Moving from Twitter to Gab-Another Option

Blondie wrote:Reports this morning that GAB has been hacked over the weekend.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/gab-hacked-group-promises-gold-mine-info-militias-neo-nazis-qanon

Most important take away is that the passwords were stolen along with everything else.

Hopefully everyone is following good OpSec and not reusing passwords, but if you mistakenly used a password multiple times then it's a great time to change your passwords.

OK, sorry I didn't get in here yesterday.

Yes, the passwords were stolen, but your log in password was stolen in its encrypted form, so it might be ok.

At least for a while.
Also, the stolen information isn't being distributed. Not yet, anyway.

Just the same, it is time to change your password, if you have a Gab account.

I will post more about this later today.

Welcome to the Declining Years of America , where,
if you fall into one or more of these categories:
Conservative,
Constitutionalist,
Libertarian,
Christian,
Straight,
you have to take precautions on the Internet.

There are people out there who have made it their mission in life to drive us from the village square, get us fired from our jobs, and deny us fundamental necessities like a bank account.

I use, and strongly recommend, four things to help shield us from this threat.

One is a VPN. And that is the only thing that you actually have to pay for.
(Should not be more than $6 a month. I got in three years ago for $3 a month.)
This will prevent your ISP from selling data that may compromise you, and if it is a good one, will block web sites from seeing exactly who you are.

The second: insure you use strong passwords. The passwords we used years ago are just not good enough any more. They need to be twelve or more characters, as opposed to the eight characters we used in the past. And there should be no discernible pattern in it (and don't use a discernible pattern on the keyboard, either, hackers are onto that trick).

Third, never use your real name when you express opinions and form alliances on forums or social media. Use a pseudonym that you will easily recognize, and that isn't used by too many other people (it isn't important if a few others use it, as long as you don't write on the same forum they do) and isn't used by anyone who is notoriously evil.)

Fourth. Get a "for forums only" email address. Don't use your real name with it, either. This way, you can give out your email address in a PM and if the board gets hacked, the hacker still doesn't get your real name. I suggest using your favorite pseudonym, the one you use on your favorite forum, as your email nym, but that isn't necessary. (I am TRex2 on several different forums, and my email address is TRex2, also.) I recommend mail.com, because they don't ask too many question, but there are a lot of other good ones out there, also.

There are two other things I use, and recommend:
A dedicated password manager,
The Brave Browser,
but those are not as important as the first four.

I will put a copy of this on a thread dedicated to "Internet Safety," and explain more, later.

These things seem paranoid, but the threat to ourselves and our families is growing greater with every month that passes.

Information may be going up for sale in the near future.

https://gab.com/a/posts/105817612369949098

DDS announced that it would only be making the leak available to journalists and researchers for “ethical” reasons. At the same time, an individual who claimed to be the hacker sent us a ransom demand for nearly $500,000 in Bitcoin. We immediately notified federal law enforcement.

This ransom demand would be worthless if DDS did what it had done with other hacks in the past – i.e., publishing them in full, as it did with leaks from another free speech website, Parler, earlier in the month.

Ugh!

Well, some small amount of good news, about Gab.

1. Gab has told the hackers, who wanted money not to release the data, to pound sand. (In the short run, it makes it just a little more likely the data will be sold to people who don't like Patriots, but in the long run, less likely to happen again.)

2. The leak that allowed the data to be stolen has been patched.

3. I downloaded several pictures from the site, from people who have no interest in privacy or security, and the EXIF data was scrubbed from them, so it appears Gab is doing a good job on that.

I will eventually get an account at Parler, and do the same with them.

Is anyone here also posting, or even reading anything on Gab?

(I mean, other than me, since I have about 29 posts and comments over there)

TRex2 wrote:Is anyone here also posting, or even reading anything on Gab?

(I mean, other than me, since I have about 29 posts and comments over there)

I go on once in awhile, you probably read this on there, I'm going to post in under gun control:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksibilla/2021/03/23/biden-administration-urges-supreme-court-to-let-cops-enter-homes-and-seize-guns-without-a-warrant/?sh=78fc5ad72829

rick1 wrote:

TRex2 wrote:Is anyone here also posting, or even reading anything on Gab?

(I mean, other than me, since I have about 29 posts and comments over there)

I go on once in awhile, you probably read this on there, I'm going to post in under gun control:
...

No, I hadn't read it, but thanks for responding that you do, at least once in a while, read stuff on Gab. I saw your post over on gun control, and let me say that it is just one symptom of the end of our country. Our window of opportunity to establish secure (both public and private, and most important, resistant to censorship) communications networks is closing fast. That is why I am pushing this.

It looks like Gab will become an important part of our networks.

TRex2 wrote:

rick1 wrote:

TRex2 wrote:Is anyone here also posting, or even reading anything on Gab?

(I mean, other than me, since I have about 29 posts and comments over there)

I go on once in awhile, you probably read this on there, I'm going to post in under gun control:
...

No, I hadn't read it, but thanks for responding that you do, at least once in a while, read stuff on Gab. I saw your post over on gun control, and let me say that it is just one symptom of the end of our country. Our window of opportunity to establish secure (both public and private, and most important, resistant to censorship) communications networks is closing fast. That is why I am pushing this.

It looks like Gab will become an important part of our networks.

Supposedly Trump is going to start his own platform, how is he going to get around apple, google, etc.?

Does anybody know?

rick1 wrote:

TRex2 wrote:
No, I hadn't read it, but thanks for responding that you do, at least once in a while, read stuff on Gab. ...
It looks like Gab will become an important part of our networks.

Supposedly Trump is going to start his own platform, how is he going to get around apple, google, etc.?
Does anybody know?

He will probably get around "Big Sister" (note1) the same way Gab gets around them. If I understand correctly, they use a geographically dispersed array of servers that they own, or at least own rights to. I heard the Trump platform won't be happening for several months, though, so I am not holding my breath or anything.


Note1: "Big Sister" is a name I have used for "big tech" and multibillion dollar multinational corporations, for many years. Since before Y2K, if I recall correctly. Distinguishes it from Big Brother (federal and international governments), while reminding us that she can be just as meddlesome as Big Brother. I also use "Little Brother" and "little sister," when appropriate

Gab Social Media has released a more detailed article about the "system intrusion" (that is the correct technical name) they became aware of on the 28th of Feb.

https://news.gab.com/2021/03/26/security-notification/

Some Highlights, what the perps were able to obtain:

The personal information that could have been affected includes your Gab handle (i.e., the URL at which your account profile is available (e.g., www.gab.com/xyz)); your Gab display name;

For most of us, all of these are available to anyone who follows us.

your email address; a hashed version of the password that you use to access your Gab account;

This is why I tell people to have an email address used just for forums, and to use a strong password. (more on that password, later)

and your Gab user identification number.

Frankly I don't know if this is important or not.

If you chose to verify your account by going through our verification process and submitting a picture of your driver’s license, passport, or other identification document as part of that process, the information on that document (including your date of birth) may also have been affected.

I don't think this affects anyone here, but if it does, that opens a whole new dimension of precautions. I have been exploring this avenue, as someday soon, I may have to go that route.

Most of the rest of the article is general stuff not specifically related to this attack.

.TRex2

Trump and his wife launch new website. It's news and Trumps updates, and what he has done. There is no posting on this site:

https://www.axios.com/trump-website-supporters-fd51e08f-cee7-40ff-b888-1b9f29e69954.html

rick1 wrote:Trump and his wife launch new website. It's news and Trumps updates, and what he has done. There is no posting on this site:

https://www.axios.com/trump-website-supporters-fd51e08f-cee7-40ff-b888-1b9f29e69954.html

The article is merely referring to his office website:
https://www.45office.com/root

Through civic engagement and public activism, the Office of Donald J. Trump will strive to inform, educate, and inspire Americans from all walks of life as we seek to build a truly great American Future. Through this office, President Trump will remain a tireless champion for the hardworking men and women of our great country – and for their right to live in safety, dignity, prosperity, and peace.

Naturally, axios, being part of the Left, hates it

My understanding is that Trump's site, Trump Site will be more like Twitter.

[url=Gab.com]GAB[/url] is more all-around - it is more like FB, Twitter, and if you go Pro - you can have your own forums and video channels.

Cinnamon wrote:My understanding is that Trump's site, Trump Site  will be more like Twitter.

Well, what ever it is going to be, it isn't that, yet. Maybe he just has the site up for a place marker. I would like to see short (not as short as a tweet) news releases from him and his circle of trust.

[url=Gab.com]GAB[/url] is more all-around - it is more like FB, Twitter, and if you go Pro - you can have your own forums and video channels.

I am actually considering that, but most of my money is already designated for other projects, so even a couple hundred dollars (two years) is pretty steep.
https://pro.gab.com/upgrade

I think I will forgo the "Pro" level, and leave the financial stuff to those above the median income.
median income by state

Gab is planning a site wide upgrade, in a few months, and will include their own financial platform. If successful, this will be a game changer. In the interim (April-Sep), it could be kinda bumpy.

https://news.gab.com/2021/03/30/gab-next/

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving the security, scalability, and performance of Gab Social I wanted to let the Gab community know our plans for the next few months. In early March we began to lay the groundwork for Gab Next, a totally rebuilt Gab Social on top of our HYDRA infrastructure.

All of your posts, photos, videos, followers, and groups will be transferred over to this new system upon completion. Over the next 90 days or so there won’t be much changing on the existing Gab Social codebase because of our efforts to rebuild the platform from scratch on the HYDRA infrastructure.

HYDRA currently powers all other Gab products including Gab Trends, Gab Chat, Gab TV, our Shop, PRO, and much more. HYDRA is secure, scalable, and has unmatched performance for a community as big as Gab.

As part of this initiative we are working on some exciting new features and tools that will be possible once Gab Social is on the HYDRA infrastructure.

These include a Marketplace for Gabbers to buy and sell goods and services, a P2P payment system to exchange value with one another, and our long-awaited video conferencing platform. We will also be able to deeply integrate existing HYDRA services like Gab Trends, Gab Chat, and more.

All of this is working towards our vision of building a new economy. Free markets inevitably emerge from free speech and the next evolution of Gab will provide the tools for that to happen.

Our roadmap for the rest of 2021 is tremendous and very exciting. The first step is getting Gab Social onto the HYDRA infrastructure, which we will spend all of the 2nd quarter doing. We kindly ask for your patience during this time, it will be well worth the wait. Thank you for your continued support of our mission to defend free speech online for all people.

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com

Justice Clarence Thomas weighs in on the control of social media by a few. Seem like things may change with social media if it goes to the supreme court, maybe:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/06/technology-202-clarence-thomas-takes-social-media-companies-power/

rick1 wrote:Justice Clarence Thomas weighs in on the control of social media by a few. Seem like things may change with social media if it goes to the supreme court, maybe:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/06/technology-202-clarence-thomas-takes-social-media-companies-power/

True, but Justice Thomas's comments weren't joined by any of the other justices, so it's unclear if his position has any support for now....

dmwalsh568 wrote:

rick1 wrote:Justice Clarence Thomas weighs in on the control of social media by a few. Seem like things may change with social media if it goes to the supreme court, maybe:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/06/technology-202-clarence-thomas-takes-social-media-companies-power/

True, but Justice Thomas's comments weren't joined by any of the other justices, so it's unclear if his position has any support for now....

Baby steps dm, baby steps.

Bo Jackson/Jim Thorpe are considered the best all around athletes of all times, they began their careers by taking baby steps.

rick1 wrote:Justice Clarence Thomas weighs in on the control of social media by a few. Seem like things may change with social media if it goes to the supreme court, maybe:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/06/technology-202-clarence-thomas-takes-social-media-companies-power/

They are staging a pretense of resistance to regulation. The head of either Facebook or Twitter (I forget which) actually stated that, at one time, a couple years ago. They currently operate as a media publishing company, which should be subject to libel laws, while pretending to be neutral platforms for discussion, which are not subject to those laws.

(I say should be, because MSM got a carve out for themselves, regarding elected officials, requiring proof of malice before they are subject to the law, thereby giving them open season to attack people like President Trump)

If they do get "regulated" they intend to extend that regulated status to Gab (which is a neutral discussion platform) in order to reign it in. Remember, the free pass for corruption in the last election proved that the Judicial branch of government was part of the Leftist Deep State, as are regulatory agencies. This is why I began this attempt at building resilient communications networks.

Time to start bringing this up to date, since it seems to have languished for a few months.

To answer a few questions:
A Trump associate is currently rolling out a social media platform.
Gettr.com
It was hacked withing hours, but only minor damage, and the hole was patched immediately.
Trump, himself, doesn't seem to be involved in it.

Trump's press release site, 45office.com seems to be languishing.

I haven't seen much of the site wide upgrade over at Gab, either.
Still Looking.

Need to pretty much ignore the comment above. (I will redirect and delete it, later) Let's keep this thread for, primarily, Gab discussions.

Just got back from Gab. We show 5 members. If you are a regular here, remember to go over there and get signed up. Once you are signed up, 'Request to Join' the EHP Friends group.

Even though we have 5 members, so far ReadyMom and myself are the only ones I have seen post over there. (I posted about 3 "test" messages, and one comment.)

ReadyMom can see who has joined, no one else can, until you post something. (As far as I can tell.)

People who have not "Joined" cannot see what is posted. To a non-member, the group looks empty and unused.

I posted a 'who can see this' post ... could you see it TR? I also posted in response to Cinn joining, but haven't seen a response to that yet, either.

Truthfully, I'm still not thrilled over GAB. I'm on the wait list for TruthSocial, as well.

TRex, I'm on GAB now, it shows 9 members, and several posts, but none of them new, they are all from January 2021.

ReadyMom wrote:I posted a 'who can see this' post ... could you see it TR? I also posted in response to Cinn joining, but haven't seen a response to that yet, either.

Truthfully, I'm still not thrilled over GAB. I'm on the wait list for TruthSocial, as well.

Nevermind ... just went over and saw you DID see my 'who can see this' post. Apparently you have to click on 'comments' because they don't just cue up under a post automatically.

rick1 wrote:TRex, I'm on GAB now, it shows 9 members, and several posts, but none of them new, they are all from January 2021.

Just joined TR's GAB page, as well.

ReadyMom wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:I posted a 'who can see this' post ... could you see it TR? I also posted in response to Cinn joining, but haven't seen a response to that yet, either.

Truthfully, I'm still not thrilled over GAB. I'm on the wait list for TruthSocial, as well.

 Nevermind ... just went over and saw you DID see my 'who can see this' post. Apparently you have to click on 'comments' because they don't just cue up under a post automatically.  

OK RM, I see my two test posts now.

ReadyMom wrote:I posted a 'who can see this' post ... could you see it TR? I also posted in response to Cinn joining, but haven't seen a response to that yet, either.

Truthfully, I'm still not thrilled over GAB. I'm on the wait list for TruthSocial, as well.

I left a comment on the "who can see this post" and Cinn posted on here that she was on Gab an got into the Group, but I didn't see any sign of her there.

All of these systems, Gab, TruthSocial, and Getter are clones of Twitter. Forums are superior to blogs and twitter clones, but I haven't found a suitable Forum that isn't on Freeforum or Forumotion (I need to spend more time looking).

The only platform that has a lot of censorship resistance built into it, from the ground up, is Gab. Reddit pretended to, for a while, but recently, they have censored a few subjects, which tells me they aren't.

I have my problems with Gab (both religious and political), and for now, those will keep me from investing actual money into their system, but those problems are not so bad that I would walk away from it.

rick1 wrote:TRex, I'm on GAB now, it shows 9 members, and several posts, but none of them new, they are all from January 2021.

OK, you are looking at the "Emergency Home Preparation" https://gab.com/groups/24538

That is an open group (I think) and anyone can join.

We also have a closed Group:
https://gab.com/groups/21435
The title is "EHP Frinds" and you have to request to join.
It only has 5 members.

ReadyMom wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:I posted a 'who can see this' post ... could you see it TR? I also posted in response to Cinn joining, but haven't seen a response to that yet, either.

Truthfully, I'm still not thrilled over GAB. I'm on the wait list for TruthSocial, as well.

 Nevermind ... just went over and saw you DID see my 'who can see this' post. Apparently you have to click on 'comments' because they don't just cue up under a post automatically.  

If you just look at things on your timeline, you will see the headlines, and about 5 lines of text. You can see there is:
1 like 1 comment

Click on the word "comment" and you can see the comments.
Or you can click on the time the post was made. (Under K657 )
Right now it says 3d but in a few more hours it will say 4d.

Here is the direct link, but it should not work if you are not a member of the group.
https://gab.com/K657/posts/107983613695453597

Trouble like the last time, won't let me join. "group join fail".

I signed into the public group today.

I love this forum layout better because we can make groups and such. Not sure how that'd work over on GAB.

Cinnamon wrote:I signed into the public group today.

I love this forum layout better because we can make groups and such. Not sure how that'd work over on GAB.

The only way it would work is if we created several groups over there, one for each topic. That would be a lot of groups, and I am not sure how many it would allow, not to mention tracking them all. And then there is the ads ...

I think it makes a reasonable backup, in case something knocks this off line for a while, but it wouldn't work for a primary. Too much like twitter.

Interesting development.

Elon Musk bought enough shares (9%) of Twitter to basically apply a steering force to its future. (That would be a little less than controlling interest.)

The top guy at Gab has some commentary on Twitter's future, with Musk sharing the helm:
https://news.gab.com/2022/04/05/thoughts-on-elon-and-twitter/

The LA Times asked me for a comment on this topic yesterday and I told them anything that promotes more speech and not less is a good thing in our book. I personally hope that Elon has a positive impact by lobbying to remove all of the mentally ill people who run Twitter so they can get the professional help they desperately need. Many people, including the LA Times, have suggested that the free speech talking point from Musk is simply a distraction from the real reason Elon wants to secure some influence over Twitter: to protect his businesses.

Cinnamon wrote:I signed into the public group today.

I love this forum layout better because we can make groups and such. Not sure how that'd work over on GAB.

I look at Gab from time to time, but haven't posted there, much. Too much noise. Currently trying SubStack. Will let everyone know how it goes.

TRex2 wrote:

Cinnamon wrote:I signed into the public group today.

I love this forum layout better because we can make groups and such. Not sure how that'd work over on GAB.

I look at Gab from time to time, but haven't posted there, much. Too much noise. Currently trying SubStack. Will let everyone know how it goes.

It makes me sad, that I can neither prove, nor disprove whether Gab's founder (and thus, the site, since he is proprietor) is antisemitic. He makes many derogatory statements, in which he includes Jews. Enough to irritate and concern me, but not sufficient to convince me.

Thus,

In light of a lot of bits and pieces of evidence, that the founder, and thus the site itself, is antisemitic, I am suspending (not canceling, my mind isn't completely made up) any association with Gab.com until I get clear evidence that the founder and the site are not antisemitic. -- Feb 3, 2023, Mestral, aka TRex2

If anyone can give me irrefutable evidence, one way or another, I am all ears.