Decentralized forum - Is it possible?

[awoo]

Recently I've been thinking about if a decentralized forum is possible. For most forums this is not an issue but for KF, whose very existence is consistently threatened, this could be a solid option if truly necessary. I preface this by saying I have only a beginner understanding of decentralized technologies, so please correct me if needed.

A forum would have to support a trust structure, like how currently users of a forum trust admins/mods to cleanup and moderate. Authentication can be done the standard way with GPG keys. It would also need to support broadcasting thread updates (shouldn't be too hard). Ideally this forum would be relatively easy to use by any computer user and well supported by actual developers. For example it's pretty easy to open up the Tor browser and paste in an onion link. Personally wouldn't mind something a little more technical, like a traditional newsgroup. I think that even has its own charm.

I2P or Freenet sound like good foundations. Syndie looks reasonable as a start but may lack some nicer features of web forums. It would take an enormous amount of effort to migrate including redoing the whole backend, so this is only a last case resort IF admins have the energy and technical know-how to run such a decentralized forum. I may try to setup a test Syndie forum and if you're technically inclined and would like to participate, let me know.

 

[Sonicpoo]

what about that shitty free forum hosting site.... "freeforums.net"

 

[DumbDude42]

kf is already accessible as a tor hidden service, that's something that almost no angle of attack can touch

not sure if something like i2p would offer meaningful benefits over what the site currently has

 

[awoo]

kf is already accessible as a tor hidden service, that's something that almost no angle of attack can touch

not sure if something like i2p would offer meaningful benefits over what the site currently has

tor is anonymizing, but idk if this site's backend it centralized
anyway it is an interesting theoretical concept.

 

[BillionBisonBucks]

Might work on a blockchain? Store posts in the ledger and require payment to post. I doubt it would be a compelling alternative to what we've got, but I'm sure some genius could make it work.

 

[Haramburger]

Might work on a blockchain? Store posts in the ledger and require payment to post. I doubt it would be a compelling alternative to what we've got, but I'm sure some genius could make it work.

The only thread we'd lose is "Desert Bus Tour," but is that piece of board culture worth tainting with paypiggery?

 

[BillionBisonBucks]

The only thread we'd lose is "Desert Bus Tour," but is that piece of board culture worth tainting with paypiggery?

Or driving the bus would become the ultimate symbol of excessive wealth.

You could probably set up 'free' forums that only become accessible once you've paid in enough, though that would inflate the ledger pretty quickly.

 

[Spooky Bones]

Younglings who don't remember USENET detected. The problem of decentralized forums was solved before forums as we know them came into being (GPG is needed for authentication, of course, and user interface issues depend on having good newsreader software.)

 

[дядя Боря]

Younglings who don't remember USENET detected. The problem of decentralized forums was solved before forums as we know them came into being (GPG is needed for authentication, of course, and user interface issues depend on having good newsreader software.)

USENET , what's next, we dust off US Robotics modems and cradles for rotary phone receivers?

 

[Spooky Bones]

USENET , what's next, we dust off US Robotics modems and cradles for rotary phone receivers?

What's wrong with it though? With (hypothetical tbh) modern software, you could have basically the same experience as this forum, backed by decentralized USENET, solving people's worries about centralization. Even stickers could be implemented by some ad hoc standard.

 

[дядя Боря]

What's wrong with it though? With (hypothetical tbh) modern software, you could have basically the same experience as this forum, backed by decentralized USENET, solving people's worries about centralization. Even stickers could be implemented by some ad hoc standard.

the mentality has changed a lot. People need immediate feedback, people need to move large media files. A lot of nodes of that decentralized model are mobile devices with limited resources. It all could be made to work in principle, but by the time it will, it would be another beast entirely.

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

the mentality has changed a lot. People need immediate feedback, people need to move large media files. A lot of nodes of that decentralized model are mobile devices with limited resources. It all could be made to work in principle, but by the time it will, it would be another beast entirely.

Give the phone posters a centralized server as punishment for being phone posters. If it gets taken down, so be it.