If it's truly an intranet then it is physically disconnected from the public internet, and would not be merely a "dark web", but more like a "black hole web". But if they are trying to run public services, then your assumption is correct.

All in all, though, it sounds more like a bunch of college friends who are just trying to find their bearings in the wild, huge, crazy world of tech.

Hey, author of that (terrible) article here. The only "public" service I run is a Shynet instance for some friends. We're just a bunch of secondary or uni students wanting to still be able to do things we like if Cloudflare decides to turn turtle.

To me, this sounds like a cooperative. As such, it will thrive on the efforts of its members and be poisoned by personal abuse. It could survive for decades or be abandoned after the second or third crisis.

But having an infrastructure plan and documentation for a cooperative would be a valuable contribution to the whole world.

Yes, a cooperative, or even a tech-savvy intentional community. That is the kind of thing I'm really going for with "Linux on the Web".

Something like a new hippie age must start arising as the post-peak-oil era continues to take its toll on the global economy*. It's now up to the younger Millenials and older Zoomers to start leading the way with innovative, sustainable, future-forward ways of living.

*https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/gaya-her...