Mare Crisium Soviet Socialist Regency

        Frequently Asked Questions
        ==========================

 Q1: What is this place?
 Q2: What services do you provide?
 Q3: What services you do not provide?
 Q4: Do you require a payment of a fee?
 Q5: How do I sign up?
 Q6: What can I do on the system? 
 Q7: What I cannot do on the system?
 Q8: Can you please install $progam on the system? 
 Q9: How many accounts are there? How many do you plan to have?
 Q10: Why putting a cap on the number of accounts?
 Q11: OK, but why exactly 48 then?
 Q12: Why this name?
 Q13: What is the "civil right"?
 Q14: How long do I retain my account?
 Q98: Are you a Bolshevik spy?
 Q99: Why do you sun this server?


 Q1: What is this place?
 ----------------------
 This is a public-access Unix system (pubnix). 
 Read about the history of pubnix systems
 
 Q2: What services do you provide?
 --------------------------------
 We provide shell access via SSH to a full-featured text-only Unix
 environment. Users can publish stuff via gopher or gemini.
 
 Q3: What services you do not provide?
 ------------------------------------
 We do not provide web hosting. If you are looking for a place to host
 your website, please look elsewhere.

 Q4: Do you require a payment of a fee?
 -------------------------------------
 Nope. The service is and will remain free of charge for all its members.

 Q5: How do I sign up?
 --------------------
 You have to send an email with your SSH public key attached.
 Click here for detailed information about the sign-up procedure
 Q6: What can I do on the system? 
 -------------------------------
 You can do whatever your user can do on the system. This includes 
 executing any program for which you (or the group "sundogs") have "x"
 (execute) permission, reading or writing any file for which you have
 "r" or "w" permission, navigate via gopher, gemini, http, https, and
 a handful of other protocols, mainly to other pubnix systems, sending
 email to users in the circumlunar.space colonies, accessing the 
 federated circumlunar.space IRC network and text-based BBS, 
 collaborate with other users on the development of software, 
 documentation, and other shared resources, etc.

 Q7: What I cannot do on the system?
 ----------------------------------
 You cannot send spam, feed torrents, port-scan other machines, mine
 crypto-currencies, publish illegal, violent or offensive material, harass
 other users, waste system resources, etc. You cannot run your own daemon
 or listen for connections on whatever port. You cannot treat other users
 in a disrespectful manner, hinder their own activities on the server, or
 mess up with their data. In a word: you cannot be an asshole. And if you
 behave like one, rest assured you will be kicked out. 

 Q8: Can you please install $progam on the system? 
 -------------------------------------------------
 The answer is most probably "yes". Just post a request in the REQUESTS
 board on the BBS, or email union@soviet.circumlunar.space. 

 Q9: How many accounts are there? How many do you plan to have?
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 The number of user accounts on the server is capped at 48. This limit
 does not include a couple of accounts needed for server maintenance.

 The current number of accounts on the server is visible in the:
 server status page
 Q10: Why putting a cap on the number of accounts?
 -----------------------------------------------
 Because we want this server and the circumlunar.space universe to be
 a tightly-knit community, and there is no way to tightly-knit together
 thousands of people.

 Q11: OK, but why exactly 48 then?
 -------------------------------
 This has something to do with the mythical "Dunbar's number"
 Read about the Dunbar's number on Gopherpedia 
 
 In practice, the idea is that each person can only maintain, at any
 given time, a limited number of meaningful social contacts, due to 
 obvious limits on energy and time. Historically, this number was "set"
 to something around 150, but there is a lot of disagreement about the
 "correct" value. Anyhow, we want the circumlunar.space universe to 
 not grow larger than 150 users in total. Zaibatsu is capped at 32. 
 The Republic is capped at 64. The Soviet has intermediate resources 
 between Zaibatsu and Republic, and is capped at 48, which is a 32 plus 
 additional 16. The total is 144. End of story.

 Q12: Why this name?
 -----------------
 The colonies in the circumlunar.space universe share a back-story 
 inspired by the novel "Schismatrix" by Bruce Sterling. In the novel
 there are explicit references to "ten circumlunar colonies", each of
 them named after the lunar mare or crater from which the materials
 needed to construct the colony were extracted. Only two colonies are
 named in full in the book, namely "The Mare Serenitatis Circumlunar 
 Corporate Republic" and "The Mare Tranquillitatis People's Circumlunar
 Zaibatsu". The name of a couple of more colonies is hinted to by 
 Ryumin upon meeting Lindsay: "What's your home world? Crisium S.S.R.? 
 Copernican Commonwealth?". Crisium is in fact a lunar mare. What 
 Stirling had in mind by "S.S.R." is not known, but something like a
 "Soviet Socialist Regency" does not sound totally unreasonable in the
 Schismatrix universe. And I went for that one. 

 Q13: What is the "civil right"?
 -------------------------------

 All Soviet members have the right of having their account terminated 
 and all the content permanently removed at any time. This is what we
 call the sundog's "civil right". 

 To claim your civil right, create a file with the filename
 i-claim-my-civil-right in the top level of your home directory, with
 the content "I claim my civil right."

 Once you claim your civil right, your account will be deactivated 
 within one hour, and then it will totally and permanently removed 
 within one day of your request. The Union take seiousrly into account
 the intentions of the Soviet members. The Union will not seek any 
 confirmation or approval before proceeding to remove your account
 if you claim your civil right as explained above. Do not claim 
 your civil right lightly.

 Q14: How long do I retain my account?
 -------------------------------------

 Your account had indefinite validity, and you can keep it for as long
 as you want. However, the Soviet is focused around participation and 
 collaboration, particularly regarding gopher/gemini content,
 documentation/software, and active involvement in the circumlunar
 universe. 

 The number of accounts at The Soviet is capped to 48 (see Q9), so we
 will deactivate your account if it is left unused for more than one 
 year (365 days). By "unused" we mean an account to which you have not
 logged in, or from which you have not published any content for more
 than one year. The gopher/gemini content published from a deactivated
 account (including phlogs and other stuff) will be moved in the
 "inactive" section of the gopher/gemini space. 
 
 Your account will also be deleted if one calendar month passes after
 the creation of your account and your gopher/gemini is either still
 empty, or contains only an absolute minimum of content, e.g. a
 "hello world" note saying that the space is under construction.  As
 soon as one item of genuine content is uploaded, your account is
 safe from this consideration.

 Q98: Are you a Bolshevik spy?
 -----------------------------
 Not even for a moment (or am I not?). The name is just part of the 
 back-story inspired to Schismatrix :)

 Q99: Why do you run this server?
 ------------------------------ 
 For fun. And to give back to the circumlunar.space community.
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