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=head1 AnoNet2 Introduction
(Note: There's now L<a page explaining a bit about anonymity in general and its place in AnoNet in particular|http://www.anonet2.org/anonymity>.)
(Note: There's now L<a darknet comparison page, where you can compare and contrast the various darknet options|http://www.anonet2.org/darknet_comparison>).)
(Note: There's now L<a separate page, to answer all your AnoNet-related questions|http://www.anonet2.org/faq>).)
So, you came across anoNet and thought it sounded great, so you decided
to join in order to check it out.
...and found the (only) client port doesn't work half the time,
...and the (only) official wiki doesn't work the other half of the time,
...and most of the advertised services no longer exist,
...and most of the people have left,
...and those who are left can hardly be classified as friendly,
...and so you left, and perhaps found another darknet instead.
Well, you're not the only one who's been turned off, and a few of us
have decided to take action and fix AnoNet. Some of us are relatively
new, while others joined AnoNet1 years ago, and left out of disgust.
A number of features set version 2 apart from the original:
=over
=item No false advertising
If you see something advertised here, it exists. You won't see stuff
that hasn't been up in years here. (This page is easy to update from
within AnoNet2 by anybody who has an update/correction to make, and
changes normally propagate within no more than a few days.)
=item No centralized network control
You don't have to worry about Kaos waking up one morning and blocking
your access to the whole network by deciding to filter private ASNs.
You also don't have to worry about a couple of powerful guys getting
together and "blacklisting" you from the network for some unspecified
reason with an inquisition against your peers.
=item No centralized IRC control
You don't have to worry about risc g-lining you from the "official" IRC
network for no apparent reason, and refusing to even admit to having
g-lined you. Since the whole purpose behind AnoNet was to create a
censorship-resistant alternative to the government-censored "public"
Internet, arbitrary censorship on the "official" AnoNet1 IRC network by
anonymous government members is particularly troubling. AnoNet2 has
no "official" IRC network, and the servers most commonly used have
interesting channels bridged with a relay bot, so even if you manage to
annoy an IRC server operator to the point where he decides to g-line you
from his whole "network," that doesn't automatically prevent you from
connecting to another server and accessing one of the bridged channels.
(Obviously, if you manage to annoy the operators of all the linked servers
to the point where all of them g-line you from their respective "networks"
and nobody wants to let you relay your own server in, then you're probably
out of luck. Of course, that doesn't prevent you from running your own
IRC server, and those who want to hear you can still join it.)
=item No centralized wiki control
AnoNet2 doesn't have an official wiki, and two (L<this one|http://www.anonet2.org/> and L<some random wiki|http://www.somerandomwiki.ano/>) out of the three well-known wikis on AnoNet2 use git for their underlying storage, and are therefore very easy for anybody to proxy, mirror, fork, etc. (The last one is L<UFO's wiki|http://wiki.ucis.ano/>, and UFO is addicted to MediaWiki.) (BTW, we now have a fourth "well-known" wiki, L<our AnoNet1 Wiki Mirror|Http://1.82.98.27/mediawiki/>: Since AnoNet1's official wiki seems to have more downtime than uptime, we figured we might as well donate a mirror to the cause.)
=item No resource mess
We have one mechanism for resource management, a decentralized (not just
distributed, but truly decentralized) resource database. You don't have
to deal with half a zillion incompatible (and in the case of the wiki,
down) services, run by guys who may not even be on the AnoNet tomorrow.
Managing your resources is as simple as taking a VI to the appropriate
files, doing a "git commit," and then just waiting for everybody else to
pull your changes (either directly from you, or indirectly from others
who pull from you).
=item No arbitrary rules
If you read the advertising for AnoNet, you probably think it's whatever
you make of it. Sadly, there's a tiny handful of people who have control
over most of the network, and make new (unwritten) rules whenever the
mood strikes them. The sum of those rules is that AnoNet is whatever
I<they> make of it. In version 2, we've undertaken to fix that, by both
technical and administrative means. AnoNet2 not only has no arbitrary
rules - it has no rules whatsoever.
=back
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