🚀 go-pugleaf

thedirectory of BBSes and Internet Access Providers wrote:
> 
> klaatu (root@earthops.org) wrote:
> : BBSes? Does anyone actually call them anymore? Hasn't anyone ever heard the
> : saying, "That's as old as a BBS"?
> 
> Yes they do. If you don't like BBSes, don't call them. No one is forcing
> you to do so. The BBS sysops spend a lot of time and money to make their
> BBSes really nice. It is a lot more work than what it takes to create a
> web page. BBSes will always be around and are likely to make a comeback
> when they are rediscovered when the Net becomes overcrowded. And BBSes
> are ideal for real-time chat.

Why yes, you're so very right. I was a Citadel sysop for about three years. In
that time, I spent probably a hundred dollars a month in networking costs, which
reduced themselves to effectively zero once I got InterNet access. I admit I
thought I was really quite clever for being able to take some software, configure
it so that varying people or groups of users had varying levels of access to my
MS-DOS machine. And I even passed huge networking packets of a meg at a time,
compressed, and me and my users all hooked into a network composed of maybe three
hundred other users, and took three days to transport a single file from coast to
coast.

Now if I post, I can reach the world within seconds, the files of the world are
mounted at my fingertips, I can send mail with any level of security I could send
via FIDO or CitNet, I graphic interfaces that aren't restricted to some imbecilic
ripscript, and best of all, I only have to have one phone line occupied fulltime
for multiple users via TCP/IP to reach my internet _domain_.

As for chat, there's a jillion chat rooms, but I find it's really just a bit too
jevenile for me, as a rule. If I need to talk to someone, I just pick up the
phone; otherwise E-mail usually will do. If you just want to post where people
can see it, not only is ther UseNet, but there's excellent little cgi-bin scripts
that will emulate almost any BBSwares, on a web-page, complete with access
controls, etc... and once you've paid your provider's charges, there's no extra
cost no matter how far around the world you go.

The reason I use the phrase "old as a BBS" is simply because a few years ago,
some people who did BBSing got into the internet for the first time, and said, "I
should maybe get a _real_ BBS, one that doesn't cost so much and connects
everywhere". And Internet providers were born. Why should you blow hundreds of
dollars on a MajorBBS and multiple phone lines when you can simply get a Point Of
Presence at a phone switching station, run Linux for free (or get a real computer
and run Solaris) and have not a BBS but The Mother of All BBSes and get paid for
it?

A BBS is to the Internet like a quarter-watt walkie talkie is to a fullfledged
HAM set with 5,000 watts of linear amplifier.

> 
> : What a joke. If you've got Internet Access, calling a BBS is like scraping
> : dinner plates instead of using a dishwasher. You don't get quite as much for
> : your efforts and it wastes a lot of time.
> 
> IF it wastes YOUR time then don't call them.

I don't. I got tired of snivelling backstabbing local losers on pathetic power
trips. I'd rather hang on-line with people I may never meet, but who occasionally
are well-mannered credentialed professionals with morals and ethics.

> There are just as many
> people who think the Net is a waste of time. There are lots of things
> that are a waste of time to certain people. Those certain people don't do
> those things they are not interested in. Please do what you like to do
> and stop berating others who enjoy things you don't enjoy. If we were all
> the same the world would be v-e-r-y boring.

Ah, yes, that's why I like the Internet! Instead of having to find some sysop
who's not on an access-control powertrip, and hoping that I won't offend them or
their users, I can say what I want, and if I am confronted with someone who's
opinions differ, there's absolutely no problem. Neither of us can really do a
damned thing about getting the other's access cancelled, and the absence of
potential for power-over turns one-way one-sided forums into true debates, which
rarely if ever occur on any single-system BBS.

As one sysop said, well, coming onto my BBS is like coming into my house. And
he's right. I take it to the street, the Mainstreet of the world of
communications, UseNet.

If you want to crouch in one little dimly-lit virtual room that's completely
isolated from the larger world of online communications, go right ahead.

I shall continue to scoff.

-- 
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