The Silent Library on Various Platforms

October 17, 2023

I decided to experience some nostalgia and learn some new useless stuff by playing with some different file sharing platforms, new and old. I also played some platforms that are specifically not made for file sharing.

To do this, I use The Silent Library’s libraries. This is both the main library (subbed content) and the Raw Wing, which holds raws that typesetters and subbers use. I explain a bit of what The Silent Library and Gaki no Tsukai is in this blog post. I love the original show and the catalogued associated shows so much, they are so fun. Full credit to Bipedal for curating and numerous typesetters (the unsung heroes) and subbers (the more-sung heroes) for all their work.

All the method belows are not the best way to get TSL files, unless you are already using the platform. Then maybe it’s the way to go. In this blog post I’ll discuss what I’ve set up, and any quick notes on challenges/problems. The page that indexes the various protocols/networks is at https://tsl.joyrex.net. The below is more about how the setup went and how to access the data.

Notes

Once again, the page that indexes the various protocols/networks is at https://tsl.joyrex.net. Also, some of the systems below have chat servers built in. These aren’t for that. They’re unmonitored and the systems are likely not really set up (by me) to really have proper chat controls. I mainly worried about getting the files shared. There is a discord that is used for Gaki chat, as well as the GakiNoTsukai subreddit.

If you have questions, contact me at ejstacey@joyrex.net, @ejstacey.joyrex.net on bluesky, or @ejstacey@kolektiva.social on mastodon.

If you want a better way of getting an up to date version of TSL or TSL Raw Wing, contact Bipedal on https://thesilentlibrary.com.

IPFS

Details

I’ve documented my IPFS journey here and here. It has been an interesting and frustrating time, but the end result is I have a system that keeps up to date. The server runs on Debian 11, manual download of kubo (and systemd file). I also have a systemd timer to run my scripts and keep the database up to date (maximum time out of date: 2h).

Accessing

Go to the following to get the current IPFS id of the library you want to access. It is located here

After that, Get IPFS Desktop and open it. Go to the Files area of the program and put in the address you got from the webpage above.

You’ll notice the links above seem to link to a current web-based version of the libraries. This is because it’s going through the IPFS gateway I set up, which lets people on the normal web access the IPFS network. The problem is that the proxy sucks with large files, as it has to “download” it from the IPFS network and then re-serve it to you. On large files, your HTTP call is extremely likely to time out before it has downloaded it all. Still, the links above are a way to access the library, as well.

DC++

Details

I debated putting this under a category below, but despite its age (started in 1999), it is still going strong (seemingly by Russian pirates? I don’t know).

For this one I manually compiled Ptokax on Debian 11 and got it going with systemd. After that, I installed the AirDC++ Web Client Docker container and configured it to host the libraries, then to connect to the Ptokax instance.

This was a damn nightmare. Port forwarding, IP detecting, everything just reminded me how lucky we are to live in a more modern age.

Accessing

Get some DC++ software like the original DC++ (open source) and connect to hub.joyrex.net:4111. The ‘ejstacey’ user has both libraries under its Share folder.

BBS (Synchronet)

Details

God I love BBSs. This runs Synchronet (still updated) in a docker container and I think I’m going to keep working on it and customising it because it’s so nostalgic, but I have added the files in two libraries, TSL and TSL-RAWS. The BBS is loosely based on the BBS I ran back in the early 90s as a teen.

Accessing

Get something like SyncTerm and telnet to tsl.joyrex.net:2323. You could telnet with another app, but SyncTerm works great and has the needed support for ZMODEM (and others) which you need to do the downloads.

Create an account on first connect. Put in BS info if you want.. I don’t care. I will further tune it in the future to not ask dumb stuff. I recommend using the Reneclone/Renegade Clone interface, as those are the menus I am starting to update. Go to the file section.

IRC / XDCC

Details

Work in progress, but I’m going to run a nothing IRC server and just have an eggdrop bot with XDCC Server script in place.

Accessing

IRC client that supports XDCC. More info when I have it in place.

Gopher

Details

If you don’t know Gopher, it’s been around since 1991 and was a potential way to browse the Internet for information until HTTP/the World Wide Web ran away with it. Since then, it’s faded into obscurity. It’s made for serving text information, so of course it’s worth making it serve multi-gigabyte videos of a subtitled Japanese show.

Accessing

Get a gopher client that properly handles both spaces and downloading files. This may be difficult. One I found is Gopher Browser for Windows which works pretty well!

Connect to gopher://tsl.joyrex.net

Gemini

Details

Gemini is like a modern version of gopher. It also exists to serve text content. It’s also unhappy serving 5+TB of video content. It’s funny.

Accessing

Get a gemini client that properly handles both spaces and downloading files. This may be difficult. The GemiNaut application definitely does not handle spaces well. The Agregore application handles spaces but doesn’t have a download option, just gives the raw binrary content on the screen. Amfora is console based, but extremely nice and works well.

Connect to gemini://tsl.joyrex.net