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0 pointssoneil6y ago0 comments

I always find the utility comparison an interesting one. If the water supply was poisoned, would you expect the utility company to cut your supply until it could be cleaned? If they could cut it off closer to the source of the poison so you weren't affected, would you prefer that?

You don't expect 1000V from your electricity company. You don't expect arsenic from your water utility. You expect the fcc no-call list to be honored. Very few utilities are truly dumb pipes.

(Not trying to draw the obvious comparison between 8chan & arsenic. Just that I think when we're holding "dumb pipes" up as a holy grail, it'd be worth remembering that the holy grail is a myth.)

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Ajedi326y ago

I don't understand how any of that relates to what Cloudflare is doing here. 8Chan isn't poisoning the water supply or back-feeding 1000V into the electrical grid; they're just making normal use of Cloudflare's service just like any other customer.

Are you implying that ISPs are sending arsenic down my pipes when they service my request to load a web page from 8Chan? In that case, I'd argue that the websites I choose to visit are entirely my decision, and my ISP denying my request to connect to 8Chan would not improve their quality of service to me in any way.

soneilOP6y ago

I was more aiming at the dumb pipe analogy than this specific instance. Kinda "be careful what you wish for". When people say they want the internet to be a Utility, they overlook a lot of what they're asking for. They're not dumb pipes, they're heavily controlled, regulated, measured & metered infrastructure. Making the internet a utility would have far, far more effect than adding consumer protections to the last mile.

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