Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)
<i>&gt;a workable plan that enables more free speech, [...] That approach: build protocols, not platforms.  To be clear, this is an approach that would bring us back to the way the internet used to be. The early internet involved many different protocols—instructions and standards that anyone could then use to build a compatible interface. </i><p>As I&#x27;ve commented before[1][2], discussing <i>protocols</i> and advocating for them is a popular topic but it does not <i>make progress</i>.<p>The real issue is <i>funding</i> and trying to make humans do <i>what they don&#x27;t want to do</i>.<p>If HN is overrepresented by vanguards of decentralization and free speech, why are a lot of us here on HN instead of running USENET nodes and posting to a newsgroup such as &quot;comp.programming.hackernews&quot; to avoid being moderated by dang?<p>If most of HN knows how to set up git and stand up a web server, why do most of use Github instead of running Gitlab on a home pc&#x2F;laptop&#x2F;RaspberryPi or rent a Digital Ocean vps?<p>It&#x27;s because &quot;free &amp; open protocols&quot; weren&#x27;t really the issue!<p>A lot of us <i>don&#x27;t want</i> to run a USENET node or manage our own git server to share code.<p>[1] the so-called &quot;open&quot; internet of free protocols: 
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20231960" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20231960</a><p>[2] free &amp; royalty free protocol like Signal still doesn&#x27;t solve the &quot;who pays for running the server&quot; problem:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20232499" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20232499</a>