Subj : Re: Nightmares / Dreams
To   : 2twisty
From : boraxman
Date : Fri Apr 01 2022 21:08:27

 2t> Yes you can use the "what are you hiding if you are encrypting?"
 2t> argument.  My answer to that is "What am I concealing/protecting? My
 2t> PRIVACY."
 2t> 
 2t> Since I am a long time Linux/Windows server admin, security and privacy
 2t> are top-of-mind.  Also, one of the reasons that BBSes are gaining some
 2t> traction these days is because of privacy; we come here so that we
 2t> aren't data mined by facebook and google for everything we type.
 2t> 
 2t> Seems to me that encryption goes hand-in-hand with that mindset.
 2t> 

This is a very important point.  I have had a couple of people express interest in BBS's because they want to move away from monitoring, from Social Media's tracking and spying and from surveillance.

Privacy, being able to converse with people and not have any random dig up something you said 10 years later to blast you could be a major selling point of BBSs.  Sure, its not private in the sense that only the intended recipient can see it, but it is still miles better than having this discussion on Facebook.  With a BBS, you can have encrypted communication, *NO* commercial entities mining data, *NO* commercial entity or company threatening to pull the plug on hosting because they don't like what you are saying, and you can pretty easily prevent discussion being a permanent public record, simply don't republish it on the web.

People can view BBS's as a way to get away from all those complications, and we can make it that by putting an emphasis on privacy, on keeping visibility just to BBS users, and providing a different paradigm, a community which feels like a community because it is in someones own house (their own BBS server), and between us only.  Where conversations aren't "leaky" (ie, end up everywhere).   This would differentiate the BBS from other forums.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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