Considering Getting Rid of My Misfin Server

2025-03-06 - [53] 12:21

UPDATE (2025-03-11 - [53] 12:26): After thinking hard about it and communicating with some folks, including 1 individual over Misfin, I have decided to discontinue my Misfin server completely. All of my journal posts have been updated to remove my Misfin address along with the front page of my site. My Misfin server code will still be available over my git server, which will be linked immediately below in case anyone is interested in using it as a reference for implementing Misfin:

git clone git://git.vigrey.com/ratatoskr [Git]

Last september, I mentioned that I made a misfin server and could be reached over the misfin protocol. That post is linked below.

Degoogling, Passwords, Misfin, Ham Radio, Haligmonath - ROOPHLOCH 2024

Since then, I have gotten 2 misfin messages outside of the week of a lot of testing of my server with 3 other people. I honestly don't think I'm going to get many more misfin messages. As such, I'm HEAVILY considering shutting down my misfin server in order to help minimize the amount of services I need to keep track of and secure.

I like the concept of Misfin quite a lot and honestly wish it could have been around before email. Email is a bit complicated in general, but in modern times, there are some annoying gatekeepers like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo that decide that anything that isn't from them should definitely be considered spam by default, even though most of the spam I get come from their services. There are also a lot of email services that restrict your ability to use email clients that aren't their ad filled and javascript bloated web client. With all of that said though, email still currently works for me and is what everyone else is stuck having to use. In fact, it's likely going to be the easiest way to get a hold of me.

There's a bit of irony of running a Gemini capsule that powers my website rather than running "web first", even though "everyone else is stuck using the web". I acknowledge that irony and don't really have a consistent standard for why I would keep my Gemini capsule (in fact, I'm likely to keep my gemini capsule over my web server in the long run). With that said, having fewer services connected to the internet is better for my security, so I'm unsure if keeping a misfin server is worth it for me when it's just a matter of keeping up with security while not having human to human interactions really ever using it.

In terms of security, the most secure service that connects to the internet is a service that never connected to the internet, and even more secure is a service that was never built in the first place. It's much easier to secure "nothing" than it is to secure "something".

When will I shut down my Misfin Server?

It would be premature for me to say that I will shut it down for certain, but I will think about it for the next few weeks. I plan on deleting an account of mine that I use on or a bit before April 1st, so I think I might set that same estimated timescale. If you would prefer I don't shut down my misfin server, I will still be able to be reached at vi@vigrey.com over misfin until then.

If I shut down my Misfin Server, I'll very likely edit the bottom of every single journal post I made to remove the misfin link.

Contact/Reply

If you would like to reply to this post, feel free to send me an email.

Email: vi@vigrey.com [Email]
PGP Public Key [515F AD67 F931 0A2B 9B93 CE19 814F ECB1 A398 63CE]