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History of Fidonet (1993)

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Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#31

Post by 6c696e7578 »

throw0101a wrote: post #10
magoon wrote: post #8

Running a FidoNet-connected BBS meant I had direct access to read every EchoMail group I could subscribe my BBS to. At the time it was a great source of real, insightful written conversation. Because the readers were text-based, and it was all on my hard drive, I could consume postings at such great speed. (spacebar, spacebar, spacebar...) The memories.

> Because the readers were text-based, and it was all on my hard drive, I could consume postings at such great speed. You didn't have to run a BBS to do this. Using an offline mail reader like Blue Wave [1] and downloading QWK files [2] allowed anyone to do it—and helped keep the lines, as downloading was (relatively) quick compared to reading 'online'. I initially got "on" Usenet by downloading SOUP files from a loc…

Thanks for the blast from the past. You've just reminded me how awesome mail was back then. Do you remember IceEdit?

Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#32

Post by YarickR2 »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #4

in 1992..1996 FidoNet was almost the only means of connecting with the world in Russia. I think I can still determine the baud rate of the connection by how it sounds.

I was able to whistle dialtone and handshake precisely enough for nearby modem to report CONNECT 300/NONE .

Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#34

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

rsync wrote: post #28
harrigan wrote: post #2

BBS: The Documentary Part 4 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cm6EFYktRQ ) has some great interviews with Tom Jennings & co. on the beginnings, growth and decline of Fidonet. "It just runs in spite of the idiots." (Tom Jennings)

Highly recommend this documentary and, especially, the entire episode devoted to Fidonet. For those that don't know, the BBS Documentary is something like 6 DVDs and has hours of well produced and documented material and interviews.

It’s the best! I wish there were more things like it.

Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#35

Post by djabatt »

I started on Wildcat BBS from Mustang and bumped into FidoNet in the early 90's. This was all very decentralized perhaps the crypto-kiddies can glean some intel from the up/downs from this FidoNet story.

Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#37

Post by myth_drannon »

throw0101a wrote: post #10
magoon wrote: post #8

Running a FidoNet-connected BBS meant I had direct access to read every EchoMail group I could subscribe my BBS to. At the time it was a great source of real, insightful written conversation. Because the readers were text-based, and it was all on my hard drive, I could consume postings at such great speed. (spacebar, spacebar, spacebar...) The memories.

> Because the readers were text-based, and it was all on my hard drive, I could consume postings at such great speed. You didn't have to run a BBS to do this. Using an offline mail reader like Blue Wave [1] and downloading QWK files [2] allowed anyone to do it—and helped keep the lines, as downloading was (relatively) quick compared to reading 'online'. I initially got "on" Usenet by downloading SOUP files from a loc…

BlueWave was such a great way to read mail comparing to Gmail for example. Got me thinking about building an online clone if it just for fun.

Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#38

Post by dleslie »

richard_todd wrote: post #15

It was chilling to read the last section (starting “This was pretty cool ... for a while ...“). The network got big enough that people who “had nothing to do with the design, creation or maintenance of the FidoNet software” started asserting control over how the project was run, and forming committees. Shortly after, it sounds like political struggles led to forks and disillusioned members. When I think about all the…

Reminds me of Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

> In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

Re: History of Fidonet (1993)

#40

Post by ananonymoususer »

berbec wrote: post #30
huhtenberg wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheers to that. I suspect that you may still be particularly fond of Zyxel modems too :)

Courier HST or death

Couriers were great, but not as good as Hayes. Of course the Hayes modems cost twice as much so everyone bought the USR modems instead.
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