4 ms·

Oh that takes me back. There were so many BBSes in the 312 in the mid 90s. Just reading the list [1] is like a trip down the memory lane. The end of that artic

by 60654 10y ago

Oh that takes me back. There were so many BBSes in the 312 in the mid 90s. Just reading the list [1] is like a trip down the memory lane. The end of that article makes a great point. There was a huge diversity of communities back then, and each of them was small enough that they didn't devolve into spam and mindless trolling. It's something I really miss, and something that can't be replicated by uber-sites like reddit or facebook... [1] http://bbslist.textfiles.com/312/ http://bbslist.textfiles.com/312/

anexprogrammer 10y ago
The sense of community was very real with BBS's. Real friendships developed with people you would likely never meet. SYSOPs cared about the people who dialled in to their little hobby project. Many organised meet-ups and BBQs. Memories for some of the phone bills are less warm though! It all disappeared incredibly fast in the mid 90s as ISPs and the net grew. Social is, ironically, far less personal with none of that sense of community.
- ghaff 10y ago
  >Social is, ironically, far less personal with none of that sense of community. I think that's overstating things. I can certainly think of a fair number of exceptions in my case. One thing that could be different in the BBS world, however, was that there often were organized meetups and BBQs because the BBS users tended to be clustered locally because of phone costs.
  - anexprogrammer 10y ago
    Where I've encountered community since it's been for the activity (eg regional scuba forum - natural to organise meets, etc). I've never encountered any arising from the medium since. OK I'm from a smaller country (UK), many BBS's were national, but still organised BBQs. The differentiation was usually for the platform rather than geography.
enobrev 10y ago
Not that I'd possibly remember the details, but in 1992 / 1993, during my freshman year in High School (living in 312 as well), I visited a new HS friend at his house and he showed me his array of 6 or 8 modems running a BBS. By that point I'd only tried out BBS once or twice from my old Laser 128, and didn't really get it. After my new friend invited me to hook into his BBS, and I found all this great stuff to download and try out, I was hooked. I feel like that's where I first learned about the Anarchist Cookbook as well.
trimbo 10y ago
Great list! What people should know is that getting a great BBS list used to, in itself, be a big deal. As you mention, it's like the anti-internet-of-today: truly decentralized, random discovery, and little virality. And if you had a great community on a BBS, it felt like a club, or Cheers or something. Also all of these 312ers and no mention of Ripco in these comments? Ripco and its G-Files changed my world. [Edit: many of which are on this textfiles.com site, if you poke around!]
joezydeco 10y ago
I cut my teeth at Ripco in the mid-80s. They sure were interesting times. Randy, AFAIK, still holds CBBS reunions from time to time. Went to a couple back in the day. They were a very tight group.

by 60654 10y ago

anexprogrammer 10y ago

The sense of community was very real with BBS's. Real friendships developed with people you would likely never meet. SYSOPs cared about the people who dialled in to their little hobby project. Many organised meet-ups and BBQs. Memories for some of the phone bills are less warm though! It all disappeared incredibly fast in the mid 90s as ISPs and the net grew. Social is, ironically, far less personal with none of that sense of community.

ghaff 10y ago
>Social is, ironically, far less personal with none of that sense of community. I think that's overstating things. I can certainly think of a fair number of exceptions in my case. One thing that could be different in the BBS world, however, was that there often were organized meetups and BBQs because the BBS users tended to be clustered locally because of phone costs.
- anexprogrammer 10y ago
  Where I've encountered community since it's been for the activity (eg regional scuba forum - natural to organise meets, etc). I've never encountered any arising from the medium since. OK I'm from a smaller country (UK), many BBS's were national, but still organised BBQs. The differentiation was usually for the platform rather than geography.

enobrev 10y ago

Not that I'd possibly remember the details, but in 1992 / 1993, during my freshman year in High School (living in 312 as well), I visited a new HS friend at his house and he showed me his array of 6 or 8 modems running a BBS. By that point I'd only tried out BBS once or twice from my old Laser 128, and didn't really get it. After my new friend invited me to hook into his BBS, and I found all this great stuff to download and try out, I was hooked. I feel like that's where I first learned about the Anarchist Cookbook as well.

trimbo 10y ago

Great list! What people should know is that getting a great BBS list used to, in itself, be a big deal. As you mention, it's like the anti-internet-of-today: truly decentralized, random discovery, and little virality. And if you had a great community on a BBS, it felt like a club, or Cheers or something. Also all of these 312ers and no mention of Ripco in these comments? Ripco and its G-Files changed my world. [Edit: many of which are on this textfiles.com site, if you poke around!]

joezydeco 10y ago

I cut my teeth at Ripco in the mid-80s. They sure were interesting times. Randy, AFAIK, still holds CBBS reunions from time to time. Went to a couple back in the day. They were a very tight group.