4 ms·

I too remember. Where is the "FidoNet" of today?

by nickdothutton 4mo ago

tptacek 4mo ago
[flagged]
- tptacek 4mo ago
  (This is being taken as snark, and fair enough, it's not a high-effort comment, but I'm being sincere. I operated a relatively popular FidoNet-adjacent (same protocol different network) system in the mid-1990s. Reddit is the closest thing we have to the user experience (Reddit is substantially better).
  - icedchai 4mo ago
    Yes, I was around the same time and had a moderately popular local BBS. Reddit (and arguably HN) do feel like the closest thing we have to BBSes today.
    - hollerith 4mo ago
      This is very helpful to those of us who never experienced BBSes.
      - nickdothutton 4mo ago
        I'm the downvoted poster above, and I used to run a BBS. Mostly hosting info files and CP/M software (Thanks U.S. Robotics, couldn't have done it without HST). I am genuinely interested in know where (and if) such a network of people could ever exist again. For those who may be too young to get the joke... Reddit is certainly not it.
        icedchai 4mo ago
        One major thing missing with Reddit is the focus on geographic locality. BBSes had more of a community feel because 99% of the users were local, and this was enforced by financial reality. Few people in the 80's or 90's wanted to call long distance, unless they were distributing warez at someone else's expense (in which case they probably weren't reading and posting messages anyway!) You can get "some" of this feel from the state / city focused subreddits... but... it's still not the same.
        tptacek 4mo ago
        Right, but FidoNets didn't have this localization; that was part of their point.
        icedchai 4mo ago
        Some FidoNet boards did, actually! The FidoNet boards near me all carried "regional" forums / echoes that were available only within the regional network itself. I was actually way more active on those forums than the global ones. (By "active", I mainly mean participating in flame wars. If any of those sysops are reading, I do apologize for the behavior of my teenage self.)
        tptacek 4mo ago
        Sure, in the same sense that there is an /r/chicago on Reddit. :) The huge win to hooking your BBS up to a FidoNet (or the FidoNet) was that you'd immediately be having conversations with people all over the country.
        hollerith 4mo ago
        >For those who may be too young to get the joke... I'm going to continue to assume that GGP is sincere until its author says it was a joke.
thesuitonym 4mo ago
https://www.fidonet.org/ https://www.fidonet.org/
lukifer 4mo ago
NOSTR [0] is a store and forward relay service, ostensibly a distributed Twitter clone, but also highly extensible [1] to support other functionality. [0] Notes & Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays: https://nostr.com/ https://nostr.com/ [1] https://nips.nostr.com/ https://nips.nostr.com/
chadgpt3 4mo ago
Usenet. https://eternal-september.org/ https://eternal-september.org/

I too remember. Where is the "FidoNet" of today?

tptacek 4mo ago

[flagged]

tptacek 4mo ago
(This is being taken as snark, and fair enough, it's not a high-effort comment, but I'm being sincere. I operated a relatively popular FidoNet-adjacent (same protocol different network) system in the mid-1990s. Reddit is the closest thing we have to the user experience (Reddit is substantially better).
- icedchai 4mo ago
  Yes, I was around the same time and had a moderately popular local BBS. Reddit (and arguably HN) do feel like the closest thing we have to BBSes today.
  - hollerith 4mo ago
    This is very helpful to those of us who never experienced BBSes.
    - nickdothutton 4mo ago
      I'm the downvoted poster above, and I used to run a BBS. Mostly hosting info files and CP/M software (Thanks U.S. Robotics, couldn't have done it without HST). I am genuinely interested in know where (and if) such a network of people could ever exist again. For those who may be too young to get the joke... Reddit is certainly not it.
      - icedchai 4mo ago
        One major thing missing with Reddit is the focus on geographic locality. BBSes had more of a community feel because 99% of the users were local, and this was enforced by financial reality. Few people in the 80's or 90's wanted to call long distance, unless they were distributing warez at someone else's expense (in which case they probably weren't reading and posting messages anyway!) You can get "some" of this feel from the state / city focused subreddits... but... it's still not the same.
        tptacek 4mo ago
        Right, but FidoNets didn't have this localization; that was part of their point.
        icedchai 4mo ago
        Some FidoNet boards did, actually! The FidoNet boards near me all carried "regional" forums / echoes that were available only within the regional network itself. I was actually way more active on those forums than the global ones. (By "active", I mainly mean participating in flame wars. If any of those sysops are reading, I do apologize for the behavior of my teenage self.)
        tptacek 4mo ago
        Sure, in the same sense that there is an /r/chicago on Reddit. :) The huge win to hooking your BBS up to a FidoNet (or the FidoNet) was that you'd immediately be having conversations with people all over the country.
      - hollerith 4mo ago
        >For those who may be too young to get the joke... I'm going to continue to assume that GGP is sincere until its author says it was a joke.

thesuitonym 4mo ago

https://www.fidonet.org/ https://www.fidonet.org/

lukifer 4mo ago

NOSTR [0] is a store and forward relay service, ostensibly a distributed Twitter clone, but also highly extensible [1] to support other functionality. [0] Notes & Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays: https://nostr.com/ https://nostr.com/ [1] https://nips.nostr.com/ https://nips.nostr.com/

chadgpt3 4mo ago

Usenet. https://eternal-september.org/ https://eternal-september.org/