At 03:59 PM 5/17/2001 -0700, Eric Cordian wrote: >I took a quick look at the documentation and code for Mojo Nation. >[...] >It looks like the system works best hosting static content. A >controversial web board can scroll everything off every 2-3 days, and the >index, which is huge, changes every time a message is posted. > >I get the impression one would fill the block servers with tons of stuff >that ceases being relevant a few days later. Is there a mechanism for >expiring this content? Not in a deterministic fashion - blocks are held in a cache, where the least-requested blocks are discarded when space is needed for newer content. Neither the content author/publisher, nor anyone else, is in a position to force expiration, nor is there a date-sensitive expiration option. Also, I don't know what you mean by "huge", but there's a lot of space available for Mojo documents. I've got two boxes running Mojo servers - one makes 3G available for Mojo stuff, the other 100Mb. >How long does "publishing" take? Would it be competative with what now >constitutes "posting?" Publishing and indexing can take 1-10 minutes for modest (10-500K) files. >The client looks complex, and the requirement that users run services in >order to participate looks like a huge barrier to entry for the average >peon. Could hackers do damage by running compromised clients? An attacker could try to use up available resources - either bandwidth or disk space, and thereby deny access to transit or stored data. It would be difficult (I think it's probably impossible, but that's a strong claim) to deny access to any particular resource - it would be much easier to attack the system as a whole, though that might be less satisfying to an attacker if it wasn't successful. Also, the requirement that users run services (actually, it's not required, just strongly suggested, in that the services can be turned off) is what makes the system work - as you note below, bandwidth is expensive. That burden can be shared among many people, or placed on a few - but the few are likely to encounter prohibitive expenses, whereas it's not such a big deal to leave a PC running 24x7 (or at least often) on a consumer-grade DSL or cable modem connection. >Despite snide remarks about "boards catering to homosexual pedophiles," >the resources in question are widely read, and bandwidth is a major cost >of operation. If a 140k index doesn't refresh in seconds when the person >hits "Reload," the service is going to be considered woefully inadequate. Those who would trade convenience for security [...], to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin ... >The resources in question are heavily moderated, so that trolls do not >post inflammatory or illegal things in order to get them shut down. >Publishing under Mojo Nation doesn't appear to be an easily reversible >process, and there seems to be no way of deleting bad content instantly, >and having all copies of it disappear. That's true - while it makes it difficult to moderate things voluntarily, it also makes it hard to force someone to "moderate" (or censor) something involuntarily. There's a not-well-documented mechanism by which the AZI/MojoNation people can mark some content as copyright-violative, per the DMCA, and stock clients won't download/transfer it, though that's probably pretty easily modified out, given that the client is open source. >I suppose it's theoretically possible to run a Web message board as a Peer >to Peer application. But bear in mind that since the content is not >illegal, the server can't be seized. The problem here is not one of >hosting banned material, it is one of finding a wire to plug the server >into, to connect it to the rest of the world. Seizure and network disconnection aren't especially different from a censorship perspective. You might take a look at Freenet, too - while it's not as clueful as Mojo Nation regarding the economic nature of network resources (e.g., everything is "free"), it does have more sophisticated features for publishing websites within the system - see <http://www.freenetproject.org/index.php?page=content>. -- Greg Broiles [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Organized crime is the price we pay for organization." -- Raymond Chandler
