A different Internet

Today is September 9,129th 1993. Even after September began, one could still be pleasantly open to the world. For example, while logged in I would sometimes receive a request to talk(1) to some stranger who was curious about something. These days unmoderated discussion fora are filled with rabid fools and there is so much maleficent Internet traffic that I have most incoming ports closed off and I protect the few open ports with the help of IP blacklists: currently I wholly drop traffic from one thousand IP addresses and tarpit incoming e-mail from three hundred thousand. How times change. I wonder how to get invited to join the secret VPN that is full of polite people who mean well.