The halcyon days of the BBS

[DimensionDude]

Vlad's "rant" about the yo-yos and their behavior reminded me of the days when I ran a BBS. Didn't want to hijack Vlad's thread so I started my own.

It was the only BBS (for a while) in a small, rural town where it was a long distance call to anywhere else. I had a dedicated phone line so the board was up 24/7. If I remember correctly, I alloted each user 90 minutes per day and didn't have any upload/download ratios. One of the online games (Usurper) became quite popular and this led to people opening multiple accounts. It started to be a problem when people (kids, really) began opening accounts with filthy names and posting profanity on the message boards.

So, I installed a call-back verifier to limit accounts to one per phone number, and also installed a filter for the names. Well, that didn't go over very well at all. There was a lot of "shouting" about rights, freedom of speech, etc. I made it clear that if I didn't like their behavior in "my house," then *I* had the right to boot them out.

There were several instances of "I'll start my own board and no one will ever call yours again," but they never lasted more than a couple of days. Infighting, probably, or mommy and daddy got upset at the phone ringing at 2am.

Anyhow, The Derelict remained popular until affordable dial-up internet access became available in the area. When it went for a week with no calls I finally took it down.

For those interested in the statistics:

Uptime: Approximately 5 years

Software: started with Spitfire, switched to PCBoard (still have it in the box)

Computer: XT turbo, 640K ram, ST225 hard drive on RLL controller giving 32MB; upgraded to 386-16 with 1MB ram, Miniscribe 3650 on RLL controller giving approx. 65MB; last incarnation was IBM PS/1 486DX 33, 8MB ram, 212MB hard drive, 2 Mitsumi single speed CDROM.

Modems: generic 2400, USRobotics 14.4, USRobotics 28.8.

Origin of the name "The Derelict": I've always been intrigued by the mystery of the Mary Celeste. Originally I was going to name the board Mary Celeste but didn't think many people would understand.


Kent (wistfully thinking of the old days)

[Vlad]

I used to run a usenet board, then phpBB (go figure) but they never really lasted as long as the website has.

-V

[CP/M User]

"DimensionDude" wrote:

-> Vlad's "rant" about the yo-yos and their behavior reminded me of the
-> days when I ran a BBS. Didn't want to hijack Vlad's thread so I
-> started my own.

I thought hijacking somebody elses thread, involved posting a simular
thread, then talking about the old one. That's how I feel about it, but
anyway...

-> It was the only BBS (for a while) in a small, rural town where it was a
-> long distance call to anywhere else. I had a dedicated phone line so
-> the board was up 24/7. If I remember correctly, I alloted each user
-> 90 minutes per day and didn't have any upload/download ratios. One
-> of the online games (Usurper) became quite popular and this led to
-> people opening multiple accounts. It started to be a problem when
-> people (kids, really) began opening accounts with filthy names and
-> posting profanity on the message boards.

-> So, I installed a call-back verifier to limit accounts to one per phone
-> number, and also installed a filter for the names. Well, that didn't go
-> over very well at all. There was a lot of "shouting" about rights,
-> freedom of speech, etc. I made it clear that if I didn't like their
-> behavior in "my house," then *I* had the right to boot them out.

Now see, I don't get that. By rights, these people still have their rights,
they still have their freedom of speech - but all mean's go out and
complain, but that won't change anything. But if they came to you to
complain, then you should have the right to your privacy - do it in the
streets - or call the Police for Tresspassing!

An interesting observation I noticed while watching Bless this House the
other week, the Kids (which give Sid James a hard time - gawd only
knows why) talk about treating everyone as equals & that you should
respect one another - fair enough, but then they have their wild party &
guess who's booted out of their own house? There's more controversial
examples of this, but I thought this was a good one where in, they aren't
sticking to their word - people would be much better if everyone just did -
but they don't & it's usually the lowest common demoninator which spoils
it for the rest - who do the right thing.

-> There were several instances of "I'll start my own board and no one
-> will ever call yours again," but they never lasted more than a couple of
-> days. Infighting, probably, or mommy and daddy got upset at the
-> phone ringing at 2am.

Well that's plain crazy talk - if your not making anything of it - a bit of
competition is always good. Isn't that the way it goes the more BBS the
better? I visited a couple before hooking up to the 'net & generally found
they were good - particularly cause there was some variety around &
cause it was like a net (well not quite) of people interested in keeping the
good ol' 386s, 486s attached in some form. Unfortunately I not sure how
it's working nowadays - you used to get lists of BBS, but I think the net
has had a severe blow to the ol' gems.

---

Personally myself I've ruffled a few feathers at the 8bit forums in
particular. What you mentioned earlier about hyjacking peoples threads I
did one time & continued the trend which made the Admin operator go
barmy - I thought I was doing a thread a service by adding constructive
comments & questions into the thread - but everyone went mad & told me
to start my own thread - people advising that I was an aggressive poster,
when I saw it as no more as some additional questions relevent to the
topic. Then at the same I went mad on some other thread - cause the
topic someone started was misleading - which in turn simply became the
same ol' topic which should have been pinned. At the same forum - I
attacked the relevance of some thread - which made the Admin slightly
change the subtext in the topic to make it relate to any 8bit machine! And
I did something else which I got banned for - a week, can't remember
what it was - might of been something negetative about the Admins
favourite musician. But anyway - a lot if not all of that was deleted - so
it's all just History now! ;-)

CP/M User.

[Erik]

I ran an RBBS PC board in New York back in the day which I turned over to my local PC club when I took off for college. The board ran for a couple of years with me as Sysop and for several more thereafter. Several of the ANSI-Art menus I created became standard on boards worldwide.

After college I ended up in San Antonio Texas and started up a WWIV board called "Gangster of Boats" that ran for several years before I moved away. I still have backup disks and tapes from both boards around somewhere, although I doubt I can read any of the 1.2 MB floppies or QIC-80 tapes. ;)

Erik

[Vlad]

Wow there CP/M user.

I have no problem with his referring to my Outburst. As for ruffling feathers, there have been times when I have been in all out wars in chatrooms, but it was always justified.

-V

[DimensionDude]

CP/M User, sure they have rights, but those rights may be tempered somewhat by circumstances or surroundings. You wouldn't walk in to church and start shouting profanities, would you? And no, I'm not comparing my BBS to a church, but you get the idea. I even created a forum for unlimited speech, but they wouldn't restrict themselves to just that forum. I had to keep them out of the Fidonet echoes or my board could have been dropped from Fidonet.

I live just a few miles from the second or third largest city in Arkansas (depending on who you ask). At one time there were between 6 and 10 operating boards. I knew most of the sysops, learned that at least 2 of the boards were getting calls from outside the US on a regular basis. The main reason for the calls was a file that contained a regularly updated synopsis of Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a synopsis of the entire series of Blake's 7. The Logbook has grown over the years, and now includes retro game consoles. www.thelogbook.com

Didn't mean to turn this into a commercial :roll:

Kent

[CP/M User]

"DimensionDude" wrote:

-> CP/M User, sure they have rights, but those rights may be tempered
-> somewhat by circumstances or surroundings. You wouldn't walk in to
-> church and start shouting profanities, would you? And no, I'm not
-> comparing my BBS to a church, but you get the idea. I even created
-> a forum for unlimited speech, but they wouldn't restrict themselves to
-> just that forum. I had to keep them out of the Fidonet echoes or my
-> board could have been dropped from Fidonet.

Not the -right- to remain silent by any chance! I figure if some person
starts up their own BBS - they can also take it down whenever they want
to as well.
If people don't like that - it doesn't give them the right to complain,
harrass or even assult anyone.
I encountered a simular circumstance back around 2000 when I signed up
for Free Access to the Internet. Sure I had to wait a long time before I
got my subscription & when I got it - had to get their software & then
after a period of time the Company involved decided to deal in Cheap
Internet - by including an fee. I decided against it & it was there we
parted company. Personally I wasn't too thrilled with the service & my
simular fee of around $20 at the time was more approrate for fast,
commercial-less internet access. Mind you I wasn't happy when this other
company decided to charge - but I didn't exactly throw them mail bombs,
threats or simply harrass anyone. In each case I see it no more as a
service which want's to expand on their current service - it could be for
profit or simply have more order - by controlling people from messing
around all the time.

-> I live just a few miles from the second or third largest city in Arkansas
-> (depending on who you ask). At one time there were between 6 and
-> 10 operating boards. I knew most of the sysops, learned that at least
-> 2 of the boards were getting calls from outside the US on a regular
-> basis. The main reason for the calls was a file that contained a
-> regularly updated synopsis of Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next
-> Generation, and a synopsis of the entire series of Blake's 7. The
-> Logbook has grown over the years, and now includes retro game
-> consoles.

Popular shows at the time would have people from all around looking, it
just suprises me that no-one would download that information & upload it
to their local BBS. I Wouldn't want to be calling for an International call -
which I thought was the whole idea of having BBSes all over the place.

CP/M User.

[Vlad]

I see it this way. He OWNS the forum. If he doesint like something he changes it. It's his forum of his server in his house. If someone came to the VCF and swore a lot and posted spam, they would be banned real fast. Same thing. Thats why I don't run a forum anymore. I got tired of the crap. I was going to start a forum that would be the a reverse VCF. A Modern Computer Forum. But I didn't at the last minute. The point i'm trying to make is that if someone owns the forum, and another person shows up and starts doing stuff the admin doesing like, they have every right to ban them.

-V