Spinning Up an Onion Mirror Is Stupid Easy

A blogger bragged that spinning up a “.onion” mirror (a Tor-only version of a website) took about three commands, and the comments immediately turned into a popcorn-worthy clash. The free speech crowd is hyped: ktallett wants onion and even old-school gopher versions to dodge censorship and keep info flowing. Security sticklers weighed in too. dewey dropped a mic with “Tor is already encrypted,” arguing you don’t need HTTPS (the usual green lock), while others recalled Facebook’s onion site rocking HTTPS mostly for flex. Meanwhile, the “real world” squad showed up: badmoddingyo warned the easy part isn’t tech—it’s law enforcement attention.

There were nerdy delight moments, too. simonmales had a “TIL” (today I learned) about the Onion-Location header so browsers can auto-redirect to the onion version—cue mini-tutorials and memes. And qhwudbebd steered the hype toward Tor’s shiny Rust rewrite, Arti, linking progress updates and turning the thread into a mini fan club for new privacy tech (link).

The vibe? Half “join the Onionverse” starter pack, half “brace for drama.” The author’s swagger (“it better be vim”) became a meme, the community turned a tiny tutorial into a debate about privacy, access, and consequences, and everyone left either inspired… or side-eyeing their threat model.