Manual

This is a message board where you can write things for others to read.

Features You May Recognize

Write messages anonymously and under an identity
Read messages others have already posted
Vote on posted messages to improve quality

These Features May Be Confusing At First

Create your "account" aka key pair on your own computer, as not on this website or server.
This is accomplished with encryption called GPG.
Your key pair allows you to post on other forums too.

Known Issues aka Features

Actions do not take effect immediately.
New profiles will 404 until something is posted.

How to use GPG

To use GPG, you will need to download a special program or app.

Creating Your Identity, AKA Key Pair

You can post your messages anonymously. Anonymous posting is very easy. Why even bother creating an identity?

All your posts will appear on your author page.
You can sign your posts with your name.
You can edit or delete your posts later.
You will get a colorful avatar that will appear with all your posts.

You will need to create a key pair. Look for this option in your software and use it. (More detailed guides to come.)

GPG is traditionally used for email, but you do not have to provide your address for this forum. In fact, we recommend that you either leave the field blank or add gibberish to it. Otherwise, your email address will be accessible by anyone, including spambots.

The key pair is stored on your device. If it is important to you, keep it safe, and back it up.

Writing As Yourself

To write something under your new identity, you will need to sign your text.

First, write the text that you want to post. Once you have finished writing it, save it to a .txt file.

Look for the command to "Sign" (not encrypt) your text in your GPG software.

Some software has no such option. In this case, you should use the "Encrypt" command, but ensure that the "To:" field is blank.

You should end up with a big block of text that begins with "-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----"

Copy this entire block of text, including the ----- part, and submit it via the Write page.

That's it!

Uploading Your Public Key

Look for the option to export your public key in your software.

You should end up with a block of text that starts with "-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----".

Copy the whole thing, including the ----- part, and submit it via the Write page.

You have now aliased your name to your key fingerprint.

Commands

Introduction

Commands are in the form of simple tokens, length-constricted, ASCII only.

Adding a Vote

Voting is the process of applying a tag to an item.

item + tag = vote

A voting token has the following parameters

addvote/hash/time/tag/checksum

The checksum is generated on the server, using the following formula:

MD5( concat(file hash, ballot creation time, secret) )

The secret string is stored in config/secret, and a random one is automatically generated if the config is empty.

Example:

addvote/7e2418eda7c43c163b4cd426e9d5c26f1c8d8217/1544163475/agree/a4f883323400d18acc6c0f6fe625b6aa<br> addvote/<item hash>/<time>/<tag>/<checksum>

Signing With Command-Line GPG

Check GPG Version

gpg --version

If you don't have GnuPG installed, go here: https://www.opengpg.org/

Generate Key Pair

gpg --gen-key

Export Public Key

gpg --armor --export

Sign Message in Text File

gpg --clearsign example.txt

Sign Message After Typing It

gpg --clearsign

Start typing your message. When you're finished, press Enter, then ^D (Ctrl+D).

Cloning

You can easily clone this message board.

There are no "secrets" stored here (e.g. passwords, private keys, password hashes), except the anti-CSRF salt.

Any signing accounts are controlled by the users' private keys.

An hourly zip of the entire site can be downloaded here: /hike.zip, including the git repo.

The scripts are on GitHub here: github.com/gulkily/hike.

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