hckrnws

The web version, in case you don't have a telnet client to connect: https://web.issue3.anewsession.com/

I opened a-Shell(1) on my iPhone, typed `telnet issue3.anewsession.com`, and I was in! Probably my first time connecting to a telnet server.

The works in the issue aren’t static; from the help page:

> New Session's third issue emerges into a world where we’ve had to change parts of who we are to survive. […]

> Both you and this issue will change with each viewing. Select a story by pressing the key associated with it in the index. Read it again. Come back to it tomorrow. Is it the same? Are you?

1: https://github.com/holzschu/a-shell

Who doesn't use Telnet??? I still got my WinTin together with all the aliases from when I was MUD-ing!! What? It's insecure? Everything is sent in cleat-text? North Korean hackers can steal my coins and my Longsword?

> Everything is sent in cleat-text?

From one Telnet lover to another, I'm still resentful folks blamed Telnet. Other application protocols built on TCP sockets are encouraged to use SSL/TLS e.g. HTTPS, SFTP, WSS (which is possibly HTTPS in a trenchcoat).

My speculation is that it raised the barrier for entry. Artists and writers wanted to quickly build and share worlds. Most computers supported raw TCP sockets and most shells handled ANSI, so players could join without installing software.

Today, people assume Telnet can't be secured and so they don't bother. Regrettably, I maintain some.

There's a recent push for MUD hosts to deploy a WSS proxy. An example: The IRE MUDs have a login telnet subnegotiation which the web client performs over WSS. Credentials are no longer sent in plaintext nor stored in the application's command history. (Telnet does specify when inputs shouldn't be stored in hisotry, but it's on the client to respect.) IRE is a bit of a pooper here, they consider the WSS service private. Because the subnegotiation is nonstandard and WSS is discouraged, MUD clients are obligated to make bad choices.

Other MUDs and engines are more forward. Evannia games support WS and Telnet and both can use SSL.

So what MUDs are we playing?

Edit to add: the tintin author, Scandum, is still at it. There's a nice group of folks in the Discord where Scandum and others helped me write my first terminal emulator. Come join us!

These decades, running an unprivileged ssh server is fine.

Billions of people. It turned out that mobile apps are the dominant way for people to use the internet. Mobile apps have much better security, have a much better user interface, and are able to use native os features like taking photos.

Twas mobile apps that slayed the shell. ;)

SSH ate its lunch in shell contexts, and then those new fangled computer graphics and browsers pecked away at the crumbs.

Title is incorrect, it's also accessible via their website at the second-level domain (anewsession.com).

cool how is site response. please specify more stats or how much engagement you are getting

Uh oh, China hacker has found your telnet magazine.

On MacOS...

nc issue3.anewsession.com 23

On FreeBSD, too.