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Fun strings from the Civil Wordpress Plugin: "Authors need wallet addresses to sign articles, and editors need wallet addresses to sign and index posts to the blockchain. If you change your wallet address, you or your team may lose access to your newsroom" github.com/joincivil/civil-newsroom-plugin/blob/master/custom-meta.php#L43Permalink On twitter.com
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Ahhh I remember when we had to get writers to sign up for Google Plus accounts so we could get Google Authorship working.Permalink On twitter.com
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Worth being extra clear here, it does looks like Civil hashes the content, so a fingerprint of the content on publication exists on the blockchain, but this doesn't archive it, back it up, or somehow make it readable outside of the original publisher. - github.com/joincivil/civil-newsroom-plugin/blob/master/classes/class-post-hashing.php#L70Permalink On twitter.com
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That only metadata about the post (including apparently the content hash) is saved was confirmed by two separate people to me last week. Unclear how this process does anything to make a site resistant to censorship or permanently archived?Permalink On twitter.com
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In case it is unclear to folks, the hash process is a one-way process, like your computer's password it is a process where content is entered into the system hashed and then future content is hashed and the values are compared. This is a non-reversible processPermalink On twitter.com
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So it isn't like you can recover your content *from* the blockchain or somehow stop your content from being taken down if an attack kills your site, as far as I can see.Permalink On twitter.com
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This appears to be the current list of data that gets attached to the blockchain by Civil's WordPress code - github.com/joincivil/civil-newsroom-plugin/blob/master/classes/class-rest-api.php#L414 Some interesting non-standard stuff there: primaryTag credibilityIndicators opinion So Civil sites would have to mark what pieces are opinion?Permalink On twitter.com
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Primary Tag likely reflects vertical vs key terms. Opinion is a boolean, so obvious...Permalink On twitter.com
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credibilityIndicators is interesting. As far as I've seen no one at Civil has talked about measuring credibility? How would this work? Who is in charge of verification? The code doesn't seem to be built yet.Permalink On twitter.com
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Note here from the Civil team: nicolebode/1054379309278916609Permalink On twitter.com
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.nicolebode - Everyone I've talked to about blockchain has indicated that storing whole article content at scale is not the way the particular blockchain is meant to handle data. I do see some hooks that indicate archive ability at github.com/joincivil/civil-newsroom-plugin/blob/7548cf7ce419903011cca1261c65df8fa1f1a98d/assets/post-panel/store/selectors.ts#L156 ...Permalink On twitter.com
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But I don't see how it is deposited on to the chain in the plugin and most works addressing blockchain uses specify against that behavior. Happy to be shown I'm wrong in the code though! Please link.Permalink On twitter.com
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(Worth noting that two folks associated with Civil stated Friday that full content is not archived, so nicolebode you may want to clear up that confusion internally as well)Permalink On twitter.com
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Ah good call, there does appear to be the beginnings of an IPFS integration built into the plugin: petersterne/1054382772985434113Permalink On twitter.com
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We can see some IPFS hooks at github.com/joincivil/civil-newsroom-plugin/search?p=1&q=ipfs&unscoped_q=ipfsPermalink On twitter.com
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So I'm guess peer-to-peer based archiving is an intended feature then, though that has its own challenges. Apologies to nicolebodePermalink On twitter.com
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Yeah, from what I know of IPFS the hash could be used like an address to find the content off-site. jarroddicker/1054383326381985792Permalink On twitter.com
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Note from the Civil team, though I've gotta say I don't see the on-chain archiving active inside the current plugin code. nicolebode/1054386432779919360Permalink On twitter.com
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I'm told this is the methodology Civil intends to leverage for archiving on-chain, though I do not see any code to do this currently in the GitHub for the plugin. - blog.joincivil.com/uncensored-content-on-ethereum-how-chinese-activists-inspired-civil-f09f095a9e91Permalink On twitter.com
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Also worth noting that this runs counter to how folks outside Civil have approached the idea of using blockchain for journalism, I've always been told depositing whole content would be a heavy process at scale. Also worth noting that it has a cost as listed at article bottom.On twitter.com
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The idea of a Dapp to track newsroom output sounds interesting though I see absolutely no difference between that and any RSS reader beyond forcing readers through an intermediary to manage subscriptions.Permalink On twitter.com
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Also worth noting that this archiving process would make it very difficult for your Civil newsroom to make money via ads, if that's your model.Permalink On twitter.com
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Thanks to nicolebode for pointing it out -- This is the WordPress plugin call to handle archiving on the blockchain itself - github.com/joincivil/civil-newsroom-plugin/blob/7548cf7ce419903011cca1261c65df8fa1f1a98d/assets/post-panel/components/PublishButton.tsx#L255Permalink On twitter.com
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And here is the code it is calling - github.com/joincivil/Civil/blob/master/packages/core/src/contracts/newsroom.ts#L686-L709Permalink On twitter.com
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Very true, it also pretty much kills the idea of a paywall on a Civil publisher, unless you take your readers on a rather complex process. petersterne/1054392480731463682Permalink On twitter.com
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Worth noting that the WordPress plugin appears pretty far from ready for prime time, so all this is interesting but may change a lot in the future as this plugin goes forward.Permalink On twitter.com
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Also, as far as I can tell from the brief overview, none of the interesting anti-censorship / archive stuff requires Civil or Civil tokens?Permalink On twitter.com
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There's a whole other convo here about the versatility of the peer to peer systems involved and the risk people might take with having even hashes on their machine under a despotic government, but that's a very different thread.Permalink On twitter.com
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Goal here is to establish some good points for a technical dive in and code monitoring by myself or any other interested party. I continue to have my doubts about the use of a token and how the system intends to deal with fake news, but IPFS integration is a pretty cool feature.Permalink On twitter.com
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That said... so much of this is highly theoretical feature sets with little clarity about the future UX of this process. But I do think that there's a future for decentralized publishing--if it uses Civil or the blockchain, or not.Permalink On twitter.com
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Noting response from Civil team walkercheese/1054396307891253248Permalink On twitter.com
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Thinking more. Has anyone really thought about what the calculations are involved in re-Gas and the ETH chain. The differing values assigned to smart contracts (especially with respect to uploading archives, which cost more?) and what this would mean for planning a business?Permalink On twitter.com
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I imagine the wildly fluctuating prices to interact with the blockchain have been a significant reason why mainstream journalism companies have been hesitant to participate. coindesk.com/ethereums-growing-gas-crisis-and-whats-being-done-to-stop-it/Permalink On twitter.com
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The theory and practice behind gas is something I've read only a little about, but the most notable piece is that you must buy cryptocurrency to 'publish' to the blockchain. And the gas is essentially transaction fees to incentivize miners, I think?Permalink On twitter.com
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What does this mean when considering the publication's values and ethics I wonder? Has this been examined? Could... for example... an environmental publication justify contributing to the growing environmental impact of crypto-mining in order to operate?Permalink On twitter.com
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