The Dark-Web: Hidden Wiki Edition!

The Hidden Wiki - Now with V3 onion goodness!

For anyone who has read articles in the past, this should come as no surprise of us reviewing a service such as the Hidden Wiki as they are on the "Spooky scary Dank-Web!".

However, know that we are big fans of the Dark-Web services. In the age of "Big Tech" attempting to delegitimize the mass of the Clear-Net as a whole in taking unique websites and burying them in an SEO-hellscape. The dark web to us is a fresh start. Almost a reset button to the earlier years of the internet. Where concepts like "Web-Rings" would pass you the reader along to like-minded websites. The dark-web by its very design cannot be tracked and cataloged by major corporations (At least not yet!) This means that the Dark-Web for those who want to be vocal about their services can post their links to people who may not want to be tracked on their day-to-day usage of their computers.

Read on if you want to know more.

Why the Hidden Wiki?

This is our first dark-web review of a site and frankly, it is a well-deserved review all things considered. Once you've loaded the Tor client up. and (Highly recommended mind you) purchase a VPN. You will probably get a screen like below.

 

Okay! This is acceptable because Tor is used to use the clear-net on an anonymous level (So long as you don't log in to websites.) But that's not REALLY the dark-net per-say. That's just using the dark-net proxy back to clear.

Now, there's a lot of terrible dark-web sites out there. There are even some quasi-search-engine Dark Web sites that although it's true that they host links that hardly any of them are properly vetted. Leading to some rather dangerous places.

As a blogger, we want to help.

If we were to recommend one .onion/Dark-Web site and one site only for an excellent introduction point. It's the Hidden Wiki.

http://zqktlwiuavvvqqt4ybvgvi7tyo4hjl5xgfuvpdf6otjiycgwqbym2qad.onion/wiki/Main_Page

Although there are many imitations to the Hidden Wiki within the landscape of the Dark-Web; This is the original. The Hidden Wiki is all human-based editing just like Wikipedia in the sense that it requires a person to log in and add their site to the system. It is then required of other humans to properly vet those links and then add them to the main page. Finally, it requires humans to ultimately decide if a link is down. After a while, if it will be removed due to the nature of many Tor/Onion services they can go down without warning.

http://zqktlwiuavvvqqt4ybvgvi7tyo4hjl5xgfuvpdf6otjiycgwqbym2qad.onion

Qr code for those who are rocking the Tor/Onion on their phones and want to drop that link right onto their phones without all of that copy/paste nonsense.

Tor V3 addressing.

If you read the article on the Tor blog. They will be phasing out the old V2 addressing system by the end of summer 2021. The V2 system has been around a long time and now it's time to introduce something that would be more secure to address and a lot harder to simply brute-force index the Dark-Web. This means websites like the Hidden Wiki need to get the word out to everyone that they are moving to the V3 address. That, when V2 is finally turned off they won't have their readers be thrown out into the cold.

We underwent a similar process here at s-config.com. We used to have a V2 address (Still do really.) However, we've told our web-server daemon to 303 that address over to the Tor V3 address. We figure after 16 months of 303'ing people to the V3 Tor address that should be ample opportunity for everyone to bookmark the site.

The Hidden Wiki however does not rely on clear-net addressing and thus has asked people who use their services to get the word out there. That V2 is dying and to remember the official V3 address.

Why the Hidden Wiki S? If websites want to advertise their existence why don't you and the rest just stay on the clear-net?

Addressing the clear-net in the room.

We are on the clear-net with the domain s-config.com. We exist and are indexed by many of the search engines out there. But the truth be told that there's an oversaturation of websites that manipulate data for their own gains. There are millions of websites out there that are just bots spamming out keywords in the hopes to attract clicks that they can later inject mal-ware onto. On top of that, you have a lot of really big corporations that block out the sun in terms of search results. Being on the top listing of Google is profitable more so than even relevant.

For example, this site is a blog. I'm a blogger. If I type in 'blogger' into the Google search engine for example would we be on the first 10 pages of search results? what about the first 100 pages of search results? Not even close. Partially due to content. We are a handful of people versus someone like Blogger (right in the domain name, duh!), or Livejournal which has thousands of users contributing to their ecosystem.

So how does a lowly blogger get the word out there of their site and their wonderful/strange articles that they talk about? well! You pursue other avenues. In our case, that is where the Dark-web came in.

The Dark-Web and Hidden Wiki.

To us bloggers, we aren't here to sell you anything. We simply want readership. A good start to this process of letting the Dark-Web know you are alive. That you care about the privacy of your readers. Tor Onion-Location does help! In respects that if anyone is browsing with an Onion compatible browser they will be directly redirected to the .onion address of this site further protecting their privacy. This is of course if your web provider allows you to host a Tor/Onion Daemon and attach it to your directory. In our case, we're using a VPS which means we cannot affect others like shared hosting. If we screw up then it's our fault.

But setting up your onion location header and calling it a day is not enough. In a lot of respects, the Dark-web operates like the internet of the 1990s. That if you want people to know you are alive you have to get the word out there. You have to visit sites yourself and advertise. Introduce your service to 'introduction points' on the Dark-Web. This is where the Hidden Wiki comes into play for us.

Getting your link onto the Hidden Wiki.

Unlike a lot of the dark web search engines and introduction points where you submit a link and it instantly appears on a Dark-Web site (Which leads to a lot of shitty links.) You have to actually log in to the Hidden Wiki and create an account. From there we have to admit it got a little confusing.

It says that you simply edit your link onto the main page however we discovered the admins sort of lock that portion out. Huh.

It makes sense. People can get really stupid about editing Wikis. They probably got spammed to shit or worse. But where do you submit your link entry?!?

Well, since I know this is a Wiki engine. I simply editing my user talk page. Introduced myself, provided my V3 link, and thank them for their services because this message is going off to people and not machines. Then we waited. Wiki's usually informed the administrator of changes or additions that they should moderate.

Wait we did. It took a few weeks. Just to make sure they didn't think we were robots. we occasionally logged in from time to time. There is one lesson to learn about human editable websites which are:

Do not rush the administration! - S

I had commenters do it to me here and it pissed me off. I most certainly would not do that to the admins of the Hidden Wiki. If my message falls off into Limbo then it simply was not meant to be.

But wait!

What happened next was magical.

Like opening a Christmas present we were approved and our link is active on the Hidden Wiki. We are deeply honored that they accepted us. Now that we are on the Hidden Wiki we get users from all around the Dark-Web world coming by and taking a look at our site which is really all that we asked for.

Final thoughts.

This is the first Dark-web review we've done here. If you guys want to see more of this leave it in the comments below. Also, understand that I do quasi-maintain a list of my own inside of the cellar door. Although it's difficult to measure. We get an estimated 10 percent readership from our Onion / Dark-Web address. For this, we would not be more thankful. It would not be possible without sites like the Hidden Wiki which hosts quality links and serves as an entry portal for people on the Dark-Web. Combine this with the fact that they hit you with almost no advertisement makes it a perfect service on the Dark Web!

To the Tor users out there. Be sure and read my article about Tor. Protect yourself. Get a VPN.

To the admins of the Hidden Wiki. Don't worry about the BTC. We're good! If you need any assistance all you need to do is ask. Thank you!

Until then,

Server protect you.

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