Slashdot Mirror
The "Find Your Old BBS Buddies" Database
sloop writes "Everyone wonders what happened to the old geeks we used to see on the local bulletin boards. With "cool" aliases like Lord Nikon and Zer0 C00l they often can't be found in a phone book. Enter BBSmates, a database of most every published BBS. You can associate yourself with BBS's you were on and find other users." Or you can go on to found a website with one of 'em.
Once again it is assumed that nothing happened outside the USA.
Believe it or not there were, and still are, plenty of BBS's out here.
Before you say "well add it" - the site requires USA area codes...
Sigh.
[)amien
From the site -
"PLEASE NOTE: I am currently in the process of switching servers. If you notice anything funny, please email me."
I think something funny is going on.
There goes my interest in the site then...
Hopefully he'll get some UK content sometime soon.
Still a great concept, similar to FriendsReunited.co.uk in the UK, but aimed at geeks.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Bleurgh!
That's me, or, was.
it's in my head
In a related note, MSN will have a board titled "find you old Slashdot buddies" ...
I would settle for a database mapping old, non-working e-mail addresses into current ones.
Hey, this site is as fast as my old 1200 baud days....
or my old 300 Baud.....actually, i think semaphore would be quicker than this site right now..
Burma?
Where are all the underground H/P boards... :(
Long Live 2i5!
This one is maybe even better for this: http://www.fidonews.org/
And?
Google.
In the dark distant past, prior to IRC, WWW (We had Gopher though!!) - I frequented talkers such as Cheeseplants house, usually accessed by telnet on a high port, like a MUD.
I was intrigued whether there was any record of the talkers on the net and here is some of what I came up with:
Talker History
Cheeseplant's House
Crazylands.org
I noticed that crazylands acutally ran a talker so I connected to see who would be online. Pity though, only 2 people were there. The strangest thing was that Grim, who I remember from Cheeseplant's house in 1991 was actually still online!!! what a spod! (we chatted for a while, then I got idle). I found another, although the name goes away, which had a few more people online, but none of the ones from before.
I look back as this being the golden age of the Internet, back in the days before AOL, while so much has changed, it's actually interesting to see that the smaller communities still exist down there in the talker underground.
Looks like I many not have the chance, now.
So anyone reading remember "Call the Vanguard BBS"?
--
Intelligence is definitely a recessive trait.
What a nice trip down memory lane. Sitting at home with a Apple //e, a 300 baud Hayes modem (It was important to remind people that it was a genuine Hayes), and a big gulp from 7-11 autodialing a half dozen BBSs trying to get in.
In certian respects, the golden age of BBSs was better then today's Internet. For example, no logging on at 3.30 in the morning only to find 20+ posts by clueless Europeans bitching about how some website didn't include them.
The Internet is generally stupid
Or is it just me..
yush
Computrek (used to be able to Telnet to Computrek.org)
Starfleet Academy
Rusty and Edies (the place to go for porn in OH)
BBSing was fun. The wildest thing was when we'd all get into TC (MajorBBS was the greatest) and then we'd chat about of all things, the weather. Tc was better then IRC cause it had actions. You could drop a nuke on someone or send someone flowers.....it was pretty neat! Then there were my legendary BBS parties where I would get snockered and then get online and try and find folks to get snockered with, or to go to Waffle House or Tee Jayes and have breakfast and get sober. Fun fun! MajorBBS dropped the ball when they went to that weird GUI thing. They did not make it a requirement to get in, but after being text based so long, it just seemed, well, weird.
Gorkman
Having been a part of the h/p/a/v/w scene back in tha' day and knowing the things that went on there (even on the "legit" boards), is there anyone that sees this as a Bad Thing?
Once again it is assumed that nothing happened outside the USA.
;)
An American tech news site discussing an (obviously) American site, designed by an American, mainly for American BBSes. Making sure that there is some content that appeals to Burkina Faso is likely not a priority in situations such as this.
It's great that you're pushing for more content that appeals to places outside of America. Just please understand that... well... you probably need to go find (or make) slashdot.co.uk or something similar.
Why does it matter to you anyway? And why does one small quote, some guy (likely redneck, I will agree with that) EXPRESSING HIS OPINION ON THE SITE HE'S PAYING FOR, turn this whole conversation into "Americans are so nationalistic that they're blind to everything else" tripe?
Believe it or not there were, and still are, plenty of BBS's out here.
Proportionally, no. The internet drove a lot of them out. Lots of us (myself included) couldn't make too many long-distance calls when we were younger - essentially, you couldn't communicate with people in another state/province, let alone another country or continent. (To put that into the anti-American perspective you are looking for, most Americans couldn't acknowledge anything outside their City, instead of their own country).
(If I misread "here" to strictly mean your home country, forgive me. I was acknowledging something outside the borders of your country, because you weren't.)
I've been trying to remember a BBS for a while now. It was originally based in Windsor Ontario and later moved to (I think) Toronto Ontario. At the time it was the largest BBS in Canada. The one particular feature I remember is that the SysOp had a pair of cash challenges. Each revolved around breaking a cypher. If I remember right the cyphers were based around concentric code wheels. For the first contest I believe some details were revealed about letters on the wheel. For the second contest you didn't get any information other than the encrypted text.
The only reason I this surfaced in my memory is because I remembered the contest and was wondering if it ever was solved.
Chris Kuivenhoven is a thief, beware
It's quite a while since I got bored of BBS:s and started using our local Freeport dialup to read usenet (1991 or so..)
However, there were some BBS:s I used to something like 1995, Deaf Leopard and MITS and CofD.
I cant remember what nickname (handle) I used back then..
... blow the old BBS buddy listing site off the 'net with one of 'em!
:)
(My apologies if this doesn't seem funny. It did to me, but that may have something to do with my lack of sleep, and it being 04:30. Enjoy!
An American tech news site discussing an (obviously) American site
... well... you probably need to go find (or make) slashdot.us
It's great that you're pushing for more content that appeals to places outside of America. Just please understand that... well... you probably need to go find (or make) slashdot.co.uk or something similar.
Since when is this slashdot.us. If you want a us centric website
.com/.org/.net != US
Let this sleeping dog lie. One can always drum up old BBS mates another way.
Locally, it was amazing how much you could read and post when given a 30 minute/day limit, so not to tie up the phone line.
One BBS I was on (Boston Bullet) was kept alive with a provision that the account of a luser ("Skull Bearer") was kept open and available to everyone. His infrequent ramblings were sometimes more entertaining than some of the Discussions/flamefests, and was the source of much NC-17 parody.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
If you read further down the page, instead of replying to me immediately, This link might have enlightened you.
Funny though... most of what the BBS's were about are still around here on the net.. your mailing list for your LUG or other group, and slashdot it's self in essence is nothing more than a PBBS forums board with topics thrown out by the board masters.
the biggest thing I miss most is tradewars.. Yeah you can download it and play it now, but it meant more and made the game more when you not only had your limited turns that day but you were sucking down your precious last few minutes alloted on that board for that day. Couple that with the fact that you knew that most of the players were within a 20 mile radius of you and it really got exciting... your friends were players so you could yack about it at school.
I dont miss 300bps, 1200bps or even the rich kid 2400bps modem days... It was horrible.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
At the rate we are going with restrictions being placed on the internet, the direct dial BBS's day of rebirth is coming..
True, more advanced then before, but the same basic concept will prevail.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This must be the geek version of "Find your old classmates!" since most geeks were BBSing rather than talking with real people at school.
Trying is the first step towards failure.
One week after i switch from a professional hosting service with redundant OC3's, i opt for the cheaper solution of hosting the site in my basement on a 144k DSL line. I can't even connect to it now from work, so please.. check back in a couple of days...
And for those of you saying this is a US-only site, there is a country field (in the advanced search page), however i will add better world-wide support in the near future.
-nullvalue
"Life is short, Life is shit, and soon it will be over..." -kith
Arrgh. I am sick and tired of the Slashdot editors pushing this idea that the BBS is a thing of the past. The BBS community is alive and well on the Internet. It's single-line dialup systems that are dead.
BBS's still provide the greatest sense of a cohesive online community out there. Better than "blog" type nonsense, and certainly better than what the likes of MSN and AOL have to offer.
I've run UNCENSORED! BBS for 14 years and I'm not about to stop now. And the 200+ users aren't going to stop logging in, either. Modern BBS's offer access via telnet/ssh or web, your choice. And the Internet-connectedness of it all has made it possible for BBS communities to attain geographic diversity, something which was not possible when you had to deal with long distance modem calls.
Please, people, let's get the perspective straight. The BBS is alive and well, so stop pushing this "bygone era" myth.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
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.
----
Spam subject of the moment: Offshore account secrets -nashville disrupt
Hey, I'm looking for a guy I used to know. He went by the nick of "Sysop". I never figured out what that meant. Does anyone here know him ? ;-)
This was featured a while back. Someone was creating a similar archive of old BBS's. Surprised nobody else remembers it...
Every BBS That Ever Was
Try getting to website...
Try again
and again
Okay, turn on the war dialer... Wget do your job...
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
the biggest thing I miss most is tradewars
Well, you're in luck. TradeWars has been ported to a Win32 app, and there's still lots of games around. Just telnet to any of the games listed here.
"Crash Override" and "Acid Burn"
bbslist.textfiles.com
My Thoughts, Kyndig
I use ISCA BBS (one of the oldest, largest telnet BBSs out there), and came across a great user browser called ISCA Big Brother (http://orangejumpsuit.dynu.com/bbsusers), that tracks BBSers login habits. I wonder what other BBSs out there have similar tools available? Searching through user profiles for their home pages can provide countless hours of entertainment.
Oh, hey, while we're talking: Might as Well Mention the BBS Documentary Again.
at least bbs's had lots of busy signals. to me that's better than trying to connect to a slashdotted site.
...before commenting on Web boards. He's running a REAL BBS (Citadel UX) as in dial-up capable and all.
It may be that what you're saying is true, but you seriously diluted the impact of the claim by that little missing detail in your argument.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Heh heh, back when the Computer Shopper listed all major BBSs (and was the size of a phone book). Oh the porn we had -- 320x200 CGA, baby!
Anyone remember what that BBS game was that involved you taxing peasents and training lords and taking over other people, but you could only play once a day? It was on a whole bunch of BBS's...
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
That was name of the BBS in my home town, Sioux City, Iowa. Set up by a kid that skipped a couple of grades, Stavens, I think.
Those were the days...only 10 people on at once... Playing LORD.... right before he left for college and shut it down, we even had e-mail to the outside world. I thought it was so cool at the time...
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
In the 805 AC we had some guy named Chaun who went by the handle Locutus. Man that guy sucked. He had his own BBS that was known as the worst BBS in the 805. Every board had him black listed. Some boards would let him create an account so that he would post something that would cause everybody to go apesheeznit.
.ca) Oh and the old "ANSi Art Groups" like ACiD and CiA and all the other names spelled with a lower case 'i' in them.
Oh the good old days. I sometimes wonder what happened to some of the more respected 805 BBSers like G.Washington, Crushed Ice, Uncle Ivar (you stupid canadian, how dare you move back to
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
Ok.. I ran BBS's for about 12 years... Totally love this. Now, I've got a quest for some of you "so 'leet" peeps out there. Been trying to find an OLD BBS Door/p-file that I loved and played for a long time. Problem is, I can't remember whether it was C=64 or x86 game. I believe it was called "The Seven Seas", though it MIGHT have been something different.
You'd buy a ship, food, arms, etc. and run around making deliveries. On occassion you'd get attacked by pirates. If you destroyed the ships, you'd get some extra booty to buy more guns/bigger ship with. You could also choose to attack one person per day. I loved the game, but can't find it anywhere. Anyone got a link?
-What have you contributed lately?
For those of you still running BBSes.. let's not forget the bbs archive where you can find every utility, door game, and bbs package ever created (well, almost).
Also there is the BBSnet IRC chat server where a lot of BBS authors and sysops, including the current maintainer of LORD, frequently hang out.
The problem with making it a single textfile is that it tends to get a little big.
Your link has added probably 30-40 new BBS numbers or corrections to the list. Always appreciated.
Don't worry, it might as well be for martians cause the site is slashdotted to hell.
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
I think it's a great centrally-located database for all BBSs domestic and international. I have a link on ssa bbs to it, since I think its good that people sign on and register where they used to call. The bbs community might be smaller than it was, but it'll never die. My old bbs was up in like 1982 on a c64 running a whopping 300 baud and had "high speed" of 1200. Gez, Cnet software, what a blast from the past. How far we have come with technology. lol Now, I run a 4-port SynchroNet bbs at telnet://ssabbs.com for old-times sake and some networked message boards.
Relive the BBS Past - One Byte at a Time! www.ssabbs.com
There's a hell of a lot of text files from the old BBS days at http://www.textfiles.com
Cheers, Orange
We have written a new but very Retro BBS software for linux. We wantted to bring back the days of the C64 bbs style. Anyone's welcome to login and all comments are welcomed..
ssh to bbs@velvet.ath.cx
Its is an ssh bbs at the moment and mail is still a tad fakely but we are working on it.
late..
tHe sHacK! bBS (telnet://velvet.ath.cx)
Absolutely. I still spend far more time on CIX than I do on /., K5, and the other sites I visit put together. There's a strong community there, and... well, I won't extol its virtues too much, as I wouldn't want too many ./ers to join :)
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
I think its a real good site promotes bbses
everywhere & as i sysop myself i enjoy seeing my
bbs right up there
Eli =-)~