It is amazing to consider that less than 6 weeks ago CTH was notified of the deplatforming of our corner of the internet. However, what is even more amazing is how fortunate we were to find a group of people, with a very specific set of skills, who knew exactly how to counter these efforts of Big Tech… And they pulled-off an amazingly stable website architecture in two weeks.
CTH is thankful beyond imagining. Your support in this endeavor is cherished and appreciated.
We are roughly three weeks into the stabilizing phase of the site construct and while there is a lot of work ahead, the outcome is remarkable. Here’s some updates for readers and users:
What we have created, and are continuing to build-out, is something new in the landscape of web-hosting and websites. CTH is running stable on a platform where no user data is ever captured. Not a single element of user privacy is controlled by any internal architecture. Meaning, there’s not a single element of your CTH engagement that is not controlled by you, 100%. In the modern era of websites, this is a paradigm shift.
CTH believes your data is YOUR data. Nothing on CTH is recorded, monitored or tracked to “enhance” user connection. The commenting system is constructed not to store any user information in any database; there is no registration, no cookie tracking and no data-lists of any kind. This approach was a lofty goal because essentially it is the opposite of modern tech/site development.
Most of the modern site constructs are developed to make user engagement part of the site data. Hence, some sites now ask for phone numbers or two-step authentication (email etc.) before access to content; however, at CTH this modern baseline is not accepted.
One unanticipated aspect of the anti-fragile framework is a number of websites wanting to create, or proactively move their site, and reaching out to us to understand how it is working. While CTH 2.0 is not yet in a position to explain critical details, I can envision a time in the near future with an anti-fragile “site in a box” (an assembled system that can operate without Big Tech influence/assistance) to be offered based on our format.
As an outcome of CTH need, some rebel alliance engineers and developers are learning to unmesh their reliance on interconnected interfaces. This is good stuff in an era where Big Tech is attempting to control communication and what content is presented to you. The internet should be where ‘speech’ is supported, not choked or controlled by tech oligarchs.
♦ One of the big remaining challenges is an email notification system that does not assemble user data as part of the triggering mechanism for auto-notifications of site content. How do you notify people without storing the data of people wanting to be notified? This is the current challenge and some new encryption solutions are being developed based on the old school RSS feeds that people used a long time ago.
We are still working-on rebuilding/testing the CTH theme to work and integrate better with mobile devices (phones, tablets etc). We hear all of the feedback on this issue and we are working through the process.
Also at some point next month, once we are able to review a month of server data and calculate the operational hosting costs, we will start construction of a supply-side platform (SSP/proprietary) ad system that carries the same privacy elements. Hopefully this approach will offset the higher costs associated with staying outside of Big Tech tentacles; and allows us to provide all content 24/7/365 to everyone.
The CTH rebuild has been a learning experience and I sincerely appreciate everyone’s understanding as this has progressed. Big Tech thought they had a grip on the voices within the internet; CTH is happily leading a charge to find workarounds and bring back independent voices.
Don’t forget to live your best life; it’s the only one you have.
Merry Christmas everyone,
~ Sundance
We’re thankful too, Sundance. The Treehouse punches way about its weight and thanks to you and ad rem it is genuinely influential where some other “conservative” platforms that should be influential . . . aren’t. Could I make a suggestion? The edit timer is very short and, since I’m dyslexic, I can’t always see my typos until it’s too late to change them. A little extra time would really help.
Sundance, may you be blessed in your dogged pursuit of truth against the Democommunist arrogant arbiters of what people can and cannot know and what reality or non reality people must live in.
It’s funny how things work out in the end, all WordPress did was make this site better, thanks Sundance & team!
Well said!
What man intends for evil, the Lord is more than able to use for good. Every time. 🙂
Thank you and Merry Christmas!?? ?
Sundance you and your staff are miracle workers. God Bless.
Francesca Kaczynski passed away tonight on Christmas…9 months old…I can’t help but cry for that little girl…god bless her!
How terribly tragic. Our deepest sympathies for your loss.
Very sorry to hear that. prayers for you.
Big Tech has gone over to the dark side, forgetting how incensed their predecessors were to the mass commercialization of the web … meanwhile, CTH is returning to the original vision of the web; and while there will always be some commercialization, not turning the community into a commodity is refreshing.
So, on that note, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Sundance and the CTH wizards who created this new marvel.
Cancer doesn’t discriminate…evil disease…I lost my sister to it….time to put that curse to an end.
Merry Christmas to you Sundance and your entire team. You all do an amazing job and I am grateful to have found this site almost six years ago. I cannot imagine how I would have survived without it. There is so little truth out there. Looking for forward to a better year in 2021!
Treasure your grandchildren.
You know it.
Sundance Thank you for the update, The normal gestation for the human species is nine months. .”Birthing” CTH2.0 has been done at Trump speed. I appreciate having a trustworthy site to get the real news.
So very grateful for CTH. Thank you, Sundance.
I, for one, am extremely pleased with CTH 2.0. I have been a daily reader for over seven years, at least. I stopped commenting a couple of years ago after all of the frustration with updates. The constant logging in. Can vote but not comment. Can comment but not vote. Back and forth. I just gave up and became a reader only. Now it’s like, well, Christmas. I can do it all without moderation. Don’t change a thing.
Well, Ad Rem could shorten my log in name. I would but don’t want to go through the “test” crap. Can you?
Me 5 years. There is no other refuge like this one!
Hope this snowballs into some greater than the scope of 1 website!
Thank you Sundance. What you’ve accomplished, especially in such a short timeframe, is truly remarkable!
On a more “fine tuning” note, I’m still hoping it might be possible for you to either increase the font size of the ”reply to” comments… or change to a different font that is not as compressed together.
I’ve been a daily ready for over 5 years, but now with the different and smaller font, I am having a difficult time reading everything, and find that sadly, I just have to scroll past the smaller font comments.
Is anyone else having the same issue???
CNTL Scroll forward enlarges.
Thank you for your kind tip. How do you do that on an iPad?
Try tap twice on what you wish to enlarge- works for me on mobile. Tap again and goes back to normal.
Wow! That works great! Thank you so much!
If you’re using an iPad, it suggests to me you may be using Safari. If so, in the Safari menu click on Preferences. Then, click on Advanced. The second item on a list that appears is Accessibility. Click on the box next to this word.
Then, specify the font size you want. There’s a little arrow which when you click on it brings up a list of font sizes or you can enter one. I have mine set to 15.
Note this will be effective for all web pages. I found it it’s easier on my eyes and have encountered little negative impact. Also, under System Preferences (for Mac), there is an item Accessibility (not to be confused with the one mentioned before). It has options to assist with sight, hearing, etc.
Various persons have mentioned about their eyesight. While what I have described is for Mac/Safari, I think other browsers would have similar options.
Dear Alvasman,
Thank you so much for the suggestion.
You’re welcome ?
Yes, my astigmatism blurs all the letters together with this print size and font.
When typing a reply, the font is much larger than it was several days ago. Thanks!
In the upper right hand corner of your browser there are three dots. These are your browser settings. Open and change your zoom settings to +125.
Thank you. It worked. can i do that on my iphone?
Yes. There are several different ways to enlarge text on an iPhone or iPad, most mentioned above, except the simplest one:
? Rest 2 fingers on the screen. Then spread them apart to enlarge, or move them back together to reduce.
Sundance, I’m at a loss for words.
What you have given to everyone that comes to this site is a wonderful thing.
I come here every single day and every single night.
I get ALL my information right here at the treehouse.
When my sister called this morning to tell me about the bomb in Nashville the first thing I did was come to the treehouse and hit the presidential thread lol. It’s an addiction.
I stay informed because of this website. Your website! You provide information that I know I can trust!
And all the research that you and the army of treepers do is the best on the web. (IMOH)
So, thank you for a wonderful gift. A Christmas gift!
I pray for God to Bless you and all your loved ones now and always!!
Much admiration and appreciation for Team CTH 2.0! Merry Christmas!
CTH is one of the few places where I can get real news the second it happens because the people who hang out here are smart and well- informed. Sundance, you are a godsend. Thank you.
Merry Christmas to Sundance, Adrem and all fellow Treepers.
Sundance,
When you announced the deplatforming, I posted that many times in my life, it seemed like life had punched me in the gut (or even kicked me, a little lower.
Divorce, bankruptcy, being fired or having my truck burn up.
However, with the benefit of HINDSIGHT ( the FIRST thing you see, when you jerk your head outta your *ss) I came to be GRATEFUL, cause that punch or kick had led me in a positive direction.
And, I said I hoped that at some point in the future, we would all feel like sending a “Thank you” card, to those *ssholes who deplatformed our site, cause it would put us in a much better place.
I had no idea it would happen this quick. As part of the “rebel alliance”, what you are talking about is YUGE, and could lead to fundamentally changing tech.
“Why would anyone want to create a website, that DOESN’T collect data? THATS the whole POINT of creating a website!”
Lol, thats what I am sure many will think, stuck in their old thinking.
Way to make lemonade, Sundance, and stick a thumb in the eye, of those who forced the change. May it ultimately lead to there destruction, and a revolution in the i-net, disempowering big tech.
Oh, and Merry Christmas, to you and yours. May we have a truly joyful New Year!
Well said and agree with all. Merry Christmas Sundance and all here and thank you!
You are my best Christmas present! Thank you so much for your competence, sundance!
P.S. and I hope in the end you have something good to sell to others!
Blessed Feast of the Nativity to SD and my Treeper family!
Thank you Sundance for ALL that you (and your entire Treehouse Team) do for we treepers.
I pray that our Heavenly Father blesses and inspires you respecting this labor of love and roll-out of CTH 2.0, through Adonay Yahushua the Messiah.
Sundance…..You.Are.Amazing!
Sundance, I can’t thank you enough for your efforts to secure the future of this community. It is sometimes difficult for those not in tech to appreciate the level of effort required to maintain an operation such as this, but the scale is not lost on me.
A Merry Christmas to all here, but especially to all those who keep this place running and to all those on the front lines of this present fight. Our prayers are with you.
God bless you for all the work you do Sundance
I’d like to add my thanks for your ongoing consideration of your readers.
those publishers putting the concerns of their dedicated followers grows fewer by the day
to your continued success Sundance
God Bless & Protect you Sundance. We Treepers really appreciate your EFFORTS !!!
So much appreciate having this website to come to and all the hard work all this new change over has entailed!! I am in awe of how smoothly the transition has taken place. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
This is akin to the creation of the printing press, where independent printers would print what they cared to print, with total freedom of expression.
It’s so exciting to witness something so significant. We are blessed beyond measure.
Thank you Sundance for all your time, talent and resources you’ve assembled. You are a blessing in my life.
PS. My older eyes struggle with the smaller, tighter print in the replies.
God works in mysterious ways. Thanks for such a fantastic site
This anti-fragile hosting by the rebel alliance is the most positive thing I have experienced since experiencing the slow motion train wreck of the election being stolen in front of my very eyes.
Merry Christmas and thank you so much for all you do to enable us to have a refuge to speak freely.
Thank you Sundance and team for all you have done in just three short weeks. Thanks for your determination to protect privacy. It is much appreciated. Merry Christmas and may God continue to bless and keep CTH and the rebel alliance
There have been many posts and comments made here about the amazing time in which we find ourselves living, and about how we have front row seats to witness history in the making.
But today, with this news, we learn we are now actual participants in a truly foundational part of its unfolding.
“rebel alliance engineers and developers are learning to unmesh their reliance on interconnected interfaces. This is good stuff in an era where Big Tech is attempting to control communication and what content is presented to you. The internet should be where ‘speech’ is supported, not choked or controlled by tech oligarchs.”
I believe this is another shot that will ultimately be heard around the world.
God bless, guide and make strong the rebel alliance.
Merry Christmas, Sundance — and thanks for all you’ve done to keep us together!
I agree with PVCDroid’s comment which read,
– I miss the ability to look up my prior comments to see if anyone else commented. The desire to eliminate all user data has downsides but hope this one issue can find a solution.
Just wondering — is there any way we could type our username into the search box to pull up our previous comments, and maybe be able to link to them to see if there were any responses? When I type “linderella” into the search box, nothing comes up. I miss the back and forth interaction in the comment section — many times, I forget all the places I’ve commented to go back and look them up. Or the page may have moved. Thanks in advance for any help in that area!
Great job and kudos to Sundance and the team. You work may help other like-minded folks flip the proverbial bird to BigTech.
Glad to be here. I am testing out the feature “notify me of comments”. Can someone just reply to this comment as a test? Thanks!
How is it you use this feature
Hi! When you post a comments, just to the lieft of the “Post Comment” box there is a little bell with a diagonal line in it. If you click on it, it turns green and will let you know if someone has commented on your comment. That is how I know that you commented — it worked!
Congrats Sundance, much appreciated
Sure appreciate what you are doing and your vision for the future.
God Bless Treepers
Why is the font varying so much between Comments ? PVC Droids first comment is larger than the second one
Because the font is smaller on the replies and PVC Droids replied to his comment. I have my ‘ZOOM’ set to 125% and these old eyes can read the page perfectly…no glasses.
During times when we hear all about what cannot be done, and why. It’s inspiring to see living proof of what can be done when good men do something!
Hoping to rejoin following this site.
I thought something was going on when I saw how we are able to post on the fly, the way it should be. Very very cool, and old school. Slay the giant!
Wow, interesting news – just the fact that it can be done is an important weapon in protecting our liberty.
But now, how to market and promote this privacy-protected internet service – not an easy task, since a customer-anonymizng website experience is identical to ones retaining customer data.
Problem is, if we are truthful, that virtually no-one cares one iota about their data being collected, stored and sold, because it has no apparent adverse effect on them apart from some targeted ads, which are more amusng than freightening.
Europe legislated about cookies, and I suspect everyone just accept the cookie message, even the libertarians here.
We don’t know and don’t care (yet) that there is probably a list of every libertarian and Trump supporter in USA available for sale to government and industry. The IRS oppression of Tea Party was crude compared to what public service or even silicon valley can now do to vet their employees and new hires. Not to mention how it will seamlessly integrate with your new social rating scores.
Just as with the slippery slope of censoring and deplatforming – first the ‘crazy’ Alex Jones, then far right ….until a mere 12 months later – the President of United States himself, so will the state inevitably use your browser data and comments, analysed by AI, to clense the corridors of power of any ‘anti-social’ elements such you dear reader, who do not self-censor their very thoughts.
But just as with smoking and overeating, and excessive debt and drug-taking, loss of privacy will lead to a much delayed and disconnected pain, so we will not learn to avoid it while it can be avoided through the use of new breed of anonymizing websites such as this one.
I suggest you next need a fantastic volunteer marketing team to make anonymous browsing and commenting either the next must have product like Apple, or the next wokest thing to protect gender transitioning 8 year olds, or a maybe the life-saving essential that it is, requiring its legislation.
Michaelnc58,
I believe you are wrong, there are a lot of us here who guard our privacy.
No twitter or parler or facebook for me. No commenting on any site requiring you to sign up. I even waited along time before I decided the treehouse was one I could trust by signing in each time I commented.
The two most impressive things about this site were its dedication to privacy and Sundance’s unbelievable research ability.
just a note from the UK….
I think you guys did a remarkable job in responding to the censorship/close down threat of this website.
I would like to say a big thank you to all involved in what must have been a hugeeffort > Sundance, admin and all the IT folks /volunteers involved.
Personally I think this is the best site on the web to truly understand what is happening in US politics.
In the future I think it will be viewed as historically important.
All the best folks, and here is hoping for a successful 2021.
Testy testing …
Thanks for the update!
Remember, Although CTH does not store user data on their servers, your device does. Depending on how you have your browser set up to delete browser history and data on exit, you may find that you have to re-enter your credentials on every visit. Same thing if you use a program like ccleaner, depending on how you set it up.
Addressing the small font displayed in the reply comments. You can usually set your browser, through settings, “zoom” to a higher percent. The browser remembers this setting for this site only. I am using the Edge browser. If you are using the Edge browser, like I am, click the three little dots next to you user name in the top left corner of the browser.