This is how the net looked like in the beginning. The exploration of this simulation of early arpanet and bbs hosts is like a descent into a cave filled with unknown riches, much as it was at the time many people got their first modems and started discovering the proto-internet. [more inside]
posted by hat_eater on Jun 3, 2011 - 66 comments

Mefi's own Jason Scott (jscott) wants to raise $25,000 using waxy's Kickstarter to work full-time on computer history. He made BBS documentary (previously), founded the Archive Team, and owns textfiles.com (previously) and, yes, sockington. So far, 237 people have pledged $20,340. On Nov. 4, Jason did a 5-hours, non-stop Scottathon. Apparently, fundraising ain't easy. [more inside]
posted by Monday, stony Monday on Nov 8, 2009 - 38 comments

During a January blizzard thirty years ago in Chicago, Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss came up with the idea for a computerized bulletin board system. One month later on February 16, 1978, the first public online community was officially established, and it was named CBBS. [more inside]
posted by SteveInMaine on Feb 16, 2008 - 26 comments

Back in the day . . . Remembering a time when the BBS was king.
posted by dogmatic on Jun 1, 2002 - 61 comments