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starting-a-tilde.txt (4247B) [raw]


      1 # Starting a Tilde Community for Fun and the Learnings
      2 
      3 _Published: May 19, 2022_
      4 
      5 Like most good projects, this one started with a name: _garbash_.
      6 
      7 The name was my friend [Anthony's](https://anthonymorris.dev) idea.
      8 It came out of a PR review as a self-deprecating take on his bash
      9 code (which actually turned out to be mine).
     10 
     11 We laughed and I realized the domain was for sale, so I snagged it
     12 and resolved to find its purpose later.
     13 
     14 That purpose came in the form of starting a small tilde community
     15 together: [garbash.com](https://garbash.com).
     16 For those unfamiliar, a [tilde](https://tildeverse.org) is a public UNIX system,
     17 usually combining external services (web hosting) with a small
     18 internal social network (local only IRC, `talk(1)`, etc). It's
     19 a harkening back to the days when UNIX was a multi-user system--
     20 a fun escape from the complexities and ephemerality of modern
     21 container based infrastructure.
     22 
     23 In this blog post, I don't want to go too much into the technical
     24 setup (I wrote [detailed notes](https://garbash.com/~alex/) and
     25 published [all the configs](https://git.garbash.com/alex/config/files.html)).
     26 Instead I want to write about the experience creating it.
     27 
     28 I wasn't sure I'd ever write this post.
     29 Originally I thought I'd keep garbash separate from my personal
     30 portfolio. There's a certain feeling of freedom when coding,
     31 writing, or self-hosting services without association to a career or
     32 professional life (something that has touched this blog more recently).
     33 I imagine it's how writers feel when using a nom de plume.
     34 
     35 But ultimately, I spent days on garbash, and it's a project that I'm
     36 really proud of. It's something I do want associated with me,
     37 and above all I want to broadcast it in hopes that someone finds
     38 the collective research, configs, or notes valuable.
     39 
     40 ## Reflections on Success
     41 
     42 On the outside, garbash might look like a failure or abandoned side
     43 project. A "budding tilde" with only two users--the admins.
     44 And while it's true that we never quite got around to making it a
     45 larger community, garbash was, to me, a massive success.
     46 
     47 The simplest win was that I got to explore new technologies.  Having
     48 a sandbox to set up services I've always wanted to use proved
     49 invaluable in terms of learning. The best example of this is email;
     50 almost every hackernews comment will tell you *not* to self host
     51 it.  Don't even try! You'll forget some DNS record and big senders
     52 will mark your domain as bad.  You'll never be able to reach their
     53 inboxes. Well, with garbash, I was able to say "so what" and
     54 [set up email addresses with OpenSMTPD](https://garbash.com/~alex/notes/004-mail-server.html)
     55 fully featured with DKIM signing and proper SPF and DMARC records.
     56 
     57 Better yet, the act of pairing and explaining services I've set up
     58 before like [git hosting via `stagit(1)`](https://garbash.com/~alex/notes/007-git-coding.html)
     59 or [a Wireguard VPN tunnel for internal services](https://garbash.com/~alex/notes/009-wireguard.html)
     60 solidified my mental model of the technologies. Writing scripts
     61 together to automate things like setting up users or Wireguard
     62 key management was both fun and a chance to share coding
     63 tips and tricks.
     64 
     65 But best of all, I came away from garbash with a stronger friendship.
     66 We [set up an IRC server](https://garbash.com/~alex/notes/008-local-irc.html)
     67 expecting it to be the hub of the network. Instead it became our
     68 preferred way to chat just the two of us about life and tech.
     69 
     70 We may still find friends who want to join, but if we don't
     71 that's OK; as a project it's been one of my favorites. To
     72 Anthony--thanks for all the good times pairing and for agreeing
     73 to take on such an out-there project.
     74 
     75 ## Conclusion
     76 
     77 If there's one takeaway from this post, it's not just to
     78 try self-hosting your services--_find a friend to set them up with
     79 you and learn from each other._
     80 
     81 And of course feel free to use what we wrote as a
     82 [starting place](https://garbash.com/~alex/)--it's all FOSS!
     83 
     84 
     85 ## Update 2023-04
     86 
     87 After a good long run, we decided to retire garbash; the
     88 services weren't getting much use, and the maintenance/cost
     89 was non-zero (albeit small). I've kept the "field notes" on
     90 setup there, but I spun down the server / hosted services.
     91 Thanks to all who participated--it was fun!