cross-posted from: https://links.hackliberty.org/post/1846370

Hello all,

Just wondering if there are any projects involving lemmy and .onion

I searched and didn’t see anything but I figured I’d ask

If not is there a reason this isn’t possible? Or has nobody cared to do it yet?

When I have to visit r****t I use a libreddit hidden service, and there are quite a few to choose from. Am I correct to think a similar mirror should be about as easy to implement for Lemmy?

an onion only instance where it never touches the clearnet would be really cool too but it would probably be a ghost town (sadly).

Love to hear your thoughts

Thanks

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
    0·
    5 months ago

    The reason is simple why it’s not possible: Lets say you want your lemmy.onion talk to lemmy.ca. That works. Now lemmy.ca needs to push new content to your .onion instance. It can’t, it doesn’t know how to speak Tor.

    What you can do however is have a Lemmy instance that is on the clearnet and also reachable through an onion address. That’s perfectly possible. But it doesn’t give you much over just going through an exit node.

    I think the main problem is Lemmy’s controls against spam are pretty limited, and opening up to Tor users is just asking for trouble and that would probably eventually lead to the whole instance being defederated if they can’t get it under control. Which involves more user validation, possibly email validation if not more, and now you’re kind of defeating the whole point of using Tor.

    • Negligent_Embassy@links.hackliberty.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Hi thanks for the response,

      Not necessarily disagreeing with you but I’ve been posting to lemmy exclusively through tor on multiple accounts for quite a while and haven’t encountered any blocking or issues.

      Some instances may reject certain emails but I’ve been using onionmail with success.

      To be honest I think it’s pretty easy for bad actors to spam/evade bans/etc on lemmy and tor isn’t at all necessary for that.

      Also good point about the federation, thanks for pointing that out.