Submission + - How 1980s hackers used bulletin boards to learn about heavy metal (furious.com)
hessian writes: "In the 80s, BBSes were the most important thing to the hacker world. They were where people met, talked, exchanged information," said legendary hacker Erik Bloodaxe, whose exploits with the hacker group Legion of Doom stirred many imaginations back in the day. "They were the central meeting places where you could find those people who actually cared about the same things you cared about."
"Most of the people in my peer group would be calling bulletin boards daily and were phone phreaks, so their long-distance calls were free. It was basically like being a regular on 4chan or Reddit, but thirty years ago. So we would talk about niche topics like metal that were very hard to find out about unless you, say, lived in a big city or college town and knew the right people/right places to go," said Grandmaster Ratte, a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow well-regarded in hacker circles. "Instead, you had access to people from all over the world, many of whom were very knowledgeable. I learned about tons of interesting subcultures via BBSs that I never would have known about until the Internet came along," he added.
"Most of the people in my peer group would be calling bulletin boards daily and were phone phreaks, so their long-distance calls were free. It was basically like being a regular on 4chan or Reddit, but thirty years ago. So we would talk about niche topics like metal that were very hard to find out about unless you, say, lived in a big city or college town and knew the right people/right places to go," said Grandmaster Ratte, a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow well-regarded in hacker circles. "Instead, you had access to people from all over the world, many of whom were very knowledgeable. I learned about tons of interesting subcultures via BBSs that I never would have known about until the Internet came along," he added.
