4 ms·

Russians Are Racing to Download Wikipedia Before It Gets Banned

65 points by danso 5y ago

ComradePhil 5y ago
Wikipedia is controlled by a few people where it matters and any capable country should be banning it and replacing with a local alternative, like China has done.
marius_k 5y ago
I think it is available on ipfs. Is it still possible to ban it there? considering the user has ipfs browser extension?
- 0ldskool 5y ago
  I was thinking the same thing when I saw this article. Just need 1 russian to pin it to a local russian based IPFS node and they are good. Get others to pin it from there as needed.
cato_the_elder 5y ago
I wish them well, but Kiwix was very clunky as I remember it.
- int_19h 5y ago
  It has improved, but I think the best experience is still running kiwix-server and then using a regular web browser to access that. Either way, it's certainly very usable, and all the important functionality (like search) works well enough.
Havoc 5y ago
I'd be very surprised if it every gets to a stage where you literally can't break out from Russia into TOR or VPN or whatever. Sure China has done it, but that seems non trivial and looking at the current state of their offensive and well army I'd say Russia probably have more urgent priorities right now
- 3np 5y ago
  A major difference is that in China it's one-sided. Here we also have other countries cutting Russia off.
- throw_5202 5y ago
  Russian government has no money to implement something like Chinese Great Firewall but feels an urgent need to censor online space so more likely scenario is a complete cut-off from an external world (like in North Korea). Russian ISPs has been tasked to prepare to operate all networks inside the country in isolated mode - like a huge LAN. Will it happen - no one knows for sure but there is a real possibility.
  - bigodbiel 5y ago
    Even then, I can see a real market potential for bootleg sneakernet [1] dealers. VHS bootleg of western movies being dubbed by a single person were all the rage in the late 80’s Soviet countries [2]. If the internet is fully closed off, a new market for sneakernet of Internet segments would evidently emerge. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet [2] https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/soviet-voice-over-cold-war-technology https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/soviet-voice-over-cold-war-te...
- tim333 5y ago
  Even in China I think you can get around it or at least you could when I was last there although there was a little more hassle than in other countries. See https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/best-free-vpns-china/ https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/best-free-vpns-china/ for example.
aaron695 5y ago
ge96 5y ago
10GB or larger? Was thinking about that eg. HHGTG or Encyclopedia I guess. Some SBC/eInk deal or seed among phones.
zoobab 5y ago
FTP to the rescue?

65 points by danso 5y ago

Wikipedia is controlled by a few people where it matters and any capable country should be banning it and replacing with a local alternative, like China has done.

marius_k 5y ago

I think it is available on ipfs. Is it still possible to ban it there? considering the user has ipfs browser extension?

0ldskool 5y ago
I was thinking the same thing when I saw this article. Just need 1 russian to pin it to a local russian based IPFS node and they are good. Get others to pin it from there as needed.

cato_the_elder 5y ago

I wish them well, but Kiwix was very clunky as I remember it.

int_19h 5y ago
It has improved, but I think the best experience is still running kiwix-server and then using a regular web browser to access that. Either way, it's certainly very usable, and all the important functionality (like search) works well enough.

Havoc 5y ago

I'd be very surprised if it every gets to a stage where you literally can't break out from Russia into TOR or VPN or whatever. Sure China has done it, but that seems non trivial and looking at the current state of their offensive and well army I'd say Russia probably have more urgent priorities right now

3np 5y ago
A major difference is that in China it's one-sided. Here we also have other countries cutting Russia off.
throw_5202 5y ago
Russian government has no money to implement something like Chinese Great Firewall but feels an urgent need to censor online space so more likely scenario is a complete cut-off from an external world (like in North Korea). Russian ISPs has been tasked to prepare to operate all networks inside the country in isolated mode - like a huge LAN. Will it happen - no one knows for sure but there is a real possibility.
- bigodbiel 5y ago
  Even then, I can see a real market potential for bootleg sneakernet [1] dealers. VHS bootleg of western movies being dubbed by a single person were all the rage in the late 80’s Soviet countries [2]. If the internet is fully closed off, a new market for sneakernet of Internet segments would evidently emerge. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet [2] https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/soviet-voice-over-cold-war-technology https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/soviet-voice-over-cold-war-te...
tim333 5y ago
Even in China I think you can get around it or at least you could when I was last there although there was a little more hassle than in other countries. See https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/best-free-vpns-china/ https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/best-free-vpns-china/ for example.

aaron695 5y ago

ge96 5y ago

10GB or larger? Was thinking about that eg. HHGTG or Encyclopedia I guess. Some SBC/eInk deal or seed among phones.

zoobab 5y ago

FTP to the rescue?