MetaFilter posts tagged with bbs

BBS documentary author tries to raise funds work full-time on computer history

Monday, stony Monday — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:51:07 -0800

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. Texfiles.com is quite a resource, with a wide range of topics: sex (mefi), drugs (mefi), the Vietnam War (mefi), koalas (mefi), Applesoft BASIC (mefi), and, obviously, the "Golden Ages" of BBSes (mefi). Jason has already written quite a bit on computer history, including IBM manuals, retrocomputing, the DAK catalog and Computer Shopper. He's also given many talks: nostalgics don't want to miss Apple II Pirate Lore; youger nostalgics may enjoy the Super Jason Scott Presentation 64. He's working on a documentary about Text Adventures, GET LAMP.

Technomadics

Ogre Lawless — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:45:59 -0800

Inspiration to do something with your holiday weekend: Steven K. Roberts is an interesting guy with a bit of a hobby problem. In 1983 his recumbent bike sported "only" a security system, lights, a CB radio and a state-of-the-art TRS80/100 laptop. Winnebikeo would eventually evolve into BEHEMOTH, the "Big Electronic Human-Energized Machine... Only Too Heavy". BEHEMOTH incorporated (amongst other things) HUD, cooling system, small Sun SPARCstation, HAM Radio, credit card verifier, bubblejet printer, hydraulic disk brakes... Eventually Roberts discovered that BEHEMOTH was developing a life of its own as he worked through trade shows and talk circuits. Feeling that bicycling still constrained one to roads and rest stops, he turned to kayaking. Of course, not much room in a kayak for modding...well, enough. Roberts has more recently turned to a number of larger vessels, including the S/V Nomadness. In between kitting out vehicles he's made a portable universal comm device for the modern era, written a bunch of tech articles and keeps up a blog on his multitudinous ongoing projects.

The thirtieth birthday of online communities

SteveInMaine — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:30:50 -0800

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. As you might expect for the time, discussion on CBBS was mostly about computer stuff. You can get a taste of what the messages looked like in all their textual glory.

Exposing Capitol Hill since 2007.

scalefree — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:59:48 -0800

The Capitolist - Web 2.0 meets Capitol Hill The Capitolist is an anonymous BBS for Capitol Hill staffers to post to, and the rest of us to read. Anyone coming from a Hill IP can post anything they want: weird, banal, frustrated, or the occasional full-blown cry in the wilderness. There's even LOLcats here. How long will it last? How far will it go? Hit refresh & find out!

BBS Sysop, RIP.

GuyZero — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:55:50 -0800

BBS Sysop, RIP. In 1987 Don DeLapp Jr died and his family maintained his BBS in his honor. In December, Don Senior died during an operation. Their BBS is immortalized on Don Jr's headstone.

all hail the bbs

reklaw — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 07:05:27 -0800

Blogumentary? Pshaw. BBS: The Documentary, directed by Jason Scott of textfiles.com, is where it's at.

Journalist Polices Online Discussion Boards

scarabic — Fri, 24 Jan 2003 10:30:16 -0800

"We often do this, changing the subject or saying something really obnoxious, to take the wind out of trolls' sails." Apparently, some people get paid to report on the contents of web discussion boards. What a sweet gig. Especially for a "journalist" who has no ear for irony, and doesn't know what "trolling" is. Quoting an Epinions reviewer as supporting material is a new low point in "news" reporting. (more inside)

dogmatic — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 21:58:31 -0800

Back in the day . . . Remembering a time when the BBS was king.

Steven Den Beste — Sun, 28 May 2000 11:02:39 -0800

Hey, kids! Be the first one on your block to own one of these! Your very own fully-automatic gatling BB-gun!

lizardboy — Sat, 06 May 2000 22:07:21 -0800

Written in 1982, this sysop reminisces about the "Golden Ages" of BBS's Kind of ironic that I hear people say the same things today about the net.
If I had been smarter, I'd have used my brother's Amiga 500 to modem around a bit, but unfortunately, text files like this are about as close to that time as I can get. Amazingly enough, with everything that's online these days, these old text files are some of my favorite things to spend my time reading.