Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things in the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I am 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

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þ Synchronet þ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

Re: Hey, new person here
By: decrypt to All on Thu May 21 2015 10:53 pm

Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things in the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I am 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

It was different. Most people had no idea what I was talking about when I would
mention chatting online or sending email. It felt very "underground" and as a BBS user, you would make amazing discoveries almost every day. The technical advancements were more dramatic (I remember the introduction of color text and graphics!).

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #78:
172 Synchronet Match Maker registrations were sold (@$69) between 1995 and 1996.
Norco, CA WX: 57.2øF, 78.0% humidity, 10 mph ESE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Hey, new person here
By: decrypt to All on Thu May 21 2015 22:53:29

Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things in the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I am 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

Welcome to the party.
In a nutshell, your local BBS used to be a lot like facebook is to people today. (Something you checked every day or two and used to keep track of community happenings and play the occasional game)
---
Kostie Muirhead
AKA Underminer
The Undermine - undermine.ddns.net
Fido: 1:342/17
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þ Synchronet þ The Undermine - undermine.ddns.net

It was different. Most people had no idea what I was talking about when I would
mention chatting online or sending email. It felt very "underground" and
as a
BBS user, you would make amazing discoveries almost every day. The technical advancements were more dramatic (I remember the introduction of color text and
graphics!).

I agree. Things were different. Not nearly as many people had home computers,
let alone modems. BBSing back then was like prehistoric form of what the Internet is today.

Having to wait until the middle of the night to have long distance calls to pickup network packets from ourside your local network. Those were the days. I
don't miss the long distance aspect of it.

Once I could get my BBS on the Internet, I jumped at the chance and it was done
immediately. I then hubbed for my entire area, since I could pull network packets into the state for free.

- Mark

--- WWIVToss v.1.51
* Origin: http://www.weather-station.org * Bel Air, MD -USA (33:1/3.0)
þ Synchronet þ curmudge.hopto.org

Re: Hey, new person here
By: decrypt to All on Thu May 21 2015 10:53 pm

Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I a 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

Well, that main and perhaps the most major difference was that BBS's were (serial) dialin lines, so they were generally used by users of the same area code (local call). This has some good points as it created (many would argue) more of a sense of a community than the internet. Of course, there were some exceptions to this rule (i.e., Dovenet, Fidoenet, etc), however many of use acoided Fidnet because of the flame wars back then. People argued over the stupidest crap (on the network message areas) back then. The local message bases tended to be more civil. I was foruntate "back in the day" as my sister let me use her VAX/VMS dialup account at a local University. I found BITNet, ArpaNet, (baby internet), to be very exciting in the 80's. I knew that was going to be the future. It wasn't until around 1994 or so when it was opened up to the general public. Piracy was as rampant back then as it is today. There were boards devoted to specifically that, if that was your facnt. Also, text files were a common form of entertainment back in the day. They usually covered crazy conspitaracy theories. I'm sure everyone remembers the MJ12, aliens, and the government coverup. lol. Color text didn't come until ANSI made its headway, and that led to a lot of art work. There were groups devoted to ANSI art that did some incredible stuff. Later, a protocol called RIPScript tried to take off, but it was really too little too late. By that time, the web was being born. RIPScript allowed for you to "click" your way through a BBS and was pretty cool, but as said, too little and too late. I miss the local communities of BBS's the most. Sometimes people from a BBS in the same area code would meet together at a common location and get to know one another. It was a different time back then.

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þ Synchronet þ Emeraldhill BBS - (TELNET) bbs.emeraldhill.org (WWW) bbs.emeraldhill.org:8080

Re: Hey, new person here
By: decrypt to All on Thu May 21 2015 10:53 pm

Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things in the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I am 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

Getting back into it has been pretty easy so far. Hardest bit was figuring out something that can do a decent job displaying old PC fonts, and ANSI encoding.

[BN]

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þ Synchronet þ Wildcat's Castle BBS: Synchro Mail

Re: Hey, new person here
By: decrypt to All on Thu May 21 2015 10:53 pm

Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things in the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I am 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

Will,

I know this is some "Back in the day" talk but my BBS went online in 1983 using a 300 baud modem (which was insanely slow).

Most people didn't know what a BBS was until the netmail feature of my BBS was able to connect with a person's PC that was in the press during the first Gulf War. We were able to send messages to soldiers via BBS. This made the news and caused an influx of callers to all the local BBS's.

Before there was internet e-mail there was netmail where you would write a message and it would be passed along the chain of computers via dialup until it got to it's destination. Sometimes it wasn't any more efficient than snail mail at the post office... sometimes it was the next day. As more and more BBS's connectd in the net and the echos/netmail moved faster it became usually an overnight solution.

In the case of the first gulf war families could send their messages and volunteers from the press would transcribe the answers from the soldiers. Either way the messages got to and fro faster than snail to the gulf.

Allen

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þ Synchronet þ SONOS - livewirebbs.ddns.net

Re: Hey, new person here
By: Talwyn to decrypt on Mon Apr 11 2016 05:12 pm

Most people didn't know what a BBS was until the netmail feature of my BBS was able to connect with a person's PC that was in the press during the first Gulf War. We were able to send messages to soldiers via BBS. This made the news and caused an influx of callers to all the local BBS's.

GWI was a testing ground for BBSes as an information medium. Mainstream media under-reported protests in San Francisco, and we started using networked BBSes as a way of spreading information about protests and independent, unbiased reports.

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þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Talwyn wrote to decrypt <=-

Re: Hey, new person here
By: decrypt to All on Thu May 21 2015 10:53 pm

Hi, my name is Will, but you can call me decrypt or d3crypt. How are things in the bbs scene these days? I never lived during the 80s or 90s being that I am 17, so I wonder what It was like then.

Will,

I know this is some "Back in the day" talk but my BBS went online in
1983 using a 300 baud modem (which was insanely slow).

<SNIP>

Before there was internet e-mail there was netmail where you would
write a message and it would be passed along the chain of computers via

<SNIP>

Allen

Ahh, the days of UUCP ;) I used Waffle back then.


... It's only a hobby ... only a hobby ... only a
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
þ Synchronet þ The Outwest BBS - outwestbbs.com - DOORS - Files -Dove-Net

Ahh, the days of UUCP ;) I used Waffle back then.

UUCP and Fidonet ... we used fidonet to message the soldiers in the Gulf.

Allen

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þ Synchronet þ SONOS - livewirebbs.ddns.net

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Talwyn to Bcw142 on Wed Apr 13 2016 11:47 pm

UUCP and Fidonet ... we used fidonet to message the soldiers in the Gulf.

I wish I remember my old bang path email address. :)_

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þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Poindexter Fortran to Talwyn on Thu Apr 14 2016 14:29:53

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Talwyn to Bcw142 on Wed Apr 13 2016 11:47 pm

UUCP and Fidonet ... we used fidonet to message the soldiers in the
Gulf.

I wish I remember my old bang path email address. :)_

uucp still exist , wish i can put on bbs Windows computer

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þ Synchronet þ SpaceSST BBS Usenet Gateway

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Poindexter Fortran to Talwyn on Thu Apr 14 2016 02:29 pm

I wish I remember my old bang path email address. :)_

You are dating us Poindexter... remember DECNET and all the damned double colons.

Sheesh... let's talk about something younger... did you hear the latest about lady gaga <lol>.

Allen

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þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Poindexter Fortran wrote to Talwyn <=-

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Talwyn to Bcw142 on Wed Apr 13 2016 11:47 pm

UUCP and Fidonet ... we used fidonet to message the soldiers in the Gulf.

I wish I remember my old bang path email address. :)_

I never had a bang path address. Even when I ran UUCP, I had a FQDN, my ISP was my MX for my domain, and they were my smart host.


... Taglines are irrelevant. You will be assimilated into the Blue Wave.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.49
þ Synchronet þ Freeway BBS in Bendigo, Australia.

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Spacesst to Poindexter Fortran on Thu Apr 14 2016 05:51 pm

uucp still exist , wish i can put on bbs Windows computer

Waffle should run on Windows -- it came with a UUCP stack, if I remember correctly.

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þ Synchronet þ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Poindexter Fortran wrote to Talwyn <=-

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Talwyn to Bcw142 on Wed Apr 13 2016 11:47 pm

UUCP and Fidonet ... we used fidonet to message the soldiers in the Gulf.

I wish I remember my old bang path email address. :)_
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= Synchronet = realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

I don't remember even one of them. I do remember using them to send messages via Japan to see how long they'd take at DEC. First one I had was UNH back in 1977. Had quite a few since, but the only one I really used was the DEC one
at CSS in Hudson NH. I could likely find the one I used for Waffle in the 1990's, but off the top of my head I don't even remember the ISP name. I wonder if there's a way to force a route via email now? Just so I could see how long it takes like we did in the 1980's ;) If we bounced it through enough servers it could take weeks ;P



... I'm an optimist... I'm positive things are going to go wrong. ;)
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
þ Synchronet þ The Outwest BBS - outwestbbs.com - DOORS - Files -Dove-Net

Spacesst wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Poindexter Fortran to Talwyn on Thu Apr 14 2016 14:29:53

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Talwyn to Bcw142 on Wed Apr 13 2016 11:47 pm

UUCP and Fidonet ... we used fidonet to message the soldiers in the
Gulf.

I wish I remember my old bang path email address. :)_

uucp still exist , wish i can put on bbs Windows computer
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= Synchronet = SpaceSST BBS Usenet Gateway

UUCP exists:
bcw@leno:~$ aptitude search UUCP
p uucp - Unix to Unix Copy Program

p uucp:i386 - Unix to Unix Copy Program

p uucp-lmtp - LMTP to UUCP gateway

p uucpsend - Alternative Frontend for UUCP Batching wit
p uucpsend:i386 - Alternative Frontend for UUCP Batching wit

But everything else has made it obsolete. Netmail took over since the connections are faster now, even the 56k was fast enough. I send/receive HD videos these days via scp/rsync let alone email. Not sure if anything or anyone still uses uucp even though we can. I remember uuencode/uudecode and deepthought was one of the DEC machines. Tonto and silver were machines at AT&T when I was there, silver was a 3B2 and I have one in my basement. Only ran it a few times, it really heats up the basement ;) UUCP's time was just ending back when I got that (late 1990's). I remember 16-30 users on silver,
I used it for CAD/CAM mostly on an old Tektronix color terminal, to make
quick connect boards (3M wiring system much like wirewrap) back in the 1980's. I worked on Metrobus one of the first lightwave phone projects for AT&T, I have a tee shirt somewhere ;P


... We have normality, I repeat, we have normality. (Whatever that is.)
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.49
þ Synchronet þ The Outwest BBS - outwestbbs.com - DOORS - Files -Dove-Net

Vk3jed wrote in a message to Poindexter Fortran:

I never had a bang path address. Even when I ran UUCP, I had a FQDN,
my ISP was my MX for my domain, and they were my smart host.

I had one for my BBS back in the day. it was first.last!oix@north.net I ran software called "rauucp" back then (RA for Remote Access). It worked perfectly
which shocked me. Even more shocking was I remember north.net was my connection. hahaha

Shawn
... If you call me insane again, I'll eat your other eye.
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* Origin: Tiny's Trailer (723:1/2.1)
þ Synchronet þ thePharcyde_ telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin)

Re: Re: Hey, new person here
By: Bcw142 to Talwyn on Wed Apr 13 2016 11:40 am

Ahh, the days of UUCP ;) I used Waffle back then.

Good old UUCP and waffle! You sent a message, not knowing if there was a route defined, unless you knew the damn route it should take.

Knight

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þ Synchronet þ The Phunc BBS -- Back from the dead! -- telnet to bbs.phunc.com