Oh man, this reminds me of my first shell account, and SDF, and the actual reason I got into computers. So excited. Maybe I could write a little communication API-type thing that these kinds of shell servers could implement, so communities could be linked together in some way? Hmm. That would be cool. I think I just found a good reason to mess around with Rust.
I highly recommend that if you support experimentation you join and donate -- I have a MetaARPA account that I don't think I've logged into in 3 years, but I just send them a $36 check every year because I think it's important people be able to have a safe, free place to tinker.
(Also, if you want to sign up, I can validate your account. Email me a link to your HN profile and if you have enough contributions to convince me you're an okay person, I'll take care of it.)
Yeah, I used lonestar back in the day, and had a great time.
I wonder how much he is ready for when people get malicious though, getting a shell often meant something like presenting personal identifying information so they could come find you if you messed it up.
Yes to SDF.org, I ended up going Arpa and then Meta. And COM is still going! Super Dimension Fortress is a bit like a VPS with a community. More about learning than hosting a huge site.
