PubSub Bookmarks
» Queries about Blasta.
Questions
This document enumerates questions that were referred to the project Blasta.
What is JID and what does it mean?
JID is an abbreviation of Jabber ID.
A Jabber ID is the address of your XMPP account with which Blasta identifies you.
What is the instance:keyword method?
The method instance:keyword is a practice which improves bookmarks organizing, archiving, filtering and searching, as it narrows the context of a given bookmark.
Suppose you have two bookmarks; one is related to maintenance and removal of rust, while the other is related to the computer language which is called rust.
To make the tagging more efficient for you and others, the bookmark which is related to maintenance be tagged with "rust" and "tutorial:maintenance", while the bookmark which is related to computer language rust be tagged with "code:rust".
Why did you create Blasta?
We have created Blasta out of necessity.
We have felt that there are no viable solutions that would provide a sensible management of URis, and also a mean to share URIs.
We are well aware of project YaCy which indeed provides exactly what we desire, yet, the interface that is provided by YaCy does not fulfill the interface which we have determined to be fit for the cause, and which would be fit with certain functionalities that we deemed to be necessary.
We also wanted a system that would be independent and in current sync, and we have decided that XMPP is the perfect platform for this task.
Hence, we have created Blasta, which is a combination of YaCy and Shaarli, and is built on top of XMPP.
Why do you provide Blasta for free?
While we want to make profit, and feed our wives and children, we are aware that we must be providing the Blasta system for free, because this is a matter of urgency; and
Because some people do bad things, such as attempting to centralize the internet, and revoke privacy, which is crucial; and
We can not afford to have another centralized service which later becomes clandestinely subdued to thugs from government or intelligence, which is the worst of all circumstances.
What is your perspective?
Our perspective is that people should be living for the sake of eternity, which is what we are doing by creating and distributing Blasta.
As conveyed in verse 77 of Hávamál:
“Kinsmen die, and cattle die and so must one die oneself;
But there is one thing I know which never dies,
and that is the fame of a dead man deeds.”
― Hávamál: Sayings of the High One
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer has expressed since the same idea when he said:
“The most any man can hope for:
Is a heroic passage through life.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
To explain it in other words:
Greatness, rather than happiness, is a mark of a good life.
Live for the sake of eternity, for the past, and towards the future.
Why did you choose XMPP as a platform?
The XMPP platform (which is also known as Jabber), is a reputable and a strong telecommunication platform which almost every intelligence and militant agency on the world is making use of as a premier telecommunication mean.
Because we did not want to use databases, which sometimes are too complicated for most of the people who are interested in sharing links publicly and privately, we have determined that XMPP would be the best choice for this task.
XMPP was chosen as a platform, because it is a standard and it is extensible; it has all the features that are necessary to integrate other standardised mechanisms to store data which does not necessarily has to require a database (e.g. SQLite); XMPP provides exactly that, whether we want to make use of Atom Syndication Format and even JSON, if at all needed.
So we chose the specification XEP-0060: Publish-Subscribe (PubSub) as a base mechanism for a data storage platform.
In addition to it, XMPP offers a robust and stable mechanism of storing of contents, on both XMPP and HTTP, and more, or even most, importantly, the PubSub mechanism of XMPP is truely private and is truely owned by the account owner, which is also a major advantage to Blasta, not only for the sake of privacy and data integrity, but also for an immediate recoverying of the bookmarks sharing system, if the Blasta database would be to diappear or should be restructured.
Use XMPP. Spread XMPP. Be XMPP.
What platform would you choose if not XMPP?
If we were to choose another platfom, it probably would have been DeltaChat (SMTP and IMAP), Nostr or Session.
Why did you decide to make Blasta open source?
One of the main reasons is for freedom to thrive.
We are worried due to various of PsyOps that are conducted by governments, military and intelligence agencies, and we realize that most of their success relies on the centralization of information hubs; and
We are further worried of the awful measures that are being dictated by HTML browser vendors, who distort the original intentions and expectations for the internet, that were presented to the public during the 90's, and instead these vendors are conspiring to make people to forget about the existance of crucial technologies such as syndication and XSLT, and they are also committing crimes against people, and the worst of all crimes is of attempting to revoke the privacy of people.
Hence, we have decided that it is crucial to make a resource sharing platform to utilize standards that can be utilized outside of browsers, and
We have further decided to make Blasta available in an open source form, that would allow public examining and auditing of the mechanism that Blasta offers, including gaining the trust of people by showcasing that the data is truely private, and that the data is truely owned by the people, and that the data is backed by true standards.
“No reason to explain this. It is absolutely insane to use a software to browse the internet of which source code is not publicly auditable.” ― Luke Smith
Does Blasta deploy ECMAScript (JavaScript)
Blasta does not make any use of ECMAScript.
We have decided not to use unecessary components nor "toxic" features that would compromise the intended experience that Blasta attempts to offer, neither waste power resources on your end for no just reason, nor to compromise your privacy.
To compensate this, Blasta is designed in a fashion that would make it easier to customize appearance and functionality with userscripts and userstyles.
Conclusion
Please contact us and ask us anything. We will be happy to read from you!
“Trust is the basis for social value and self-organisation, but technical assurances are what help make it trustworthy.” ― NGI Assure