reflecting m7's thoughts back to him and flattering him. It appears m7's falling for it. Here's the thread in question. What's gonna happen now? Is Dipshit going to call who is and isn't a troll, and will m7 ban people based on that? This is disconcerting.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-07T21:38:02+00:00

The fact that this is a psy-op, on the other hand, went over her head.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-07T21:33:03+00:00

Don't forget /s/friends either.

Edit: I'm following you on Gab. And to anyone reading this: feel free to follow me, my profile is here.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-07T20:37:35+00:00

Yes, m7 should join us in doing it in public.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-07T09:58:49+00:00

It kind of reminds of me the NIST report on the collapse of Building 7.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-06T20:44:42+00:00

It's not really a surprise if they expected it...

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-05T21:11:02+00:00

I can't believe your wizard beard isn't getting you laid by itself.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-05T20:59:01+00:00

It's very apt that you posted this in this sub, because the vote buttons are positioned vertically here, so an upvote symbolizes your rising. That's why you picked this sub, right?

It's good to have you back.

P.S. it's probably a good thing that you missed last week...

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-05T20:40:37+00:00

Right, I saw your other post just now. I suspect you missed my edit. Could you wait a little while until the astroturf votes lose their significance, and then undelete?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-05T20:33:22+00:00

Welcome back!

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-05T20:32:31+00:00

I didn't immediately think it was astroturf either. I'll say that when I post a joke, I give it a boost by immediately voting it fun in addition to the default insightful vote. Combined with the low age, this makes the algorithm rank it quite high (I saw it on #7 or so straight away), but this effect is counteracted if there isn't a stream of upvotes. But a post like this is easy to consume and invites quick upvotes, so those could all be authentic. Will you consider undeleting it? I think a bit of banter about the situation will do us all good.

Edit: or maybe wait a little while until the astroturf votes lose their significance, and then undelete?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-04T20:43:47+00:00

They certainly made a fool out o poor Musky.

The thing is that it's mostly m7 who was made a fool of... See my post below.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-04T20:12:10+00:00

Okay, good detective work. Here's my current impression of what happened, based on the limited data I have. It should be taken more as a possibility.

/u/bobbobbybob and /u/magnora7 were bickering over how this site should be moderated. bob left out of frustration.
m7 may or may not have banned bob on top of that. (I can't tell.)
the ironleft trolls, realizing that bob wouldn't be around to set the record straight, created the hoax that m7 banned bob for transphobic slurs. The idea was to frame others for spreading it. They did this by using fake accounts (/u/bobbobbybob2 and /u/bobbobbybob3) to send this image (which is clearly fake) to, at the very least, /u/AmericanMuskrat and /u/Enza (as you can see here).
Muskrat, mistaking it for a real screenshot by the real bob, shares it with others.
m7 gets the impression that the fake screenshot originated from Muskrat and bans him.
Muskrat has only limited capacity for drama and, instead of fighting it, simply announces his leave.

So how do you guys feel about this? Can you see how they were simply looking who'd take the bait, and how Muskrat was caught in crossfire? Of course, I only have part of the picture. But m7, please consider to what degree you're basing his ban on actual evidence that he's a shill instead of being framed. For example, when you say he posted about how great it is to have sex with 17 year olds, was it really him posting those things? I saw this screenshot, but it's obviously just as fake as the bob screenshot. I don't know in what other ways he was stirring up drama (because I miss things). But if we're left with him pushing the boundaries, then that doesn't mean he's a shill. Carswell posted in /s/tits, but that doesn't make him a shill. If Muskrat's a shill, he's an impossibly convincing one. He made witty posts and befriended established users. This is atypical for shills, they don't put in that kind of effort. I have further evidence that he was framed, which I will PM to you.

Edit: to add, I think bob's a real user as well. They were rude, but people have acted like that online forever, they're simply enjoying the anonymity that the Internet provides. I don't think so many people would find them interesting (myself included) if they were a troll.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-04T17:07:05+00:00

I don't know who's trolling who anymore.

FTFY.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-04T06:31:40+00:00

The ironic thing is that the meaning of red pilled has also shifted toward people holding primarily antifeminist views.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-04T06:27:44+00:00

I 'member.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-03T07:16:47+00:00

That's /u/TheAmeliaMay.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-02T16:40:52+00:00

On the subject of bait: I think I'll bite.

Distancing, masks, vaccine, and regular testing (and tracing where possible) will keep the virus from spreading and mutating.

Can you provide a source for any of these claims?

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-02T10:43:33+00:00

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-02T06:03:51+00:00

ZOMG I am so appalled! He can no longer be my In'nernet friend.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-02T06:01:37+00:00

People get jailed for research into the holohoax in Europe. It's been like this for a long time.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-02T06:00:38+00:00

Clickbait title because it's not a slip. She made a conscious decision to phrase it this way. You should know by now that the masses are propagandized to the point that they will find this normal.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-01T21:47:58+00:00

It still isn't mandatory. They're just less clear about the it, but you can still leave it blank.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-01T21:43:38+00:00

Yes, that one lol.

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-01T14:07:40+00:00

It was great to finally meet you guys in person. It's too bad that /u/JasonCarswell wasn't invited... But anyway, see you all next year!

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-01T14:04:36+00:00

It was great to finally meet you guys in person. It's too bad that /u/JasonCarswell wasn't invited... But anyway, see you all next year!

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-01T13:58:28+00:00

It was great to finally meet you guys in person. It's too bad that /u/JasonCarswell wasn't invited... But anyway, see you all next year!

LarrySwinger2 · 2021-04-01T08:24:19+00:00

The second image has a low resolution. Also, direct links would be nice.

See also A Brief History of Spookery, which follows Miles Mathis's style of research. Specifically "Where did all the Phoenicians Go" by Mathis himself is relevant.

LarrySwinger2

MODERATOR OF

Option A: backup BIOS

Option B: DOS

Option C: USB programmer

Don't do what it says.

Don't do what it says.