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[–] 21123281? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

There are multiple ways to do it, but ultimately it runs down to using (or paying for using) (parts of/shared) dedicated hardware solutions (networking gear, servers, software) to put in front of your servers and dedicated personnel (network engineers, sysadmins/devops & security specialists) to put on-call behind those dedicated hardware ressources.

Even if you had, lets say, one very dedicated person doing everything, you still need 4 of them to cover a 24/7/365 operation.

All this costs money and I don't know on what budget Voat is being operated.

Or, you could blend in and not become a target. That works for a lot of sites, but not in the 'free speech' category ;)

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[–] 21123831? ago 

If you tried to ddos a large site are they able to handle it because of the IT and dedicated hardware or because of their sheer scale? Is there a cloud solution that would scale up under stress and handle something like this?

It would help if there was more than 2 or 3 free speech sites too. I wonder if Gab and Dissenter face similar challenges.

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[–] 21125123? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

If you tried to ddos a large site are they able to handle it because of the IT and dedicated hardware or because of their sheer scale?

One would instinctively believe it would be the scale but it's actually both. Very large sites, with 'virtually unlimited' scale, were brought down in the past and they came back up only because of the people behind. But their 'unlimited' scale helped the site take more beating before going down and helped bring the site back up sooner.

Is there a cloud solution that would scale up under stress and handle something like this?

There are plenty (I'm not familiar which one is better because we use an in-house solution).

Cloudflare is a big one, known of the general public and 'free'.

  • Here's a story from Wired about how the SPLC got Cloudflare to drop DDoS protection for the Daily Stormer site, before they got 'Registrar-DoSed' by no other than Google. Please try to ignore the editorialized/sensationalist/gloating/kiked parts.

    • In essence, it is the story of "Muh Obama loving free speech activist finds that muh Nazis are awful because muh hate speech is not muh free speech despite self avowed principles and lectures us about how we should preserve free speech. But never mind, ISIS is free speech (wink wink WaPo)". What a kike !

    • So given their past, Cloudflare is no longer a stable/viable option for free speech sites.

  • One notable 'right wing' site still protected by Cloudflare though, is The Gateway Pundit.

    • It's so well 'protected' that every single click requires 3 captcha completions on my part (because I don't let 10 thousands trackers past my filters). I bet it's the 'ExcessOfZeal-DoS' because I no longer visit that site (directly). Resembles a mob protection.
  • Here's another story from Vox, gloating about how Voxility—an internet services company, booted Epik of their services because Epik offered DDoS protection to 8chan after Cloudflare (again) yanked their DDoS protection. Epik was for a while a safe haven for the Daily Stormer, after their Cloudflare debacle.

So yes, there are services but they are far from safe for 'free speech' platforms. So, I'm not too harsh on Voat issues (but they are annoying) ;)