Topic: A blast from the past!

While cruising the interwebs, I came across this documentary BBS: The Documentary (the description is from the actual web site http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/)

Long before the Internet escaped from the lab, connected the planet and redefined what it meant to use a computer...
....there was a brave and pioneering band of computer users who spent their time, money and sanity setting up their home computers and phone lines to welcome anyone who called. By using a modem, anyone else who knew the phone number of these computers could connect to them, leave messages, send and recieve files.... and millions did.

They called these places "Bulletin Board Systems", or BBSes. And their collections of messages, rants, thoughts and dreams became the way that an entire generation learned about being online.

When the Internet grew in popularity in the early 1990s, the world of the BBS faded, changed, and became a part of the present networked world.. but it wasn't the same.

In the Summer of 2001, Jason Scott, a computer historian (and proprietor of the textfiles.com history site) wondered if anyone had made a film about these BBSes. They hadn't, so he decided he would.

Four years, thousands of miles of travelling, and over 200 interviews later, "BBS: The Documentary", a mini-series of 8 episodes about the history of the BBS, is now available. Spanning 3 DVDs and totalling five and a half hours, this documentary is actually eight documentaries about different aspects of this important story in the annals of computer history.


Baud introduces the story of the beginning of the BBS, including interviews with Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, who used a snowstorm as an inspiration to change the world.
Sysops and Users introduces the stories of the people who used BBSes, and lets them tell their own stories of living in this new world.
Make it Pay covers the BBS industry that rose in the 1980's and grew to fantastic heights before disappearing almost overnight.
Fidonet covers the largest volunteer-run computer network in history, and the people who made it a joy and a political nightmare.
Artscene tells the rarely-heard history of the ANSI Art Scene that thrived in the BBS world, where art was currency and battles waged over nothing more than pure talent.
HPAC (Hacking Phreaking Anarchy Cracking) hears from some of the users of "underground" BBSes and their unique view of the world of information and computers.
Compression tells the story of the PKWARE/SEA legal battle of the late 1980s and how a fight that broke out over something as simple as data compression resulted in waylaid lives and lost opportunity.
No Carrier wishes a fond farewell to the dial-up BBS and its integration into the Internet.
Ideal as either a teaching tool or a reminder of your own memories, the BBS Documentary Collection brings back this nearly-forgotten time in a way that will tell the story... one caller at a time.

Well the entire series is available on Archive.org @ https://archive.org/details/BBS.The.Documentary

It is extremely informative featuring the actual people who helped to shape the online world as we know it (or knew it depending on how old a fossil you are. BTW I remember 300 baud acoustical modems!)

And if you really want to a trip in the way back machine, there are still sites that cater to ANSI graphics like http://sixteencolors.net/ which still are producing art packs!

There are even BBSes still available via telent but I am not sure why!

Re: A blast from the past!

I always did think of Duane of our Tom Jennings. tongue

3 (edited by bobsz 2014-04-16 19:23:38)

Re: A blast from the past!

I still say I post comments on a "bulletin board" rather than using terms like forum. I think "bulletin board" is much more descriptive.

We were so proud of the green banners we printed out on our giant dot-matrix printers. Remember waiting 'in line' to use the printer? Thanks for the link infocastme, I look forward to watching it

And then came the "alt" newsgroups... And porn exploded the Web into a new dimension, no turning back.

Re: A blast from the past!

Wow, I have not thought of PKware or PKZip in a long time.

I remember getting yelled at for tying up the phone line for hours at night. That was part of my excuse for getting the "new" 1200 baud modem when it came out. Faster connection was supposed to = less time connected. Didn't quite work out that way.

Bobsz,

Porn did not take that long to show up. I remember seeing ASCII porn images. There were some determined people back then.  smile

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

Re: A blast from the past!

Yup, and right from the beginning were "porn stories" and ads from supposed young girls to mail you... various things.

Re: A blast from the past!

bobsz wrote:

We were so proud of the green banners we printed out on our giant dot-matrix printers. Remember waiting 'in line' to use the printer?

I remember dancing snoopy as my first ascii art banner!

bobsz wrote:

And then came the "alt" newsgroups... And porn exploded the Web into a new dimension, no turning back.

Actually they had XXX BBSes that just catered to the porn customer.

Re: A blast from the past!

I was a node on Fidonet.

Re: A blast from the past!

kathleen wrote:

I was a node on Fidonet.

Way Cool! I am sure you will enjoy the Documentary as you were are part of it!

Re: A blast from the past!

I used to be the austin fidonet coordinator.  maybe I shouldn't mention that wink

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.

10 (edited by sweh 2014-04-18 02:01:47)

Re: A blast from the past!

I used to be on the UUCP network (sweh@spuddy.uucp, sweh%spuddy.uucp@uknet.ac.uk, ...!uknet!axion!spuddy) and I also used "ifmail" on my Unix machine to be on FIDOnet (2:257/108:12)

I would gateway Fidonet echo's onto local usenet newsgroups so my users ( http://sweh.spuddy.org/Previous/old-website/ ) could access them the same as any other newsgroup :-)

Re: A blast from the past!

Before FIDONet I did AOLOnline (man, they tried to rip me off).

I routed traffic in Fidonet (I'm thinking that is what a Node did, and moderated some groups).

I had the second personal Internet account in the Dallas/Forth Worth area. 

I ran a webserver and mailing list off a phone line in my house for a bunch of years.  (Another ripoff, but that's a long story, which one side can be found with a good internet search.

I've been in this net thing for a long time.  My mother thinks I might have invented email, but I keep telling her, it wasn't me.

Re: A blast from the past!

kathleen wrote:

My mother thinks I might have invented email, but I keep telling her, it wasn't me.

you mean we'll have to find someone else to blame for spam? wink

Cleaning up any loose bits and bytes.