1) I mostly used local BBSs, because it was a free local phone call. For a while I used them daily, but everything was so slow it took a lot of patience. I th

1) I mostly used local BBSs, because it was a free local phone call. For a while I used them daily, but everything was so slow it took a lot of patience. I think there was some software that came with the modem that allowed me to use it. 2) I had a Commodore 64 and 300 baud modem cartridge. The modem came with an intro package for CompuServe, so I got my parents to let me try it out, - this was in 1984. The calls cost ~$15/Hr for the long distance phone call to Ohio, and ~$12/hr for CompuServe (total of $84/Hr in todays dollars), so I didn't poke around too much! But I was amazed that my computer was actually talking to a computer several states away. I did find a list of local BBSs in my local phone area though. Interestingly, the modem was so cheap (typical Commodore) that it didn't have a dialer - you had to dial the number on the phone, and when the other end answered, plug the cord to the handset into the modem. No war games dialing possible! 3) I think the BBSs in my area were small - mostly one phone line in AFIK. There were some BBSs that had pirate C64 games, but I didn't ever get access to those. I did find that there were a lot of CP/M BBSs, so I bought the C64 CP/M cartridge (a whole separate CPU), and was able to download lots of free/open source programs & programming tools for it - I do remember getting an assembler and a Pascal compiler. 4) Honestly being a young nerd, I didn't post many messages, but read and learned a lot. Where the local BBSs are, what the popular software was, what "good" computer equipment was.. I read about these "play by mail" games that really intrigued me, but never did it. 5) not a lot of programming talk - a lot more about hardware and the BBS scene, file "sharing", etc.. Years later, I thought I'd start my own BBS. I had obtained a DOS PC, and my plan was to get a ~600MB drive for it at a cost of ~$1500. I ordered this from a company I found in Computer Shopper magazine, but they never shipped the drive. I reversed the charges on my credit card, and that $1500 became a substantial part of the down payment on my first house (with a morgage at 8% interest, btw..)