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Quoted: @aimless @goatboy can we get this pinned to the top? Also there needs to be discussion of an alternative hosting site. Potentially a .win may not be a bad idea as a backup, as well as a backup server. Doesn't need a pin. Let's keep it floating topside via discussion. We have plans in place and will release information when we are ready. I will say that most partners we use (and it's not many) will no longer be around when things are completed. We also want to trudge ahead as quickly as we can but it will create growing pains. We will also put in place some contingency plans in case of failures in our new system. We plan to use conservative companies where possible and strong partners with similar beliefs. It's more than just hosting, but it will all be covered. |
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Quoted: Funny thing, the guy that informed the hacking community and world about details of stuff from the snowden info dump turned out to be a controlled oppo plant, chosen to build cred for tor, because the navy and etc figured the best way to gain credit in the circles they wanted credit in was to pick someone actually for privacy and such. Informative, the guy is and can be very very foul, so consider yourself warned on that front : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0w36GAyZIA Things have not gotten better since. Nothing is secure from certain eyes. Trust no tech. Attached File |
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Quoted: @GoatBoy Would it be possible to make "https://www.ar15.com/archive/" members only. When not behind the pay wall, it is archived by Google, Bing, and also Wayback Machine style systems. A significant amount of minable data is located there, and as such, can it be at least hidden behind the member's only security? It may also be prudent to have all non-tech topics that haven't had a reply in the last 6-12 months deleted. (As well as any stored media and photos expire after 6-12 months.) Also, importantly, the EE should probably have a 30 or 60 day time limit and then be deleted. There are numerous "Ill take it" posts in there that leave a paper trail on private transactions. I also believe this should be members only to prevent search and archival that can be used against people. Lastly, it may be prudent to push some sensitive sub forums to members with a certain post count and years active requirement. $24 get's you a lot more research ability, but having to wait 5 years and have 5,000 posts, should make that barrier much harder for casual doxxers to access. of course, deleting expired content is very helpful. Anyone that has archived the site so far will have the data. But taking these small measures will protect us from a large number of potential problems from the masses at large, and people looking to "turn in their neighbor". These are all needed ASAP. |
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Quoted: @GoatBoy Would it be possible to make "https://www.ar15.com/archive/" members only. When not behind the pay wall, it is archived by Google, Bing, and also Wayback Machine style systems. A significant amount of minable data is located there, and as such, can it be at least hidden behind the member's only security? It may also be prudent to have all non-tech topics that haven't had a reply in the last 6-12 months deleted. (As well as any stored media and photos expire after 6-12 months.) Also, importantly, the EE should probably have a 30 or 60 day time limit and then be deleted. There are numerous "Ill take it" posts in there that leave a paper trail on private transactions. I also believe this should be members only to prevent search and archival that can be used against people. Lastly, it may be prudent to push some sensitive sub forums to members with a certain post count and years active requirement. $24 get's you a lot more research ability, but having to wait 5 years and have 5,000 posts, should make that barrier much harder for casual doxxers to access. of course, deleting expired content is very helpful. Anyone that has archived the site so far will have the data. But taking these small measures will protect us from a large number of potential problems from the masses at large, and people looking to "turn in their neighbor". is it possible to request those web archive services remove what they've copied from arf too? I've seen some example of that with the wayback machine. if so would be good to put those requests in. the data will exist somewhere, but will make it harder for randos to search for doxing activity. |
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Quoted: Ok so how can I make it more plain. The actions of a few people who decided to break into and storm the capitol building are costing us dearly. In fact, the chatter afterwards has been about taking more aggressive actions against folks. Talking online about plans or thoughts of violence against others is not acceptable behavior for 99% of hosting companies. It creates liability, risk, and government interventions. If folks would simply not post these things and focus on the discussion, we would not be in this place and Parlor would not be shutting down tomorrow at midnight. THIS is the problem right now. We are a small team of staff and mods and we have to look through everything we can and weed out these posts and sometimes the people who are posting it and putting themselves at risk. Not only is this not acceptable (our own rules being broken), but it puts the person at risk from outside folks. Now if we act to moderate as we are supposed to, which we are doing, then we are complying with all rules we set for ourselves and all expectations from hosting companies. Being on AWS or on JohnSmith's Hosting does not matter. If we break basic rules, we are at risk to shut down. Quoted: Quoted: You get it...Unfortunately, GoatBoy probably needs some sleep.....Multiple scores of people have tried to constructively explain it simply won't work. Every single thread from a random discussion about what some actor in Ferris Bueller said about the current state of affairs....Then a post about restoring a 56 Buick turns how someone had a POS neighbor with a 56 Buick and gargled Clinton's balls and then REEEE....Then there is EVERY SINGLE gun thread that last beyond one page....and on and on...I personally avoid posting in those type of threads, but many people don't and that's just fine. GD is politics by nature because everything is politicized by nature and doing this just more parsing, CoC violations, bans and so on when more applicable solutions would probably immediately be in order...Actually, should have already been thought of because when you know the election is already a razor's edge and the cancel culture is in full swing, this was actually inevitable. Ok so how can I make it more plain. The actions of a few people who decided to break into and storm the capitol building are costing us dearly. In fact, the chatter afterwards has been about taking more aggressive actions against folks. Talking online about plans or thoughts of violence against others is not acceptable behavior for 99% of hosting companies. It creates liability, risk, and government interventions. If folks would simply not post these things and focus on the discussion, we would not be in this place and Parlor would not be shutting down tomorrow at midnight. THIS is the problem right now. We are a small team of staff and mods and we have to look through everything we can and weed out these posts and sometimes the people who are posting it and putting themselves at risk. Not only is this not acceptable (our own rules being broken), but it puts the person at risk from outside folks. Now if we act to moderate as we are supposed to, which we are doing, then we are complying with all rules we set for ourselves and all expectations from hosting companies. Being on AWS or on JohnSmith's Hosting does not matter. If we break basic rules, we are at risk to shut down. I have to say that’s where you are wrong GB. They were going to do this anyway, this is just the excuse. If there wasn’t a convenient excuse, they’d just change the rules like they’ve been doing for 3 or 4 years. I get keeping our collective heads down for the moment but they were coming no matter what, don’t be too quick to throw people under the bus. They were going to make us pick up that can not matter what. Our side is the ones that took casualties and left when requested/ordered whatever. Even if you disagree with it, which is fine, those frustrated people weren’t at fault. If it was a false flag, it was a super lame false flag. Even still, they are looking to bury us. Sometimes a regroup is Necessary , we just can’t let it be a surrender. |
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Quoted: Good job being fucking capitulators. Other American citizens are absolutely my enemy now. There are two opposite ideologies at odds here. There is no middle ground, no compromise. Either their side is in power in the end or ours. You don't back down when they try to punk you out. You stand tall and kick their fucking teeth in. I enlisted to fight Islam and I'll do whatever I have to here at home to fight authoritarianism/communism. Violence founded this nation. Violence will save it. But violence posted on a website will get it shut down. There is such a thing as self control and self preservation. Get your point across without threats! Simple right? |
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Quoted: So far ZERO. Let's keep it that way. @GoatBoy consider adding a warrant canary https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/04/warrant-canary-faq |
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Quoted: I would strongly urge moving away from AWS as an unconditional top priority though, not a contingency plan. This is only going to get worse from here, and they'll find increasingly flimsy excuses to pick off sites one by one. They'll tighten the vice gradually to divide and conquer sites against each other and create bad blood as people, organizations, and communities throw each other under the bus. "We're not terrorists, unlike ar15.com!" If I were you I'd get in contact with admins of other conservative sites and plan together about how to address hosting switches. The reason is, if you can't find a suitable host guaranteed to have your back long-term, your combined resources could create one. Eventually hosts won't be safe either, because ISP's will start shutting down accounts. We're going to either need our own ISP's and payment processors, or novel distributed forum hosting (a Freenet-like thing maybe), or a form of hosting that prevents ISP's from even knowing what sites a provider hosts. One thing at a time though. So here's the rub. Even hosts are subject to the city's trunk. So if the telcom who owns the lines wants you gone, the whole hosting company can be shut down. It's good to have a plan, but it's better to have 5 or 6 plans. We are at phase 3 because phase 2 is eliminated in this fiasco. We also need to consult and balance things out and may skip 3 and go to phase 4. If we find a host is a risk, we can't just hope for the best. It's the same for all services. I don't think folks understand the nuances of the cluster we are in as conservatives. |
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Quoted: Use a reputable VPN Use email hosted overseas in a non-Five Eyes nation, that emphasizes security Use signal Build your networks of like-minded folks If Signal works the way it sounds anyone can see your phone number. Anyone with access to a background check service should be able to ID you in a few minutes & $5. Just be careful. |
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Quoted: @GoatBoy consider adding a warrant canary https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/04/warrant-canary-faq Neat |
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Quoted: I guess my question is where do you draw your line? Someone somewhere won't like the stuff that is here, no matter how much you parse it down. What if the next thing that becomes concerning is the EE? Does the site dump the EE "or risk losing it all"? Judging from this, the EE is gone. What if they then decide that they don't like gun company advertising? Do we hide that to? lol "Can't have those tech forums and all that info on building guns. Someone in New Jersey or Illinois might see that and build an illegal gun. That shit has to go." Once you give in, you are forced to continue to give in. This is why as gunowners, we have, for years said "Not one more inch." Read the updates to the OP. This isn't about content they don't like it's about rules, laws, and terms of service. We must abide by rules in life or face consequences. If they don't like something, nobody cares. When we cross lines, then they care. Of course if they change the laws and make sales illegal online, then the EE could be fubar. Nothing would surprise me anymore. |
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Quoted: Read the updates to the OP. This isn't about content they don't like it's about rules, laws, and terms of service. We must abide by rules in life or face consequences. If they don't like something, nobody cares. When we cross lines, then they care. Of course if they change the laws and make sales illegal online, then the EE could be fubar. Nothing would surprise me anymore. So to answer my question, asked at least 4 times now... Yes |
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Quoted: unfortunately, these seem like sensible suggestions to me at this point Quoted: Quoted: @GoatBoy Would it be possible to make "https://www.ar15.com/archive/" members only. When not behind the pay wall, it is archived by Google, Bing, and also Wayback Machine style systems. A significant amount of minable data is located there, and as such, can it be at least hidden behind the member's only security? It may also be prudent to have all non-tech topics that haven't had a reply in the last 6-12 months deleted. (As well as any stored media and photos expire after 6-12 months.) Also, importantly, the EE should probably have a 30 or 60 day time limit and then be deleted. There are numerous "Ill take it" posts in there that leave a paper trail on private transactions. I also believe this should be members only to prevent search and archival that can be used against people. Lastly, it may be prudent to push some sensitive sub forums to members with a certain post count and years active requirement. $24 get's you a lot more research ability, but having to wait 5 years and have 5,000 posts, should make that barrier much harder for casual doxxers to access. of course, deleting expired content is very helpful. Anyone that has archived the site so far will have the data. But taking these small measures will protect us from a large number of potential problems from the masses at large, and people looking to "turn in their neighbor". Excellent recommendations. I think the images & EE would be the top priority. @sq40 |
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Quoted: Might as well change the site to DU15.com I enjoy your little posts which border on insult and humor, but you live in the blue state of Washington. Home of CHOP! Now, did you go defend those businesses and people who were scared shitless in their homes? No? Why not? I mean you would stand up to oppression right? Maybe you think they deserved it or it was too far a drive. The point is you had a chance to fix something and stand up to the enemy and made a decision not to. Maybe there's more to it than that, but we all are victims of our own situations. I've tried to be honest here at least and share what I can. I dedicated my day to this thread, even while exhausted. If you can't respect that enough to read the post and be constructive, then so be it. Carry on with the snide remarks. |
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Quoted: is it possible to request those web archive services remove what they've copied from arf too? I've seen some example of that with the wayback machine. if so would be good to put those requests in. the data will exist somewhere, but will make it harder for randos to search for doxing activity. No, not really. I’ve personally helped replicate past archives from archive.org. It’s not going away, and it shouldn’t. |
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Quoted: So how much would it cost for a group of investors to start up a conservative-focused web hosting service? Asking as a potential investor. There are a few already. If you haven't seen my post about it, remember you would still be subject to the telcom who owns the lines. |
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Quoted: People, calm the fuck down and understand what Winston Churchill said about diplomacy: it is the art of saying "nice doggie" while you reach for a rock to throw at it. This move is to placate AWS until GB can find a new hosting service. All it requires is that we post political stuff in Politics, not GD. AND continue to abide by COC. Yet some of you think this means Brownells and site admin have turned into Lindsay Graham. Calm the fuck down and try to think several steps ahead instead of charging a machinegun nest across an open field with a spear. |
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Quoted: Fair enough but realize we are all having a hard wake up call that has made us realize we are living in George Orwell's "1984". Although many of us older Arfcommers realized this was coming it is still a hard pill to swallow.......but here we are........in George Orwell's "1984". Understood. Keep in mind I am right here next to you. I am going through the exact same thing. I vow to be MORE involved and MORE active, not criticize others for what they do or are sometimes forced to do. They are coming for us all. |
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Quoted: Getting arfcom shut down and feds at my door ain't gonna help Once people realize that both are going to happen, maybe something will change. This was always an eventuality. There is literally nothing you can do to prevent either from happening. Nothing. |
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Quoted: If you're willing to fold this quick and collectively hold us accountable due to YOUR fear, why should I not believe you're willing to sell us up the river individually for the same reason. Everyone should act accordingly. As other have said, please make my profile self nukable. At least be honorable with us and let us do the deed ourselves rather than hoping we don't get eaten off piecemeal to apease your fears. Please read the thread. I already posted my only fear. (Ok I also fear for my family and I hadn't posted that yet.) |
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Quoted: We also need a way to pay for memberships outside of credit card processors. The left will just make it so we can't use a Visa card to pay. There has to be a cryptocurrency payment option--not just for AR15.com, but for the entire firearms community. It won't be long before Visa and Mastercard refuse to allow their products to be used at gun shops. On the list with no ETA. |
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Thanks! |
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Quoted: We did fail in this. We could not get what we wanted done in time and had to scrap it. Would love to build something in that's more integrated if anyone out there has some time and interest. Otherwise it needs to be revisited in the future and is a low priority. I do apologize for it, but the older server was a major security risk. I'd be glad to help with that when you're ready. Name change and history delete have to come first though. |
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Quoted: With the events of Jan 6th, we have had to take action against posts which skirt, or cross the lines. Specifically things which discuss violence against fellow Americans. I want to be clear to folks that this is not acceptable. While we know emotions are running high right now, everyone needs to be aware that the MSM and Leftist groups are using the momentum to pressure companies to shut down opposing viewpoints. They have targeted everything from Parler to FoxNews (and OAN and Newsmax) to get them removed. Google has gone as far as removing Parler from their app store unless they meet their demands. My opinion of these actions is that they are pure BS and contradictory to what they already allow. In short, they are attacking the conservative voice while they can. A simple example is the violence and hate posted HOURLY on twitter, which they ignore. Regardless, we need to be vigilant in protecting this website or it will be shutdown and we will lose our voices and communications channel. From today on, we ask that ALL POLITICAL AND RELATED DISCUSSIONS be kept out of GD and posted to the specific politics forum. The politics forum should show up right below the GD in the forum lists. The politics forum is now restricted to Team members only for the time being. We are doing this to create a little more security for those discussions as well as allowing us a little more time to manage them. This does not mean we will change how we moderate those topics and expect everyone to continue to comply with the rules. I implore you all to not post anything which violates our policies. This means you should avoid posting any threats (even veiled ones), promoting violence, and not support rioting of any kind. This is not anything new and continues to be in line with what every hosting provider enforces and what we, as websites, need to adhere to as well. There is a giant spotlight on us right now, so watch what you say and watch your six. Do not trust anyone on any platform. To those of you who feel we are caving into pressure, please understand if we fail to protect this community from itself, we will no longer be here for any discussion. You have already seen the attacks on Parler. You have seen conservatives removed from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Google, Instagram, and others. We are running out of places to talk and share ideas. If we lose this place, we will allow the dominoes to continue to fall. I once again ask you to understand the situation and choose to be part of our future. If you value your voice and freedoms, it's time to look at those who would sooner silence you and switch to those who would support you. Once final note. We will be working to remove connections to Facebook and Twitter on ARFCOM. Please remember it takes time to make those changes and bring in support for other tools like Parler. UPDATE Since folks are not reading through the thread (which I totally understand in normal situations) I will update a few things here. 1) This is not all political and related topics, it will be for anything emotionally charged and pushing boundaries. (This does not mean crossing them, as breaking rules that exist are still not good.) 2) This is not adding rules or conduct expectations. Everything remains the same. We are moving some threads into the politics forum based on what we feel is a need. 3) Hopefully the team restriction will be dropped to logged in restrictions as things calm down a bit. 4) We are looking for alternatives for every aspect of the site to avoid issues and restrictions. Do not expect the COC to change. 5) We are working on changes and systems to better how we can vet each other and create special "secure" areas of the site. Information to be shared in another post later, but you can find it in a few pages in this thread. (Forget which ones and too much going on to find them at this moment.) 6) All conservative voices are at risk. See what's happening to Parler, Fox News, Newsmax, etc. We are just trying to give us a little more time to handle moderation on our end. Again, no rules are changing and not all topics will be moved out of GD. I will add more if needed. Update 2 - To clarify specifics folks seem to be missing out on. Ok so how can I make it more plain. The actions of a few people who decided to break into and storm the capitol building are costing us dearly. In fact, the chatter afterwards has been about taking more aggressive actions against folks. Talking online about plans or thoughts of violence against others is not acceptable behavior for 99% of hosting companies. It creates liability, risk, and government interventions. If folks would simply not post these things and focus on the discussion, we would not be in this place and Parlor would not be shutting down tomorrow at midnight. THIS is the problem right now. We are a small team of staff and mods and we have to look through everything we can and weed out these posts and sometimes the people who are posting it and putting themselves at risk. Not only is this not acceptable (our own rules being broken), but it puts the person at risk from outside. Now if we act to moderate as we are supposed to and are doing, then we are complying with all rules we set for ourselves and all expectations from hosting companies. Being on AWS or on JohnSmith's Hosting does not matter. If we break basic rules, we are at risk to shut down. So 1st Amendment rights go right out the window, got it! Guess we can start posting threads about basket weaving and how great the democratic party is. |
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Quoted: We did fail in this. We could not get what we wanted done in time and had to scrap it. Would love to build something in that's more integrated if anyone out there has some time and interest. Otherwise it needs to be revisited in the future and is a low priority. I do apologize for it, but the older server was a major security risk. Quoted: Quoted: They used to have an IRC chat... it went away a few years ago... "We're working on a new chat.".... Here we are several years later... still no chat. Just one data point. We did fail in this. We could not get what we wanted done in time and had to scrap it. Would love to build something in that's more integrated if anyone out there has some time and interest. Otherwise it needs to be revisited in the future and is a low priority. I do apologize for it, but the older server was a major security risk. I have been thinking quite a bit about this and am leaning toward a federated network of lightweight ActivityPub servers, likely pleroma. We can write custom SPA frontend if necessary. |
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Quoted: We did fail in this. We could not get what we wanted done in time and had to scrap it. Would love to build something in that's more integrated if anyone out there has some time and interest. Otherwise it needs to be revisited in the future and is a low priority. I do apologize for it, but the older server was a major security risk. Quoted: Quoted: They used to have an IRC chat... it went away a few years ago... "We're working on a new chat.".... Here we are several years later... still no chat. Just one data point. We did fail in this. We could not get what we wanted done in time and had to scrap it. Would love to build something in that's more integrated if anyone out there has some time and interest. Otherwise it needs to be revisited in the future and is a low priority. I do apologize for it, but the older server was a major security risk. That event is one reason I stopped buying memberships... There are others. If you decide to lock some of us long term members who are choosing not to buy memberships out of important discussions, that is your call. But it smacks of panic and defeatism to me. And adds to that list. I would focus on severing relationships with entities that hate "us"... and bolstering your ability to keep the signal going when there are more attacks from big business and, inevitability, government entities, rather than stifle information flow in the hopes they leave you alone for one more day. |
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Quoted: @goatboy Consider starting to accept crypto for memberships. bitcoin + some privacy coin like zcash or monero For anyone that already paid, or purchased AR parts with a CC, it’s too late. They have all the data. If you want real OPSEC now, form a Trust to buy land in the sticks without an address, become a vagrant, a Bedouin goat herder or walk the earth like Cain in Kungfu. |
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Here is an alternative to the "GD", a Telegram group dedicated to the 2021 Rattlesnake Rally but suitable for any "political" matters posted on GD: 2021 Rattlesnake Rally and General Discussion Telegram group |
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Quoted: So far ZERO. Let's keep it that way. Quoted: Quoted: I think the better question for the OP is how many warrants or subpoenas has ARF received for member details related to posts in threads discussing the events of or preparation for what happened in DC on 1/6/2021? So far ZERO. Let's keep it that way. I really apologize for peppering you with questions, but would you consider a warrant canary? |
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Quoted: is it possible to request those web archive services remove what they've copied from arf too? I've seen some example of that with the wayback machine. if so would be good to put those requests in. the data will exist somewhere, but will make it harder for randos to search for doxing activity. Will do what we can. Not all comply with what is asked of them. (As if that's a surprise!) |
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Quoted: Of course we would. Why wouldn't we? The 2021 Rally is coordinated here: 2021 Rally in Richmond |
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It may be time for this. |
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