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Free the Internet: The Tor Project's annual fundraiser

97 points by pabs3 7 hours ago | 9 comments

phkx 6 hours ago

Do these donations also support the operation of nodes? If not, how to support the network (other than running a node myself)?

bauruine 6 hours ago

No the relays are run by the community the Torproject doesn't run any relays. You could donate to a relay associations if you don't want to run a relay yourself.

https://community.torproject.org/relay/community-resources/r...

pabs3 6 hours ago

Check out this post, but its better for the health of the network for there to be a diversity of exit node providers, so its better for folks to run one themselves, especially if they are in an under-represented country, or not in the cloud etc.

https://blog.torproject.org/support-tor-network-donate-exit-...

Another group I heard about that turns donations into exit nodes:

https://nos-oignons.net/

tombert 6 hours ago

I support the Tor project but I have to admit that I am far too much of a coward to run an exit node on any network associated with me.

I know most usage of Tor isn’t illegal, but I don’t think it’s much of a secret that there is a fair amount of illegal stuff available on Tor, and I don’t want the FBI knocking on my door because my IP has been tied to some kind of kiddie porn site.

bauruine 5 hours ago

You don't have to run an exit. A middle node is as important as an exit. And running a non-exit relay is pretty hassle free. You will get blocked by some sites, especially banks and governments unfortunately so be aware of that if you want to run one at home. There is a list for ISPs that allow Tor nodes [0] but diversity is important so if you know an ISP with generous traffic allotments that's better. Just check the TOS that they don't explicitly forbid running a relay. Or you could run a bridge to help censored users connect to Tor.

There is also some information on the community site about running and setting up all kinds of relays or bridges [1]

[0] https://community.torproject.org/relay/community-resources/g...

[1] https://community.torproject.org/relay/

GauntletWizard 5 hours ago

Having run an exit node for a couple of years, the worst part for me was the spam associated with torrent traffic. I got several notices per week of copyright requests, which I responded to with a form letter fuck off, but it was still obnoxious because my upstream required me to do so, creating a ticket that they would not close until I had responded.

As far as dark websites, you are supporting them whenever you create any node, because any node can act as a hop for onion sites. On the balance, I think that it is worth having anonymity through Tor, but I will admit that that balance often seems a razor's edge.

monster_truck 5 hours ago

[flagged]

tombert 5 hours ago

I don’t think it’s “weird fear mongering”, but I would actually like to hear how I am wrong.

ETA:

From the posted article:

> While it is relatively easy and risk-free to run a middle relay or a bridge, running an exit can be tough. You have to seek out a friendly ISP, explain Tor to them, and then navigate a laundry list of Internet bureaucracies to ensure that when abuse happens, the burden of answering complaints falls upon you and not your ISP.

This seems to me that what I was worried about is actually perfectly rational.

monster_truck 5 hours ago

[flagged]

nananana9 5 hours ago

I would throw some money each month at Tor if all the project did was provide a way to access the Internet anonymously, but I find it very difficult to support it, given that .onions are a thing and we all know what gets hosted there. I'll never run a node for the same reason, I don't want computers of mine to be used for CSAM distribution.

The ability to connect to the Internet anonymously is invaluable, but I consider the server obfuscation part of the project straight up evil. Which is unfortunate, they could've easily stopped at the good thing.

mnmalst 3 hours ago

What's the point of having free access to the internet if there is no free internet? Seeing in what direction the world goes, access to a space where content can be distributed freely becomes more important than it ever was.

rana762 7 hours ago

[dead]

G_o_D 6 hours ago

[flagged]