all hail the bbs

July 18, 2004 7:05 AM

Blogumentary? Pshaw. BBS: The Documentary, directed by Jason Scott of textfiles.com, is where it's at.
posted by reklaw (9 comments total)

Scott corresponded with me during the making of this documentary (I was a 'l33t teen sysop and have claimed to be the first BBS door programmer).

I love the fact that he's done so much work to remember these early online communities, which could easily be lost entirely otherwise. It's a project that's at least four years in the making, and he travelled around the country to interview BBS A-listers.

But not, as it turned out, me. I'm guessing that this means he found someone developing doors before I did.
posted by rcade at 7:54 AM on July 18, 2004

That BBS link loaded really, really slow for me. That really took me back to my 300bps days.
posted by birdherder at 9:04 AM on July 18, 2004

I was interviewed by Jason Scott for this documentary -- was one of the Defcon attendees, and wasn't entirely sober, but I repeat myself :) Jason's really putting together a labor of love, archiving information that simply doesn't really exist anywhere else. Will the masses "get it?" No, not even as much as they might get the blogs (which at the end of the day really do pander to the "you will like what I have to say" instinct way more than BBS's ever could).

I really enjoyed the interview, though, and got to meet a couple personal heroes (Veggie!). This thing should be fantastic when it comes out :-)
posted by effugas at 9:46 AM on July 18, 2004

Weird. Just as I read reklaw's post, I saw some of Jason's own posts over at Fark which were hyping and linking to the movie trailer. Guess he's trying to the get the word out.
posted by dhoyt at 10:10 AM on July 18, 2004

This is really great. BBSs were the training wheels for the first generation of Internet users. Without BBSs arguably the Internet would never have developed or been adopted as quickly as it did. It provided the framework for learning about email, networks, transfers, the power of on-line communities and collaborative methods.

In a way MetaFilter is a throwback to the old BBS days. Limited and closed membership, a certain club like atmosphere with community gatherings and collaborative efforts. The only thing it's missing is a files section and I've always thought a MeFi Torrent server would be an excellent addition.
posted by stbalbach at 1:56 PM on July 18, 2004

filepile is the file section of metafilter...
posted by Dreamghost at 5:21 PM on July 18, 2004

Pfft. When Matt installs Mefi L.O.R.D., then we'll talk.
posted by crunchland at 5:32 PM on July 18, 2004

pfft, L.O.R.D... give us Major Mud.

I agree, stbalbach, Metafilter is the closest thing to a BBS that I've seen on the net.
posted by Jimbob at 6:25 PM on July 18, 2004

I have fond memories of my C-64 BBS days. An addiction that would carry over to ISCA BBS, and... MetaFilter.

What's up with that Blogumentary puddinghead, anyway? Screw him. The BBS doc will have more stuff and probably be out sooner. Yay!
posted by Dok Millennium at 12:50 AM on July 19, 2004