4 ms·

You can browse with Tor but most sites (including this one and Twitter) won't let you sign up/post with Tor. Very dubious practice by the site operators IMO.

xufi 10y ago
Thats actaully what I've noticed too, I believe even Facebook at one point didnt let me log in becasue it kept asking me to verify who i was (granted I was using a VPN at a local Starbucks).
- exstudent2 10y ago
  It's interesting that Twitter made a name for itself as a platform that could "cause a revolution" (arab spring), but there is no way they can claim that now that they block Tor. Who's going to start a revolution when you're not anoymous? I don't know what the justification for Hacker News not allowing Tor is since there's no economic incentive to track users. Hopefully more people will be made aware of this and start asking the question: Why do you need to know who I am?
qwertex 10y ago
I'm currently using tor and also signed up with it
walrus01 10y ago
Not dubious, tor is used by all sorts of abusive spam bots and people who just want to shitpost for the lulz.
- exstudent2 10y ago
  User based voting solves both those problems without having to nuke the ability to post anonymously.
  - danneu 10y ago
    If almost all of your Tor traffic is abuse, exposing it to your users to vote on doesn't solve the problem, it just gives them a worse experience. Obviously every service has different trade-offs to consider, which is why "Tor traffic is always worth it" is HN comment idealism.
  - MaulingMonkey 10y ago
    How do you differentiate between legitimate new users with no record, and a returning shitposter's 10000th spam account with no record? How do you differentiate between legitimate new users with a bunch of existing users vouching for them, and a returning shitposter's 10000th spam account with a bunch of existing stealth-mode accounts vouching for them? I think you're using an extremely weak definition of "solve".
    - exstudent2 10y ago
      Although Reddit is not perfect, it doesn't seem to be a big problem there. Tor works and you can start posting as soon as you sign up.
      - walrus01 10y ago
        reddit rate-limits new posters to something like 1 post every 15 minutes until they've accumulated some positive karma.
        exstudent2 10y ago
        Yes, but they allow new posters to be anonymous by simply not blocking usage through Tor.

xufi 10y ago

Thats actaully what I've noticed too, I believe even Facebook at one point didnt let me log in becasue it kept asking me to verify who i was (granted I was using a VPN at a local Starbucks).

exstudent2 10y ago
It's interesting that Twitter made a name for itself as a platform that could "cause a revolution" (arab spring), but there is no way they can claim that now that they block Tor. Who's going to start a revolution when you're not anoymous? I don't know what the justification for Hacker News not allowing Tor is since there's no economic incentive to track users. Hopefully more people will be made aware of this and start asking the question: Why do you need to know who I am?

qwertex 10y ago

I'm currently using tor and also signed up with it

walrus01 10y ago

Not dubious, tor is used by all sorts of abusive spam bots and people who just want to shitpost for the lulz.

exstudent2 10y ago
User based voting solves both those problems without having to nuke the ability to post anonymously.
- danneu 10y ago
  If almost all of your Tor traffic is abuse, exposing it to your users to vote on doesn't solve the problem, it just gives them a worse experience. Obviously every service has different trade-offs to consider, which is why "Tor traffic is always worth it" is HN comment idealism.
- MaulingMonkey 10y ago
  How do you differentiate between legitimate new users with no record, and a returning shitposter's 10000th spam account with no record? How do you differentiate between legitimate new users with a bunch of existing users vouching for them, and a returning shitposter's 10000th spam account with a bunch of existing stealth-mode accounts vouching for them? I think you're using an extremely weak definition of "solve".
  - exstudent2 10y ago
    Although Reddit is not perfect, it doesn't seem to be a big problem there. Tor works and you can start posting as soon as you sign up.
    - walrus01 10y ago
      reddit rate-limits new posters to something like 1 post every 15 minutes until they've accumulated some positive karma.
      - exstudent2 10y ago
        Yes, but they allow new posters to be anonymous by simply not blocking usage through Tor.