Hey everyone! Here’s another video that we’ve been working on, this week we’re diving into the world of online anonymity! Tor is an important tool that is often misunderstood, so in this video we break down how it works and also some things to avoid while using the network.
I hope you enjoy the video, I’m looking forward to reading your comments and thoughts on the video 
I would like to leave and remind once more of a video/article suggestion I had to which no one disagreed or found fault with. I hope this is indeed made soon enough. Thanks!
I hope this is not considered an off topic comment.
PeerTube:
Great video! One thought I have is in regards to all the moving text. It might just be me but sometimes it’s quite distracting since it moves around quickly and I don’t always have enough time to read it (if I’m even supposed to read it?).
It was a great, great video! A lot of people need Tor now. I’ve been using it for 10 years, but it’s encouraging to see the general public becoming aware of it, and not just for “illegal stuff,” as it still has that reputation in some circles.
Tor is a great tool! But it’s not for everyone at all times for all things. It has its use cases and it also has its drawback and limitations when browsing.
Everyone should be aware of it and use it when necessary for select use cases or when they need extreme privacy/anonymity. But using it everyday for your browsing needs is impractical and more useless than useful.
Brave’s Tor window is also useful for sites which block you for using a VPN. For example, I use it for a news site.
I know that this Brave window is obviously not the same thing as the real Tor browser, but for a simple thing like reading anti-VPN news sites, it’s great.
But if I had to do anything very sensitive, I would use Tor on Linux, or Tor within Whonix or Tails.
I’m surprised to hear that some websites block VPN users but not Tor users!
It happens with news sites in particular.
It’s because they want to reach people who are under threat, e.g. in a country where the government is cracking down on the internet and foreign news. It’s these civilians in particular who need Tor, to find out what is being said outside of the propaganda bubble, and western news allows Tor in order to reach them.
Yeah, that makes sense. It can still be rather slow, though better than it used to be.
Thanks for the feedback, do you mean the paper effect jiggling? I do agree that it is a bit distracting, was there a specific part of the video that you could particularly point out as being a good example of this?
I finally got around to watching this, another great one @jordan!
I may have missed it but what is the danger in running an exit node? Do folks get in trouble for the traffic?
Im setting up a homelab amd want to dedicate my free cycles to tor traffic.
Thanks, glad you liked the video Brian! 
The Tor project explains it really well in there documentation:
Exit relays have the greatest legal exposure and liability of all the relays. For example, if a user downloads copyrighted material while using your exit relay, you, the operator may receive a DMCA notice. Any abuse complaints about the exit will go directly to you (via your hosting provider, depending on the WHOIS records). Generally, most complaints can be handled pretty easily through template letters.
Because of the legal exposure that comes with running an exit relay, you should not run a Tor exit relay from your home. Ideal exit relay operators are affiliated with some institution, like a relay association, a university, a library, a hackerspace or a privacy related organization. An institution can not only provide greater bandwidth for the exit, but is better positioned to handle abuse complaints or the rare law enforcement inquiry.
They do suggest running a middle or guard relay if you’re doing it from your home on a static IP address though:
Guard and middle relays
(also known as non-exit relays)
A guard relay is the first relay (hop) in a Tor circuit. A middle relay is a relay that acts as the second hop in the Tor circuit. To become a guard relay, the relay has to be stable and fast (at least 2MByte/s of upstream and downstream bandwidth) otherwise it will remain a middle relay.
Guard and middle relays usually do not receive abuse complaints. However, all relays are listed in the public Tor relay directory, and as a result, they may be blocked by certain services. These include services that either misunderstand how Tor works or deliberately want to censor Tor users, for example, online banking and streaming services.
A non-exit Tor relay requires minimal maintenance efforts and bandwidth usage can be highly customized in the Tor configuration. The so called “exit policy” of the relay decides if it is a relay allowing clients to exit or not. A non-exit relay does not allow exiting in its exit policy.
Important: If you are running a relay from home with a single static IP address and are concerned about your IP being blocked by certain online services, consider running a bridge or a Tor snowflake proxy instead. This alternative can help prevent your non-Tor traffic from being mistakenly blocked as though it’s coming from a Tor relay.
Whichever relay you choose to run you’re helping the network and that’s awesome 
This makes sense.
This is good to know. Anyone know who should be donated to? Seems like that is the best way to support exit nodes.
Emerald Onion does some good work.
Like 00:36 - 00:50ish. I don’t mind the big text jiggling as much (e.g. the guard/middle/exit relay text), since it’s not a lot of text and its a big font size.
Great video! I like the ending, which is a call for action for viewers to use Tor legitimately. Most people I’ve met in the past 5 years who are aware of Tor only know about the “deep web”, “darknet marketplaces”, and “red rooms” - and sound like not too different than the final copy of the cliche (and rather bad) 2018 horror movie Unfriended: Dark Web.
IIRC, not anyone can run an entry node. The most likely candidates are institutions, such as a large research university/college that can legitimately justify doing so. (Yes, the EFF has written about this in 2024.)
This is probably the best third-party video on the fundamentals of Tor I’ve seen so far.
Some constructive feedback: another place where there’s “paper jiggling” is at 2:50. Personally, the visual effect is ok during the first 1-2 seconds when it first appears; and then it can start moving again when the paper in the last 1-2 seconds. The baseline jiggling effect seems to indicate that something, with respect to an upcoming animation, that might happen very soon - but it’s like false anticipation when nothing does.
Nodes can receive the guard flag after a few weeks of reliable uptime. Maybe you are thinking of directory authorities.