Thank you to all readers and members of the Conservative Treehouse fellowship for your continued support. Without your help, this little corner of research and discussion on the internet just could not exist. I will always work earnestly to be deserving of that support and fellowship.
Unfortunately, on an almost exact timeline as previously outlined (maximum 2024 election interference planned), Google and Big Tech have shifted approaches exactly as we predicted they would by mid-April.
They have been unable to take down The Conservative Treehouse over platform content, so they shifted strategies with the spider crawling. We are now under attack by Google Inc. for comments made by you. [see example below]:
You can tell from the flagged notes and highlighted search terms, the spider crawl was given specific phrases to search out. Apparently, Eliot Ness provided them on March 23rd.
This comment by Eliot Ness is being used by Google Inc. to outline a violation of terms of service, and Ness’s threats to violence reported to DHS for operational CTH targeting therein. Note, it is not the content of CTH that is the problem; comments are now the source of infractions that can lead to CTH deplatforming.
You do not need to be a deep weeds thinker to see the issue here. After years of unsuccessfully targeting our research directly, the Google overlords are now targeting us based on reader content. They are turning fellowship into a vulnerability. I am furious and working earnestly to develop a solution.
Obviously, the above comment was deleted and removed, but the shift should explain why so many websites have dropped the comment system completely.
We need your help.
There is a flagging system for the discussion community to self-police. If you notice a comment outside the rules and guidelines for comments, flag it by hitting the flag icon next to the comment. As soon as 20 flags are received, the comment is automatically removed. You can well understand why that feature is present.
I will fight the big tech targeting using every resource to keep CTH from being taken down. However, the process is the punishment in this corrupt system. Fighting these creeps is expensive, and this activity by them takes place at the same time they demonetize us by removing our small advertising funding.
We are fortunate, blessed and protected by a loving God, who has abundant confidence in our ability. If you can help financially, it is appreciated.
Making yesterday’s notifications even more annoying, March and April are the months when all the annual fees for licensing, email notification systems, data security, legal retainers and background stuff associated with the building of CTH 2.0 are paid. Thank you to everyone who helps offset these costs and keeps our voice in the fight.
Financial support through PayPal remains the most efficient and stable way to support CTH. I know they have received a lot of criticism, much of it well placed; however, my own experience with PayPal has been solid. When CTH was deplatformed and under attack from Big Tech (eye of Sauron), to their credit, PayPal stood firm and supported CTH in providing their service. They would NOT demonetize us.
While my experience with PayPal seems to run counter to the outcome described by others, the unexpected supportive position from PayPal made a strong impression on me. Again, perhaps unique, not sure why, but my experience with them has been very good. If that ever changed, I would immediately let you know. The data security and convenience of their system is also solid and useful.
Regardless, there are now two options: (1) PayPal and (2) Proprietary. Due to legal caution and the data privacy construct, the Proprietary alternative has a 30-day access lag built in. Meaning, if you use that option, in approximately 30 days the funds become accessible, whereas support through the preferred PayPal option is immediate.
The alternative financial support appears directly below the PayPal link in a yellow box as highlighted. Some have said browser settings can block visibility, and I have also heard it doesn’t show up on some mobile devices. I am not sure what the technical issue might be other than ISP filters (now becoming more problematic) and/or Adblocking software.
Due to my personal requirements for Treehouse user privacy, and my firm stance on not retaining user data lists, the alternative system does not provide a subscriber option. If you use the alternative support function, each time you would want to support CTH you would have to click it and reenter your information. No data is saved.
Thank you to everyone who helps offset these costs and keeps our voice in the fight…
~ Support CTH Here ~
Eyes of a mouse/Ears of an elephant…. and don’t forget to live your best life!
We cannot allow this new tactic to win. Guidelines for Comments Here.
Love to all,
Sundance
So – the big Meta Data gatherers can (and have) basically canceled our United States Constitution.
They have to suppress us – because they can’t win fair and square. They can’t win and lord over us unless we become unprotesting eunichs. Silence us. Make us scared to say Patriots – when for all they know – we could be referring to sport team.
Restitution is a real drag and I pray it rains down HARD on their heads and strips them of their ill-gained wealth and We The People need to expel them from our country. They don’t deserve our rights nor do they deserve to be called Americans.
Dump them all and take us back to the 1980’s – fine by me.
All their super-electronics source blood components at their origin. That which is built on the backs of slaves and innocent blood – deserves to fall – every single time.
Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Amen.
I stopped considering most in DC Americans long ago. Without the Constitution there is no United States. We are living in a lawless borderless globalist blob and have been for some time. We are pretty much boxed in. Once communists take power, it’s over. 2020 was an overt power grab for all the marbles. It is a zero sum game and the enemy controls almost all the levers of power. 2024 will determine if things get much worse or start getting better. IMO DJT had his chance. If we’re real lucky he might get a second chance, and if he does he had better go scorched fkn earth on these evil parasites.
… and then comes GOD
God helps those who help themselves. What a Stickler for not upsetting the delicate balance of free will.
Government (and Tech Oligarchs) are a Dangerous Servant and a Fearful Master
Whom let Doogle and Faceplant and Beta get this Large?
Answer- FILTHY UNIPARTY swine froth.
Marxists
Anyone that was large was encouraged. Track almost all large money flow and you will find our rivals.
Cowards. Only Trump fights back. Pathetic.
Someone,Sundace, why is goo not over on gab , harassing torba. If you go read there you will get my drift.
Torba may have his own server to bypass Google.
Looks like it’s currently hosted on Cloudfare
https://radar.cloudflare.com/domains/domain/gab.com
gab.com DNS records as of Apr 5, 2024A recordsCloudflare, Inc.
104.17.144.130
0
104.17.207.228
0
I’m in Israel and my IP was blocked on Gab. My free VPN stopped working same time. I had a friend in NY log into my Gab account. They could with no problem. I deleted Gab from my phone for now. I can’t be bothered to try to fix this here.
The Donald should/ought make it his an election promise to make you the only place to go to
lIkewise even JFK, (and maybe everybody else).
please say it out loud
Donald should promise an examination of Goggle both as a monopoly and as a CCP agent.
Well, Google is THE Deep State Agent.. so no such examination will take place most definitely not by the crooked and criminal FedDoJ
What is more likelier to happen is Google banning Trump on its platforms like YT
He has Truth. They can try, but they can’t silence him, even with their gaslighting of Truth stock prices. It’s Gamestop all over again…they are trying hard, but the little guy, that is, we, the people, are tuned into their money games. People know how to fight back now with the stock market, which is why they interrupted and blocked trading when we, the people, caused them to lose bigly over GameStop.
Another replay of 2020 to keep the dumb sheeple in the dark.
i get your urge. but usually it is not a good idea to tell your enemy what your war plan is.
Alphabet, Google, Facebook, et. al. are worse than agents of the CCP. They are agents of our very own inSecurity Agencies. Chiefly, the No Such Agency.
Thank you Sundance for all you do!
Crowd search Elliot Ness, prove he was a plant of the spiders and figure way to return it back.
I agree. It appears that Mr. Ness was the sacrificial fly used to bring the spiders out.
Thank you, Sundance and crew for fighting the good fight.
Done!
cross posted at https://freedomaustralia.freeforums.net/thread/5280/site-notes-updates
Sundance,
Thank you for this insight. I can’t tell you enough how important the Last Refuge has been for me since I found you all in 2015. I hope you’ve seen my last several posts about the UNCENSORED social media that is on the scene now. I am an old guy so I’m no expert, however, there is a lot of reason to be joyful that you (and Treepers) are being pursued in this way. Treepers, I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. Nostr is the new internet… Let me repeat that. NOSTR IS THE NEW INTERNET. I did not say that, it came from a very wise developer who is in the know. The question we should be asking is why are people increasingly in agreement that culture is broken, MSM is broken, social media is broken, medical, big pharma, politics, the US dollar is all broken… (I’m glad some will vehemently disagree with me). We should be asking questions that are not being asked. We all know something (many somethings are) is wrong, but most people are still pretending, right? We’re in agreement on that!
Here’s where it gets exciting. I was in the Silicon Valley right before the internet emerged and I’ve seen this movie before. Now, software developers have found a simple way to make it work. No censorship, no big brother, no accountability, free speech in all its glory. Now it doesn’t come free, there are small “zaps”or “sats” that you have to pay for the infrastructure. This is an extremely superficial overview. Nostr is just the beginning of it though. The YT video I posted the other night goes into detail on the things that are being built out on it. All that to say this: I disagree with you SD.
I do not think the internet as we know it is worth saving. It’s going down with the ship. Google and all their AI can flag and do all their corporate BS but they can’t silence you and me and all of y’all when it comes to us getting smarter and using technology to our advantage. Check it out. It aint pretty yet, but freedom is SWEEET. By the way, I think everyone who reads this should reply with what you’re reading right now. Here’s mine: The Price of Tomorrow, by Jeff Booth.
Grace and Peace
Too long posting. Loses the audience. Say less and say more.
I think his posting is acceptable. Touches on a lot of things. He’s sharing a message tied to SD’s OP. He followed the posting rules. Maybe he could have divided the first paragraph into two….other than that…
Sometimes, things are written above a 5th-grade level.
Please quit forgetting we have Elon Musk. At least there are a few real men fighting for the truth instead of whining. Elon and Trump equal action in face of adversity. Get a grip.
I’ll relate a story of my experience with the Orwellians.
I was an admin for a fairly large FB group. FB started with their warnings, much like Sundance is getting now.
We attempted a number of measures to try to appease them…taking the group private, approving new members, approving posts, deleting comments, smashing troll’s, etc. It didn’t matter what we did, the end was inevitable. In 2015, they took the group down, and to this day I still am getting notifications that they removed a post that violates community standards.
What google is telling Sundance is that they are going to demonetize him. I assume that that is all they can really do to the Treehouse at this point, seeing as how they already have blacklisted this site on their search…if I remember correctly.
End of the day, if it’s a money issue, we’ll have to make sure that we that find our Refuge here monetize Sundance’s efforts…because trying to kiss the tyrants ass by self censoring ain’t gonna work.
It’s why Crowder has Mug Club and is doing better than ever. He was demonetized and they countered with Mug Club…and it is blowing up in You Tube’s face thanks to Rumble and Truth.
Sundance – Thank you for building an amazing Treehouse and doing all you do!!!
The movie ‘Windtalkers’, staring Nicholas Cage, about protecting the Navajo Marines during W.W.2 always comes to mind when I read a post like this. The amazing concept in the movie/book about a group of complete strangers who were closely bound by a unique language – something common only to them. May you and everyone in the Treehouse, continue to be blesssed.
I’m pretty much a 1st Amendment purist. To me there is very little, in my opinion, that should be declared 100% unlawful.
There should be topics that are age appropriate and should be blocked from minors and also laws should never be broken in the name of free speech.
I believe that the greater danger is suppressing speech, so Google, et al, are the bigger threats in this entire fiasco.
The user name screams suspect individual, but even so the statements need to be taken in context.
The pejorative against certain religious adherents was obviously in reference to the suspects of the Russian concert attack and the rest of the comments are about finding justice for the victims even if the U.S. was somehow behind it.
If the United Nations or the international court in the Hague actually worked as envisioned the planners of that attack would be named and tried even if in absentia. We know that these two entities don’t work because every perpetrator of the covid pandemic and vaccine rollout is still free even though the Nuremberg protocols were broken.
I’m a Christian, so I don’t agree with a lot of the statements made by the poster. For instance, I don’t believe in executing people without due process.
That said, murder is a crime in the Bible and murderers shouldn’t be able to escape justice by hiding behind their job title at some government agency, if any were behind any planning or financing of the concert rampage.
The fact that we’re even parsing these facts tells me that we are already in a post-Constitutional, post-republic world. The 1st Amendment appears to be de facto void.
Google should have lost it’s monopoly via anti-trust laws years ago and then this wouldn’t even be happening right now.
There was no will to pass this type of legislation in CONgress. The ones that had the power to do so are owned. The ones that had the will to do it have no power.
CalCon,
Wonderful post. And I am entirely in alignment with your position and assessment, especially regarding the 1A.
I feel the same about “classified documents,” “National Security,” and other information. I’m tired of politicians, especially Jack Smith in the docs case, saying, “GOVERNMENT’S DOCUMENTS.”
No, no, no. They are OUR documents. Everything produced in DC belongs to us, the damn people. Not some made up entity called government.
No information should be withheld from WE the People. If information is tied directly to military action, it must be released after the fact and when it no longer needs to be kept secret from the enemy (i.e., immediately after the plans are executed).
The censoring of information is the key to control, whether it’s via 3rd party tech companies, through print, through government agencies, etc., it is the key to their control. Censorship and narrative manipulation, mastered and honed by Joseph Goebbels, was how the Nazis got ordinary people to put Jews, Gypsies, and others onto train cars.
And it’s the same thing our government is doing now to manipulate people. Censorship and narrative control- they are the biggest threat to our Republic. Sadly, private citizens who own and manage these companies, also commies, are aiding them.
A “rag tag bunch of conservative misfits” commenting on “rag heads” is too politically incorrect for Google overlords.
Yes, especially ones who took it upon themselves to murder concert goers.
Ah, yes, that’s the focus “Eliot Ness” pushed, but they didn’t “take it upon themselves,” it was put to them, it was taught to them, it was provided to them down to the weapons cache, but Dear Eliot pushed the focus where? To the very actors that Washington wants us all to focus on.
We’ve been acknowledging his understandable anger, but we’ve failed to consider that he was more than possibly playing with Google to demonetize the site, he was quite possibly playing with the narrative to get the eyes off the most culpable actors in this politically motivated atrocity.
Furthermore, I consider that the Derp State must be destroyed.
Spot on. There are thousands of Elliot Nesses on Truth, and they show up in every thread that is contrary to the narrative they want to spread.
Word War 3 is live and digital at the moment. And the enemy to the people, not just U.S. citizens but all Western nation citizens, is our government.
To me, it sure looks like “Eliot Ness” is ultimately blaming the DS, not adherents to the religion of peace, and even inviting some form of retribution from Russia.
That’s a completely different issue from the possibility that he is a troll trying to demonetize a conservative website, i.e. trying to stifle free speech.
There is a major problem if it is that easy. What is to keep a globalist from funding some NGO whose sole existence is to post inflammatory rhetoric on opposition websites in order to get them shutdown.
We call them Demoncrats and Republicons for a reason. They’re evil and they lie.
CalCon, it’s exactly what they are doing.
Ha! i love orony.
@sundance
This is ridiculous.
That comment in question by Elliott Ness was foolish, but was it illegal? Did it constitute a ‘true threat’ in the language of the US Supreme Court?
You can’t give these people an inch. You cannot give the deplatformers ANYTHING. They will chase you until you are afraid to say plain but uncomfortable facts like ‘blacks commit proportionally more violent crime than whites’
By turning your audience into the thought police, you are allowing fear of the government to drive the bounds of acceptable speech.
You shouldn’t be using ANY internet service of any kind that has a ToS that restricts your (or your audiences’) legal speech.
Look at what Josh Moon from Kiwi Farms had had to endure over the past five years.
They have tried to destroy his site. Josh has had the most powerful institutions on Earth after him, but he has continued to triumph, and his site is still online despite incredible odds.
Even Cloudflare and Tier 1 ISPs like Epik and Hurricane Electric have tried to ‘black hole’ Kiwi Farms’ web traffic, but these corporate censors have been unsuccessful.
You should look at the datacenter companies Josh / Kiwi Farms is using (he has REAL physical servers he owns 100% that are colocated in US Data centers with no speech TOS policies)
Namecheap is a good spot for your DNS.
Here is what Joshua Moon (of Kiwi Farms) says, “[There are no] VPSs here. You cannot rent a VPS. You get a complaint, it’s gone. Rent the cabinet. Buy the router. Own the IP. Own the hardware. Nothing short of this lets you say [whatever you want] in 2021. “
All that comes down to funding, doesn’t it?
Google isn’t threatening to take away his servers, he addressed that when the Derps tried to shut him out of the 2020 election, they are threatening to take away a substantial portion of his financial means to support the site.
I’m already into CTH for a Hundred a month on the regular, and I almost never let a direct request such as this one go by without doubling or trebling down, and I suspect more of us are going to have to take supporting CTH that seriously for it to be able to boot Google out of the picture.
Perhaps we can encourage a tenth of a tithe as a standard practice? 🤔
Well, if all CTH is using Google for is revenue, that is an easy enough problem to fix.
The revenue model needs to be reworked.
But many site builds are very dependent on embedded Google services, and can be effectively taken down if they are cut.
I’m not a website developer, so the deeper nuts and bolts of keeping the systems running are best left to the IT wizards. But I’m a problem solver, and most problems have a solution if you work it long enough.
I think that’s what I said.
I would like to see hats and T-shirts with tree camo and “CTH The Last Refuge”, and a little phrase like “Howdy Treeper” and web address. Not cheap stuff. Quality hats with velcro adjustment and plenty of shirt sizes including tall, long sleeve, and maybe hoodies.
Getting visibility with other than electronic means should be a priority. Hats and t-shirts also provide a way for the fellowship to recognize each other and build those non electronic connections that we may need someday.
It’s possible for someone to do the graphics and pick a custom vendor so that there is minimal work for admin but some money flows for site support.
Great idea
You make a good point. However, if the SC holds to the “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” rule, then the 1st amendment was lost at that time.
Nudge by nudge as the story goes.
Same for the 4th amendment when SC upheld DUI checkpoints out of “a compelling public interest” or some such language as that.
We have been on a slippery slope for a long, long time. I think we should not give up though. Keep holding on with our fingernails as long as we are alive.
PS. Be strategic. Beat them at their own game.
The lie begins at “you can’t…” because of course, you can.
…if the SC holds to the “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater” rule,
A common misconception. No such rule exists (at least not yet). See:https://reason.com/2022/10/27/yes-you-can-yell-fire-in-a-crowded-theater/
This is why I’ve simply discontinued commenting on here. Free speech is dead. X is full tilt censorship still, Facebook is a cest pool, 8kun is much hopium/soon and still censors. Harsh things need to be discussed but the risk to fellow Treepers and Sundance is too great. So many people trusted/waited, the time to act is long past. Now we must censor each other like good little Commies or…
You did what they wanted you to do: you stopped talking.
It would be best if you were doing the opposite: talking more, spreading more, and turning more people in.
Don’t be their pawn. Instead, make them your pawn.
It’s not an accident that stories of the FBI now showing up at people’s homes started popping up. The Derp state has been doing that for years now. The stories are to plant a seed of fear. The continued storytelling is the watering of that seed in hopes that you become too afraid to speak in a free society.
Stop letting them.
This is the easy part…..if you’re giving up on the easy part, well, I hate to see what you do when it becomes problematic.
Cody Jinks has a new song; it fits here. It’s called “What You Love.” No video available yet, but here are the first few verses, they song makes me swell with emotion every time I hear it because I stand in alignment (100%) with the message:
Life is tough, and love’s a fight
Don’t mean you’re doing it wrong
It means you’re doing it right
So feel it all and take it in
It’s okay to lose, but you play to win
You may want to take the easy way
But do your best not to be swayed
Don’t settle for the simple ride
There’s sun over the mountainside
Far beyond the great divide lies endless skies, blue and wide
Don’t be afraid to sacrifice for something worthy of your life
Don’t waste your days on dreams that don’t fill you
Find out what you love and let it kill you
Found in the bin… 🙁
Ad rem – I sent the Email last night that I mentioned yesterday.
Take care and stay safe
I posted a comment that is in moderation. I won’t repeat myself because, eventually, it will be released, but I still wanted to make the point.
You are doing what they want: you are silencing yourself. A song from Cody Jinks’s new album, Change the Game, called “What You Love,” speaks how I feel. And it’s true, the words he sings- apply it to family and our country. I couldn’t find a video link for the OP I shared, but I found it. I’m sharing it, but I wanted to highlight a portion of the song that hits me every time I hear it, no matter where I am, it makes my eyes swell:
Life is tough, and love’s a fight
Don’t mean you’re doing it wrong
It means you’re doing it right
So feel it all and take it in
It’s okay to lose, but you play to win
You may want to take the easy way
But do your best not to be swayed
Don’t settle for the simple ride
There’s sun over the mountainside
Far beyond the great divide lies endless skies, blue and wide
Don’t be afraid to sacrifice for something worthy of your life
Don’t waste your days on dreams that don’t fill you
Find out what you love and let it kill you
Eliot should have suggested Russia send the poor misguided terrorists to sensitivity training.
Excuse me- I used a trigger word. Correction follows:
The country that illegally invaded the 51st state of the country that no longer exists, that previously was found just to the north of Mexico and just south of Canada, should have sent the misguided persons of an unknown religion that may or may not have committed a crime to a week of sensitivity training.
Exactly how you do it, Samantha. It’s funny but pointed and drives the insaneness of this home.
made me laugh and maranatha
ROTF!
Well, if you had bathrooms that you restricted to biological genders, PayPal would drop you like a hot potato
It’s sad to see the destruction of America in broad daylight with no one being able to do anything about it.
You are now even worse than the Soviet Union… This is a watershed moment for the worst reasons
The saddest part is that so many people are sleepwalking through it.
Biggest problem in my estimation is apathy. Even amongst my “conservative” friends and acquaintances.
The only thing missing now are Gulags. Wait, I think we call them FEMA camps in the former US.
They’ll be called coding camps.
At the end of my day, I am wondering if the now infamous “Elliot Ness” ever responded with a comment? I am now going to have to go,, let me say choose, to go through my whole 20 year+ collection of DVD and VHS movies to find the movie “The Untouchables.”
I think rhere is a message in the bottle” with the moniker “Elliot Ness.” LOL.
I feel bad for that gentleman on some level.
He has been thoroughly vilified and pilloried in these comments, and now carries a permanent stigma, for what may have been a bad lapse of judgment and some very regrettable keystrokes better left untyped. I’d be surprised if he ever returns.
Some of the comments attacking him here are not that much less vicious than the ones he used in his own post. Some were quite uncharitable, is if there was no living human being behind that moniker. Perhaps a touch of hypocrisy for all those who wrote those things.
Makes one wonder how this may have played out had the gentleman used his actual name (as a few here amazingly do) and not a moniker. These issues can become complex and messy very quickly. Even our host does not use his real name here.
Don’t be surprised if someday someone discovers that the person with the callsign “Eliot Ness” simply came back on the CTH website with a different callsign and email address.
That person may well have commented on this very posting by Sundance.
Thank you, and oops. In my mind I’ve turned you inadvertently into Oversoul: are you number 7? It’s just a book I’ve read -“The Education of OverSoul #7.”Haha.
I made some venting posts on another site long ago, that were also flagged and almost had me banned from that site. My comment was written during the Bush/Cheney years. I think I wrote I wanted someone’s head on a pike. I am great friends and a compatriot with that site owner now.
I probably wouldn’t have noticed the Ness comment if Sundance had not pointed it out. I’m thinking that the very mention of Google monitoring this website probably triggered about hmm, hard to say, roughly 80 per cent of the comments bashing Elliot.
Humans on this website (and I am one of them) despise the Evil Google. So I took no harm unto myself or hold any judgement towards whatever any comment here that might have been seemingly vicious towards the Elliot Ness. That is for the Ad Rem humans here to decide.
Thank you for replying to my comments. Please keep your grip on branch with me on this Treehouse. Sweet Dreams to you.
It’s a real dilemma. There can be malicious posters who want to sabotage your site.
Great post, SD.
None of Eliott Ness’ comments rise to the level of a “true threat” as per Watts v US, 1969. Wishing harm on a group and threatening to do harm to that group are differentiated by law.
At a Vietnam war protest, young black college student said ‘If they ever make me carry a rifle the first one I want…’ (see link for what followed).
He was convicted of threatening the Pres***nt. SCOTUS overturned on appeal, ruling Wattsc statement as ‘Mere political hyperbole’ that was not a “true threat” because it was predicated on speculation of a future event that may never happen.
What Watts said was graphic and strong. Elliot Ness said nothing comparable to Watts. DHS has nothing and SCOTUS says so.
https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/watts-v-united-states/#:~:text=In%20Watts%20v.%20United%20States%2C%20394%20U.S.%20705,hyperbole%20does%20not%20qualify%20as%20such%20a%20threat.
Tell that to the satirical “meme” guy that was just convicted. Sorry I forgot his name.
Ricky Vaughn was his alias. Ridiculous and incredulous he was convicted. As I said, the derp state make up the laws to suit them. It’s up to you now to try and fight it in a friendly court (if one exists), if you can afford the legal bills.
Yes, that fake conviction is a stain on the entire notion of justice.
LOL, the derp state makes up their own laws as they go now.
Wish I could give more.
Thank You!
Just reading where Denzel might be game for Equalizer 4. First one he destroyed the Russian mob. Second rendition it was his old team of evil doers; third was the Mafia in Naples.
I would suggest 4 would take on the deep state….’Just thinking out loud…
this very same thing happened to ZeroHedge a year ago. it was the comments that got attention and resulted in some actions by google or whoever. they now screen out and moderate some comments based on codewords. of course, the commentariat started using various twists on the words so they were clear to the human eye/brain but not the google eye/brain. you can guess. e.g., Snndauce.
$$ on the way even if I have to rejoin paypal
I wonder if there is not a coding solution that would make the comment section un-indexable or unreadable to crawlers.
We may someday have our own warrior AIs to wage war on the infiltrators that beset us.
From what I see lately here, unless …. , they might as well have won !!!
Just my two cents…some closed forums have developed a glossary for words that would trigger A.I.
Eliot Ness was a federal agent and the ATF states in their category “Our History” proudly: “Special Agent Eliot Ness, a Legacy ATF Agent”
Perhaps the use of the name is a not so subtle hint as to who is behind it. Doesn’t have to be ATF but could be any other federal agency.
Anyway, unless your site is hosted by google, how can you be deplatformed?
As for being demonitized, yes, that’s a real threat as long as you rely at least in part on the income from google ads.
They will always find a reason or a pretext to demonitize conservative sites and if you are right that this will only escalate in the lead up to the 2024 election, and I think you are right, google/big tech will deplatform and demonitze no matter what.
Therefore, better self-moderation can only be a very short-term solution.
The maximum election interference you are talking about will not depend on the behaviour of conservative users.
In the long run the only solution is to become independent by building a parallel system independent of Big Tech, as was done successfully by Rumble, Truth social etc.
Here are some suggestions. Don’t know how feasible they are but that’s all I can do.
How about networking with companies like public SQ and other conservative platforms and exploring ways of sponsorship or generating income?
How about exploring sponsorship/collaboration through conservative companies?
How about setting up a shop selling treehouse merchandize as a ways to generate income?
How about having that same shop sell products/services of interested conservative companies/small businesses with a certain percentage of the income going to the Treehouse?
Just throwing some ideas around.
How about reduce the comment Flag threshold to 10 or 6?
The problem with announcing flag threshold is that it provides those who wish to silence opposing voices a target to achieve. Back during the events of 2020 to 2022, I was posing CDC reports that contradicted the new improved narrative on another site. I was eventually banned after the required number of flags as being a denier. I was not alone. Others who tried to post previously accepted facts were also targeted and eventually banned. One should never make it easier for your opponents.
Take care and stay safe
Sundance, I’ve been giving your second issue (operating independence) a lot of thought over these last 24 hours.
I think the threshold matter before going any further in a solution matrix is whether it is possible to break the site free from Google services at any reasonable cost. That is often dependent on how the website was built and which essential third party services it is built on.
If it is not possible to eliminate all Google services from the build, then the rest of the analysis may prove academic. The additional revenue from a more robust payments-based model is just going to get chewed up in legal fees if Google terminates essential services. And that option will not likely restore site operations during that litigation, effectively shutting down the site.
In that regard, a conversation with the Hoft brothers and Andrew Torba, who have weathered similar assaults on their own systems, might offer some experienced guidance. I recall that in the case of Torba, he wound up successfully using some Amazon resources through his ordeal, but Amazon presents its own risks.
It may prove impossible to break free from all the major big tech providers, as only a handful of major providers support these higher traffic websites, and all of them have their ideological (and partnering) issues.
But I think that is the threshold question before going forward: Can CTH restructure itself to function fully independently of essential Google services, and if so, what would be the estimated cost for that reconfiguration, and what are the risks associated with alternative service providers that would fill those roles?
I am not familiar with how CTH is presently built, so you’ll have to figure that one out.
I otherwise think that a continued ‘public square’ free viewing model for owner content and comments is best, but that some form of qualified subscription or paid “verified” commenter model for those placing comments (or extended comments) might be a productive model. Perhaps free “unverified commenter” comments might be permitted on a restricted or more controlled basis. Many websites offer commenting arrangements of that type, where “free member” comments are permitted, but the full scope of site access/participation (perhaps with the additional inducement of ad-less access) is based on a payment system. And all of these arrangements are not without their build and maintenance costs, which needs to be factored into the accounting.
There are a great many factors to be weighed in how a web site such as this can operate independently but with maximum access and visibility.
But it all starts with whether it is possible to break free from Google at any reasonable cost. Otherwise, I think you are riding a tiger here no matter what policies are in place.
If it is not possible to break free from the Goog, isn’t that the classic definition of monopoly? There is no other choice and something can’t happen without the one company involved?
The breakup of AT&T monopoly is likely the model that should be applied to the Goog.
There are ways around this. Zerohedge dealt with it, but their setup is located overseas not stateside unlike Sundance. They actively filter comments for all possible words that could get the site in trouble with Google. People have become quite creative with their punctuation and spellings and misspellings.It is usually pretty clear to a human, not to the comment clean up algorithm. I read that site without posting. since 2006. I signed up but decided it was too dangerous to post there.
we are indeed old mules.
The physical infrastructure can be costly especially at scale to reduce reliance on the enemy’s infrastructure. the software can be much worse, you would need a crack team of volunteers.
Then, there is the inevitability of the power of the coup we are under. This is a battle we must fight if we are to remain a free people. we must fight smartly incognito and covering our flanks.
Thanks for the heads up, SD. Wow. Looks like Gaggle/Vichy regime has cancelled the First Amendment. We aren’t living in America anymore. If the dementia patient is installed again our flag and everything that makes us Americans will be outlawed and that pdo flag will fly over the WH. This is surreal. I feel like I’m living in one of the dystopian novels I read back in high school. I will be careful not to offend Big Brother’s spiders. Time to take out that decoder ring and speak in our language “they” can’t understand. Time for me to make a donation.
Part of the trouble with the GenZers and others is that they weren’t exposed to the same authors as the rest of us.
They haven’t read 1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, etc.
They didn’t learn anything.
I pay for my search engine and online hosting with Bitcoin. You should look into setting up a BTCPay server (https://btcpayserver.org/) self-hosted and remove any monetary censorship. You can receive donations directly without any intermediary or charges.
They’re a bunch of traitorous rat-bastards. Notice how crooked, lamestream media sources often don’t even allow comments. This is the new normal. A crooked government silencing free speech and everything else we stand for as Americans.
Had to change browsers – Chrome acting ‘funny’ with the CTH url.
I’ve suspected for some time the FBI / DOJ and their assets trolled CTH. You can tell from the comment – kinda like developing a nose for phishing. This subversiveness seemed to become notable to my novice eyes after CTH exposed the TWTR operations.
This won’t be a popular thought, but I think it comes under “living your best life.”
It’s time to stop using this and any other Comments section for venting and knee-jerk emotional reactions.
1) Venting releases tension that instead should be channeled into action. It’s wasting energy and motivation that is needed by your brothers and sisters in this struggle.
Freedom is at stake. Lives are at stake. It couldn’t be more real if there were enemy troops landing on every coast and working their way inland. Releasing your stress into the cyber-sphere is like firing off all your ammo into the air. You may feel better, but the ammo is wasted.
2) Instead of using Comment spaces for expressing frustration, we need to be making contributions that focus or educate each other, or share informative resources. The Paul Revere chapter is done. This is Valley Forge.
Years ago, I would read the entire Comments section for every story here because the quality of the comments often matched or augmented the story Sundance had posted. Treepers’ comments were yet another treasured resource. Now, I can read two whole pages of comments without finding a single contribution of usable data, or even thoughtful question that needs answering–only bi*ching and whining.
So now, instead of caving to the censors–or worse, daring and baiting the censors–isn’t it time to simply up our game? If they’re sending their spyders on an end run, each of us needs to move to reinforce our flanks.
Each of us: next time you start to post a comment to vent your anger or frustration… stop and ask yourself (or better yet, ask God) “Is there something more useful, more consequential that I can do with these feelings?”
Let your steam build in the boiler.
We’ve got mountains ahead to cross, and tons of payload we need to bring with us for the following generations. Live your best life, even in the Comments Section.
Edifying > Emoting
yes valley forge
Wait one – doesn’t CTH have section 230 immunity, just like Google, Facebook, etc?
Seems Goolag gets it but doesn’t give it.
Next week it will be diaper joe
I’d wanted to donate before but was extremely uncomfortable using PayPal. Your site, that exposes the corruption in our government, makes it a target for the government. Americans who donate to such a site, therefore become problematic citizens/dissidents etc. Trudeau’s government sought and received the full list of people who donated to the Truckers Protest. I have zero doubts that our government isn’t doing the same. Today I donated through the alternative option, it’d be nice to have a crypto option as well. At least until the regime bans them.
Wasn’t it GoFundMe that betrayed contributors to The Honkening?
Yes. So then they switched to Give Send Go but had to refund most of those due to some legal attacks from Ottawa, but at least GSG did not confiscate the donations as did GFM.
Maybe you’re confusing the Canadian trucker situation with this:
https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/paypals-misinformation-fine-sparks-backlash
Paypal was going to fine businesses that were politically incorrect.
It shouldn’t take too much research to find out this Eliot Ness is probably a staff member of the DNC, paid to go on this site spewing that kind of non-sense. The language used is all democrat inflammatory BS.
I’m so sorry to read this. It’s so hard to comprehend all the evil that exists in our country now.
If I wanted to take down a website I could easily inject comments. I watched Person of Interest.
one needs to take one deep breath regarding this.
if it happens, it happens
and if it does happen, CTH will rise from its own ashes within 24 hours, or however long the news cycle lasts
[36] For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? [37] Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Microsoft just posted a notice they have monitored China or CCP sponsored hackers using AI tool to flood social media with divisive and inflammatory commentary. Apparently they did this during the recent Taiwan elections. They will likely be doing it in the US in advance of our election. Possibly they will use these tools in comment sections (like this one.)
AI is hard to detect. And worse, once inflammatory comments start they get human beings riled up and there will be human commenters who respond with inflammatory comments of their own.
Guard yourself.
IMHO the only fix for this dilemma is to limit the power of big internet companies to de-platform sites. Human nature is not going to change. There is no way to stop humans being stupid. There is probably no way to stop machines from prompting humans into being stupid. The only thing we can control is our response. That would include stopping internet platforms from using their immense power to stifle speech THEY don’t like.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2024/04/04/china-ai-influence-elections-mtac-cybersecurity/
Yes, by all means, let us self censor and be good little sheep. I would read Sundance and I care not if he offers a comment section. Many who offer comments do not have a full grasp of anything anyway. Sundance, if it is a problem, shut it down. I cannot see compromising the First Amendment anymore. I will read your postings, comment section or no. This has gone far enough.
Several years ago I began to sense, with growing unease, the blatant sentiment in mainstream media that was in opposition to everything I believed to be good. The spirit of this world was forcefully, in the USA media, attempting to suppress the good and promote moral lawlessness. What I believed to be light, they were condemning as darkness. What they were promoting as “good”, I perceived to be based on lies. It is growing ever more clear to me that what this world system loves is driving us inexorably away from moral orthodoxy and substituting a corrupted “virtue signaling” to quiet their troubled conscience. They are blindly leading the blind into a ditch. By rejecting the revelation of the Creator thru Jewish and Christian orthodoxy, they promote the welfare of humanity as they understand it and are seeking happiness based on our animal passions to the extent of every lust and desire, and even surpassing the animal kingdom in all sorts of deviant behavior that destroys human dignity that was formed in the image of the Creator. Sow to the wind and you will reap the destruction of the whirlwind.