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Those still exist today, check out the tildeverse and their family of niche shell boxes: https://tildeverse.org/

that's cool, but it's not the same as like being a teenager at the dawn of the internet boom where you and a bunch of your irl friends all have shell boxes and you judge people based on their choice of os, configuration thereof and what cool or uncool stuff they're hosting.

also hosting is cheap and easy now and participating in internet mail seems like a terrible headache.

Can someone explain how this link works?

The endpoint seems to change based on which browser and which type of window I use to open it.

it looks at the referer field in the http request to see where you came from, and for the existence of a scarlet cookie. if it's a place they don't like, it drops a scarlet cookie in your browser that says they don't like you and then redirects. if the cookie exists, it redirects regardless.

Appreciate the explanation! Thank you for taking the time.

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