Fidonet: Technology, Use, Tools, and History (1993)

Post by liotier » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 2:18 PM UTC

t43562 wrote: post #76

liotier wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Harare in 1998, I remember the pleasant surprise of finding a good "internet café" in some downtown office building... Was Fidonet still active in Zimbabwe at that time, or had Internet access supplanted it already ?

"Mango", which was the name of the fidonet node, probably still existed but was on its way out. I was at university in SA by then. I know it was still around in 1996 but I cannot find all my backedup emails to see if my parents were still sending me emails from the mango fido/internet bridge after that time.

Post by esafak » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

egorfine wrote: post #37

reconnecting wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sysop?

Yell for sysop!

Post by tptacek » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #80

nickdothutton wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the downvoted poster above, and I used to run a BBS. Mostly hosting info files and CP/M software (Thanks U.S. Robotics, couldn't have done it without HST). I am genuinely interested in know where (and if) such a network of people could ever exist again. For those who may be too young to get the joke... Reddit is certainly not it.

One major thing missing with Reddit is the focus on geographic locality. BBSes had more of a community feel because 99% of the users were local, and this was enforced by financial reality. Few people in the 80's or 90's wanted to call long distance, unless they were distributing warez at someone else's expense (in which case they probably weren't reading and posting messages anyway!) You can get "some" of this feel f…

Post by timbit42 » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

pgrote wrote: post #5

Respected the process for getting on Fidonet. You had to figure it out, configure it properly and prove you were ready to go before you got a node number. No hand holding. Frontdoor and national mail hour.

Post by kseistrup » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

asjo wrote: post #89

tobi_bsf wrote: post #26

Was a great time, completely free of spam, ai slop and mostly even political stuff. the world is really developing backwards.

Oh, there was some spam and a lot of political stuff due to the hierarchical nature of Fidonet. Tiny Denmark had 3 networks. No AI slop, luckily. And a lot of fun. I used to run 2:230/149 on Fidonet. Can't remember my AmiNet address.