A side entrance from the big web
~ns
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With a confused look, I step into the pub.

Not from the front door. Nor the one that's in the back, if you go
through the kitchen past the sink. This door opened up from a
completely nondescript section of the wall. You'd hardly know there
was door here, if I hadn't opened it.

I verify that this is the Midnight Pub I know. I see the familiar
face of ~bartender, and Smudge is curled up on an armchair. No,
this is definitely the Midnight.

I'll give you the story.

I was going through my work spam folder. Hadn't ever checked it
before. Had only a handful of messages. Most from software hockers,
or SEO consultants. One registrar scam. Out of curiosity, I search
for the domain name of one spammer who wants their advertising
bullshit productivity articles on our company website. And so
imagine my surprise when the second result is a link to the
Midnight. Issue #538 by ~starbreaker, to be specific. ~starbreaker
seems to have also received a similar email from this company.

Maybe it's my weird, esoteric paid search engine that has profiled
me. I go to Google. The big dog. Search the phrase. There's the
Midnight. Quick, activate cognito-cloaks! Enable scrambler VPNs!
Still there. A door, right into this smol corner of the web.

I mean, I knew that the Midnight was on the clearnet. It's
indexable. But I never thought I'd actually come across it
organically like this. It's like going to the beach, picking up a
random sand grain, and it has significance to you. It's not
supposed to happen. This is either a statistical anomaly, or the
smol web is a bit better connected than I thought.

If you're curious, the phrase I searched is "audiencr". One
adjacent keystroke away from a well-known word. Please ignore the
spam/scam company behind it :)