A literary magazine accessible only via telnet

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!