Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net
Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net (hereby shortened to CGHMN for easier reference) originally started as me making good on a promise to use a Cisco AS5300 I acquired years ago to make a Dial-Up internet provider. Over time while working on the project and watching other YouTubers work on their own ISP projects it became clear that many of them are happy to set up the hardware, there was very little interest (or ability) to make it usable to other folks, or to have anything fun or useful to "do" with it (beyond the novelty of browsing a few vintage websites such as FrogFinder)
CGHMN (its name borrowing from a Simpsons joke, naturally) is another one of my "biting off far more than I can possibly chew" projects. Intended to be an intersection point between art, shitpost, rejection of "internet modernity", refuge for the nostalgic and a communal home for projects of a specifically retro computing bent.
CGHMN is currently in its embryonic stages as I step through the trial-by-fire of the reality of setting up 1990's era telecommunications infrastructure in a way that is both functional and not inconvenient for myself or others in the space it is physically housed in.
An eventual goal is to provide "open" access to an era of the web that has been not so much "lost" as obliterated by capitalism. A space that can mimic "the vibe" of the late 1990's internet through faithful reconstruction or mimicry of the hardware and software stacks that powered it.
Mechanisms will be implemented to discourage (but not outright prevent) "modern systems" from accessing the network where possible, both for the security of users on the network and to try and further the "vibe" of using period-accurate hardware and software. Using IRC and playing StarCraft on Windows 11 simply isn't as "fun" for us!
A longer term goal includes providing democratized access for users to begin submitting their own projects and content ala Geocities and setting up federated networking with other retro computing users, similar to GlobalTalk but with a larger scope of features and functionality