The whole load/logging/key harvesting discussion I started here a couple of days ago originated from my wish to make freenet searchable, especially to the non-freenet world. So I installed an open p r o x y in order to harvest keys, so that I could set up a search engine.
What I only realised when I saw the p r o x y working, is that there is no need for me to run a search engine in the first place if there is an open p r o x y running. Nor do I need to have Google's army of engineers to develop algorithms to fight search engine spamming. All I need to do is feed proxied URIs to Google, and Google will take care of indexing as well as of spam fighting.
I can see advantages in such an approach. Having freenet results integrated among Google results in general would be quite a push for freenet, a very good way to get more people to it. Also, the fact that freenet search results would get blended among internet web results would provide a certain footing of deniability to the users: "yes, X freesite with questionable content was perhaps among my search results, but that's not what I was searching for in the first place". And of course the fact that Google's ranking, spam combatting and response latency resources will always be a tad better than mine ;)
I can also see disadvantages in this scheme.
The foremost one is that if I run an open p r o x y, somweone sooner or later will claim that I am responsible for the content it serves. Nobody ever got it into their head to prosecute an ISP for content served by the ISP's proxy, but all it would take to get me prosecuted is a juicy article in a local newspaper. I don't have the protective ISP status, nor the resources to fight back.
Another aspect is more philosophical. Some would say that, as long as freenet is relatively obscure and not readily available to the masses, it is left alone but, if it became bigger and more known, it would become a target for attack. Others would counter "publish and be damned". I really don't know what to make of this; how to judge benefits and risks and what is best to do when all is taken into account.
Finally, there is a financial issue. If I provide a bridge between freenet and the web, then I pay for all web-to-freenet traffic. There is quite a risk that I will end up as the victim of my own good idea. This could be mitigated by others running open p r o x i e s too, perhaps with all of them being round- robined on the same web URL in order to keep Google consistent. This raises the question: would anyone else around here consider running a p r o x y? Is it realistic at all to think that, with time, there could be a network of freenet->web bridges?
I would really appreciate your thoughts on these issues, especially pointers to aspects I've missed.
Z
-- Framtiden Ãr som en babianrÃv, fÃrggrann och full av skit. Arne Anka _______________________________________________ Support mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.freenet.support Unsubscribe at http://dodo.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support Or mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
