Talk:SDF Public Access Unix System

Cleanup
Made effort to clean up, revised some text, moved into groupings of free vs dues-paying memberships, added some references to SDF and outside of SDF (floodgap gopher site lists SDF as #2 important gopher site, found and article on site OSTechNix that reviews SDFs offering, added reference to SDF's tax exempt status). Explained that sustaining members can validate users so they don't have to pay $1 (true, I'm a sustaining member). Clarified that SDF supports retrocomputing--I could add more, they do a Plan9 bootcamp periodically, offering free Plan9 VPS slices. --Peteyboy2000 (talk) 08:52, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

Deletion
Why is this marked to be deleted? Why is there no reason listed? I do not understand. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.234.108.37 (talk) 15:56, 14 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Please see Articles for deletion/SDF Public Access Unix Network and comment there. 70.29.208.247 (talk) 11:05, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I wish to raise some questions about this article.

1. Its content is based on two links, one of which is an interview with its "founder" in a somewhat obscure blog called "BSDTalk". This interview is dated "Wednesday, March 01, 2006". The second is a cite that points to German news website and this is dated "2007 > week 25" "18.06.2007" but the content for this 'cite' seems to be largely based on the audio interview with "BSDTalk".

2. The SDF article claims to be a "501(c)(7) non-profit", but I can find no evidence with the IRS. I looked here: http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/search.do I searched for "SDF" and Super Dimensional Fortress". Surely a link to the appropriate documentation is required when the information is available on the Internet.

3. The article claims to offer "public access" and a "free Unix shell access to its users", but when I visited their site using SSH (ssh new@sdf.org), I discovered that they charge $1 (which goes up to $36) for 'validation' and that the "free shell" that is offered by default, is valid for roughly 1 year.

There are two paths to validation: 1) pay the $1. 2) Find someone who is "MetaARPA" (paying $36/yr)" to validate you--all members at that level have access to the program 'validate'. This is typically accomplished by engaging other users in the chat-program "com", which is available to unvalidated users. Once validated, the user is a free account meaning no further charges for life. If the user wants access to a larger set of commands then there are other levels. The only level that requires a yearly fee is MetaArpa however the users who choose this are mostly interested in one specific feature. Levels can be viewed via this url - http://sdf.org/?join

The 'free shell' is a badly written shell script with an extremely limited set of commands and acts as a wrapper around the more traditional Unix shell (bash, ksh). The sys-admins for this site have written a UNIX shell script and called it 'psh' - the actual (more traditional) UNIX shell that their script uses is ksh.

The above is not true! I'm a SDF user. What this writer is mentioning is the initial account IE free account that has a very limited command set. SDF is free however they require a payment of 1 dollar to validate the user. Its a means of determining who is legitimate and who is not. By requiring some effort and investment of 1 dollar the quality of SDF improves. Quality by deterrence.

Also SDFs non-profit status can be verified at Guide Star - http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/80-0016172/sdf-public-access-unix-system.aspx

I believe the article needs to reflect this.

4. I could find no references to "DragCit Citadel BBS" or "MALR corporation" except for one article on Google. If these are registered companies then information and filings will be available. This is what I found about MALR "Malr, Inc. is located at 600 Sellmeyer Ln Lewisville, TX 75077. The officers include Sarah P Jones, Stephen S Jones. Malr, Inc. was incorporated on Friday, February 27, 1987 in the State of TX and is currently active. Stephen S Jones represents Malr, Inc. as their registered agent."

5. I'd like to highlight the fact that as per (4) MALR is still "active" and that it is important that SDF's non-profit status be made clear.

Also SDFs non-profit status can be verified at Guide Star - http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/80-0016172/sdf-public-access-unix-system.aspx

6. Does this article meet "notability" guidelines? There were many BBSs in operation during the 80s because of falling processor prices. This organization started off as a commercial venture, which probably failed, and since then has gone "non-profit" under Mr.Jones (this needs to be clarified - who ran it and what their business model was, and how is it being run currently and what its current business model is) except that they charge anything up to $36. With the 30K users that is roughly 30K USD.

The Wiki cannot list every failed BBS since the 1980s. So in what way is this organization notable? Right now there are similar organizations(free UNIX shells) with much the same claim to fame (arbornet.org for example, which is actually completely free [ssh newuser@arbornet.org] last I checked and they give you a "proper" Unix shell[bash, ksh, csh]) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vivek.m1234 (talk • contribs) 13:27, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

History merge
This page used to exist as Super Dimension Fortress. It was deleted by by process, but recreated here from the previous article. Thus, the history merge I performed. I don't really care if the page stays or goes, but the history must be complete. Keegan (talk) 06:51, 9 May 2014 (UTC)