my fav was bouncing people from the system (bbs) using the call-waiting blip during text-based mud PVP fights… and if you really pissed someone off they would just physically cut your phone line.
I was the main builder for one called Lost Prophecy. I was obsessed. I easily wrote a few novels of words for descriptions of rooms, items, mobs, and their stats and programming.
I asked the guy who ran it after it was totally dead many years ago if we could release all my work publicly for other people to enjoy on still-active MUDs. He said no. Makes me sad to this day.
That is sad, but unsurprising. MUD owners were a special breed of cat. I really enjoyed Avatar, the admin there was legendarily unapproachable.
Technically also, https://www.sdf.org
Oh man, I forgot about MUDs until reading your post. What a throwback to a simpler time. I was hooked on one that sounded like a spider - Arachnea or something.
Probably Achaea, that’s an Iron Realms game, good choice. I haven’t played a lot of MUDs but Iron Realms made the better ones that I have played. I liked Starmourn quite a lot but it seems not many other people did because it’s gone legacy mode now.
Achaea is still up and running if you want to go log in again.