Semi-incoherent ramblings of an old man in a lost society - (An article about the state of internet) Are largescale mesh networks possible?
The internet sucks now.
If I think about it I think that I can remember the first time I used the internet back in 1992ish (i think).
I recall an HTML style website with a black background and dark blue text, it wasn't even that easy to ready but it was cool as shit because it was the first time in my life that I was participating in something bigger than my little child world. The website had a banner at the bottom promoting anti-censorship and a "free" internet. That was the only advertisement on the site.
Now I feel like the entire internet is run by Google, Facebook, and a bit of Twitter.
Lets say you invent an awesome website that everyone loves and the world starts using. Facebook will either buy you out or destroy you, all you can do is hope that they give you the choice.
You can not read an article on the web, on your phone, in an app, or on TV without being bombarded by pop-ups and advertisements.
Go to any web page and you have to consent to giving up your information, and then be bombarded by advertisements.
Nobody makes content to make content anymore the only reason anyone publishes a website now is to make money.
There is no way to even get internet access without paying a lot of money to an ISP that probably has a monopoly in your area and is able to see everything that you are doing on the internet.
VPNs suck, most of them are garbage connections to the cheapest possible VPS servers which means that trying to upload any original content is going to suck because it will be slow as fuck.
The TOR network sucks because it is slow as fuck and plagued with scammers, script kiddies, thieves, and straight up con-artists... Just like the clearnet.
Navigating the internet is hard and I would like to build a platform that helps people navigate the internet by letting them bookmark the places they go but also have the option built into the browser they are using to open TOR, Lokinet, and I2P windows.
You still can't use any of those services without giving into a shady corporate ISP. Now the ISP can't spy on your traffic as much but they still own your connection. You still have data being routed through them.
The solutions to these problems is tough because in order to do something like create a mesh network you have to have a lot of households participating.
What about like a decentralized wifi mesh network? Wouldn't it need to span multiple ISPs in order to not be completely pointless?
I would like to build a decentralized wifi mesh network that expands the majority of the United States, Mexico, and even eventually Canada.
Sounds crazy, right?
Crazy but possible, if you were, say able to link it to a social network or something like that and people wanted to participate.
Social media sucks because greed fueled companies are sucking our data dry for profits while spreading harmful misinformation, malware, propaganda, and etc.
I used an open source script called Wallsant and free webhosting from 000webhost to launch my own social media platform for my friends and family so I know that the people have the power to not get their data stolen but wtf fuck us right?
http://confabulous.000webhost.com/confab - Free Ad Free Social Media/Sharing/Networking
http://confabulous.000webhost.com/chat - Rando-Anonymous-Chat-Room
(I will add more features soon but feel free to try them out, break em, hack em, but please comment or send me a message or email about it with any suggestions you might have or even if you want some new features added. And go easy on me because I literally just launched this shit tonight.)
Let me know what you think in the comments.
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