I got a very basic BBS up and running on my Mac LCIII. Not much there yet, but give it a try! It's running Subtext by @jcs . The address is m68k.club:6800. The website is also written with HTML 3.2, so it should render on retro hardware. #retrocomputing #mac #lciii #bbs

Does #WWIVnet still have its own #BBS email network? If so, are there bidirectional #smtp gateways? What about connectivity with its "nemesis" #fidonet? #retrocomputing

@stevelord Wow, that's fantastic. I wonder if there are many Ham #BBS systems floating around anymore. Also, with the advent of #Winlink would they even have #Fidonet email service enabled?

Repórter Retro 093

https://retropolis.com.br/2023/06/28/reporter-retro-093/

#ReprterRetro #6800 #68000 #AdrianBlack #Aesthedes #AlsGeekLab #AnotherBoringTopic #AtariSt #AugustoBaffa #BBS #BenZotto #BITNET #Commodore64 #ComputaoGrfica #COSMAC #Doom #ethernet #FitaCassete #Hackaday #Holanda #HUG1802 #Intel #Jogos #LinguagemC #MicroCoreLabs #microsoft #ModernVintageGamer #Mouse #MSX #Multibus #NostalgiaNerd #NovaZelndia #os2 #PCXT #RCACDP1802 #recap #RetroRio #RNP #SID #SnteseDeVoz #Sphere #T

Are there any good interactive fiction #games out there these days? #BBS style with text pseudo graphics or just plain text, either is fine. #linux

@boris @jcb the biggest revelation I had was from a friend of mine, Vlad Shcherbina who said "treat #Zulip as a realtime #bbs system like #phpbb".

If you get that, the management becomes organic.

Oh oh oh! Here's a great read I haven't done in a few years!

This guy was one of the #HamRadio BBS operators in the bay area during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and he describes the project of trying to keep the packet network flowing as everyone and their uncle tried to send welfare checks into the bay area in a time before the Internet.

I really love how it gives a sense of scale for how important the amateur packet network was there for a time. #PacketRadio #DigitalRadio #BBS #1200baud #history

http://www.wolfswords.com/packet/packet_ca1089_1.html

http://www.wolfswords.com/packet/packet_ca1089_2.html

http://www.wolfswords.com/packet/packet_ca1089_3.html

http://www.wolfswords.com/packet/packet_ca1089_4.html

It's an #apple1 #BBS kind of night

The worst possible way to #BBS

Seeing posts about #retro #technology has me thinking about how the first way I was able to access the #Web was was by dialing in through my local #library over what was no more than a 14.4k baud modem they had set up. It took a good minute or two for each page to load, and there wasn't much out there, but it was exciting anyway. What about y'all?

(I had of course used #telnet before that on a local #BBS. I mean, who hasn't done that?)

@vkc Any fun #BBS to try around #minnesota ?

Also kinda makes me wish I had a modem to Ethernet system to get old machines online, old school style. But alas, #tempusfugit

@driscoll The companion to that is, of course, the BBS Documentary by @textfiles . Together, these two works give you a sense of the people behind the #BBS scene, and its legacy today.

I don't believe "Modem World" mentioned #Mastodon directly, but the thoughts in there are remarkably prescient for this moment.

So, welcome Kevin! /end

@driscoll Many of you reading this will have never experienced the #BBS era. To use #Fediverse lingo, the high cost of long-distance phone calls caused BBS instances to be geographically-oriented and mostly small, despite global federation networks like #FidoNet. Kevin wove those stories in with what has happened with social media since. I've seen several people here note the similarities between BBS and Mastodon - Kevin's book makes those comparisons deep. 2/

I am so happy to see @driscoll here. Kevin is the author of two fantastic books: "#Minitel: Welcome to the #Internet" and "#Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media". I've talked about Modem World several times, including in two blog posts: https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10393-lessons-of-social-media-from-bbss and https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10417-the-pc-internet-revolution-in-rural-america .

Although I lived through the #BBS era, I credit Kevin with getting me to more clearly see the #BBS story as part of the broader Internet and #SocialMedia history as well. 1/

@maverick604 @darius @textfiles Fellow #FidoNet and #BBS user here. One of my early Internet email addresses was via a FidoNet gateway. Jason Scott's documentary is *fantastic* and I highly recommend it.

There is another one, done last year, that looks at the modern BBS scene - which is still present, even including FidoNet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0OwGSX2IiQ

Back when I was a teenager, before the Internet was a thing, I was the #SYSOP (System Operator) of a #BBS (bulletin board system). People would dial into my computer via my cutting-edge 9600 bps modem and post messages on discussion boards, send email to other users of the system, etc. Running a Mastodon instance reminds me of that, although federation takes it to the next level. I hope I can do this long term, because it’s way way cooler than Twitter and feels like going back to my roots.

@downey @Artzthings @msw I would absolutely love this! That kind of sketchy telnet software is still used to run a number of BBSs 🙂

There is this whole #BBS era that, aside from people like Jason Scott and Kevin Driscoll, is mostly history that is disappearing. I love projects that have revitalized BBSs - some have simply posted file or message archives, but the best are restorations of a BBS to a full interactive state!

@downey @msw Wait wait, a #BBS with 250 phone lines? This I gotta hear about. AFAIK that was just about ExecPC and nobody else. Inquiring minds want to know this story! Also what software did it run and so forth.

This from a guy that ran a humble 1-line BBS....

The same settings also work with the C64 version of the #RetroCampus #BBS 😄

Finally figured out how to get the #BBS from #TheOldNet up and running (and looking right) under #SyncTERM ! 😅

Set your screen mode to "C64", and your font to "Commodore 64 (Lower)" for it to look and at least act right.