Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#11

Post by sarosh » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 7:57 PM UTC

mixmax wrote: post #4

I'm not too young for that era (37) but I have never used a BBS. Didn't even know how to operate a computer before I got one in 1996... I caught up pretty quickly though.

I am 10 years your junior and I had the privilege of playing on BBS (512) in 1994-1995. I was enthralled with my old Packard Bell. True, it was mostly a file dump board (what wasn't back then), but it was fun nonetheless.

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#12

Post by timcederman » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:06 PM UTC

I ran a BBS in Brisbane, Australia which was fairly successful. Still shows up on some current Fidonet listings :) http://bbs.ricta.net/zone3ip/n640.html

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#13

Post by pibefision » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:10 PM UTC

Century 21 BBS. +54-9-11-4632-7070 I was sysop of on of the first Argentinean BBS. Nice times!

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#14

Post by wheels » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:11 PM UTC

I ran one using Osiris XLT up until 1994 or so. I remember mowing lawns to save up for a ($200) 14.4 modem and to pay for my private line. :-)

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#15

Post by dstillz » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:11 PM UTC

Too young. My early scene was meeting up with the local kids to swap BASIC programs, pirated games, and 8-bit video game cartridges.

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#16

Post by Prrometheus » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:11 PM UTC

There were regional BBSes?

That’s funny. One of my favorite software ideas is to create means for local communication so that people can form actual human real-space relationships, including marriage and enduring friendship. Wait long enough and old things become new again.

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#17

Post by doubleplus » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:12 PM UTC

I was on BBS's whenever I wasn't in high school in the early 90's. Met my first 2 girlfriends on there. 619 a/c - San Diego.

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#18

Post by thorax » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:17 PM UTC

wheels wrote: post #14

I ran one using Osiris XLT up until 1994 or so. I remember mowing lawns to save up for a ($200) 14.4 modem and to pay for my private line. :-)

Now that I think about it, "having your own BBS" back in the day is a lot like "having your own domain/site" nowadays. Pretty much everyone wanted to do it, but there were a lot of lonely boards out there.

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#19

Post by rplevy » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:24 PM UTC

There were a bunch of bulletin boards that I used as a teenager in upstate/central NY. My favorite in terms of bulletin board software were the the ones using Citadel.

Re: Ask YC: How many people here were regional BBS users back in the day?

#20

Post by Bluem00 » Tue, Mar 25, 2008, 8:29 PM UTC

dgabriel wrote: post #8

I was totally into the BBS scene in high school. There were three run by friends within our local calling area, and I remember dialing & redialing each of the three, getting a busy signal, cursing my timing, and trying again. I spent waaaaay too much time playing TradeWars back then...

TradeWars is still alive and kicking if you're interested. Now you just need a telnet client and a server. I assume you have the former, so here are some links to the latter: http://oregonsouth.com/ice9/ and http://www.thestardock.com/