XenForo and Web 3.0

[Alpha1]

There's quite a few examples in history where admins let criminal activity on their site fester in some form or another, in open forum or in conversations, and resulting in law enforcement action. This is especially true for niches prone to illegal activity. (weapons, drugs, sex, teens, extremism, etc) As a result admins have considered decentralization as a way to mitigate this risk.

IMHO the solution is to not let illegal activity fester on your site and not taking a hands off approach to content screening and moderation. (if you deal with a high risk niche)
Consider that while the US has section 230, not all other nations not protect forum admins to the same extent. In many countries its illegal to facilitate illegal activity or not to act when you are aware of illegal activity. There are also factors of duty of care and due diligence.

To illustrate an example: if you run a forum for vulnerable teens, and your forum attracts a pedophile ring then not acting proactive on that could land you in hot water in some countries. Or if you run a weapons or drug forum and cartels start doing international trade trough conversation, then chances are that law enforcement may raid your house and server and threaten prosecution. If you run a religious/political debate forum and members start posting extreme and violent manuscripts that can result in terrorism, then that can attract law enforcement activity. That may include infiltration, coaxing and action.

Such things are not an issue for the average forum admin, but in prone niches different can rules apply.

 

[PatriotGB]

There's quite a few examples in history where admins let criminal activity on their site fester in some form or another, in open forum or in conversations, and resulting in law enforcement action. This is especially true for niches prone to illegal activity. (weapons, drugs, sex, teens, extremism, etc) As a result admins have considered decentralization as a way to mitigate this risk.

IMHO the solution is to not let illegal activity fester on your site and not taking a hands off approach to content screening and moderation. (if you deal with a high risk niche)
Consider that while the US has section 230, not all other nations not protect forum admins to the same extent. In many countries its illegal to facilitate illegal activity or not to act when you are aware of illegal activity. There are also factors of duty of care and due diligence.

To illustrate an example: if you run a forum for vulnerable teens, and your forum attracts a pedophile ring then not acting proactive on that could land you in hot water in some countries. Or if you run a weapons or drug forum and cartels start doing international trade trough conversation, then chances are that law enforcement may raid your house and server and threaten prosecution. If you run a religious/political debate forum and members start posting extreme and violent manuscripts that can result in terrorism, then that can attract law enforcement activity. That may include infiltration, coaxing and action.

Such things are not an issue for the average forum admin, but in prone niches different can rules apply.

And a good idea to include / document warnings and prohibition of illegal activity in your forum rules.

But, yeah... nip that (illegal) **** in the bud if it shows up on your forum.

 

[Ntown]

My point remains the same. Stop posting up politically incorrect stuff.
it gets you into trouble for slander

Two completely different things.

I bet you respond immediately to cease and desist orders, don't you?

 

[Suzanne O]

Two completely different things.

I bet you respond immediately to cease and desist orders, don't you?

You're usually given a timeline to respond.
If somebody keeps doing it and they put an personal safety intervention order i always opt to ignore it.
it's the same sort of stuff that the other person does anyway.
it's actually not mate. I've been through the system.
In 2019 i was taken through the courts by some person. He opted to go for defamation.
he nearly had the case thrown out.
it was settled but we had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
it was found he was doing the same thing as well.
You just have to be totally comfortable about what it is you're saying whenposting stuff up on the web.
Person you're attacking can take you through the courts and sue you.

 

[Ntown]

You're usually given a timeline to respond.
If somebody keeps doing it and they put an personal safety intervention order i always opt to ignore it.
it's the same sort of stuff that the other person does anyway.
it's actually not mate. I've been through the system.
In 2019 i was taken through the courts by some person. He opted to go for defamation.
he nearly had the case thrown out.
it was settled but we had to sign a confidentiality agreement.
it was found he was doing the same thing as well.
You just have to be totally comfortable about what it is you're saying whenposting stuff up on the web.
Person you're attacking can take you through the courts and sue you.

First they have to find me. (they never have)

Then they have to get me in court. (they never will)

Rule #1: never respond to any legal action.

 

[Suzanne O]

First they have to find me. (they never have)

Then they have to get me in court. (they never will)

Rule #1: never respond to any legal action.

People have ways of gaining that info.
Bloke who got my details got his hands on the election roll that has everything from the state library in Melbourne, Australia.

If you ignore legal action you’re in contempt of court

 

[Aaron1981]

Web3 has accomplished nothing but enrich a bunch of crypto insiders. There’s nothing there.

Sure, there are some bad actors in the crypto/Web 3.0 space, but now it is becoming increasingly regulated and structured. Some of the biggest crypto scammers like Sam Bankman Freid, former head of FTX, are now in jail for defrauding investors.

Also, the project that I brought up is very legit. I question if you know what web 3.0 is? From my research, the leading project in that space is Internet Computer Protocol (ICP). They are basically building an entire infrastructure for the internet to run in a decentralized way. Please do your research!

The Internet Computer is powered by novel "chain-key cryptography", which allows it to run at web speed with efficiency, its smart contracts to serve the web directly to end users, and its on-chain compute to scale without bound. With these capabilities, mass market Web3 services can run entirely on-chain, opening up the possibility for blockchain to become an alternative to traditional IT, such as cloud services. The Internet Computer is governed and updated by the Network Nervous System (NNS), a protocol-integrated DAO that decides to use liquid democracy. Supporting the mission are more than 200 world-renowned scientists and engineers specializing in cryptography, distributed systems, execution environments, programming languages, and more. For more details, visit https://internetcomputer.org

Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/press-releas....-announces-plans-to-launch-a-physical-backed

Xenforo can be hosted on ICP. That's utility that would be very relevant to the platform that you rely on here!

 

[Ntown]

Sure, there are some bad actors in the crypto/Web 3.0 space, but now it is becoming increasingly regulated and structured. Some of the biggest crypto scammers like Sam Bankman Freid, former head of FTX, are now in jail for defrauding investors.

Also, the project that I brought up is very legit. I question if you know what web 3.0 is? From my research, the leading project in that space is Internet Computer Protocol (ICP). They are basically building an entire infrastructure for the internet to run in a decentralized way. Please do your research!


Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/press-releas....-announces-plans-to-launch-a-physical-backed

Xenforo can be hosted on ICP. That's utility that would be very relevant to the platform that you rely on here!

Thanks for the AI copy/paste.

 

[Alpha1]

This raid and prosecution of a forum admin is also interesting reading in regards to keeping your forum clean from illegal activity. It's of course bad news when your members hack the FBI.

BreachForums hacking forum admin sentenced to 20 years supervised release

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today in the Eastern District of Virginia for operating the notorious BreachForums hacking forum, known for the sale and leaking of personal data for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Alleged BreachForums owner Pompompurin arrested on cybercrime charges

U.S. law enforcement arrested on Wednesday a New York man believed to be Pompompurin, the owner of the BreachForums hacking forum.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[Suzanne O]

Bloke sounds like he’s a dangerous person.
Data breaches are so annoying.
Good to see he’s gotten into some serious trouble with the law.

 

[wedgar]

This raid and prosecution of a forum admin is also interesting reading in regards to keeping your forum clean from illegal activity. It's of course bad news when your members hack the FBI.

BreachForums hacking forum admin sentenced to 20 years supervised release

Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today in the Eastern District of Virginia for operating the notorious BreachForums hacking forum, known for the sale and leaking of personal data for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Alleged BreachForums owner Pompompurin arrested on cybercrime charges

U.S. law enforcement arrested on Wednesday a New York man believed to be Pompompurin, the owner of the BreachForums hacking forum.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

It seems as though his forum was setup for fraudulent purposes and he was actively involved.

 

[Alpha1]

The forum community and the admin were part of the conspiracy. It's not clear to me if the forum admin was actively hacking or only facilitating it by offering the community and allowing stolen data to be posted on his forum.

 

[Aaron1981]

Thanks for the AI copy/paste.

That post was all from my brain. Here's Open Ai chatgpt:

Me: internet computer protocol?

ChatGpt: The Internet Computer represents a significant step towards a more decentralized and autonomous internet, where developers can build and host software and services without relying on traditional cloud services and server infrastructures. This technology has the potential to disrupt the current internet architecture and pave the way for a new era of decentralized applications.

 

[TheLaw]

I don't know if this is the right section and maybe the question will make you laugh.
But how will it be possible to use XenForo when we enter web 3.0 and therefore into the decentralization of the web?
Has XenForo already provided a solution to that effect?

I don't know how I stumbled onto this thread but it has been illuminating regarding how people perceive blockchain technology, decentralized networks, . Some thoughts.
1) Is decentralization a "better" solution for a problem than centralization is - or decentralization just a different solution that fits certain use cases?
2) At what point in the next 5-10 years do you perceive this being a problem and why?
3) Why would Xenforo need to provide a solution to a problem that hasn't yet been identified?

With regard to crypto and blockchain, crypto is one of many different types of uses of blockchain technology and there isn't always a monetary unit or "native currency" that is associated with a blockchain platform as is the case with bitcoin. Unless there is a reason to use blockchain technology, it seems that Xenforo is a product that does what it is supposed to do for its target market.

 

[TheLaw]

xenforo decentralized? you mean like Mastodon?, i haven't really seen any platform really truly decentralized other than bitcoin and open bazaar,

i think forums are not going back to the times when they were extremely popular, those days are over,

these days, it's too easy to arrest the forum administrator when you have content on your forum that isn't politically correct, government shut down your forum and jail you,
it's becoming dangerous to be a forum administrator these days, government tell you what you are allow to have on there.

I do not believe Mastadon is blockchain based or a fully decentralized platform. My understanding is that you can self-host it and have the ability to interact with other sites and networks and thus share messaging similar in a way that Usenet and fidonet used to operate so that your messages are propogated among numerous other self-hosted platforms.

 

[cwe]

I was thinking about potential XF-Web3.0 integration use cases ...

I wonder if any developers here are signed up for early access here:

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/evolving-wallets-to-bring-a-billion-users-onchain

Imagine XF having an integration with an easy to use crypto wallet.

 

[Suzanne O]

I wonder if any developers here are signed up for early access here:

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/evolving-wallets-to-bring-a-billion-users-onchain

Imagine XF having an integration with an easy to use crypto wallet.

Crypto is a scam

 

[Aaron1981]

1) Is decentralization a "better" solution for a problem than centralization is - or decentralization just a different solution that fits certain use cases?

I thought that poster was saying that centralization itself was the problem since it inevitably creates a monopoly effect giving those in power the ability to censor (even when no laws are being broken) and to accumulate/control/sell our personal data. I don't see how a centralized internet affects online forums since it's the forum administrators that set the terms. No one can get in trouble unless there are some laws being broken, and I'd expect that to happen even on decentralized platforms. The problem of centralized internet occurs at a different level than forums. It occurs on more basic level, like with infrastructure (cloud severs like AWS), search engines, etc..

However, some argue that the internet is moving toward centralization due to the monopoly of big names within the space—Google, Facebook, WordPress and the like.
How so? Data is concentrated within these big players' servers. As such, everything one needs to access online goes through any one of them. So to answer the question, "Is the internet centralized or decentralized?"

Technically, it's decentralized, but the argument that it is slowly but surely becoming more centralized cannot be downplayed or understated.

Source: Cointelegraph

One big benefit of decentralized networks:

• Security: Centralized networks are more vulnerable to attacks as hackers only need to target one central point to gain access to the entire system. Decentralized networks are more secure because even if one node is compromised, the others are not affected.

Source: same as above

 

[TheLaw]

Thanks @Aaron1981 for the explanation. There is no 'better' solution and it all depends on the use case and what is of highest priority, including the cost. Nothing is 'free' and that includes decentralized blockchains.

 

[cwe]

Another web3 crypto wallet integration possibility (using OAuth):

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Explore zkLogin, a Sui primitive that makes engaging with dApps built on Sui as simple as signing in with familiar web credentials like Google and Facebook.

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