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Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

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Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#11

Post by sseagull »

optionalparens wrote: post #2

I often remark that people love reimplementing BBSs badly, and a fraction of the functionality. Of course it's not an entirely fair comparison because of the scope, different UI/nature of the web, audience size, and speed of communication to name a few issues. It's important to note that your average decent BBS had most if not all of the following: * Files - Often meticulously organized, with sometimes user voting or…

There are two "features" that are hard to re-create with modern BBSes. These, in my opinion, partly lead to the good user experience.

1. Because you tied up a phone line (on both ends), your time was limited. This results in not only not wasting time while on there, but also an increase in anticipation for when you can next get on. It prevents people from getting to far ahead in games.

2. Banning could actually mean something. You were not really anonymous (at least on the local ones) since you can be identified by your phone number and maybe banned that way. How do you effectively ban a person nowadays? Can't do it by IP or email, which leaves... ? That results in large amounts of spam, trolling, sockpuppets, etc.

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#12

Post by Sanddancer »

themodelplumber wrote: post #10
rhapsodic wrote: post #3

I can still recall the little rush I'd get when that 14.4KBS modem would get a handshake and the lines of green characters would start scrolling down the old CRT screen... Good times.

Back in around 1994 I remember dialing into BBSes that had these amazing UIs drawn with vector graphics. Can't remember the software name (local BBSes could use it, not like e.g. Prodigy), but holy cow it was cool, compared to the regular text-based or even ANSI stuff I was used to.

Are you thinking of RIP? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Imaging_Protocol

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#13

Post by fungos »

themodelplumber wrote: post #10
rhapsodic wrote: post #3

I can still recall the little rush I'd get when that 14.4KBS modem would get a handshake and the lines of green characters would start scrolling down the old CRT screen... Good times.

Back in around 1994 I remember dialing into BBSes that had these amazing UIs drawn with vector graphics. Can't remember the software name (local BBSes could use it, not like e.g. Prodigy), but holy cow it was cool, compared to the regular text-based or even ANSI stuff I was used to.

RIP Script [1]. Some samples [2]. Comments and Specs [3]. Video of a RIP rendering [4]. RIP Editor [5].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Imaging_Protocol

[2] http://archives.thebbs.org/ra108a.htm

[3] http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/PROGRAMS/GRAPHICS/RIPS...

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtWmPO-cLR8

[5] http://picoe.ca/products/pablodraw/

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#14

Post by optionalparens »

rhapsodic wrote: post #3

I can still recall the little rush I'd get when that 14.4KBS modem would get a handshake and the lines of green characters would start scrolling down the old CRT screen... Good times.

14.4? Slow down there, friend, we lucky people were using Hayes 300 baud modems. I still remember my glorious upgrade path:

300->2400 (now we're cooking)->4800->9600->14.4->19.2->28.8->56k

USR, Courrier, and Hayes were usually the best ones for me. I skipped 33.6 among other upgrades. The Courrier also had that extra punch if you were lucky enough to get one on the other end.

The Unix stuff was pretty pedestrian as far as programs, but on Dos, Windows, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, and some others, some cool programs for connecting. I think on Dos I remember using Terminix and Telix quite a bit, but the names mostly escape me by now.

Anyway, I guess now it's better I don't have to dial with options like *70 or use the various AT codes to get online, handshake, and stay there.

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#15

Post by axonic »

optionalparens wrote: post #14
rhapsodic wrote: post #3

I can still recall the little rush I'd get when that 14.4KBS modem would get a handshake and the lines of green characters would start scrolling down the old CRT screen... Good times.

14.4? Slow down there, friend, we lucky people were using Hayes 300 baud modems. I still remember my glorious upgrade path: 300->2400 (now we're cooking)->4800->9600->14.4->19.2->28.8->56k USR, Courrier, and Hayes were usually the best ones for me. I skipped 33.6 among other upgrades. The Courrier also had that extra punch if you were lucky enough to get one on the other end. The Unix stuff was pretty pedestrian as f…

acoustic coupled modems anyone?

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#16

Post by optionalparens »

themodelplumber wrote: post #10
rhapsodic wrote: post #3

I can still recall the little rush I'd get when that 14.4KBS modem would get a handshake and the lines of green characters would start scrolling down the old CRT screen... Good times.

Back in around 1994 I remember dialing into BBSes that had these amazing UIs drawn with vector graphics. Can't remember the software name (local BBSes could use it, not like e.g. Prodigy), but holy cow it was cool, compared to the regular text-based or even ANSI stuff I was used to.

You can find some RIP files in some of the old ansi packs from the 90s. Acid, ICE, Dark (I think) and some others (Union?) all had RIP at least for awhile. It's been too long and I only did ANSI and ASCII art in those times, though I knew plenty of people that did RIP art.

Anyway, check http://sixteencolors.net/

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#17

Post by optionalparens »

axonic wrote: post #15
optionalparens wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

14.4? Slow down there, friend, we lucky people were using Hayes 300 baud modems. I still remember my glorious upgrade path: 300->2400 (now we're cooking)->4800->9600->14.4->19.2->28.8->56k USR, Courrier, and Hayes were usually the best ones for me. I skipped 33.6 among other upgrades. The Courrier also had that extra punch if you were lucky enough to get one on the other end. The Unix stuff was pretty pedestrian as f…

acoustic coupled modems anyone?

We had a bunch of these bastards at work and at various universities local to me. I seem to recall them all hating each other and many not conforming properly to the standards. Dial and pray.

Still sometimes find these, but more often the 9600-56k more modern ranges in random server rooms and offices, still running all kinds of things that no one understands or wants to touch. If I didn't hate consulting so much now, I thought about going into this at some point to charge breakneck prices to do archaeology for these companies. I'd feel bad though replacing or touching such beauty, not to mention they often are the backbone of many businesses so that's why they are so paranoid to go near.

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#18

Post by losteverything »

axonic wrote: post #15
optionalparens wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

14.4? Slow down there, friend, we lucky people were using Hayes 300 baud modems. I still remember my glorious upgrade path: 300->2400 (now we're cooking)->4800->9600->14.4->19.2->28.8->56k USR, Courrier, and Hayes were usually the best ones for me. I skipped 33.6 among other upgrades. The Courrier also had that extra punch if you were lucky enough to get one on the other end. The Unix stuff was pretty pedestrian as f…

acoustic coupled modems anyone?

Yes. My first connection from high school to the town's university computer system.

The high school teacher was later (the following September) in my freshman comp sci class learning assembler. Very strange to have your math teacher (doubled as computer teacher) in class with you.

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#19

Post by type0 »

sseagull wrote: post #11
optionalparens wrote: post #2

I often remark that people love reimplementing BBSs badly, and a fraction of the functionality. Of course it's not an entirely fair comparison because of the scope, different UI/nature of the web, audience size, and speed of communication to name a few issues. It's important to note that your average decent BBS had most if not all of the following: * Files - Often meticulously organized, with sometimes user voting or…

There are two "features" that are hard to re-create with modern BBSes. These, in my opinion, partly lead to the good user experience. 1. Because you tied up a phone line (on both ends), your time was limited. This results in not only not wasting time while on there, but also an increase in anticipation for when you can next get on. It prevents people from getting to far ahead in games. 2. Banning could actually mean…

> Banning could actually mean something. You were not really anonymous (at least on the local ones) since you can be identified by your phone number and maybe banned that way

Hypothetical question: if we would see a new emergence of mobile based BBS's, using some novel protocol without identifiable phone numbers but with ability to assign unique IDs to users and solve those problems, could it take off today?

Re: Social Media’s Dial-Up Ancestor: The Bulletin Board System

#20

Post by bhaumik »

I was too young to use BBS when it started but the topic fascinates me, especially after having read Hackers and The Innovators.

Not to hijack the topic, but has anyone watched the show Halt and Catch Fire (available on Netflix)? I'm curious how accurately that show captures the culture of that era.

Would love any additional reading recommendations around BBS' emergence as well. Already bookmarked the documentary series: https://archive.org/details/BBS.The.Documentary

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