TeleHamster

screen-free community for all ages

tried and true 19th century technology

a reasonably social medium

and a low-tech haven

NO SCREENS

NO ADS

NO A.I.

NO COOKIES

just fun and simple

How to sign up

The directory

Technical stuff

What is this?

This is a private telephone network that functions like a landline.  You can only call other TeleHamster members with it, not 911 or regular phone numbers.  There are also a bunch of fun numbers you can call to hear a joke, a story, a poem, a song, learn about a plant or animal, etc.:

LIFE  5433  Native flora & fauna of the week

JOKE  5653  The Joke of the Every Few Days

READ  7323  Hear a story

TIME  8463  Date and time, just like when we were kids

SONG  7664  Hear a song by a local Bellingham artist!

NEWS  6397  TeleHamster News and Community Bulletin

POEM  7636  Hear a poem

TELE  8353  Leave a message for TeleHamster

See the directory for the full list

Why is TeleHamster?

When we were kids in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, nearly every household had a landline telephone available for the whole family.  When we wanted to talk to a friend or grandparent, we could just call them up, easy peasy.  Now few households have landlines (they are too expensive anyhow) and kids no longer have a direct way to connect with each other from afar.  Instead, they have to ask us to text their friends' parents, or otherwise arrange phone calls orchestrated by us, which result in us handing our screeny blingy Pandora's boxes over to our children.  And wouldn't we all like a break from our own cell phones as well?

So we have set up a private network for my daughter to communicate autonomously with her community via plain old analog telephones. 

How does TeleHamster work?  

After you sign up, I program you a small black box with a unique 4-digit phone number.  You get yourself a telephone (new or old, rotary or push-button) and a cord, plug the phone into the box, and plug the box into your internet router.  The phone then acts like a normal landline with a dial tone, busy signal, call waiting, etc.  Except it is on a private network that doesn't connect to the public phone network.  So you can only use it to call other households in the club.  

And there are special numbers anybody can call at any time to hear a joke, a story, a poem, a song, community news, et cetera.  Soon our members will be able to record their own jokes, contribute to a circle story, or dial their way through an interactive story.

Where does TeleHamster work?

Anywhere in the world that has an internet connection with a place to plug in an ethernet cable!