Re-Discovering The 'Lost Civilization' of Dial-Up BBS's (ieee.org)

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Two new articles take a look at "social media's dial-up ancestor" from back in the 20th century. First a new article in IEEE Spectrum remembers a time when tens of thousands of dial-up bulletin board systems kept modems busy all around the world playing chintzy "door" games, downloading textfiles and ANSI art, and reading messages left on FidoNet's "echo" forums. "To understand how the Internet became a medium for social life, you have to widen your view beyond networking technology and peer into the makeshift laboratories of microcomputer hobbyists of the 1970s and 1980s...amateurs tinkering in their free time to build systems for computer-mediated collaboration and communication." And the former sysop at "The Cave" has also written a new article about visiting the few surviving BBSes, some still in operation since 1983, many now accessible via telnet, and some still even delivering messages over FidoNet's phone-to-phone network.
Anyone else have fond memories of visiting (or running) a BBS?

Comments

You would be WRONG!

[Anonymous Coward]

DOSBOX. You have to manually configure it, but the serial support in it (and only it, dosemu, etc all don't currently have similiar support!) has a virtual modem builtin that can use 'atd' to connect to a remote telnet port that provides access to a BBS. The only thing I have found that DOESN'T work with it is ROBOBBS. The terminal app side works fine, but the BBS software never properly initiates a connection after the RING signal shows up.

Besides all of the clearnet telnet bbses still running, there are at least a few up on both Tor and I2P providing services and door games for people who are interested.

In fact with a low latency VOIP connection you can even emulate a dialup connection today. 19.2-28.8k maximum connection same as attempting to connect over POTS on AT&T's network today.

Re:I still telnet for usurper

[Pikoro]

TW2002

Ditto. Don't forget that old BBS Documentary too.

[antdude]

Same here. IIRC, I started with local BBSes when I was a teen(ager) with internal 2400 dial-up modems (ZOOM and Hayes). It got so addicting that I got in trouble with long distance calls (didn't know same area codes can be toll calls based on the phone service), prank calls for being a r0d3nt/n00b, etc. :/

Don't forget that rad(ical) old BBS Documentary -- Watch it for free on The Archive. Even old /. has a few old stories about this documentary:

• A Documentary About Bulletin Board Systems
• The BBS Documentary: A One Year Report
• 7 hour BBS Documentary Nearly Ready
• BBS Documentary Now Shipping
• Hundreds of Hours of BBS Documentary Interviews

Good memories. I'd like to see an updated version!