Subject: Old School Internet Stories
@VIA: DIGDIST
@MSGID: <55F1F6B3.1883.dove_dove-int@digitaldistortionbbs.com>
@REPLY: <55F1E02F.34.dove-internet@deckersheaven.com>
@TZ: c1e0
 > I was wondering if you guys had any stories with doing BBS in the 80s and
 > 90s before the world wide web was public.

BBS stories aren't really internet stories, as your subject suggests. ;)

 > My family didn't have internet
 > until '96 and we used WebTV for most of our surfing before using a 
computer
 > so BBS were out of the question .

 > I didn't even know what a BBS was until after high school. I'm wondering
 > what it was like and if you guys did anything like warez or trading other
 > such files back and forth over baud modems. I'm fascinated by this stuff.

I grew up around computers (my dad always had at least 1).  I eventually got
my own computer, along with a modem, as a gift in 1992 (I was 12 years old),
and that's when I got into BBSing.  I stayed up late many nights that summer
calling local BBSes and exploring what they had to offer.  I mostly enjoyed
finding new games & other software to download, multi-node chat on BBSes that
had more than 1 node, and occasionally liked reading & posting messages.

I started my own BBS in 1994 using a second phone line that we had, and I
really enjoyed running it.  I ran that until 2000, when BBS use had declined
severely, and I thought nobody would really want to use a BBS again.

I started using the internet in late 1995.  I thought the internet was pretty
awesome when I started using it - Lots of information and files were 
available very easily.  As opposed to BBSes, which might not always have the
latest version of a particular program, the internet made it much easier to
find and download the latest version of something.

I eventually decided to get back into BBSing in 2007, and I started my 
current BBS at that time.  I discovered the documentary "BBS: The 
Documentary" around that time, which is what inspired me to get back into
BBSing (now on the internet though, of course).

Nightfox

---
 þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com
 * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:340/400)