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adam_danischewski ago

To really make a utility with snapshot capabilities and updating only what's new, you need to have the software run on the server side. The problem is with trust, you don't really know if VOAT itself will be capable of not being infiltrated by attacks. Every intelligence agency on the planet is interested in this type of scandal, and is attempting to put themselves into position to control the flow of data and exposes emanating from it.

I looked briefly into what options exist in Open Source, there is IRC yet that uses centralized servers and does not allow for the look and feel of this type of message board.

What really is needed is a solid well-tested p2p style message board, that cannot be tampered with, anything that takes control away from servers that are explicitly or implicitly (controlled at will) by the large players will likely meet fierce resistance. Yet if you get something that proves itself capable that would be very very worthwhile and would probably help more than just this scandal. It could save the entire internet one day.

The current Open Source technology that looks the most promising out there is AETHER:

http://getaether.net

"Aether is an app you install to your computer to connect to Aether network. This network is made of different boards (forums) where people post and discuss things. On the surface, it's fairly similar to Slashdot, Metafilter, Reddit, or any other community site on the Internet.

The different thing about Aether is that it doesn't have a server somewhere. The only thing the app does is that it finds and connects to other people using Aether. In other words, it's a distributed, peer-to-peer network."

In the meantime, what you can do is ask VOAT if you could MIRROR their website for them, and perhaps they would allow if they trust you, to be failed over via DNS in case the site goes down. Again, there are many trust issues involved. But if you can at least mirror their website for them, you could patch the mirrored website onto Aether making the message board serverless.

Pizzafundthrowaway ago

Very interesting suggestion, thank you!