Hacker News Reader

Comment by someonehere | Hacker News Reader

If people are wondering what other options there out there to protect WSB and other groups from obnoxious band like this, might I suggest Mastodon? You can self host and be a part of the network. The tricky part to replicate the user capacity for WSB would probably require a lot of build out and probably someplace the servers can’t be killed by the ISP or data center (Russia?).

I along with a few other friends have messaged the moderators and a few other notable figures on Reddit about this. Nobody has responded for obvious reasons.

Would like to see them continue doing what they’re doing outside the grasp of the money strings controlling politics and the economy.

View on HN

I find it striking that a solution proposed at times like this is to depend on infrastructure in a foreign land, specifically Russia.

This is not a dig at you at all - in fact you're probably right, but it is certainly striking that after all these years, people are seriously suggesting Russia as a "freer" alternative to American/Anglo systems.

I’m sure it’s as free as a bird until you begin to criticize Putin ...

Well luckily the groups fleeing to host servers there have no reason to do that. When they want to criticize Putin they can do it from American servers.

Isn't that the irony though? You can continue to use American infrastructure, be it for communication, finance, etc, unless you irritate the wrong people. There are no lack of "Putins" in Anglo countries as well.

Call me when American journalists start getting defenestrated for criticizing the government as they are in Russia.

It’s not ‘freer’, it’s just far less likely to be opposed to this particular group. I doubt that a freewheeling discussion on the evils of soviet imperialism would be toleration a Russian hosted mastodon server...

As I said in a comment below: Isn't that the irony though? You can continue to use American infrastructure, be it for communication, finance, etc, unless you irritate the wrong people. There are no lack of "Putins" in Anglo countries as well.

> people are seriously suggesting Russia as a "freer" alternative to American/Anglo systems

This is more of an alignment issue. If your particular community is US-centric, going to Russia (or China) for hosting will serve you well, as they have little interest in what you're doing and will not easily give in to pressure (if you're scared of the US cracking down on you, you should probably avoid the EU as well).

Still, I agree: Having to take these steps as anything other than a far fetched precaution is horrible.

Isn't it some sort of equilibrium? If you want to criticize A, host your website in B land (A's ennemy). If you want to criticize B, host it in A land. It works while they both remain ennemies. Nemo judex in causa sua (no one is judge in his own cause).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com