I ran a BBS as a teen, on my Amiga, out of my bedroom, and it was such a fun project for me. At the time, it was expensive to make phone calls outside of your

I ran a BBS as a teen, on my Amiga, out of my bedroom, and it was such a fun project for me. At the time, it was expensive to make phone calls outside of your area code. And that was a healthy natural constraint on the community: Nearly everyone calling into a BBS was local. One of the bigger BBSs in my town even had meetups. Other great things about BBSs: Most of them were run out of someone's home. No one was going for growth at any cost, as a VC-backed startup would. There were dozens of BBS software platforms, no single walled garden, lots of room for customization. And, of course, the ASCII art was amazing.