diff --git a/cmd/stats/README.md b/cmd/stats/README.md
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/stats/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# townstats
+
+This program dumps information about tilde.town in the [Tilde Data Protocol](http://protocol.club/~datagrok/beta-wiki/tdp.html).
+
+# author
+
+vilmibm, based on python work by [datagrok](https://datagrok.org)
+
+# license
+
+gplv3+
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/cmd/stats/main.go b/cmd/stats/main.go
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/stats/main.go
@@ -0,0 +1,359 @@
+// townstats returns information about tilde.town in the tilde data protcol format
+// It was originally a Python script written by Michael F. Lamb <https://datagrok.org>
+// License: GPLv3+
+
+// TDP is defined at http://protocol.club/~datagrok/beta-wiki/tdp.html
+// It is a JSON structure of the form:
+
+// Usage: stats > /var/www/html/tilde.json
+
+package main
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"log"
+	"os"
+	"os/exec"
+	"path"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"regexp"
+	"sort"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+)
+
+const defaultIndexPath = "/etc/skel/public_html/index.html"
+const description = `an intentional digital community for creating and sharing
+works of art, peer education, and technological anachronism. we are
+non-commercial, donation supported, and committed to rejecting false
+technological progress in favor of empathy and sustainable computing.`
+
+type newsEntry struct {
+	Title   string `json:"title"`   // Title of entry
+	Pubdate string `json:"pubdate"` // Human readable date
+	Content string `json:"content"` // HTML of entry
+}
+
+type user struct {
+	Username  string `json:"username"` // Username of user
+	PageTitle string `json:"title"`    // Title of user's HTML page, if they have one
+	Mtime     int64  `json:"mtime"`    // Timestamp representing the last time a user's index.html was modified
+	// Town additions
+	DefaultPage bool `json:"default"` // Whether or not user has updated their default index.html
+}
+
+type tildeData struct {
+	Name        string  `json:"name"`        // Name of the server
+	URL         string  `json:"url"`         // URL of the server's homepage
+	SignupURL   string  `json:"signup_url"`  // URL for server's signup page
+	WantUsers   bool    `json:"want_users"`  // Whether or not new users are being accepted
+	AdminEmail  string  `json:"admin_email"` // Email for server admin
+	Description string  `json:"description"` // Description of server
+	UserCount   int     `json:"user_count"`  // Total number of users on server sorted by last activity time
+	Users       []*user `json:"users"`
+	// Town Additions
+	LiveUserCount   int         `json:"live_user_count"`   // Users who have changed their index.html
+	ActiveUserCount int         `json:"active_user_count"` // Users with an active session
+	ActiveUsers     []string    `json:"active_users"`      // Usernames of logged in users
+	GeneratedAt     string      `json:"generated_at"`      // When this was generated in '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' format
+	GeneratedAtSec  int64       `json:"generated_at_sec"`  // When this was generated in seconds since epoch
+	Uptime          string      `json:"uptime"`            // output of `uptime -p`
+	News            []newsEntry `json:"news"`              // Collection of town news entries
+}
+
+func getEnvDefault(key, def string) string {
+	result := os.Getenv(key)
+	if result == "" {
+		result = def
+	}
+	return result
+}
+
+func homesDir() string { return getEnvDefault("HOMES_DIR", "/home") }
+
+func getNews() (entries []newsEntry, err error) {
+	inMeta := true
+	inContent := false
+	current := newsEntry{}
+	blankLineRe := regexp.MustCompile(`^ *\n$`)
+
+	newsPath := getEnvDefault("NEWS_PATH", "/town/news.posts")
+
+	newsFile, err := os.Open(newsPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return entries, fmt.Errorf("unable to read news file: %s", err)
+	}
+	defer newsFile.Close()
+
+	scanner := bufio.NewScanner(newsFile)
+
+	for scanner.Scan() {
+		newsLine := scanner.Text()
+		if strings.HasPrefix(newsLine, "#") || newsLine == "" || blankLineRe.FindStringIndex(newsLine) != nil {
+			continue
+		} else if strings.HasPrefix(newsLine, "--") {
+			entries = append(entries, current)
+			current = newsEntry{}
+			inMeta = true
+			inContent = false
+		} else if inMeta {
+			kv := strings.SplitN(newsLine, ":", 2)
+			if kv[0] == "pubdate" {
+				current.Pubdate = strings.TrimSpace(kv[1])
+			} else if kv[0] == "title" {
+				current.Title = strings.TrimSpace(kv[1])
+			} else {
+				log.Printf("ignoring unknown metadata in news entry: %v\n", newsLine)
+			}
+			if current.Pubdate != "" && current.Title != "" {
+				inMeta = false
+				inContent = true
+			}
+		} else if inContent {
+			current.Content += fmt.Sprintf("\n%v", strings.TrimSpace(newsLine))
+		} else {
+			panic("news post parsing should never reach this point")
+		}
+	}
+	return entries, nil
+}
+
+func indexPathFor(username string) (string, error) {
+	potentialPaths := []string{"index.html", "index.htm"}
+	indexPath := ""
+	errs := []error{}
+	for _, p := range potentialPaths {
+		fullPath := path.Join(homesDir(), username, "public_html", p)
+		_, staterr := os.Stat(fullPath)
+		if staterr != nil {
+			errs = append(errs, staterr)
+		} else {
+			indexPath = fullPath
+			break
+		}
+	}
+
+	if indexPath == "" {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to locate index file for %v; tried %v; encountered errors: %v", username, potentialPaths, errs)
+	}
+
+	return indexPath, nil
+}
+
+func pageTitleFor(username string) string {
+	pageTitleRe := regexp.MustCompile(`<title[^>]*>(.*)</title>`)
+	indexPath, err := indexPathFor(username)
+	if err != nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(indexPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	titleMatch := pageTitleRe.FindStringSubmatch(string(content))
+	if len(titleMatch) < 2 {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return titleMatch[1]
+}
+
+func systemUsers() map[string]bool {
+	systemUsers := map[string]bool{
+		"ubuntu":  true,
+		"ttadmin": true,
+		"root":    true,
+	}
+	envSystemUsers := os.Getenv("SYSTEM_USERS")
+	if envSystemUsers != "" {
+		for _, username := range strings.Split(envSystemUsers, ",") {
+			systemUsers[username] = true
+		}
+	}
+
+	return systemUsers
+}
+
+func mtimeFor(username string) int64 {
+	path := path.Join(homesDir(), username, "public_html")
+	var maxMtime int64 = 0
+	_ = filepath.Walk(path, func(path string, info os.FileInfo, err error) error {
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if maxMtime < info.ModTime().Unix() {
+			maxMtime = info.ModTime().Unix()
+		}
+		return nil
+	})
+
+	return maxMtime
+}
+
+func detectDefaultPageFor(username string, defaultHTML []byte) bool {
+	indexPath, err := indexPathFor(username)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	indexFile, err := os.Open(indexPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	defer indexFile.Close()
+
+	indexHTML, err := ioutil.ReadAll(indexFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	return bytes.Equal(indexHTML, defaultHTML)
+}
+
+func getDefaultHTML() ([]byte, error) {
+	indexPath := os.Getenv("DEFAULT_INDEX_PATH")
+	if indexPath == "" {
+		indexPath = defaultIndexPath
+	}
+
+	defaultIndexFile, err := os.Open(indexPath)
+	if err != nil {
+		return []byte{}, fmt.Errorf("could not open default index: %s", err)
+	}
+	defer defaultIndexFile.Close()
+
+	defaultIndexHTML, err := ioutil.ReadAll(defaultIndexFile)
+	if err != nil {
+		return []byte{}, fmt.Errorf("could not read default index: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	return defaultIndexHTML, nil
+}
+
+type byMtime []*user
+
+func (x byMtime) Len() int           { return len(x) }
+func (x byMtime) Less(i, j int) bool { return x[i].Mtime > x[j].Mtime } // because we want DESC
+func (x byMtime) Swap(i, j int)      { x[i], x[j] = x[j], x[i] }
+
+func getUsers() (users []*user, err error) {
+	// For the purposes of this program, we discover users via:
+	// - presence in /home/
+	// - absence in systemUsers list (sourced from source code and potentially augmented by an environment variable)
+	// We formally used passwd parsing. This is definitely more "correct" and I'm
+	// not opposed to going back to that; going back to parsing /home is mainly to
+	// get this new version going.
+	defaultIndexHTML, err := getDefaultHTML()
+	if err != nil {
+		return users, err
+	}
+
+	out, err := exec.Command("ls", homesDir()).Output()
+	if err != nil {
+		return users, fmt.Errorf("could not run ls: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	scanner := bufio.NewScanner(bytes.NewReader(out))
+
+	systemUsers := systemUsers()
+
+	for scanner.Scan() {
+		username := scanner.Text()
+		if systemUsers[username] {
+			continue
+		}
+		user := user{
+			Username:    username,
+			PageTitle:   pageTitleFor(username),
+			Mtime:       mtimeFor(username),
+			DefaultPage: detectDefaultPageFor(username, defaultIndexHTML),
+		}
+		users = append(users, &user)
+	}
+
+	return users, nil
+}
+
+func liveUserCount(users []*user) int {
+	count := 0
+	for _, u := range users {
+		if !u.DefaultPage {
+			count++
+		}
+	}
+	return count
+}
+
+func activeUsers() ([]string, error) {
+	out, err := exec.Command("sh", "-c", "who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort -u").Output()
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get active user count: %w", err)
+	}
+	scanner := bufio.NewScanner(bytes.NewReader(out))
+	usernames := []string{}
+	for scanner.Scan() {
+		usernames = append(usernames, strings.TrimSpace(scanner.Text()))
+	}
+	return usernames, nil
+}
+
+func getUptime() (string, error) {
+	out, err := exec.Command("uptime").Output()
+	if err != nil {
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("could not run uptime: %s", err)
+	}
+	return strings.TrimSpace(string(out)), nil
+}
+
+func tdp() (tildeData, error) {
+	users, err := getUsers()
+	if err != nil {
+		return tildeData{}, fmt.Errorf("could not get user list: %s", err)
+	}
+	activeUsernames, err := activeUsers()
+	if err != nil {
+		return tildeData{}, fmt.Errorf("could not count active users: %s", err)
+	}
+	news, err := getNews()
+	if err != nil {
+		return tildeData{}, fmt.Errorf("could not get news: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	uptime, err := getUptime()
+	if err != nil {
+		return tildeData{}, fmt.Errorf("could not determine uptime: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	sort.Sort(byMtime(users))
+
+	return tildeData{
+		Name:            "tilde.town",
+		URL:             "https://tilde.town",
+		SignupURL:       "https://cgi.tilde.town/users/signup",
+		WantUsers:       true,
+		AdminEmail:      "root@tilde.town",
+		Description:     description,
+		UserCount:       len(users),
+		Users:           users,
+		LiveUserCount:   liveUserCount(users),
+		ActiveUserCount: len(activeUsernames),
+		ActiveUsers:     activeUsernames,
+		Uptime:          uptime,
+		News:            news,
+		GeneratedAt:     time.Now().UTC().Format("2006-01-02 15:04:05"),
+		GeneratedAtSec:  time.Now().Unix(),
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func main() {
+	systemData, err := tdp()
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	data, err := json.Marshal(systemData)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatalf("Failed to marshal JSON: %s", err)
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("%s\n", data)
+}