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Does pointing a ".onion" url to a clearnet site benefit TOR users? (mander.xyz)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Sal@mander.xyz to c/tor@lemmy.ml

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When a website can be accessed via a clearnet and a .onion url, is there a benefit to making use of the .onion url?

Context:

I am considering pointing a ".onion" url to my instance (mander.xyz).

I did some tests with and it seems like mlmym works well with JavaScript disabled. Since JavaScript is often disabled in the tor browser, I could make the .onion url point at that front-end instead.

This would be fun to do, but I wonder if there is a practical benefit to the ".onion" url as opposed to simply accessing the clearnet url via the tor browser.

EDIT: I went ahead and created an onion URL to try out, but I would still like to know if there is an actual advantage to .onion urls:

http://mandermybrewn3sll4kptj2ubeyuiujz6felbaanzj3ympcrlykfs2id.onion/

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[–] pedroapero@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yes this has several benefits:

some users prefer not to reveal their IP to your server
some users prefer not to be tracked by their internet provider (or by Google via DNS on Android, or by local wifi users or by who knows who)
your onion site is censorship resistant (some users in Russia or else might need it)
your onion can be ddos-resistent (if you enable POW)
your clearnet site might be unavailable for other reasons (unrenewed DNS entry or expired certificate)