3 ms·

I’m still surprised that Tor hidden services never filled that gap. As more and more stuff disappears from the clear web, I assumed more people would realize t

I’m still surprised that Tor hidden services never filled that gap. As more and more stuff disappears from the clear web, I assumed more people would realize that .onion sites don’t have to be a wasteland of largely spooky scams. But if anything the quality of hidden services seems to have declined in recent years. I’m guessing it’s a mix of darknet FUD combined with less and less people knowing how to host a website without using an easy to deploy service

Matticus_Rex 5y ago
Video over Tor is not likely to catch on.
- kfprt 5y ago
  Video over Tor is surprisingly usable in my experience. Captchas are a much bigger problem.
  - ce4 5y ago
    Services that ask for captcha solving when on tor are probably hosted / delivered via cloudflare. Not an option for a hidden service.
    - kfprt 5y ago
      I use tor for some of my normal clearnet browsing and static hosting .mp4's works decently over tor. Basically anything not bloated/modern works great.
    - Dumbdo 5y ago
      That's definitely not true. Most hidden service use some darknet-specific captchas nowadays. Just open the next best darknet market or simply forum and you'll see what I mean.
thrwaeasddsaf 5y ago
> less people knowing how to host a website without using an easy to deploy service Also less people just caring about anything that isn't the normal open web. Have to install something? Nope, no way. Unless some very dramatic and visible changes take place in our society (or big companies with too much power step in and make the choice for the average user), darknets are doomed to be a tiny tiny niche. Right now tor stats says there are between 2M and 2.5M users.. and if you discount everyone who's just using it to hide their IP / piracy / working around geo blocks, the potential audience for content hosted as a hidden service is absolutely tiny. I also think that if tor or any such system got really big among normies, governments would start cracking down. Right now it's probably just a convenient tool for hosting honey pots and keeping an eye on the few people that use it. Every once in a while I think about hosting a blog or a forum on tor but then I get the vibe that I'd have about as many readers as I would if I just wrote my thoughts on toilet paper before flushing.
TheAdamAndChe 5y ago
I'm absolutely convinced that Tor was compromised around late 2012 or early 2013. It used to be the wild west on steroids. You could find deviant material everywhere and had to do no digging. Then the dominoes started falling around the time of the Silk Road shutdown. Hosting companies, hidden wiki's linking to twisted stuff, video sites, bomb-making sites, drug sites all shut down in swift succession. My experience convinced me that any network that advertises itself as anonymous and is actually anonymous will swiftly be filled with deviant material. That will be my litmus test for anonymous networks going forward.

Matticus_Rex 5y ago

Video over Tor is not likely to catch on.

kfprt 5y ago
Video over Tor is surprisingly usable in my experience. Captchas are a much bigger problem.
- ce4 5y ago
  Services that ask for captcha solving when on tor are probably hosted / delivered via cloudflare. Not an option for a hidden service.
  - kfprt 5y ago
    I use tor for some of my normal clearnet browsing and static hosting .mp4's works decently over tor. Basically anything not bloated/modern works great.
  - Dumbdo 5y ago
    That's definitely not true. Most hidden service use some darknet-specific captchas nowadays. Just open the next best darknet market or simply forum and you'll see what I mean.

thrwaeasddsaf 5y ago

> less people knowing how to host a website without using an easy to deploy service Also less people just caring about anything that isn't the normal open web. Have to install something? Nope, no way. Unless some very dramatic and visible changes take place in our society (or big companies with too much power step in and make the choice for the average user), darknets are doomed to be a tiny tiny niche. Right now tor stats says there are between 2M and 2.5M users.. and if you discount everyone who's just using it to hide their IP / piracy / working around geo blocks, the potential audience for content hosted as a hidden service is absolutely tiny. I also think that if tor or any such system got really big among normies, governments would start cracking down. Right now it's probably just a convenient tool for hosting honey pots and keeping an eye on the few people that use it. Every once in a while I think about hosting a blog or a forum on tor but then I get the vibe that I'd have about as many readers as I would if I just wrote my thoughts on toilet paper before flushing.

TheAdamAndChe 5y ago

I'm absolutely convinced that Tor was compromised around late 2012 or early 2013. It used to be the wild west on steroids. You could find deviant material everywhere and had to do no digging. Then the dominoes started falling around the time of the Silk Road shutdown. Hosting companies, hidden wiki's linking to twisted stuff, video sites, bomb-making sites, drug sites all shut down in swift succession. My experience convinced me that any network that advertises itself as anonymous and is actually anonymous will swiftly be filled with deviant material. That will be my litmus test for anonymous networks going forward.