Upon the launch of the NGNM Network website, our team has received numerous requests for web hosting assistance. While we would like to help everyone, our current resource limitations prevent us from doing so. This article aims to clarify the purpose of our hosting service and outline the types of websites it is intended for.
Where can I get free webhosting?
If you run a simple WordPress blog or a similar site with low technical requirements, we recommend checking out BlackBlogs and NoBlogs where you can get free non-commercial webhosting.
Alternatively, WordPress itself also offers hosting. To learn how to create your website, see the article Set Up Your Blog in Five Steps.
For our french-speaking friends, we recommend Lautre.net, hébergeur associatif autogéré.
For email hosting, we recommend Riseup.net.
If there is a good reason that none of those options work for you, contact us, and let’s see how we can help.
What types of websites are hosted by NGNM?
In summary, the websites we typically host align with multiple of the following criteria:
- High-traffic websites
- Forums, online communities, and web services with a large user base
- Large websites with substantial content
- Complex web apps requiring custom programming
- Sites frequently targeted by DDoS attacks or that have experienced hacking incidents
- Websites at risk of censorship, or facing potential legal issues such as lawsuits or legal threats
- Abandoned websites with archival value (e.g., online libraries)
Why focus on specialty webhosting?
The initial reason why the NGNM Network was born is after experiencing first-hand the need to have specialty webhosting. Between 2001 and 2007, members of the tech team managed two anarchist forums hosted on Lautre.net, a self-managed webhosting association. Initially suitable for smaller websites, as active members surged, technical challenges ensued. The issue escalated to the extent that our forum alone brought down the entire server, impacting thousands of other websites. Ultimately, they had to ask us to leave.
This pivotal moment illuminated the inadequacy of free hosting and shared servers for our use case. We needed a dedicated server. We needed a sysadmin team. But where would we find the funds to pay for the monthly fees? Where will we get the help and tech support we need? How will we migrate the sites?
Fast forward a decade later, we have the answers to all these questions. We have the servers. We have the admin team. We have the experience. We have the funds. We even have a legal team to stop censors trying to shut us down. Now, we want to help you and give back to the community because we’ve been in that spot before, and we know what it’s like and how hard it is to find the resources you need.
Why can’t you host everyone?
To put it simply – if you run a simple website like a WordPress blog, you don’t need us and there are already plenty of options available for you (see the first section for our recommendations). On the other hand, for those running more complex websites, there are very little to no options available. This is why we are focused on specialty webhosting.
Complex websites demand considerable attention, and hosting an increasing number of sites diminishes the time available for those with unique requirements. Daily server interventions by our admin team underscore the finite nature of our resources.
All of our servers are built for complex use cases and resource-intensive web apps and it would be absolutely overkill for a simple website that could be hosted elsewhere. Moreover, our servers are currently not designed to be scalable in a shared hosting environment.
There are also cyber-security and performance concerns when hosting a very large number of sites.
Will you ever host smaller websites?
Hopefully, yes! In the future, we hope to have the resources to expand our webhosting services to a wider variety of websites so we have a solution for everyone.
How much does it cost?
While we typically host your website on our existing network servers at no charge, specialized requirements may incur additional expenses, particularly if acquiring a new server is necessary, creating more monthly expenses for the cooperative.
There are also cases where we will be unable to host your site on our shared servers, for example, if you are often targeted by DDoS attacks it is preferable to isolate the server to avoid negatively impacting other sites. Or maybe you require bulletproof offshore webhosting for legal reasons. For some use cases, a shared hosting environment just doesn’t make sense.
If we need to buy a new server for your project, we will talk with you to see funding options. Most likely you already have a donation structure in place that can cover all or most of the costs. But rest assured that you will never pay more than the actual cost charged to us. Let’s make it clear – we are a non-profit, volunteer-run, and self-managed collective. We don’t make any money, we don’t take fees, we don’t ask for donations or anything in return for our services.
Where are the servers located?
Our main servers in North America are located in Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada. In Europe, our main servers are in France and Germany. But we can host you pretty much anywhere around the world depending on your needs.
For some specific use cases, we offer offshore bulletproof hosting with enhanced legal protection and confidentiality. This means your site will be hosted in a country with a strategically advantaging jurisdiction giving you more freedom over what kind of content is allowed to be hosted. We have experience with very resilient data centers like the one that hosted The Pirate Bay. Be advised however that this specialized solution is more costly than standard webhosting.
How do I migrate my website to your servers?
Don’t worry – we can help. We can do the entire migration process for you with minimal downtime. You will be required to provide either a full backup of the website or admin access to the old server so we can back up the files and migrate the databases.
How do I manage my webhosting service?
You get FTP access and you can manage your hosting settings in Plesk Panel, or we can fully manage it for you. In some cases, we can provide user-level access to the shell console.
For security reasons and data privacy of hosted sites, we do not provide full root access to servers in shared hosting environments.
How can I donate money?
Thank you for your support and we appreciate your donation offers, but NGNM Network is entirely funded by our friends from the No Gods No Masters clothing shop. While we don’t run on unlimited funds, we understand that many of our comrades who don’t have the financial support of a shop could make better use of those funds. Please consider donating to your local anarchist organizations or helping comrades in the spirit of mutual aid.
Anarchist Defence Fund | International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund
What sort of content is not allowed?
Protecting your free speech is our top priority and we have a legal team to take care of complaints. While we are dedicated to safeguarding your right to express yourself, we cannot provide a magical solution that allows illegal activities without consequences. Engaging in blatantly illegal actions increases the likelihood of receiving complaints and potential lawsuits, prompting us to take appropriate measures.
Needless to say, we strictly prohibit content that encompasses but is not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, for-profit business promotion, religious promotion, political party endorsements, liberal organization endorsements, conspiracy theories, science denialism, harassment, fake news, and anything fundamentally contradicting core anarchist principles.
Piracy is cool, but our platform is not the appropriate space to share the latest Hollywood movies.
How do you deal with complaints?
We have strong resilience against abusive complaints which are shown to represent the majority of complaints received. In over 95% of cases, the complaints are abusive and baseless, resulting in no action on our part. Committed to transparency, we promptly notify you on the same day we receive a complaint by forwarding the original documents, giving you insight into the nature of the concerns raised.
Removal requests:
Requests received through the Content Removal form will be forwarded to you. The cases where taking action is required are described here.
Copyright complaints:
We handle copyright takedown requests through the DMCA Complaints procedure. Our legal team will verify if the claim is founded or not and if the copyright owner submitted all required information to prove ownership.
You have a right to file a counter-claim after receiving a DMCA complaint. The DMCA law allows the webhost to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within 10 business days of receiving the copy of your counter-notification.
Legal complaints:
To prevent illegitimate censorship attempts or external pressure on our admin team, we have an internal procedure to handle legal complaints by escalating the case to our legal team. After receiving a legal opinion, the NGNM Tech Team is authorized to delete content only if the failure to remove such content would result in putting us at risk of a lawsuit. In other words, if you have no chance of winning your case in court and someone has demonstrated a credible willingness to start a lawsuit against you, sometimes it’s better to just remove the litigious content. In our experience, this situation is extremely rare.
Section 230 of Title 47 of the US CDA protects web hosting services from liability for content created by our users. This means that websites and online services are not held legally responsible for the content that users post on their platforms, as long as we comply with legitimate requests. We have also taken several measures to protect our admins with our limited liability ownership structure.
(Disclaimer: Not a legal advice, consult a lawyer)
Governmental complaints:
This is a very serious but rare situation where a governmental body will file a claim against us and ask our data center to cut our servers if we don’t comply with their request in a very short period of time
Can I maintain anonymity?
Absolutely, and we strongly encourage it. Respecting the right to anonymity is one of our core principles and it’s safer for website owners if your service provider doesn’t have your identity. This precaution becomes especially crucial in situations involving legal actions or the potential seizure of our servers by law enforcement.
We act as a legal barrier between you and the online world. For example, if you create your own website and host it by yourself, you are legally responsible for the content you publish. If the cops come knocking on your door, you’re the person who owns the content. In the opposite scenario, if we are hosting your website, any legal matters would be directed towards our entity.
But we’re just a web host and we’re not doing anything wrong, oh and we don’t even know who that guy on the internet is so we can’t reveal any names. As a web host, we are protected by section 230 of Title 47 of the US Code Communications Decency Act, providing immunity to online service providers with respect to third-party content generated by its users.
NGNM Coop, NGNM Network, NGNM Tech Team, what’s the difference?
If we all share the same name, it’s because all of those collectives were initially born from the NGNM Coop since the shop funds all those initiatives. But despite being inter-connected and sometimes sharing common members, all of the collectives are run separately and independently by their own teams with their own decision-making processes. For example, we as the NGNM Tech Team don’t get to decide how sites of the NGNM Network are moderated, or where the NGNM Coop attributes its donations.
NGNM Coop: A cooperative of artists, designers, activists, bands, and musicians built around the No Gods No Masters Clothing Shop. The shop was initially launched as a self-funding initiative for the NGNM Network which remains as of today its principal financial commitment. The additional revenue helps to raise funds for donations to various charities and anarchist organizations.
NGNM Network: A group of websites and online communities collectively moderated by their own self-managed structures. All of the sites are 100% funded by the NGNM Coop and hosted on servers managed by the NGNM Tech Team.
NGNM Tech Team: A team of programmers and system administrators who manage the servers of the NGNM Network and the technical side of the websites. The tech team does not get involved in the day-to-day moderation of the online communities and its role is limited to technical interventions as its name says.
What is the legal team?
The legal team is a small group of attorneys and people with experience in the legal field. Upon receipt of a legal complaint, it is promptly escalated to the legal team for evaluation and advisory opinion. In the unlikely event of an actual lawsuit, a prearranged agreement with legal counsel is activated to provide a robust legal defense. Over the years, they played a role in numerous cases safeguarding our rights, countering censorship, and addressing baseless legal threats. Their role mostly involves providing a legal opinion, and on occasion, formulating responses to legal assertions.
The typical legal complaint scenario usually involves a frustrated individual trying to scare us by hiring an attorney to write a letter threatening a lawsuit with a stamp from a lawyer’s office supposed to intimidate us. We get those letters all the time, and usually, it’s just bullshit – their case wouldn’t stand in court and they’re never going to spend so much money on attorney fees just to humiliate themselves and lose. In this situation, if the request is illegitimate our obligation as a web host is to protect the freedom of speech of our users, and that’s what the legal team is for.
However, on rare occasions, other requests are a more serious matter such as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). One of the worst cases we have seen involved a Russian oil magnate deploying a legal cadre to pursue substantial damages against us due to the publication of an article critical of his oil conglomerate – and we survived.
Other than this, the legal team helps us with writing legal documents and other boring compliance requirements.
Are you a lawyer or an attorney? Do you have experience with internet laws, DMCA claims, and/or defamatory libels? If you want to help protect the freedom of speech of online activists, get in touch with us! Multiple opinions are always better.
Do all hosted websites belong to the NGNM Network?
No – the sites part of the NGNM Network were launched through initiatives from team members and are fully managed by the tech team. Our role includes managing both the server and the websites, providing full-stack web development and web design, and often the programming of custom web apps to meet specific needs. We also handle the technical administration aspects of platforms like WordPress and forums to optimize for performance and security. The cooperative owns the domain names of the NGNM Network.
The hosted websites consist of third-party collectives and organizations that approached us to host projects originating from their own initiatives. We typically have limited admin access, they handle the moderation of the sites and we manage the servers. These sites are owned by their respective collectives, giving them the flexibility to relocate to other servers if desired. The tech team’s role is to provide assistance, optimize, and securize the websites, without getting involved in decision-making or website building. Domain names of hosted sites are typically owned by their respective collectives.
Admins and moderators, what’s the difference?
The difference is crucial and that’s one of central the pillars of our direct democracy processes established through our entire network of websites and online communities. This distinction serves to prevent the misuse of authority or conflicts of interest by establishing a horizontal hierarchy that empowers community users based on the principles of anti-authoritarianism.
An admin is a member of the tech team who has full access to the administration of the servers and the website backend, but who does not get deeply involved in the day-to-day content management or forum moderation. Some are programmers, others focus on system administration and some do both. The tasks of system administrators are related to managing the servers and handling the frequent technical issues of a large network. For security reasons, only a limited amount of well-trusted persons have full root access to the Linux systems.
A forum moderator is the executive branch of the self-managed direct democracy. Elected by the community, moderators are tasked with implementing decisions voted upon by members. Their role is confined to the community’s mandate, subject to potential revocation at any time. Tasks are performed in moderation panels requiring minimal technical knowledge. Forum moderation operates with minimal involvement from the technical team.
A content moderator manages the WordPress admin area and is responsible for publishing articles, adding new content, and handling removal requests. The admins from the tech team remain uninvolved in both the creation and moderation of articles.
All of our team members are volunteers.
Is the Tech Team Recruiting?
Yes, we are always looking to expand our team! Reach out to us and share your skills to explore potential collaborations.