UK will be blocked early July 😢

[sleazebugga]

Hate predictive text. That was meant to read "out of interest!!"

[SpectreAgent]

9 hours ago, sleazebugga said:

We in the UK and partner and I keep to keep on this site. Have been looking at VPNs. Before I buy, does anyone have positive or negative feedback on NordVPN? it seems to get quite good reviews.

cheers!

I’ve heard NordVPN is very good. I use Surfshark which I find excellent. You can put it on numerous devices, which works out economically. 

[sleazebugga]

15 hours ago, SpectreAgent said:

I’ve heard NordVPN is very good. I use Surfshark which I find excellent. You can put it on numerous devices, which works out economically. 

Thank you!

[bare28]

On 4/10/2025 at 10:40 AM, sluttony said:

It's an interesting question. In theory, yes, because Rawtop will geoblock UK based IP address ranges. In practice? Not sure it's a big enough problem for anyone in such a position who needs to, to care about. After all the site admin has done what they can within the bounds of reason.

I am not a lawyer but given that TOR is legal to use in the UK the answer most likely is yes. TOR is free to use and a VPN. You can use the TOR browser and you should still be able to access the site (unless the exit point happen to be within the UK, or any other state blocking BZ).
In reality: seeing what the Trump administration is doing, I guess it is only a question of time until TOR is no longer safe to your. But then: people voted for Trump, and people voted for Brexit, and a few other bad things ....

[sluttony]

15 hours ago, bare28 said:

I am not a lawyer but given that TOR is legal to use in the UK the answer most likely is yes. TOR is free to use and a VPN. You can use the TOR browser and you should still be able to access the site (unless the exit point happen to be within the UK, or any other state blocking BZ).
In reality: seeing what the Trump administration is doing, I guess it is only a question of time until TOR is no longer safe to your. But then: people voted for Trump, and people voted for Brexit, and a few other bad things ....

The problem is that the site owner has a legal responsibility to verify that users from the UK (however they access a site) are over 18. How they get there, what mechanisms they use... usually makes no difference in the eyes of the law.

By geoblocking the UK by IP, it makes it possible for RT to state that he's done what he can.

[Njn0mc]

I don't know why the domain name can't be change time to time with a new ip address. 

Just need to let users know of the change.

[bare28]

6 hours ago, sluttony said:

The problem is that the site owner has a legal responsibility to verify that users from the UK (however they access a site) are over 18. How they get there, what mechanisms they use... usually makes no difference in the eyes of the law.

By geoblocking the UK by IP, it makes it possible for RT to state that he's done what he can.

I think there is a bit of confusion: TOR is what the user needs to do, that is you and me, not the site-owner. The site-owner is fulfilling the legal requirements but users from the UK still can access the site. That is similar to the already suggested use of VPN but not a company as such behind it.  The only problem arises if and when the site-owner blocks TOR exit points, as some sites are doing and more and more seem to like that idea too.

So everybody should be happy. That works until the UK requires all users to be vetted for age but then, they should do that for X, Insta, Facebook... as well.
Again, legal disclaimer, I am not a lawyer.

[openjock74]

The hiccup with Tor is your exit point is likely to change with every transaction with the server.  If you happen to get an exit node in the UK, that transaction would fail.  The next transaction may succeed, if its exit node corresponds to an unblocked location.

I think a more static approach, like the commercial/free VPN vendors, is likely to give users a more consistent result.

That said, the site's geo block hiccups sometimes... I'm in southern California, and sometimes I get blocked, the site tells me it thinks I'm someplace like Louisiana.  A VPN exit node in Los Angeles is sometimes blocked, sometimes not.  I presume that all of this is a work in progress, so I have to be flexible!  I'm happy there's a site to hang out on, even if I have to put some effort into reaching it!  (Thanks, rT!)

[bare28]

3 hours ago, openjock74 said:

The hiccup with Tor is your exit point is likely to change with every transaction with the server.  If you happen to get an exit node in the UK, that transaction would fail.  The next transaction may succeed, if its exit node corresponds to an unblocked location.

I think a more static approach, like the commercial/free VPN vendors, is likely to give users a more consistent result.

That said, the site's geo block hiccups sometimes... I'm in southern California, and sometimes I get blocked, the site tells me it thinks I'm someplace like Louisiana.  A VPN exit node in Los Angeles is sometimes blocked, sometimes not.  I presume that all of this is a work in progress, so I have to be flexible!  I'm happy there's a site to hang out on, even if I have to put some effort into reaching it!  (Thanks, rT!)

That is correct. That said: I am using TOR per default and it is not often I get this 'Red-State' page. Depending on my mood, I simply wait until the exit points rotated, or simply restart TOR. Either I am lucky, or I am not using this site often enough, it is not often that happens.
The problem with commercial sites is: do you trust them? I don't, per default.

[Theo8]

On 4/9/2025 at 5:00 AM, sluttony said:

The problem Rawtop has isn't technical. It's legal. With no framework to prove identities he is wholly liable.

First option - he gets a private message of users holding up their ID along with their username and face. The main issues here are data processing - he again becomes responsible and accountable if anything happens to that data (such as a hack/breach) and by virtue of its nature, it becomes a high value target making it worth the effort of hackers.

Second option - there are companies out there that specialise in doing ID checks for online. But they cost. Would you be willing to pay it? Double down on then not knowing who has your ID information, how they secure it, manage it, and/or use it?

And Rawtop is still liable.

Then there is the fact that the vast majority of people here probably don't want their true ID out in the wild. If you want to stay here, use a VPN that puts your location somewhere else. Or stop using the site. You can't put the onus and responsibility onto someone else / expect them to fix the problem.

And if it gets as bad as you suggest, then the site likely dies, is the sad, awful, truth.

If I could use one company to verify my ID for several sites, I'd use it.  

[sluttony]

16 hours ago, Theo8 said:

If I could use one company to verify my ID for several sites, I'd use it.  

I wouldn't personally. Too much chance for it to be compromised.

[BootmanLA]

On 4/15/2025 at 5:35 PM, Theo8 said:

If I could use one company to verify my ID for several sites, I'd use it.  

That would be fine, for you. The vast majority of the rest of us do not want to have to verify our ID to visit websites, especially as that verification site is likely going to track where you go and what you do.

In the US, at least, we have a constitutional right to access information online anonymously (for now). Whether that will be upheld next time it comes up, in the case of one of these state laws demanding we identify ourselves to access "adult" content, is an open question. I'd like to think it would be, but these days one just cannot be sure.

[Knightfalconer]

On 4/12/2025 at 1:33 AM, BootmanLA said:

t bears repeating that there are free VPN services out there

Sadly, very little (if anything) in life is truly free....

Inevitably, somewhere down the line (even if it does not immediately present itself), the provider of a 'free' service will want something..... either money or information (personal details) which it can use to its own advantage or sell on to someone else.

And even if a VPN is free, that doesn't mean everyone has the brain power to know how to install or use it. O or maybe the same poor financial situation which necessitates a free VPN, also means the user is running an old laptop with unsupported software (because they can't afford to upgrade), which doesn't work with the free VPN!! 

Finally, if it is so easy to by-pass the UK law / BZ's block using a VPN, I'm surprised that none of the articles about the legal change have mentioned the possibility?

[sluttony]

I have another solution which seems to work and is free and more trustworthy than some of the other suggestions.

If you download the Brave web browser ([think before following links] https://brave.com/download/)  you have the option built in to launch it connected via Tor

This then adds a layer of security that masks your location.

As you can see, right now it shows me as being in Istanbul (I am not).

You can't choose your exit points so there's a chance it'll occasionally send you via the UK anyway but hey, it's free and it works.