3 ms·

I wonder is this a sign of the times? I've (nearly ...) quit all social media and re-embraced my personal website. It's also under construction, but it's going

I wonder is this a sign of the times? I've (nearly ...) quit all social media and re-embraced my personal website. It's also under construction, but it's going to be the main place I update everything (work, personal, photos, updates etc.). I don't care if no one reads it. It's mine.

zwnow 2y ago
I think its really nice to have an own "digital garden". In Germany you unfortunately have to dox yourself with stuff like this, and I really dont want people to know my address. I know people will argue "thats only for business websites", but that's far from the truth. It's for every website that might(!) has a business aspect. So I couldn't even name products on a personal blog as that could be seen as advertisment that I got paid for... I hate this country so much.
- xingped 2y ago
  Why do you have to dox yourself in Germany?
  - mgraupner 2y ago
    If you are publishing from your own (German) domain in Germany, you will need to add an impress with your personal address.
  - u_sama 2y ago
    I think he is referring to this section 3 https://www.denic.de/en/content-pool/denic-domain-terms-and-conditions https://www.denic.de/en/content-pool/denic-domain-terms-and-... To register a .de domain you need to give your address and legal name. And your national ccTLD is usually the only one that you are sure won't get pulled under you because there are some legally binding rules around it unlike .tv or .me
    - zwnow 2y ago
      Its because of "Impressumspflicht" which requires me to have my legal name, address and phone number in an imprint on my website.
      - xingped 2y ago
        Is that specifically related to the Germany ccTLD or because you live in Germany? What would be the consequences of just... not doing it? Who even knows where a website author lives or publishes from?
- mgraupner 2y ago
  Get a .com domain from a provider with Whois privacy and don't add an impress. Done.
  - zwnow 2y ago
    Wouldnt people still be able to just lookup who the domain owner is?
    - mgraupner 2y ago
      The only way to find out would be in the Whois data, which is anonymised. The provider and registry will still have at least your billing information, but without a court order no user will be able to get it from them.
      - zwnow 2y ago
        That might be a cool option then, ill look into that
        mgraupner 2y ago
        If you do not need a domain you can also publish a static page as your blog on Github: https://pages.github.com https://pages.github.com
    - ChoGGi 2y ago
      https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/respect https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/respect
- acatton 2y ago
  Granted, I'm not a native German speaker, but that's not my understanding of the "Impressumspflicht" law, if that's what you're referring to. The law is mostly targeted at media and to some lesser extend businesses. The law is not enforced, and would be hard to enforce for individuals. For individuals, the law contradict multiple privacy laws, possibly the GDPR, and it might also conflict with some past rulings on the article 11th of the European Convention on Human rights. This article guarantees freedom of speech without persecutions, and one way to guarantee that is through anonymity. My non-lawyer opinion is: people setting up an "Impressum" page on their personal websites in Germany are over-interpretating the law. This is also the opinion of german lawyers[1]: "Impressumspflicht schön und gut - aber muss wirklich jeder Webseiten-Inhaber ein Impressum auf seiner Website führen? Ganz klar: Nein. Die Verpflichtung ein Impressum auf der eigenen Webseite einzubinden gilt nur bei geschäftsmäßigen Online-Diensten. Im Umkehrschluss brauchen Betreiber von Websites, die ausschließlich persönlichen oder familiären Zwecken dienen kein Impressum auf ihrer Homepage einzubinden." Regardless of this, if you still want to put an "Impressum" page just to be safe, you can buy a "Postfach" from the deutsche post for ~€20/year and use that as your "Impressum" address, this way you don't have to doxx yourself. [1] https://www.e-recht24.de/impressum/13095-impressum-fuer-die-private-homepage.html https://www.e-recht24.de/impressum/13095-impressum-fuer-die-...
  - zwnow 2y ago
    This is exactly what I was refering to though. "Geschäftsmäßige Online Dienste" can refer to anything. A shop where you sell stuff or a blog in which you ~could~ advertise a product, even though its a personal blog. People over here got sued over not having one in their YouTube channel. There are plenty of "Abmahnanwälte" (Lawyers) who'd happily sue you, if there is a slight chance that you could've earned a few pennies with your website. The actual laws do a very bad job at defining what exactly "Geschäftsmäßige Online Dienste" are.
LegitShady 2y ago
And the AI scrapers love you for it, as much as a machine can love.

zwnow 2y ago

I think its really nice to have an own "digital garden". In Germany you unfortunately have to dox yourself with stuff like this, and I really dont want people to know my address. I know people will argue "thats only for business websites", but that's far from the truth. It's for every website that might(!) has a business aspect. So I couldn't even name products on a personal blog as that could be seen as advertisment that I got paid for... I hate this country so much.

xingped 2y ago
Why do you have to dox yourself in Germany?
- mgraupner 2y ago
  If you are publishing from your own (German) domain in Germany, you will need to add an impress with your personal address.
- u_sama 2y ago
  I think he is referring to this section 3 https://www.denic.de/en/content-pool/denic-domain-terms-and-conditions https://www.denic.de/en/content-pool/denic-domain-terms-and-... To register a .de domain you need to give your address and legal name. And your national ccTLD is usually the only one that you are sure won't get pulled under you because there are some legally binding rules around it unlike .tv or .me
  - zwnow 2y ago
    Its because of "Impressumspflicht" which requires me to have my legal name, address and phone number in an imprint on my website.
    - xingped 2y ago
      Is that specifically related to the Germany ccTLD or because you live in Germany? What would be the consequences of just... not doing it? Who even knows where a website author lives or publishes from?
mgraupner 2y ago
Get a .com domain from a provider with Whois privacy and don't add an impress. Done.
- zwnow 2y ago
  Wouldnt people still be able to just lookup who the domain owner is?
  - mgraupner 2y ago
    The only way to find out would be in the Whois data, which is anonymised. The provider and registry will still have at least your billing information, but without a court order no user will be able to get it from them.
    - zwnow 2y ago
      That might be a cool option then, ill look into that
      - mgraupner 2y ago
        If you do not need a domain you can also publish a static page as your blog on Github: https://pages.github.com https://pages.github.com
  - ChoGGi 2y ago
    https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/respect https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/respect
acatton 2y ago
Granted, I'm not a native German speaker, but that's not my understanding of the "Impressumspflicht" law, if that's what you're referring to. The law is mostly targeted at media and to some lesser extend businesses. The law is not enforced, and would be hard to enforce for individuals. For individuals, the law contradict multiple privacy laws, possibly the GDPR, and it might also conflict with some past rulings on the article 11th of the European Convention on Human rights. This article guarantees freedom of speech without persecutions, and one way to guarantee that is through anonymity. My non-lawyer opinion is: people setting up an "Impressum" page on their personal websites in Germany are over-interpretating the law. This is also the opinion of german lawyers[1]: "Impressumspflicht schön und gut - aber muss wirklich jeder Webseiten-Inhaber ein Impressum auf seiner Website führen? Ganz klar: Nein. Die Verpflichtung ein Impressum auf der eigenen Webseite einzubinden gilt nur bei geschäftsmäßigen Online-Diensten. Im Umkehrschluss brauchen Betreiber von Websites, die ausschließlich persönlichen oder familiären Zwecken dienen kein Impressum auf ihrer Homepage einzubinden." Regardless of this, if you still want to put an "Impressum" page just to be safe, you can buy a "Postfach" from the deutsche post for ~€20/year and use that as your "Impressum" address, this way you don't have to doxx yourself. [1] https://www.e-recht24.de/impressum/13095-impressum-fuer-die-private-homepage.html https://www.e-recht24.de/impressum/13095-impressum-fuer-die-...
- zwnow 2y ago
  This is exactly what I was refering to though. "Geschäftsmäßige Online Dienste" can refer to anything. A shop where you sell stuff or a blog in which you ~could~ advertise a product, even though its a personal blog. People over here got sued over not having one in their YouTube channel. There are plenty of "Abmahnanwälte" (Lawyers) who'd happily sue you, if there is a slight chance that you could've earned a few pennies with your website. The actual laws do a very bad job at defining what exactly "Geschäftsmäßige Online Dienste" are.

LegitShady 2y ago

And the AI scrapers love you for it, as much as a machine can love.