For me, SDF is a refuge. It’s a part of the Old Internet where I can go and just enjoy a shell account for its own sake. Usenet, email, and a simple web page. Now with mastodon and lemmy, I feel like I’m contributing to a better Internet of the future while preserving and honoring the technology that started it all.

SDF was the first legitimately obtained shell I had that wasn't tied to my ISP.

I appreciate the retro computing functionality a lot (comm, bboard, etc), it's just fun to dive back into TUI land for a bit.

I have my own boxes for small scale stuff, but for stuff like Lemmy or Mastodon I prefer something with a community base.

I point newbs that want to learn more advanced computer stuff at SDF as a resource as well.

Mostly I just like what SDF does and what they "stand for".

I am way younger than you guys at 29 (Although I feel old now, I feel I cant change my life direction because of it, but... meh), but I use it for messing around with a large shared server. As odd as that sounds. Its fun being a limited user on a server that is being used in the same way by a bunch of people at the same time.

As for what is it actively doing? It hosts a meme website built with iframes for nostalgia. Thats about it. I might mess around with the other paid features at some point. I find using something shared like this a lot of fun, even though I rarely interact with others.

SDF was my first Unix experience. I logged in using telnet from my Win98 computer back in the early 2000s.

When I was graduating from college, I realized that I would soon lose terminal access to their main server. I wanted a place to store my old programming bits and bobs that I could still SSH into. I found the SDF back then and it served that purpose well. At that point, I learned of bboard and I like to read that from time to time (although I have never posted to it).

(For those not in the know, bboard is described at https://sdf.org/?tutorials/bboard-tutorial )

SDF is notable to me because it a shell account plus more things. This elevates it past any computer I can just set up with any Linux distro. The "more things" is what keeps me checking back and what makes SDF special to me.

Lately, mastodon (and now lemmy!). It's also been super handy as a "swiss army knife" unix system. Need to test access outside my network? ssd -D to sdf. Need to copy files between two systems that would normally be a PITA? scp to and from sdf! Also nice to have access to a bsd machine since everything I personally run is Linux.

I've also used it in the past for Plan 9 learning and a couple other random things here and there.

I've lurked on the sdf for a really long time since about 2010, and some of their more colorful user pages, but last year i finally decided to register because it reminds me of pre 10's internet, i want to do more, but don't feel like what i have to say is kinda relevant to start a thread inside the bboard

I'm thinking on becoming an ARPA user though, i feel like I have to give back to the internet and keep alive the sdf

bboard and I have SLRN there to connect to Usenet. Hope news.sdf.net will get fixed in the future.

I've kind of lurked around SDF since the mid 90s. (My first time on IRC was via SDF!) I keep meaning to participate more in the community, but my ADHD seems to give me a lack of object permanence with communities 😅

Either way, I'm glad to be reminded periodically that SDF still exists and I ponied up for a membership a few years back. The shell account comes in handy, occasionally. Glad to see new services pop up from SDF. Happy to see things still trucking along!

Lurking on IRC via tmux and bboard on the main cluster, plus general hacking on MetaArray.

Exploring! SDF is like the coalition of servers I ran in college with friends and campus friendlies. A little of it was explicitly practical, some of it unstable, all of it educational and fun and sometimes stuff took off. I love that SDF survives, and I love that they have paying members.

When new or esoteric stuff hits, whether it's 9front or the latest fedi service, SDF is where to see if it makes sense for you. Sure there's home labs, but a home lab doesn't have the community around it that we have here on SDF, which means it doesn't give you the sense of how a service runs at scale or in the (sometimes positive, sometimes corrupting, but always informative) presence of others.

I mostly use it for my website and gopher space, thought it's nice to have a trustworthy instance to use as a home base in the fediverse.

SDF was my gateway ~~drug~~ to Unix, USENET, and mail when I was a teen in the early '90s in Dallas via its getty dialup shells. I owe my career partially to SDF as it prepared me to use Linux (SLS) in its early days and gave me access to USENET to seek help from the community.

I haven't explored any of the other services yet as I was just looking for an escape from Reddit, but it feels comforting going through SDF again for a pipe to discussion forums.

I just joined tonight so I'm not fully understanding what SDF is all about at this point and what I can do with it.

I'm also here because of redditgate. My career as a software dev goes back to noodling around on various Commodore machines and BBSes back in the 80s, so when I spotted this instance, it was a no-brainer. I may eventually try some of the other bits and bobs.

I've been around since 2009. Nowadays they host my blog, plus it's handy to have a unix/linux shell somewhere else on the internet for testing things, particularly not being behind NAT. I've been intending to start putting code on the Gitea instance - I probably need to follow up about getting an account. Also it's fun to drop into bboard, anonradio etc. sometimes. :)

Happy SDF user for 9 years now. At first it was a safe place to learn and explore the command line.

I use SDF for DynamicDNS, NextCloud, mail, Anonradio, and sometimes a convenient place to proxy through.

There are enough tools and toys available for years of learning and experimentation. Enjoy!

The mission statement is so simple:

-=- a community platform for inspiring, facilitating and implementing new ideas -=-

I originally used SDF for the UNIX shell, but have now been using Mastodon for a few years, and now Lemmy. I've also enjoyed listening to AnonRadio.

I do find SDF useful. It's where I do some writing, and random computing. As someone else mentioned, SDF has a whole bunch of "other things" that have made it more sticky to me: NextCloud, Mastodon and perhaps now Lemmy. I make sure to pay my dues every year!

So, Originally I used it to learn the UNIX command line, now I use it for all sorts of things. A lot of social networking. I've tried webhosting, but... well... it's been more miss then hit there. It's a great community though, and I love it!

Way back in college, I took a class on systems programming where, because our professor was awesome, we logging in to macs remotely and pretended it was BSD Unix and worked on YACC and stuff. I'd of course used my linux terminal locally, but something about logging in to remote machines (and reading The Cucoo's egg) was undeniably cool, especially the idea of logging in to one other people also used. I hosted one of my first websites there, discovered and explored gopher, usenet, and of course (mostly lurked) the bboard.

Mostly these days as a community and also a web presence. Through the years I've used it for many things: file storage, places to practice coding or run builds on other systems, a place to learn, gopher, a VoIP provider, a VPS provider, DNS host, blogging service, mail+usenet service, games, mailing lists, VPN, and a bunch of other stuff I'm sure I forgot.

I've been a member verifiably for 20 years (see my uinfo) but I've been around for longer than that. Probably closer to 25. It's always just sort of been an extension to my computing. My membership has waxed and waned but there was rarely a time when I wasn't donating at some level.

I find I don't rely on services on SDF for critical stuff because sometimes they go down for extended periods of time or they go neglected. I do, however, appreciate the hell out of it.

TBH, I only just now discovered SDF. But I'm curious to explore the services more.

My first SDF account was created in 2004 (possibly before). In economic terms, the SDF services I enjoy with my sustaining membership have no equal. You'd be hard pressed to assemble the same portfolio of services from corporate providers-- ad-free, nag-free, no user productization-- for the same price.

But that's superficial. While I certainly enjoy the services that SDF provides, the community is what sets it apart. I've been here, and am still here, because of the community-- even if I've been quiet until recently. We're all a bunch of geeks of x, y, or z. Whenever I venture into com, I feel a sense of belonging. When I skim the local SDF fediverse feeds, I feel the same way.

SDF's banner offering is its community. Cheers, SDF!

Back in the days, I used the SDF free unix shell, which helped me alot to learn more about UNIX basics, and motivated me to iterate my first franken-homelab with bits of old laptops and desktops. If I'm an happy sysadmin nowadays, it's part thanks to SDF.

Then with a bunch of good friends we started our non-profit ISP (circa 2010) and diversified the services we offer to our users (VPS, VPNs, shells, Wiki, BBB, "cloud" (ahem) storage, monthly tutorials and workshops...). Nowadays we have half a rack of servers, and, home-side, my homelab grew (although it's still a franken-lab with NUCs, old desktops and one "real" server). Once again, thanks to SDF for igniting the spark which gave us the will to start our own community of kind and pasionnate people.

With the current reddit debacle, although I don't use SDF services nowadays, I was happy to see that SDF hosts a lemmy instance, because I know the values of the SDF community. So, thank you - again - SDF!

Hi! I picked this instance because it was recommended, but I don’t know it’s main purpose? Tbh, I’m still kinda getting the hang of lemmy. Is there anything I should know? I’m trying to use it as a Reddit alternative

I used SDF for pretty much everything for a while: usenet, email, shell, and hosted my gopher site here (until I deleted it a year or two ago). These days I'm mostly on SDF's Mastodon instance and (occasionally) Pixelfed.

I'd heard about it here & there over the years, but only recently looked more in to it after joining the Mastodon instance. A bit of a "how did I miss this?" moment for me honestly. Just started an actual account and when I can scrape the funds together I'd like to put up a gopher. Will likely do some other tinkering as well as time allows.

It’s a fun place to tinker with UNIX in an actual shared system like it was designed, and everybody seems pretty chill so im fairly active on mastodon, com, and now Lemmy.