How far we've come in our online communications...

[MineralMan]

I was reminded in another thread about how short the lifetime of the Internet really is. That got me to thinking about my old days using BBS systems and networks like Compuserve and GEnie. In those days, I was busy writing magazine articles to help people get connected and online in those old dial-up modem days.

Out of curiosity, I did some Googling to see if any of those old articles were still around somewhere. Amazingly, some actually were. Here's a link to one about how to setup a BBS system for your business or hobby that ran in Compute! Magazine in 1992.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue145/6_How_to_start_a_BBS.php

If you were around then, it's a real hoot to read.

Here's another article, this on one proper etiquette on BBS systems. A lot of the tips are still usable today:

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue127/82_How_to_be_a_good_BBS.php

I actually wrote quite a bit about online stuff, but only Compute! has an easily accessible collection of articles from the early 1990s. I had a blast looking at some of the articles I wrote for them almost 20 years ago. If you were an early computer buff, you might enjoy some of them too.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/index/index.php?author=George+Campbell

How things have changed! Now, we have instant access to information all over the planet. That seemed like a distant dream back then. It gives a real perspective on how much we depend on the Internet and forums like DU.

[gkhouston]

1. I don't know; seems like a flame war is a flame war is a flame war.

:9 And yes, I well remember the old days.

[MineralMan]

2. Yah, flame wars haven't changed a bit, have they?

They were just a lot slower in the BBS days. :rofl:

[tridim]

3. I remember typing in reams of machine code from Compute's Gazette.

Man, the cassette days sucked, but "Super Basic" for my C-64 was so worth it. I think by that time checksums were common, but it still took days to type in the numbers.

I also set up a BBS once on my parent's phone line and tried to limit the hours from 10pm to 6am. The next day they got hundreds of modem calls during the day. Oops. :)

[MineralMan]

5. Yeah. At one point, I had seven phone lines into my little house.

Four for the BBS, one for a fax machine, and two voice lines. Uff da! The poor phone company. The BBS lines were busy 24/7, but were on a fixed rate service, answer-only, for just $8/mo. They were literally in use about 90+% of the time. Very expensive for Pac Bell. Very cool for me.

[MineralMan]

7. Oh...yeah...typing in code from magazines. Uff da!

I hated that.

[jaxx]

4. That was really interesting.

The internet has evolved into being the source for almost everything. I liked the etiquette, it stands today so you all knew what you were aiming for from the go....good exchange of information with the least amount of BS. ;-)

K&R I love history.

[MineralMan]

6. Thanks. Those were fun times, and everything was pretty new

to everyone, so it was exciting to be part of it. Now, it's all just routine. Still useful, but not as exciting as it was back then.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Here's my favorite quaint part

"Take the time to write clear, readable messages. Remember that you're putting your words on hundreds of computer screens."

We have come a long way!

[MineralMan]

9. True enough. Hundreds of screens, indeed.

But, it was true at the time, for sure. I think that my multi-line Wildcat BBS had no more than about 750 users at its peak. A pretty remarkable phenomenon has grown out of small roots.

[janx]

10. My first foray into online communication was via

literary and writing sites on Compuserve. Much has changed, but much more has remained the same in terms of "netiquette." It's interesting, now that I think about it...people then had the same territorial tendencies and the habit of depersonalization.

It's worse on political sites, of course, but for some reason, people fail to realize that each poster is an individual human being--not just a member of some group.

I remember very early on--during one of my first log-ons--some guy named William tore into me, accusing me of racism. It turned out that he had me confused with someone else. I was mortified and couldn't understand how someone could be so rude! It was pointed out to him that he had made a mistake, but he wanted to save face and therefore would not back down. I posted there for years, and the guy never apologized. It was just awful at the time; I was a newbie and had no idea what was happening.

Online conversations about writing and literature can get quite heated, or at least they did back then. The most respected posters, overall, were unsurprisingly those who could persuade others while remaining respectful and civil. I still keep in touch with a few of those fellow writers via Facebook.

Also, Mineral Man, I want to point out that college-level writing handbooks now often have short sections on netiquette, and it's fun to discuss this with students. I think that some of them get a kick out of the discussion coming from an old dog like me! ;-)

[MineralMan]

28. Fascinating. Every once in a while, I run into someone from

those old Compuserve political forums. Have you ever met f.Christian. He was one of them and is, I believe, still active here and there.

At one point, my shareware software company had its own forum on Compuserve, so I got to be a moderator. I was also the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Shareware Professionals for a year, and we had a forum on CI$, too.

[janx]

11. P.S. :

Excellent topic!

[HipChick]

12. I think I want to marry you MineralMan..

a geek after my own heart..

I used to run a few BBS's back in the day..I was the Queen Sysop..

[janx]

14. Sysop!

:rofl:

That's a term I haven't heard in a long time! :hi:

[HipChick]

15. I remember when I got my upgraded modem

9600 baud..

I was the envy of the neighborhood: :rofl:

[janx]

19. Ponder this, though...

the technology has moved so fast, relatively speaking!

I mean, google messed me up today with some bad directions, but think of the way that the technology has progressed! I wish my parents were alive today. I'd love to show it to them.

[HipChick]

23. My parents are silver surfers..

They were adamant they didn't want computers in their house...

I had an ISP drop a hookup..left them a computer and a VOIP phone and some books

now they are on Facebook..they keep in contact with grandkids overseas with having to pay a hefty fee

and would not do without..

[janx]

31. Awww...

:hug:

[MineralMan]

21. I'll check with my wife.

I'm not sure how she'd feel about that. :hug:

[HipChick]

22. It's gonna get awkward..

:rofl:

[MineralMan]

26. No doubt. But, hey...you never know.

:rofl:

[B Calm]

13. You live where I live, you'd still be on dialup! Fucking country is so far behind

the rest of the world, it sickens me!

[Drale]

16. god

dont you people listen to Prince, the internet is dead. So we need to find a new way to mass communicate. Lol

[NJmaverick]

17. K&R

[Cha]

18. It's all geek to me Mineral Man..but I submit

you all are geniuses who know your way around the internet so intimately.

The history is facinating in how far we've come in just such a short time. I just know I love my laptop that I recently traded in my ol desktop for and now realize what my friends were trying to tell me when they said I wouldn't want to go back.:7

[w0nderer]

20. bbs software haven't gone completely out of existance, nor undeveloped

http://www.synchro.net/
some of us still use bbs'ish every now n then
it's been converted to run tcp/ip, connects webforum to the discussions and will even hook nntp into that

i want a qwk style email for my cellphone

[HipChick]

24. Interesting

[MineralMan]

25. I suppose so. Heck, I still have a Commodore 64 attached to my

basement TV. It's there to run "Little Computer People," the very first Sim game. I fire it up every once in a while, just to make sure the LCPs don't starve to death. :rofl:

Here, you can download "Little Computer People," complete with a C64 emulator for the PC. Good luck with it.

[HipChick]

29. I think I still have a Sinclair somewhere...

someone once posted on my BBS it's supposed to be useful for time travel.. :rofl: I don't know if they were pulling my leg or not

[MineralMan]

30. I used to have quite a collection of old computers, but I

gave them all to the old users group I used to run when I moved to Minnesota. I even had an Adam, probably the only one that was still working. Even the noisy daisy-wheel printer still worked. I never could get a Sinclair to work, though. Had an old Kaypro CP/M portable I used to fire up every now and again.

My favorite was an original Macintosh. I found an application that displayed a simulation of an aquarium in glorious grayscale for it on GENie, then added lamp parts to it and had it sitting on my chairside table in the living room. When we had company, I always turned it on and had the lamp on with the aquarium running on the screen. It finally blew its power supply, as they were wont to do, so I tossed it. It was a great conversation piece in the late 1990s, though. I think I paid $10 for it at a garage sale.

I suppose it would be a collectors item now, but it made a really good lamp. :rofl:

[tridim]

32. Only thing I still run on my 64 is M.U.L.E.

IMO one of the top 10 games in history. Maybe top 5.

[Codeine]

27. I met my first girlfriend in 1989 on a BBS run from a single PC

located in a tiny little trailer that was the home of a part-time electrician in Rubidoux, CA. It was so primitive it could be used by exactly one person at a time. Those were the days.