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Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

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Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#41

Post by Cyphase »

andsoitis wrote: post #33
thatxliner wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Possible. Their HN profile claims they’re Ray Ozzie, which I find hard to believe. https://keybase.io/rozzie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Ozzie

Sure looks legit based on the linked Keybase, Twitter, and GitHub.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#44

Post by maratc »

tclancy wrote: post #38
fidotron wrote: post #8

Of course! There was a time we were encouraged to be friendly with Russia, and many Russian devs were on Fidonet. This was actually how some I knew were recruited to work for western companies.

Is your username an homage or your actual handle on fidonet?

actual fidonet addresses are numbers, not letters.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#46

Post by BeetleB »

throw0101d wrote: post #25

I also remember using the BlueWave offline mail reader: * https://en.everybodywiki.com/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) As well as the QWK and SOUP file formats (the latter when I started on Usenet as well): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080509070947/http://combee.tec... And Tradewars 2002 'door game': * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars * https://breakintochat.com/wi…

I miss QWK. Best messaging format.

So much so that for several years I used a QB program I'd written to convert emails into QWK so I could use OLX to interact with emails. I'd reply using it and then convert my replies to plain text so I could send it off.

I still have taglines on all my emails.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#47

Post by loloquwowndueo »

the local communities we built around a handful of BBSes in Mexico City back in the mid-90s were incredibly close-knit. We’d meet in person a few times a year, and it resulted in life-long friendships, business partnerships and more. Fidonet allowed growing this even more - you didn’t have to connect to 5 different BBS every day to stay in contact with your friends, and the ability to communicate with foreign BBSes and the Internet was also magical and a nice perk us BBS operators could offer our users.

4:975/X !

Around 1995/96 the advent of commercial consumer Internet swept most BBSes away, which was unfortunate because the local, close-knit aspect of that early community was entirely lost.

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#48

Post by rswail »

I started on the MICOM (Microcomputer Club of Melbourne) BBS that was started and run by Peter Jetson around 1983/84, initially with a single phone line. It was home grown software, but eventually became part of Fidonet.

I found an old listing for it. I don't think Peter still runs it :)

3:633/371 Micom CBCS

Re: Ask HN: Remember Fidonet?

#49

Post by fidotron »

tclancy wrote: post #38
fidotron wrote: post #8

Of course! There was a time we were encouraged to be friendly with Russia, and many Russian devs were on Fidonet. This was actually how some I knew were recruited to work for western companies.

Is your username an homage or your actual handle on fidonet?

Homage. I really like the ideals of fidonet.

Edit to add, and as our friendly Russian here reminded us, it was a much more optimistic time.

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