brewserverblocklist/README.md

# Brew Server Blocklist

Friendica publishes the server wide blocklists for other servers in the
Fediverse. This script will collect the blocklists of servers of your
choice and create a merged blocklist from them that you can then import
into your own Friendica server.

To make certain that you don't block just any instance in the Fediverse
because $somebody has it on their blocklist you assign _trust levels_ to
the correctness of the blocklists of the other servers. Only when a server
is blocked with a total trust level that is above a confidence level, it
will be added to resulting blocklist automatically. Otherwise you will be
ask if you want to add a node to the blocklist or not.

And just to state the obvious: You should never blindly trust the blocklists
of your peers but do your own investications about in block when in doubt.

## Config file

To use the script you have to create a config file. The structure of the
file is the following

```
[soc1.example.com]
trust = 40

[soc2.example.com]
trust = 50

[soc3.example.com]
trust = 50

[soc4.example.com]
trust = 90
```

it assigns _trust_ values to nodes in the network. The node domain names
are given in the `[]`. These are the nodes that the script will collect
the server blocklists from.

Trust levels can be negative. Once their summed value does reach a value of
100 the blocklist entry is trusted automatically without user interaction.

## Installation

You can install the script with [pipx](https://github.com/pypa/pipx) by running

```
pipx install git+https://git.friendi.ca/tobias/brewserverblocklist.git
```

Assuming pipx was installed correctly the script `brewserverblocklist` is now
available on your system (or for your user) to be executed.

## Usage

### Creating a config file

Before you can use the script, you have to define a configuration file.
For details of the format of the file, see the section above. You might
want to enter your own Friendica node and assigning it a trust value of 100.

Trust values can have negative values. If you know an admin that has the
opposite preference on their blocklist, you can add their node and assign
a trust value of -100 to it.

An example config file (lets call it `test.config`) might look like:

```
[myfriendicanode.com]
trust = 100

[coolnode.net]
trust = 60

[nicenode.net]
trust = 40

[othernicenode.com]
trust = 30

[bullshitnode.com]
trust = -50
```

You can also add a list of protected nodes to the config file. To do so add a
section `[safe harbor]` to the config file. This section has only one entry
called `domains` and the value of this entry is a comma separated list of domains
that should never get on your blocklist.

For example

```
[safe harbor]
domains = friendica.example.com
```

You can also add Mastodon instances you trust. In addition to the configuration
needed for Friendica nodes you have to add the `type = mastodon` entry to the
config section. *Please note* that the used API endpoint is not available on
all Mastodon instances.

Please note only suspended entries from the Mastodon blocklist will be added to
the blocklist. Silenced entries will be ignored.

### Running the script

You have to supply the file name of the configuration file on the command
line when you run the script. This is done using the `-c` parameter.

The script will then collect all the blocklists from the Friendica nodes in
the configuration file and merge the lists. While merging, each entry in the
combined blocklist is assigned a trust value that is equal to the trust values
of the node that have the entry in their blocklist.

Say `coolnode.net` and `othernicenode.com` both have `example.com` on their
blocklists. Their combined trust level to block the node would be `60 + 30 = 90`.
This combined value is compared to the *confidence level* that by default is 100.
In this example `example.com` has a lower combined trust level then the confidence
level - so the script will ask you about your opinion - do you want to include the
entry in your new blocklist or not.

Another node is on the blocklists of `coolnode.net` and `nicenode.net` thus has
a combined trust level of 100 which is equal to the confidence level. So the
script will automatically assume that this node should be included on the new
blocklist.

If you and the admin of `bullshitnode.com` both add a node on the blocklist the
combined trust level for automatically blocking it would be `50`.

### Other parameters

* `-o filename`  will cause the script to write the list into the passed file
* `-C N`  will set the confidence level to the value N
* `-y` and `-n` activate the auto-mode of the script, either accepting or discarding all entries to the blocklist with a trust level smaller then the confidence level

## Author

* Tobias Diekershoff <tobias(dot)diekershoff(att)gmx(dot)net>

## LICENSE

     berewserverblocklist  Copyright (C) 2023 Tobias Diekershoff

     This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
     the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
     your option) any later version.

     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
     WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
     or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
     for more details.

     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
     with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
     
### REUSE compliance

[![REUSE status](https://api.reuse.software/badge/git.friendi.ca/tobias/brewserverblocklist)](https://api.reuse.software/info/git.friendi.ca/tobias/brewserverblocklist)

This project uses [REUSE](https://reuse.software/) to ensure that all components
are release under a FLOSS compatible license. If you contribute to the project,
please ensure that your contribution is REUSE compliant.

This can be done by adding the following to your `.git/hooks/pre-commit` hook.

``` shell
#!/usr/bin/env bash
reuse lint
```

## Credits

`brewserverblocklist` was created with [`cookiecutter`](https://cookiecutter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) and the `py-pkgs-cookiecutter` [template](https://github.com/py-pkgs/py-pkgs-cookiecutter).