wtf is aim-server-gcp?

This project lets you run your own AIM and ICQ chat server, the old AOL instant messaging protocol from the 1990s, on a cheap Google Cloud virtual machine. It is built on top of a separate open source project called open-oscar-server, which reimplements the OSCAR protocol that AOL shut down in 2017. Classic clients like old Windows AIM, Pidgin, or vintage hardware can connect to it directly on port 5190, just like they would to the original AOL servers, and running it costs roughly the price of a single public IP address, about three dollars a month. What this repository adds on top of the underlying server is the deployment setup using Terraform, plus a signup system, since the base server by itself either creates accounts with no password check at all or requires an admin to create every account by hand. Here, new users get a web signup page, have to verify they own their email address by clicking a link, and only then does their account and a one time generated password get created. From there they can change their password from inside the AIM or Pidgin client itself. Signups are protected against abuse with rate limiting per visitor, a hidden trap field for bots, and a daily cap on how many verification emails can go out. The repository is organized into a Terraform folder for the cloud infrastructure, a small signup service written in plain Go with no outside libraries, and a deploy folder with setup scripts and a backup script, along with a separate step by step deployment guide. It also links to the YouTube video and blog post that inspired the project, and to the underlying open-oscar-server project itself. The README is upfront that OSCAR is an old, unencrypted protocol from a less security conscious era, so it warns against reusing a password you care about anywhere else.