I’m almost ready with my lemmy instance server. Now what are some steps that are definitly worth doing after setup?

  • Samuel Proulx@rblind.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    In my opinion, folks should avoid Cloudflare at all costs. They’re free speech maximalists with a history of defending NAZI’s and other terrible people. They only discontinue service to white nationalists when the media attention gets too hot. Then they turn around and let them back in once things have died down.

    Also, speaking as a screen reader user, if they think your IP address is suspicious (maybe because you’re using Tor or a VPN), they present an inaccessible captcha and don’t offer work-arounds. Then because the entire website is blocked behind the captcha, screen reader users can’t even get in contact with you to let you know what’s happening.

    • Fizz@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      Cloudflare is a major player in the infrastructure of the internet. The should remain neutral and provide their service to anyone operating within the law.

    • DXLUSION@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Care to share any source on the first part? Not doubting, I’m just genuinely curious because this is the first time I’ve read that.

      • Samuel Proulx@rblind.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        From a Mashable article published at the time, quoting the CEO in his own words:

        In an interview, Prince expressed doubt about his decision to remove The Daily Stormer from Cloudflare, and conveyed concern over companies like his own, and their ability to pull a lever, and knock a website offline.

        • Leigh@beehaw.orgM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          If you go back to [the] early days of Cloudflare, we’ve wrestled with: ‘What is our role in term of controlling what content flows through our network?’ And we believed that the right principle was to remain content neutral.

          I think he’s exactly correct. This is what Net Neutrality is about. Service providers on the Internet should be treated like a utility. It’s easy to conflate this issue with that of ‘tolerating the intolerant,’ but I don’t think that’s correct at all. It’s also an argument that many parts of the Internet infrastructure have had. Cloudflare is a big part of the infrastructure underpinning the Internet at large, but it’s only a part. There are many others that need to come together to support a simple website. What about RIRs (Regional Internet Registries) like ARIN, who are responsible for allocating IP addresses? If you’re going to be upset with Cloudflare for struggling about whether or not to be neutral, why should they get off the hook? I think it’s probably because most people don’t understand how the Internet works, and so they remain ignorant of what goes into simply ‘hooking up’ a website to the Internet, allowing these other critically necessary components to fly under the radar of the public attention.

          The debate about various Internet infrastructure entities remaining neutral has long raged. By and large, the communities that build and maintain these kinds of underpinnings have come down on the side of remaining neutral. It’s a vastly complex situation, with no easy answers, and a LOT of ‘hidden’ variables and concerns.