rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

https://connect.sdf.org/

SDF also hosts the Interim Computer Museum (https://icm.museum). From the Wikipedia page:

The Interim Computer Museum is a non-profit organization based in Tukwila,
Washington, United States. It focuses on the preservation, restoration, and
public exhibition of vintage computing hardware and software.

SDF began several decades ago, when the founder was a student at SMU in Dallas, TX.
He was most recently the Engineering manager for Living Computers: Museum+Labs, and was the last member fo the staff to be let go after the closing and auction of the collection.

--
Rich Alderson news@alderson.users.panix.com
Audendum est, et veritas investiganda; quam etiamsi non assequamur,
omnino tamen proprius, quam nunc sumus, ad eam perveniemus.
--Galen

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:

https://connect.sdf.org/

You could also connect via gopher.

Daniel
sysop | air & wave bbs
finger | calcmandan@bbs.erb.pw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <mvc6kdFl31rU1@mid.individual.net>,
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

https://connect.sdf.org/

I'm a big fan, MetaARPA member. It's not always the most stable in terms
of the extra services they run, but the core is solid. And the museum is excellent. (I've heard. I *almost* got to go there the last time I was
in Seattle. Soon!)

--
Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall | beej@beej.us

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

To: Beej Jorgensen

Beej Jorgensen wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

https://connect.sdf.org/

I'm a big fan, MetaARPA member. It's not always the most stable in
terms of the extra services they run, but the core is solid. And the museum is excellent. (I've heard. I *almost* got to go there the last
time I was in Seattle. Soon!)

Have you looked at the "tildeverse"?

Not quite as historical as some of the memories here, but "tildes" are
usually single *nix boxes supporting a small group of like-minded
users. They offer shell accounts, email, web, gopher and gemini spaces,
news and IRC. (The name "tilde" came from ISPs that offered web space
with isp.net/~username URLs...)

They've gone modern, some have fediverse spaces now, too. Many seem to
have roots in SDF.

kurt weiske | kweiske at realitycheckbbs dot org
| http://realitycheckbbs.org
| 1:218/700@fidonet




--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Win32 NewsLink 1.2
* realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

"Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-oru-this> writes:

To: Beej Jorgensen

Beej Jorgensen wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

https://connect.sdf.org/

I'm a big fan, MetaARPA member. It's not always the most stable in
terms of the extra services they run, but the core is solid. And the museum is excellent. (I've heard. I *almost* got to go there the last time I was in Seattle. Soon!)

Have you looked at the "tildeverse"?

Not quite as historical as some of the memories here, but "tildes" are usually single *nix boxes supporting a small group of like-minded
users. They offer shell accounts, email, web, gopher and gemini spaces,
news and IRC. (The name "tilde" came from ISPs that offered web space
with isp.net/~username URLs...)

They've gone modern, some have fediverse spaces now, too. Many seem to
have roots in SDF.

I visit a few tilde gophers often for various reasons. Great commmunity.

Daniel
sysop | air & wave bbs
finger | calcmandan@bbs.erb.pw

kurt weiske | kweiske at realitycheckbbs dot org
| http://realitycheckbbs.org
| 1:218/700@fidonet

--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Win32 NewsLink 1.2
* realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <6995DFCA.14762.news.afc@realitycheckbbs.org>,
Kurt Weiske <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-oru-this> wrote:

Have you looked at the "tildeverse"?

I have! It's also great--very much in the nature of the "small web" and
DIY.

* realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

Excellent... One of my many side projects to never get to is to write a
new BBS from scratch in Rust. :)

--
Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall | beej@beej.us

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Thu, 19 Feb 2026 03:15:09 -0000 (UTC), Beej Jorgensen wrote:

One of my many side projects to never get to is to write a new BBS
from scratch in Rust. :)

Scratch ... rust ... expose new shiny metal ... leading to more rust
...

... sorry, did I just get into another free-association episode again?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

To: Beej Jorgensen

Beej Jorgensen wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

* realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

Excellent... One of my many side projects to never get to is to write a new BBS from scratch in Rust. :)

Please do! There are others writing BBSes from scratch and resurrecting
old BBS packages. It's exciting seeing some activity in the scene.



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Win32 NewsLink 1.2
* realitycheckBBS - Aptos, CA - telnet://realitycheckbbs.org

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-18, Kurt Weiske wrote:

To: Beej Jorgensen

Beej Jorgensen wrote to alt.folklore.computers <=-

https://connect.sdf.org/

I'm a big fan, MetaARPA member. It's not always the most stable in
terms of the extra services they run, but the core is solid. And the museum is excellent. (I've heard. I *almost* got to go there the last time I was in Seattle. Soon!)

Have you looked at the "tildeverse"?

Not quite as historical as some of the memories here, but "tildes" are usually single *nix boxes supporting a small group of like-minded
users. They offer shell accounts, email, web, gopher and gemini spaces,
news and IRC. (The name "tilde" came from ISPs that offered web space
with isp.net/~username URLs...)

They've gone modern, some have fediverse spaces now, too. Many seem to
have roots in SDF.

SDF also has some members-only instances (social.sdf.org, among one or
two other regional ones?), and an open instance (mastodon.sdf.org). But
at least social.sdf.org isn't really very stable, and has shown signs of
issues over a long time (pointing to either something broken in Mastodon
itself or some issue on that specific instance). Once every few months,
using social.sdf.org via brutaldon ends up being a lottery where either
you get the requested content or you're redirected to the brutaldon
about page because something failed (brutaldon could perhaps use better
error handling too).

(Do note, I'm not saying it's slow - it is, but that would be
manageable, if it were slow but always worked properly, but it's
sometimes mixed with failures.)

Ended up joining another instance because of that and of the 500 char
limit (which really is a flaw from upstream Mastodon; some instances
have patched it, but it still needs patching...)

--
Nuno Silva

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)