Sanctuary v3.0 Roadmap

[Arnox]

HUGE changes are coming. Date is rather unknown but I want to get this done when I can. At the same time though, I think these changes would line up super well with Sanctuary's 10th anniversary. Sanctuary was first launched on May 9th, 2014, so our release date for Sanctuary 3.0 would be May 9th, 2024 if we went with that. Some of these major changes have been discussed before but it's time to now lay out a formal plan for what we want to do and to discuss it as a community.

The major changes are as follows:

1. At Least 10 GB of Off-Shore Resilient File Storage per Registered User

Users will simply need to PM the administrator in order to activate file storage. There will also probably be a limited activation code system in place in order to ration disk space and as a defense against file spam uploading attacks. And finally, we will update our rules regarding what copyrighted stuff exactly we will be hosting. These are the tentative rules for that:

Sanctuary uploads are governed by the Seven Deadly Sins of Sanctuary found here. Violating any of those rules whatsoever will earn you an instant ban or even an instant permaban along with the swift deletion of any offending content. The Seven Deadly Sins are set in stone and are not up for debate. Do not test us with this.

In addition to the Seven Deadly Sins, uploads are also governed by these specific rules below. Violations of the rules below are treated much more leniently, but will still earn you an infraction if violated along with the deletion of the offending content. Any infraction on an account will disappear permanently after three days, but if you receive another infraction when you already have an infraction on your account, you will be banned with the length of time determined by the member of staff who banned you.

- Uploading of copyrighted material is not allowed UNLESS the material was copyrighted 20 years ago to the day or more.
- Further, if a copyrighted item is no longer for sale, it can also be uploaded, even if the copyright date is within 20 years to the day.
- If a copyrighted item is still for sale and the copyright is within 20 years to the day, but the price for the item is way too expensive for what it is, or has a mandatory subscription added onto it that didn't exist before, seek admin approval first before uploading. We'll (probably) allow it.
- Items currently under NDA may be allowed as well but also seek admin approval for these things first. There must be a good reason for the upload of these items. We won't take them just because they're neat.
- Items that require any governmental security clearance will generally not be allowed. If you ask us about a specific item that falls under this category, we MAY allow it, but any information that could result in the death or capture of someone else is definitely not allowed, and even after that, we are still probably not going to accept such classified items unless there is a DAMN good reason for such.

2. Rebasing on XenForo 2.3.x

Although we're good for XF security right now, we've been using the same major XF version for a while. It's great. It's stable. It works beautifully for the forums, but while we're doing this, might as well upgrade to the new hotness as well. We'll be getting a fuckton of new features in the process.

3. (Probably) New Server Hosts

I am actually kinda reluctant to do this. Leaseweb has been with us since the very beginning and we've never been harassed by any person whether in the company or without. They've also been the ones who've bailed us out of many denial-of-service attacks in the distant past. I don't know if we've ever received any DMCA notices or other such nonsense, but if we have, Leaseweb is probably just tossing them in the trash as well. lol

Long story short, they've protected us and kept us going... But... There's still two major problems. For one, we're hosted in the Netherlands. And the Netherlands now has hate speech laws. Yayyyyy... And the second thing is simply that Leaseweb is expensive. Like, damn, son. You get quality, but you're certainly gonna pay for it. And with the connection speed we require along with the storage space needed, this is just untenable on my budget. I can't do it. So, we have to switch.

4. Massive Server Security Overhaul

When I started Sanctuary, I didn't quite know what I was doing, but I learned and I at least made sure to do the bare basics of server security. And this may have worked out fine for a while since we were just running a rinky dink forum in the middle of nowhere, but now, with file hosting on the horizon, it's time to start putting on our big boy pants and majorly harden the server. Although I can only do so much, and regardless of how much I do, a dedicated adversary with enough skills and/or resources could get in anyway, it's still no excuse to not at least do my absolute best and make that as hard and as annoying as possible.

So, I am going to personally go through every part of the server installation and configuration to make sure there is as little attack surface as possible and that, in the event of an attack, it can be quickly mitigated and shut down.

5. (Probably) Video Hosting and Playback Capabilities

Since we're allowing file hosting now, and since we'll have infinite bandwidth, we'll then be fully able to stream video to others. I'm just gonna tell everyone right off the bat here, we are not YouTube. We will not be able to host infinite videos and stream them at 4K resolution. Not gonna happen. Not without an even more massive server host upgrade anyway. With that said, we can still definitely serve SOME video. So, that's what we're going to do. Might as well.

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Again, all these changes proposed above are open to discussion. And you better discuss it now, because when these changes go live, I don't wanna hear, "Oh what's thisssss? I didn't want thatttttt.... " Too bad.

UPDATE 1: After some thinking, I think we will do a May 9th, 2024 rollout for sure. XF 2.3 is coming very, very soon now, yes, but I want to make sure the bugs are worked out of it and that the add-ons we currently use (not very much) will fully support it. That will take some time after launch. We may do the server host change earlier than that though as the Leaseweb contract is starting to get closer to renewal.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

What XenForo version are we on now, because XenForo 2.2 is apparently a Progressive Web Application.. That's not something good, and it's also only supported by google chromium..

Not sure a lot of the extra rules for uploads are needed. It'd still be a Sin to doxx someone or to spam. Except that it's now a Sin to not adhere slavishly to the DMCA.. Unless it's old, unless you ask, unless.. ok?

So I guess it's okay if I encrypt my Chi..Checkdisk stuff before uploading yeah? ,)

 

[Arnox]

What XenForo version are we on now, because XenForo 2.2 is apparently a Progressive Web Application.. That's not something good, and it's also only supported by google chromium..

The Progressive Web App feature of XenForo 2.2 and above is a feature that, when enabled, allows a user on any smartphone to download that forum's specific "app" onto their phone (the download is served entirely via the site's own servers) mostly so they can receive instant alerts, such as when someone replied to your comment, whenever and wherever they are instead of having to manually browse to the site every time to see alerts. Push notifications, introduced in XenForo 2.1, will also send alerts through your browser should you choose to receive them, but the app also allows you to know just how many alerts there are at a glance without ever having to open the app, and I think you have more control over exactly how you wish to receive those alerts. And finally, the app allows you to multi-task with the site better without having to keep it open in a browser tab.

I haven't inspected if the code of the PWA is open source, but since the app generator is very, very probably written in PHP, that will be open source in any case, and if you don't like or want any of that, no problem. You can continue to use Sanctuary as normal. The PWA does not rely on any code from Google.

Not sure a lot of the extra rules for uploads are needed. It'd still be a Sin to doxx someone or to spam. Except that it's now a Sin to not adhere slavishly to the DMCA.. Unless it's old, unless you ask, unless.. ok?

lol Technically, due to where we're hosted, we can safely ignore the DMCA completely and forever, and with the new hosts, that's only going to be even more true, but though I do absolutely allow piracy here and even condone it at times, I don't condone MINDLESS piracy.

Sometimes, you're just taking back control of what corporations took from us. Sometimes, you're fighting back and preserving your right to repair. Sometimes, the utterly absurd length of copyright is too egregious. And sometimes, you just simply can't afford the price of the item. But beyond all that, man... Beyond that, you're just flat out stealing from someone else. If you make 100K USD a year in excess and you see a small time artist trying to sell their work, but you find and execute a way to take that work from them without paying, you stole from them. That's it. End of story.

I do believe in copyright. To an extent. Right now, current copyright law is utterly abused to hell and back to stifle creativity and profit huge fucking businesses. But I still do believe in copyright and think it's important.

So I guess it's okay if I encrypt my Chi..Checkdisk stuff before uploading yeah? ,)

Okay... Listen, man. I do know you're just joking here, but I really wanna get this point across to everyone. If I ever confirm at all that you or anyone is hosting child porn here, I will fucking nuke that person and their shit CP content off of this site. I don't give a shit if you only have one post here or if you're the damn Sanctuary co-administrator with honors. Nobody breaks the 7 Deadly Sins. No one.

Ahem... But yes, free free to encrypt any and all content. Hell, I might do so myself. You can also upload private files that only you can see, but do keep in mind, Sanctuary staff can still potentially see any and all private files. If you wish to keep something private from even me, then encryption of the file(s) is vital.

 

[Arnox]

UPDATE 1: After some thinking, I think we will do a May 9th, 2024 rollout for sure. XF 2.3 is coming very, very soon now, yes, but I want to make sure the bugs are worked out of it and that the add-ons we currently use (not very much) will fully support it. That will take some time after launch. We may do the server host change earlier than that though as the Leaseweb contract is starting to get closer to renewal.