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I'm not on board with age verification at all. Even if it can be done in a private way. I'll just VPN or something, as I'm in the EU and they're dumping this cr

I'm not on board with age verification at all. Even if it can be done in a private way. I'll just VPN or something, as I'm in the EU and they're dumping this crap on us now. I'm more than old enough for anything and I have never been 'carded' in my life. In fact I rarely carry ID anyway (even though it's mandatory). Not going to start now.

boneitis 1y ago
Right. There's still something I found unsettling about performing searches without restraint on Kagi (which, until recently, absolutely required being logged in) that I wouldn't have thought twice about on a common search engine. Unfortunately, the VPN experience has been deteriorating quickly as BigCo and BigGov have been catching up in natural escalation.
- BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
  The next thing is probably a vps hosted vpn right?
  - boneitis 1y ago
    well, given the pervasiveness of KYC requirements these days, i reckon that would still feel not unlike being required to log in in order to use a search engine. moreover, it's already fairly common for web service operators to proactively block/shadowblock swaths of VPS ranges.
    - BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
      >it's already fairly common for web service operators to proactively block/shadowblock swaths of VPS ranges. Ah damn. I was hoping that would be a good fallback.
      - boneitis 1y ago
        I wouldn't call it a "good" fallback, but i do have a VPS handy with an always-on squid proxy (remember to bind only on localhost and use via ssh tunnel, or some other secure method, if anyone is going to get ideas from this comment) among the other things i use my VPS for. I do find that different subsets of services tend to get blacklisted.
  - sshine 1y ago
    VPS’es aren’t great for running VPNs from because their IP addresses are so obviously not residential.
NitpickLawyer 1y ago
Eh, it's still tricky. Visiting from a VPN gets you subpar experiences in around 30-50% of sites, I would say. From search engines that rate limit you to one or two searches per hour, to things like spotify simply not working. Forums, social media & co that aren't doing verification will also throttle you, shadow ban you and so on. I get why some sites use these kinds of IP filtering, but the net result is sadly bad for anyone trying to do this.
- general1726 1y ago
  So future actually is self-hosted.

boneitis 1y ago

Right. There's still something I found unsettling about performing searches without restraint on Kagi (which, until recently, absolutely required being logged in) that I wouldn't have thought twice about on a common search engine. Unfortunately, the VPN experience has been deteriorating quickly as BigCo and BigGov have been catching up in natural escalation.

BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
The next thing is probably a vps hosted vpn right?
- boneitis 1y ago
  well, given the pervasiveness of KYC requirements these days, i reckon that would still feel not unlike being required to log in in order to use a search engine. moreover, it's already fairly common for web service operators to proactively block/shadowblock swaths of VPS ranges.
  - BriggyDwiggs42 1y ago
    >it's already fairly common for web service operators to proactively block/shadowblock swaths of VPS ranges. Ah damn. I was hoping that would be a good fallback.
    - boneitis 1y ago
      I wouldn't call it a "good" fallback, but i do have a VPS handy with an always-on squid proxy (remember to bind only on localhost and use via ssh tunnel, or some other secure method, if anyone is going to get ideas from this comment) among the other things i use my VPS for. I do find that different subsets of services tend to get blacklisted.
- sshine 1y ago
  VPS’es aren’t great for running VPNs from because their IP addresses are so obviously not residential.

NitpickLawyer 1y ago

Eh, it's still tricky. Visiting from a VPN gets you subpar experiences in around 30-50% of sites, I would say. From search engines that rate limit you to one or two searches per hour, to things like spotify simply not working. Forums, social media & co that aren't doing verification will also throttle you, shadow ban you and so on. I get why some sites use these kinds of IP filtering, but the net result is sadly bad for anyone trying to do this.

general1726 1y ago
So future actually is self-hosted.