I built a Synchronet BBS (v3.21, on EC2) for NaClCON 2026, a new con in Carolina Beach, NC focused on the history of hacking. May 31 to June 2, 2026. Tagline: Play Hard. Hack Harder.
Fair warning: I am very new to this and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, so please be gentle. I'm posting here because I'd rather learn from people who've actually run boards than keep guessing.
- Telnet:
naclconbbs.netport 23 - SSH:
naclconbbs.netport 2222 - Repo: https://github.com/foodbark/naclcon-bbs
What's there now:
- Synchronet Classic + Deuce's Lightbar Shell, reskinned in a NaClCON magenta/hot-pink/yellow palette
- Terminal-adaptive ANSI splash art (wide art for big terminals, narrow for 80-col)
- Per-speaker message threads + speaker list bulletin
- The Pelican, a sassy southern coastal peli-hen chatbot (1-on-1 and multinode). Her canon is every issue of Phrack, the Rainbow Series, The Hacker's Manifesto, and Neuromancer. She chimes in by name or when the channel is quiet.
- Security hardening writeup in the README including the story of "The Jamaican," a TLS-downgrade scriptkiddy who got silently .can'd on day one
Where I could use help:
- Sysops willing to link up. Leaning toward fsxNet, open to FidoNet/DoveNet, happy to be talked into something else.
- Door game recommendations. Planning on LORD + TradeWars 2002 at minimum, curious what else people would actually play at a hacker con.
- Eyes on the repo, especially the fail2ban filters, the
SSH_ANYAUTHworkaround I'm not happy about (see README), and anything that looks off in the JS mods. - People to seed the message bases. Hacker history, old-school exploit war stories, con talk, whatever.
- ANSI artists. Always.
Dial in, poke around, leave feedback in the message bases, message me here, or open an issue. Thanks!
u/count_zero_moustafa — 2 days ago