When I got on SDF years ago I was very enthusiastic. It's old and it has a legacy and a story with it which, to be honest, I never could connect to and I don't blame SDF, people, or myself for that. It just didn't click. I got my account validated using paypal, back in 06 from India, where I used my cousin's card to pay $5. Then I got the ARPA account spending $36 one time fee which was a decent sum considering my country's currency and my pocket money at the time. I tried to hang out on IRC, COM and even tried the boards but I just didn't quite get the appeal of it. It was not like I didn't fit in. More like I didn't try to fit in or belong because I couldn't connect to the culture or the environments. As in it was bad? No, not at all. Whoever I communciacated to, and got a response or so, it was always supportive and positive. It was just, how do I put it, too USA oriented. The chatter, the matter and it was fine because that was where it was from and it's cool. I am just talking about my experience. I realise, kinda realised then too, SDF's appeal might have gone by the time I went there. People gush over it (sometimes) or talk about it is the nostalgia, maybe. What it was - not even what it could be, let alone what it is. Or maybe I still don't get the very idea of SDF.

After I got a job, one day I thought of going for MetaARPA. It was again some kind of curiosity and and a sense of giving back - because in all honesty it was SDF where I had first accessed a remote shell and sent a file via FTP to a remote server. I checked around on the net and SDF how is this, what do I get with it and I sent a short mail to support asking few questions. I never got a reply. Tried asking on IRC and COM too didn't really receive much in info. Docs are really insufficient. Maybe I was not patient enough - having been accustomed to StackOverflow and tutorials.

Fare enough, it was nothihng that anyone owe me. Then at the same time email started to act strange and many other problems. Yes, I was using <my-user-name>@sdf.org really at many important places (except my bank and all). It would sometimes bounce back and then would act funny. The delay in fetching email of course. Didn't receive any communication regarding any of these. I read a blog post by someome who gave up and has started to change his email everywhere because of SDF's unreliability. He mentioned he had used the sdf.org email for close to 20 years. Recently the link where one could access roundcube webmail (and no, IMAP never never really worked - for me; I guess it might be because of my membership level but then I did want to upgrade) stopped working and there was no communication regarding it, no response. And on IRC I figured I am not the only one wondering about it. It was not the first time mail/webmail had a problem. The link still doesn't work (https://wm.sdf.org/rc) and there still hasn't been any communication or response regarding that (at least I didn't get one - not I am owed one). Amyway that's how it was. I also think it's pretty much one person setup (not sure) - maybe not full time and how such roles at non-profits can be a thankless job especially when people start expecting services as they expect from commercial entities. Anyway, I never proceeded much further than that. I kinda realised me and SDF are not a match, or a fit so to speak.

I am really not complaining (really really not; it may sound like one) I am just sharing my experience. I think my connection with SDF is just all about curiosity and maybe I never really had the real SDF experience. Either I didn't try enough or maybe the relevance was lost to time by the time I got on SDF (around 2006-07). Or maybe I tried to treat SDF as a service provider (a commodity?) and it is/was supposed to be more of an experience, an anecdotal memory collected over time.