________  ________  ________
  2018-11-28                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                              /       __/         /_       _/
  A  hush  falls  over  the  crowd  as  Cat  /        _/         /         /
approaches the podium. He hesitates a moment  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
to adjust  his notes before leaning into the    /        \/        \/    /   \
mic.                                           /        _/         /_       _/
                                             /-        /        _/         /
  "tilde.tel!"                               \________/\________/\___/____/

  Rocking back on  his  heels, lifting  his face skyward,  Cat burps long and
loud as  he derezzes into  a cloud  of  pink voxels to  the  sound  of  polite
applause.

  For those just tuning in, let's do a one last quick  note on the SDF thing.
For reals this time since my last  file kind of fizzled out  when I got snotty
about life.

  One question I got asked, like, weeks ago but didn't address around the SDF
drama is whether there's  any animosity there but really there isn't.  I don't
hold grudges and I'll still be around, it just  reminded me that  it's  not my
system  and  should be  treated the same way I'd treat  any other  third-party
system; make sure I'm always backing  up my shit,  don't  use  it for anything
mission-critical, don't sink money  into it that could be better spent on DIY,
etc.  Don't  rely  on  people you don't know. There's some back and forth that
went  on behind  the scenes that's really nobody's business but suffice it  to
say it clarified to  me  the kind  of  people that are  running  the show so I
adjusted my involvement accordingly but am not the kind of person to drag them
over the coals for it.

  But fuck all that, it's not interesting anymore.

  What IS interesting is a couple of phlog posts that surfaced in the wake of
that whole mess; solderpunk's "Hey you! Host something!"[1] call to action and
tomasino's "Space  Gopher, Revisited"[2] and  his subsequent  launch of Cosmic
Voyage[3]. solderpunk's  post specifically calls out the psychological barrier
in  creating something  other people  are going to use and provides  a  couple
examples of "lite" offerings to reduce personal risk and stress and tomasino's
post brings up  the tildeverse, noting that their purpose is largely to "offer
one thing really well".

  So that brings me to what I'm working on: tilde.tel.

  A while back I had a goofy dream about a unified PUBNIX  VoIP  network and,
to his credit dokuja said we should build it but at the time I shied away from
it, it  just seemed like a such an impossible task. You'd need buy-in from the
other  systems and  you'd be really putting yourself on  the  line, but he was
absolutely right  and  I was just approaching it from the wrong direction. The
system does  not  need to touch  the other systems, it'll  always  be its  own
contained  system, no matter what name is on it so  there's no need for buy-in
from anyone but interested  users. As long as you're  clear that it's  a third
party service, not part of any specific system everything should be fine. That
realisation,  coupled with the launch of  Cosmic Voyage and Tildeverse  Radio,
not as  complete products to  be served to you but as  evolving ideas to learn
from and build on as a community really shifted my attitude on the whole thing
and the seeds of tilde.tel were planted.

  I  imagine tilde.tel  as  a  small, contained VoIP  phone  network  serving
tildeverse  members. For example, allowing ~town members to call ~team members
and so on, with each of  the tildes  having their own "area code" of sorts, as
well as providing some additional functionality like voicemail and  conference
facilities and, when my  Asterisk-fu gets stronger; maybe  a voice BBS, a nice
tidy "phonebook" and other fun toys.

  Let me touch on a few questions I'm sure will probably come up:

     Q. What constitutes a tilde, as far as tilde.tel is concerned?

     A. Basically   any  of  the   community   PUBNIX  systems,   but  not
        specifically  limited to  the ones that have "tilde" in their name
        and not specifically  ones that offer  shell  access. Pretty  much
        anyone will be considered, with the exception of...

     Q. I'm an SDF user, can I have a tilde.tel number?

     A. Nope! SDF already has a really excellent  VoIP  service  that  you
        should  utilise  instead  and  a  lot  of  tilde.tel  will  mirror
        functionality the SDF's  service already  has. Being an SDF member
        of course doesn't  exclude  you from tilde.tel  though, if  you're
        also a member of a tilde, there just won't be an SDF "area code" .
        I do have a half-idea on how to bridge the two networks though, so
        they  can call between each other. It'll be  a  little  clunky but
        it'll be something I can DIY rather than needing admin assistance.

     Q. If I'm a member of multiple tildes, can I have multiple numbers?

     A. Sure, fuck it, why not.

     Q. Can I call external VoIP numbers or PSTN network numbers?

     A. Initially, definitely not. Being able to call other VoIP providers
        is  likely but I'll have to work  out  how to do  it. Calling PSTN
        numbers will probably never  happen  as those  kind of calls incur
        charges  or require a subscription and  I'm just not interested in
        building any kind of payment model  or shelling out for it myself.
        Maybe if I  can find a way to  bridge Google Voice  or some  other
        mostly-free service as a kind of  outgoing gateway I'll look at it
        but it's a pretty low priority.

     Q. Will I be able to update my details? CLI? Reset my password?

     A. Hahaha no. At least not at first and  definitely  not when it's in
        pilot.  It's gonna be  all manual initially while I  sort out some
        kind of system to do  that for you. That said, I can't imagine the
        userbase is going  to  reach unmanageable  levels,  so  user admin
        shouldn't be too time consuming.

  Now, all that sounds exciting, but you know me so you know this is going to
be slow  going. I  have big dreams but am completely scatterbrained and easily
distracted so I'm  hoping for a soft pilot around January. It'll be  extremely
bare-bones, offering just extension to extension dialling, hopefully voicemail
and maybe a conference.  If you'd  like to be involved as a pilot user though,
I'd love to hear from you. Hit  me up via whatever channel is easiest for you,
I'm not hard to find!

  And there you have it, now you're  all caught up! The cat's out  of the bag
and I'm on the line to get it done so busy times ahead.


[1] gopher://circumlunar.space/0/~solderpunk/phlog/hey-you-host-something.txt
[2] gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20181119-space-gopher-revisited
[3] gopher://cosmic.voyage



EOF

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