Using GOPHERSPACE ANONYMOUSLY over TOR on ANDROID
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I have really enjoyed taking Gopherspace with me on my mobile devices. My Facebook and Twitter feeds have become worthless, stuffed full of ads and algorithm driven suggestions. Gopherspace gives me  needed relief when I'm moving around and have some time to kill.  The main difference for me between gopher and http, is that I explore content over gopher, while on the web content chases me. 

Thankfully, I've learned that it is convenient and very easy to surf Gopherspace on my phone. I've also learned it is very simple and easy to enjoy gopherspace anomyously.

Here's how I do it.

The two software packages Android users need can be installed from Google Play store.

First, install the DiggieDog gopher client.

Second, install Orbot.

Open Orbot, and you should see a tray that shows "Tor Enabled Apps." Tap that, and then add DiggyDog as a Tor Enabled app. Set Orbot to run in Vpn mode.  

Now each time you start DiggyDog, it will always access Gopher space over Tor. And just like that, you are surfing Gopherspace anonymously through a Tor exit node. Your visible ip address appears to be that of the Tor exit node, not your own.  With some poking around in Orbot's settings, you can prefer exit nodes from a specific country, but I just leave it up to Tor to assign me a random exit node.

To make certain everything is working correctly and that you are indeed gophering over Tor, visit this Tor hidden service Gopher hole:

url:gopher://coffeefh3xa2yqif.onion

If you see it, you're good.  If you can't see it, you're not on Tor.

I'm glad to have come across different people in gopherspace who are actively setting up .onion gopher holes.  I hope to join them some day.


A .onion site is a tor hidden service, and can only be seen by those connected to the Tor network. .Onion sites are not accessible from the www clearnet.

To recap:  Orbot connects to Tor, and forces "Tor enabled apps" to use Tor.  

Tor hides your real ip address as you visit normal Gopher holes and web pages.  

You can visit .onion sites on the Tor network, which are web sites or Gopher holes that are hiding their ip addresses (hidden services). 

You can also visit regular www websites, and even your favorite gopher holes.

You can select many other apps to run in Orbot's vpn mode.  I also run Pocket Gopher and Telegraph messenger this way.

Being anonymous while surfing Gopherspace is more convenient than being anonymous on the web, where every website will throw up a Captcha challenge if they detect Tor. That sort of inconvenience won't happen on Gopher.



Random bits....
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Price of Bitcoin at this hour, $9,907.
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So this is another post that I'm sending up to SDF via sftp.  Its much easier for me to write in my favorite text editor and to quickly drop it into my gopherhole.  I don't expect the SDF phlogosphere aggregator to trip on this, because it hasn't found my other new posts.  I've noticed that another aggregator, moku-pona, does find my posts. Maybe I'll figure it out some day.

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My mobile web browsers wrap text, and so does Lynx (somewhat). DiggyDog and PocketGopher do a good job presenting text, especially where it hasn't been manually CR. Text wrapped to fit my screen looks so much better than text that has been CR'd.  It becomes so much more readable when its formatted to my screen.

Unfortunately, the Floodgap proxy and OverBite NX don't wrap text. I get that formatting is probably a big challenge. I'm just really glad to have Overbite and the proxy, so not a criticism, just an observation.

Hopefully, authors of future gopher client upgrades will find ways to improve screen text formatting.