I am pleased that you listed most all the BBS's I've ever frequented in my misspent past in your rosters ... I'd like to know how you collected all that data. Some of the best friends I've had in life I've made on BBS'es, and I do miss the sense of insider-ness and intimacy to be had on BBS'es that the internet totally lacks.

I remember how excited I was, too, lo these many years ago, scoring a 2400 baud modem for $25 when the going rate was around $100-150.

I'd be pleased to read anything you'd care to post, and would be especially interested in some sort of overview of your documentary. The bits you're leaving out sound interesting, too.

As an unrelated aside, I must confess some curiosity to the sudden lack of discussion links on BoingBoing. I don't wish to hijack this forum, but an explanatory post in the main blog would be nice.

The discussions were removed because a bunch of trolls started baiting Cory and Xeni. Cory reacted with his usual fury and ignited a trollwar and it got very murky from there.

Thanks, MD. Glad to have missed out on that.

Much love to your BBS projects.

Im an oldtimer at 39 who since the late 70's have been thorugh various school systems, the plethora of early days BBS's (anyone remembers Ed Gelbs bbs?) specificaly the old east coast ones, Sea Opus and Fido and then on to the net in the late 80's. Your list is very much the written history of my years online. I can not wait for the Documentary.

My wildest ride online was back on the old Mindvox bbs that latter turned pro ISP, one of the first in NYC and one of the early spin outs. In a way Mindvox preboomed and pre busted, it was a true pioneere:)- It was an amazing transitionl place where old skewl BBS mindsets slipped onto the "net" and then went batshiz crazy. Things really got nuts when users became employees, and yea I was part of that bit of fun. Waffle never was pushed so hard.

I look forward to your guest blogging

-tomwsmf

I was looking for a very popular BBS in the Fort Lauderdale, FL area in the 80s but didn't see it listed. It was called "Moonshae" and it was run by Scott Brinker. I can't remember many details, but I googled Scott and found him here. Any info on that whole scene? My memory is hazy, but I thought he made quit a bit of money selling the MUD we wrote for it. Ooo, looky here.

If the discussions are gone forever the Quick Topic logo at the bottom of the blog is kind of vestigial.

So, has Xeni's QT login been permanently hijacked, or am I missing something?

Here's a generic quicktopic/boingboing discussion thread that anyone can use to discuss any thread they want. I'll kill it when there is an alternative:

http://www.quicktopic.com/23/H/8GYXFWRuKDf

You know, the thing I miss most about my dim and distant past on BBSs was the conversations, the discussions, the talk...

Sure they mostly had some file sharing upload/download section but that wasn't important.

I remember playing MUDs on JANET, I remember using UNaXcess based in Bradford... I had friends with accounts on uk.ac.ed.tardis (yes that is the RIGHT way round)... I remember the joys of discovering FIDOnet and the hassle required to become a point on a node.

But the thing that tied it all together was the DISCUSSIONS. The conversations, the interaction with other humans. Without that it would just have been a list of files (probably mostly pornographic gifs and bad shareware)...

Conversation, Discussion, Interaction... I seem to be missing that somewhere else now. :-(

Z.

I went to a geek-ful O'Reilly conference afterparty back in April, wearing a shirt I'd made myself. It said "LOTEK" on the front and "WHACK" on the back, across my bum. Nobody, nobody got the joke (although one or two did follow the instruction!).

Edited by author 09-18-2003 03:11 PM
The first BBS I had any experiences with was Body Shot, a trans-gender sex board started in LA. I met quite a few lovers on that site and had to make many trips to the doctor because of it. I have a lot of great stories about those days if you are interested. If you would like you could interview and film me for your movie, I would be more than willing. I could even document the whole thing in my phoneblog!

The Xeni bashing is getting old.

There are trolls on all the major discussion groups, and BB has it's fair share. The most noticable difference between the other sites and BB is Cory himself.

Cory feels that because he unselfishly posts all of the things he likes on his site every day, readers should not question him, he has ultimate editorial over what's written.

He once questioned "the temerity" of those who dare question the subjects he posted. How dare they.

The SARS art debacle attracted a huge amount of critisism, as did many of Xeni's writings and subject choices. Cory's reaction to all the critics was to brand them as trolls. He regulary swore at critics. When swearing broke out in the discussions, Cory often started it.

Cory's bad behavior certainly baits trolls. A bored loser who posts random crassness will soon leave a site if ignored. Cory's juvenile responses of "suck my balls, fuck off and read someone else's blog, assholes" started a huge trollwar that lasted until he pulled the plug on the discussions.

It's a shame. His intolerance of critics is bad enough, it smacks of petulant control freak.

For a writer to resort to bad language and angry public raging shows a lot about his character, and truly belittles the man.

Edited by author 09-18-2003 04:27 PM
FOllow the Generic BoingBoing Discussion here: LINK!

I don't care about tom foolery in the quicktopics... I miss the "Discuss" links and I want them back!

Waaaahhhh....

Craniac (/m11) Xeni's login is 'xeni' (all lower case). The
capital X one is a troll.

As for Tom Foolery's assertion in /m16:

"Cory feels that because he unselfishly posts all of the things he likes on his site every day, readers should not question him, he has ultimate editorial over what's written."

I don't think that's it at all. I think Cory's position is,
if you don't like 'em no one is forcing you to read them, so
why are you whining about them?

When I think of BBS History, I think of THE WORKS.

TELL US ABOUT THE WORKS, JASON!