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Speaking of which -- remember when ".com" meant "executable program" and not "company website"? I almost forgot.

I ran a BBS, WWIV heavily modded, which was telnet-accessible and thus had about 800 users. It got up to over 250 messages a day. This is a lot for a single-access BBS. Offline readers helped multi-task things by allowing multiple people to be typing up their messages at once, because they were offline.

Find the last state of the BBS here: On Earth As It Is In Hell ... As It Is On The Internet.

Also, I have some BBS-related links saved: http://del.icio.us/ClintJCL/BBS. BBSMates is truly the best.

Anyway, I actually started on a dumb terminal with a NON-Hayes compatible 2400bps modem. This was government issued [Dad was an analyst at the postal service headquarters -- I grew up on money earned from coding in BASIC, for chrissakes!]. DEC VT-220 terminal. Most of the BBSes were 300bps or 2400bps and plenty of Commodore BBSes were around.

The damn modem could store only 10 numbers, so you had to manually type in a lot of BBS numbers to dial. And it wasn't "ATDT", it was "Control-T". Non-Hayes, remember? Of course, I couldn't download because THERE WAS NO OPERATING SYSTEM OR DISK DRIVE. Just a monitor, keyboard, a modem.

A friendly sysop of the RE BBS gave me a free 1200bps modem for the PC, and the downloading started. It never stopped. (Seriously.. Not a day goes by that I don't download at least 2 gigs.)

I ultimately met my wife that way, by determining via local BBS that we went to the same school, and meeting and hooking up in a semi-normal way: I invited her over to see how much better Telemate is than Q-Modem. 14.5 yrs later, we're still happy, except now our 2 computers are in the same room, and I run a blog instead of a BBS. In fact, a blog with RSS comment feeds and active reader-participants is the closest feeling I've had since running a BBS; it took us 13 years to get back to where we started.

Mike Focke was the Google of 1990. His BBS list was the only way to KNOW where to start (assuming you had the list . . .) And the phonenumber file used by Telemate? It was flat text. I started putting personal numbers in it. I still use it today. It no longer obeys the telemate .FON file format, BUT IT IS THE SAME FILE I'VE BEEN EDITING SINCE THE 1980S. And thus, I even have the phone numbers of girls I knew in middle school. Quite useless, but it's on my thumbdrive and on a [password-proteced] webpage, of course. I don't have a cellphone so this is useful for me.

I fucking love technology. It's the politics related to technology that scares the crap out of me. I talk about these various issues, sometimes, at my blog . . . [shameless plug]

What you want is here: http://www.bbsmates.com/

WWIV, lordy was that a miserable thing from the user's POV... totally linear and no way to read/reply offline... I'm a Wildcat fan myself. :)

I remember the name "Ethereal Realms", probably from one of the BBS lists that floated around back in the day. -- I maintained the list of BBSs local to Santa Clarita CA.

obUseful: Anyone wishing to reconnect with BBS pals from "back in the day" should check out BBSmates.com. Not a lot of users in my old area code, but worth checking out.

I got my first computer in 1986, an Apple //c.

Upgraded to an Apple //gs in about 1989 or so. In 1991 (I think that was the year), I got a 2400 baud modem for my birthday. Most people were upgrading to 2400 around this time, but there were still several 1200 (and even 300's) out there still.

The Louisville, Kentucky BBS scene was fairly active. The BBSs became "homes away from home". As a geek in high school, it was a wonderful opportunity to find people like me, especially when they were all collected together in one place, and there were no embarrassing introductions needed.

The fact that you had a computer, a modem, and had found the BBS was proof you were worthy enough to be treated, at minimum, as "one of us."

I had my normal four or five that I would call every evening (and more often if I could). Watching discussions, checking my personal messages...

it was a whole other life. People were not judged on looks, on fashion, on anything like that. It was your typed word as who you were.

Louisville also had monthly gatherings, referred to as "The Meat". It was held the first Saturday of each month in the now defunct Galleria downtown. The first couple of times I went, I believe I had to have my parents drive me and pick me up. I have no idea what I told them I was going to be doing down there.

I slowly met some of the people I knew on the boards. Looking back now, I realize I was closer to those people in high school than my actual classmates. I even dated a girl for over a year that I met on a board.

In the fall of 1993 I started college, and got access to the Internet. As quickly as the BBS scene changed my life, it disappeared from my life. By the time I got nostalgic for those days, the boards I remembered were all gone.

-singularity (a.k.a. "Merlyn" around the Louisville scene back in the day)

Don't forget the excellent BBSMates website which is kinda like friendster except for old BBS users and sysops.

My old board is even on there :) and thats where I got my username, celerityfm from- The Celerity BBS software I used to use.

Thank you Jason Scott for this documentary, it really does bring back the memories!

Don't forget the excellent BBSMates website which is kinda like friendster except for old BBS users and sysops.

My old board is even on there :) and thats where I got my username, celerityfm from- The Celerity BBS software I used to use.

Thank you Jason Scott for this documentary, it really does bring back the memories!

Older geeks from the Phoenix area should remember that Carl Hayden (referred to locally as CHHS) has a long history of 'geek' accomplishments. In the early 90's students from CHHS ran one of the largest free BBS systems in the region. I don't recall how many phone lines they had running at once there, but I do recall them having one of the best Trade Wars 2000 games. CHHS was a popular virtual hangout for computer geeks from throughout the Phoenix metro area. My wife and I (yes, some geeks get married) were both CHHS members and actually met at a weekly GT that was comprised largely of CHHS users.

Just like this story suggests the kids at CHHS that made the BBS go did so with limited funds, and little external support. It's ashame to see that little has changed for today's students. Anyone else that remembers the CHHS BBS may want to drop by here: http://www.bbsmates.com/XQ/ASP/id.98859/QX/viewbbs .htm

• Search a list of 75,000 BBSes that existed from the 80's to present!
  
• If you were a sysop, look for your old BBS or add itif it's not already in the database
  
• Add yourself as a member to BBSes that you called
  
• Find members that you used to chat and game with!
  

(And there're a lot of old BBSes available through telnet, though I dunno about C64-based ones.)

Anyway.. One of my fondest memories was this poser (703/202/301) user called "Batman" who liked to post about how 3133T he was. I was a level-255 cosysop on the BBS at the time, running WWIV 4.xx.
I changed his colors to black-on-black for all 8 text colors.
I created a message base that everyone BUT him had access to.
I then posted the logfiles of him calling up, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Another user created an ANSI showing me ("Satan") hitting Batman with my pitchfork, generally making fun of the whole situation. I still have the ANSI. Good times.

If anybody else was from Techlands BBS in South Florida, please e-mail me... I used to be "Davy Crockett" back then :-)

Check here. This website is set up to reunite BBS users. Note: I am not affiliated, just happen to know of it.

Here's a nice site for finding your old BBS buddies and the systems you used to visit:

http://bbsmates.com/

I've found a bunch of people on the systems I used to be an administrator for - even ones that I had forgotten about. It's a nice resource for seeing exactly who is out there still, and what they're up to.

-Matt

There's a site called BBSmates that lets users of the old BBS systems get back in touch.

It looks pretty complete, I even found a bunch of old boards that I used to call in the Wichita, KS. area code.

It's funny, some of the people I met on those BBSs I still keep in touch with, while friends I had in high school I never hear from.

And don't forget to register at BBSmates to keep up with days gone by.

Telegard released a 2.7 version but I believe that was the end of it. Renegade was activly developed right up to the end of the BBS scene.

To hook up with your old friends from BBSing days. I only wish a few of mine would show up. Sigh... Underworld Network Hawaii, where are you?

Be nice, he's using IIS

Yes, this does bring back the good old days. I was in high school (you can imagine what a hit I was with the ladies running my own BBS). So this was the early 90's. I can't remember what years I ran it. It was kind of popular. I started out on 2400 baud and upgraded to 14.4. I was considering adding a second node and was working with another local bbs, Widomaker (who is now an ISP in Hampton Roads) on adding internet e-mail right before I bit the dust. I ran a VBBS system and created my own message network. From what I remember it was called AfterNet or DelightNet. one of the two. We had about 3 participating BBSes. One local and one in the midwest.

And I had a dumb nick. I Am What I Am. That was it. People got tired of /whisper"ing" to I Am What I Am (too much to type) so I shortened it to IaWIa. My little brother I named as co-sysop, CiscoKid.

VBBS was a great BBS program. And the programmer, Roland DeGraaf (sp?) was a great guy. I didn't deal with him too much, but he was legally blind. He had a special monitor rigged so he could program

I also ran VGA Planets which is why a majority of the people were calling in (that and LORD). I'm glad to see this game is still going. I need to check it out.

All you old BBS users might want to check out this website i recently came across. it's a great idea... just needs some use.. it lets you look up old BBS's and get in touch with the users of those systems. http://www.bbsmates.com