Goodbye freewha AKA Free Web Hosting Area AKA orgfree 2022-04-28

I like to block goofs from my web and mail servers. I get tired of my logs filling up with various crap and I figure if I block them it'll make me happy and it'll make them less likely to hassle me on an ongoing basis (okay, this one may not be true). Anyways, I wanted to make my list of blocked wankers accessible via some web site so that my various servers could download the list at regular intervals and I would only have to update a single file to update all servers. I'd also include a list of crap hosts for blocking via dnsmasq and a uBlock Origin block file. As time went on I am sure I'd add even more. I figured it would also make sense to have the list on someone else's infrastructure so that I don't wind up having some of my infrastructure dependent on my infrastu... see how that could go bad? I tried NeoCities, which is a nod to GeoCities, but only has a web interface or a crappy Ruby based CLI tool for managing files. If they had SSH (or maybe even FTP) I'd use them in a second. I tried a few other free web hosters like Googie (miserable failure) and more recently, freewha.com.

Image liberated from carygastro.com.

FreeWHA looked like they might fit the bill and it was [sort of] easy to sign up for an account. I was able to use FTP to upload/update my files and I made a quick an' dirty placeholder for my landing page that said I was going to make my blocklists available from this location. Then everything died. I refreshed http://snork.orgfree.com/ and there was a gaudy red banner that said.

THIS ACCOUNT HAS BEEN TERMINATED for terms infringement.

Well no shit eh. Let's go see what the FreeWHA Terms Of Service are. Hmmm, was my content illegal, gambling, adult, clickbait, grossly offensive, a proxy, peer to peer, a gateway, streaming, terrorism, a vulnerable script, private, password protected, storage/download related, large files, an attempt to hide their ads, or someone else's intellectual property? No. I imagine whoever was watching figured the blocklists would be downloaded via automated scripts and their shitty ads would not get seen and they would not get the sweet sweet ad revenue that they so clearly deserve. So, if you have an idea for a web site that involves advertising for freewha, then rush right over there and get yourself some free web space. Otherwise, don't waste your time.