Anonymous IRC bridge (I2P)

[KwukDuck]

I would like to run a relay bridge on the #lor irc channel, bridging #lor on I2P's internal IRC to the public one.
This will allow anyone to anonymously follow up and participate in conversations on both ends.

How?
-There will be a user named "i2p" joining both #lor channels, it will relay messages both ways (dropping notices and join/parts)

Normal messages will look like:
UserA: Hello World.

Relayed messages will look like:
i2p: UserB: Hello World.

Private messages to the users on the other server are not possible (yet).

Why not just use the normal server?
- Some people care about their anonymity and privacy, they may not want their views on things linked to their real life or normal internet-identity.

What about spam and floods?
- Just as #lor on the public IRC has operators, #lor on I2P will have operators too, those may not be related to the official site but are capable of maintaining order.
- Also, as a last resort; both sides can ofcourse kick the relay user if things would get out of hand in some way.

I hope you guys like this idea to broaden the public and available options to participate in this community.

KD

 

[WarK]

Just few problems I see with this. And I'm talking from regular #lor (ie our channel ) point of view.

1. People in the channel will be confused about one user (i2p) who's talking to people that aren't in the channel, which could look like this:

<i2p_> KwukDuck: hej, what's up?

.. yes, that was KwukDuck from the other side of the tunnel saying hello to regular #lor users and not user i2p_ saying "hi" to KwukDuck

2. as follow up to no 1, people on regular #lor won't know who's listening on the other side. All we'll be able to see is user: i2p

3. IRC clients will be confused. Nick completion by TAB key won't work, neither will nick colouring

onion router - tor, is another tool that could provide anonymity for every single user without causing the above problems. Down side is that we'd have to ban the whole tor network if one person is misbehaving, which is actually the current state of affairs since tor is banned.

Other solution could be using thing like privoxy and web browser/our chat interface (mibbit).

 

[KwukDuck]

@1.. Formatting could be changed to a more friendly style like botname "__" and using @

<__>KwukDuck@I2P: Hello World.

or maybe other formats, suggestions are welcome.


@2.. True, you can't see a userlist, you do see who is talking.
As for a possible argument of not liking to know who watches the conversations, any or all users could be logging or relaying or posting the current chat everywhere.

@3.. See 1?


tor and i2p are very different tools, both provide anonymity but i2p is focused on the internal network where tor is focused on accessing the public web. tor users connect to servers individualy which has the potential for abuse. (why most irc servers ban tor nodes)
As i said, the other side will be moderated too to prevent abuse.

Other solutions may be possible, including using mibbit or other public proxies (which i would never trust myself)
Also i'm mainly trying to provice a service for the i2p community, #lor is a very interresting and active channel that many there will like i think.

One thing that would solve all the issues is making the lor server available on I2P natively, but that would have to be enabled by the server operator.

 

[Squawk]

I banned tor ages ago, Spork and I had a chat and decided we didn't want it anywhere near the channel. My inclination here is to say no simply because I view LoR as a community and splitting the chat in such a manner is somewhat anti community in my opinion.

Not my decision to make, but I'd say no.

 

[borrofburi]

I banned tor ages ago, Spork and I had a chat and decided we didn't want it anywhere near the channel.

Also we had someone who was using tor to keep from being banned...

 

[KwukDuck]

Well the point isn't realy to split a community, even more the idea is to merge two (sort of)...
I don't think you always need to actualy see who's on the other side of the line to have a good conversation with them.

In regards to tor, i'm well aware that it's being abused a lot, like i said before, the idea here is somewhat different, and our community has no trouble with spam or floods.

I'd like to ask permission for a test period so you guys can review how it goes, it's a small community so it will probably won't disturb the channel at all.

 

[CosmicSpork]

Why don't those who are so worried about anonymity use an IRC bouncer? It's what I use, I show up as being on cosmic.leagueofreason.org.uk... If people are genuinely that worried then they will sort it out. The IRC network (OFTC) we use even has their own virtual host mask 'service' for users with a good enough reason to use one.

I don't personally like the idea of this I2P whatsit, it seems kludgy/messy. Also, the moderators for #lor have been specifically chosen and proven themselves, it sounds like we would have to either rely on unknown quantities to keep the peace in a channel that is somewhat detached from the proper channel, or find more trusted moderators and expect them to only use I2P or the current mods to join both which I think is a bit much to ask.

Also, I have to ask, how do people ban in the I2P channel without a unique identifier like an ip address or host mask? Even mibbit gives you this information one way or another.

 

[Andiferous]

I hesitate to intervene ( I banned all of Great Britain once in chat - but they were sleeping anyway), but what's the benefit of this? I ask as someone who does badly in chat. There seems to be a few problems that could already offset this.

 

[Squawk]

I hesitate to intervene ( I banned all of Great Britain once in chat - but they were sleeping anyway), but what's the benefit of this? I ask as someone who does badly in chat. There seems to be a few problems that could already offset this.

Strictly speaking I think you only managed to ban bt broadband users, but near enough

 

[Andiferous]

Thank you for the correction - it helps my rep.

 

[DepricatedZero]

I'm confused by this. How does it aid anonymity? I mean, I understand the idea that it's a tool for anonymity...

but so is /nick


I don't know what this other channel is or why it's relevant. . . so I may be missing something entirely.