
The "Find Your Old BBS Buddies" Database 184
sloop writes "Everyone wonders what happened to the old geeks we used to see on the local bulletin boards. With "cool" aliases like Lord Nikon and Zer0 C00l they often can't be found in a phone book. Enter BBSmates, a database of most every published BBS. You can associate yourself with BBS's you were on and find other users." Or you can go on to found a website with one of 'em.
BBS outside the USA (Score:2, Flamebait)
Believe it or not there were, and still are, plenty of BBS's out here.
Before you say "well add it" - the site requires USA area codes...
Sigh.
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2, Funny)
i don't wanna know anything about that, i will only accept people from my hometown!
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:1)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:1)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:1)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:5, Informative)
So yes on the front page it requires US codes (as do alot of forms I am asked to fill in) but they do have a Country option.
Re:BBS outside the USA... so what? (Score:1)
An American tech news site discussing an (obviously) American site, designed by an American, mainly for American BBSes. Making sure that there is some content that appeals to Burkina Faso is likely not a priority in situations such as this.
It's great that you're pushing for more content that appeals to places outside of America. Just please understand that... well... you probably need to go find (or make) slashdot.co.uk or something similar.
Why does it matter to you anyway? And why does one small quote, some guy (likely redneck, I will agree with that) EXPRESSING HIS OPINION ON THE SITE HE'S PAYING FOR, turn this whole conversation into "Americans are so nationalistic that they're blind to everything else" tripe?
Believe it or not there were, and still are, plenty of BBS's out here.
Proportionally, no. The internet drove a lot of them out. Lots of us (myself included) couldn't make too many long-distance calls when we were younger - essentially, you couldn't communicate with people in another state/province, let alone another country or continent. (To put that into the anti-American perspective you are looking for, most Americans couldn't acknowledge anything outside their City, instead of their own country).
(If I misread "here" to strictly mean your home country, forgive me. I was acknowledging something outside the borders of your country, because you weren't.)
Re:BBS outside the USA... so what? (Score:1)
It's great that you're pushing for more content that appeals to places outside of America. Just please understand that... well... you probably need to go find (or make) slashdot.co.uk or something similar.
Since when is this slashdot.us. If you want a us centric website
.com/.org/.net != US
Re:BBS outside the USA... so what? (Score:1)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:1)
Besides, the three digit Area code system is unique to North America.
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:1)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2)
Give it a few hours and the troll who first complained about the site supposedly being US-centric despite having non-US websites listed, as well as the people complaining about the small 9/11 ribbon and message on the site will be modded into oblivion!
I wish I could meta-mod whoever called his post "insightful" though. Maybe ill just mark him as a foe instead.
siri
siri
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:3, Insightful)
Certainly not to Europe, where bombings are just a normal part of everyday life. "Look Marge, another van just blew up killing 20 innocent bystanders! Pass me the crumpets please".
Whad'ya expect from a land that kissed Hitler's ass untill the US had to go over there and save their butts once again.
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:3, Funny)
Anyways... enough history. There is something somewhat scary about the thought of hooking up with old BBS denizens. I don't know about you guys, but the BBSes I used to frequent were 10% geek, 5% relatively welladjusted but non-techie people, and 85% freak. I didn't go to "geek meets" then, and I certainly don't want to see what the passage of time has done to people who were barely human 10 years ago. Its not worth the risk, I don't want to get bitten or licked or see anyone in a Pulp Fiction Gimp outfit.
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2)
Did you use the word "land" because you wasn't sure whether Europe was a country or continent? Funny, I always thought it was the US that ignored Hitler while the whole of Europe was at war, until they got spanked by Japan.
My daddy is a cop. And my dick is bigger than yours. Europe r00lz, the US sux0rz! Is the discussion on a low enough level for you yet?
I know you eat rattlesnakes for breakfast. I know you think good ol' W is a mean motherfucker. I know "Marge" is the most foreign sounding name you could come up with. I know you never finished high school because it sucked. I know you've been to Paris, Texas but never heard of Paris, France. I know all this, and it's fine with me, really.
But please, keep it to yourself.
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:1)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2)
So just shut your ignorant mouth!
Re:BBS outside the USA (Score:2)
Funny how you can't even explain the cause of the problem to some people and they jump up, accusing you af hating them and whatever. Tell someone what the USA has been doing in securing dictators in power all over the world, and you are "anti-american", criticise the Israelis for indiscrimitate bombing of civilians and you are "anti-semetic"
The hatred is not blind, far from it, Europeans are trying to "argue" with logic, about what is right/wrong. I doubt it should even be called 'hatred'.
How is a terrorist act perpetrated by wealthy Saudi engineers and backed by a Saudi multi-millionaire whose stated purpose it is to establish an Islamic world order an act of "revenge" exactly?
Are you suggesting that "wealthy Saudi engineers" or "Saudi multi-millionaires" or whatever, can't have a 'revenge' ?? I utterly fail to see where it matters what university degree they had or how much money they owned ??
There are a *lot* of people, and I mean *LOT* of people, in this world, who hate the USA for what the US foreign policy has brough down on their country. (and the WTO/Worldbank/etc etc..., but that's slightly different story).
What, are you equating the cold-blooded murder of thousands of innocents with misguided support for the Contras or something?
Arghh, no please not another one !!!!
*I* am not equating anything, *I* do not support the killing of *any* civilians (including americans), I am just trying to explain to you that the US foreign policy backfired badly. Putting royal families in power who torture their political opponents (Kuvait), for one, will bring you lots of rich enemies.
you have any idea what sort of activities the British were engaged in while _they_ were in a similar position of power
No, and I don't see the relevance ?? Is it supposed to justify something ??
Nothing, NOTHING justifies the horror of September 11th,
True, as goes with any other humanitarian tragedies around the world. Do you think the 11th Sept tragedy was somehow morally "special" ?
and standing idly by is the last thing you want to do
I consider it just as bad to exploit the tradegy to enforce your power uppon the world.
This is too good (Score:5, Funny)
"PLEASE NOTE: I am currently in the process of switching servers. If you notice anything funny, please email me."
I think something funny is going on.
Re:This is too good (Score:1)
Re:This is too good (Score:2)
siri
Re:This is too good (Score:2)
So it is running IIS. Great. Maybe because uhm, he is a incompentent American, he doesn't know how to run BSD. Maybe he is running a virtual server..... and paying very low prices for hosting.
Take five min to look at what he/she HAS done, and not what webserver he is hosting with. "it crashes all the time" blah blah blah. You don't like IIS, then because of your disire to see it on another platform, Why don't YOU rewrite the site, and put it on the platform of your choice.
Re:This is too good -you dipshit! (Score:2)
Nothing outside the US? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Hopefully he'll get some UK content sometime soon.
Still a great concept, similar to FriendsReunited.co.uk in the UK, but aimed at geeks.
R337 L337 K3WL (Score:4, Funny)
Bleurgh!
Re:R337 L337 K3WL (Score:2)
"Uh, sorry Mr. The Plague, we've got a situation here."
Tee hee hee... that movie amuses me to no end...
We'll just start one here - not as US centric! (Score:1)
That's me, or, was.
Re:We'll just start one here - not as US centric! (Score:1)
Future .. (Score:2, Funny)
E-mail addresses (Score:3, Interesting)
I would settle for a database mapping old, non-working e-mail addresses into current ones.
Re:E-mail addresses (Score:2, Informative)
Re:E-mail addresses (Score:1)
Re:E-mail addresses (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:E-mail addresses (Score:2)
So slow (Score:2, Funny)
or my old 300 Baud.....actually, i think semaphore would be quicker than this site right now..
Re:So slow (Score:2)
I miss my 300/110 with autodial (but not autoanswer)... no, I take that back.
where are all the H/P boards? (Score:2)
Long Live 2i5!
Fidonews has more (Score:3, Informative)
I tracked them down using... (Score:3, Interesting)
In the dark distant past, prior to IRC, WWW (We had Gopher though!!) - I frequented talkers such as Cheeseplants house, usually accessed by telnet on a high port, like a MUD.
I was intrigued whether there was any record of the talkers on the net and here is some of what I came up with:
Talker History [netlingo.com]
Cheeseplant's House [cheeseplant.org]
Crazylands.org [crazylands.org]
I noticed that crazylands acutally ran a talker so I connected to see who would be online. Pity though, only 2 people were there. The strangest thing was that Grim, who I remember from Cheeseplant's house in 1991 was actually still online!!! what a spod! (we chatted for a while, then I got idle). I found another, although the name goes away, which had a few more people online, but none of the ones from before.
I look back as this being the golden age of the Internet, back in the days before AOL, while so much has changed, it's actually interesting to see that the smaller communities still exist down there in the talker underground.
*Holds head in hands* (Score:1)
Looks like I many not have the chance, now.
So anyone reading remember "Call the Vanguard BBS"?
Re:*Holds head in hands* (Score:1)
I remember frequenting that a bit back in 1987-90...
I used to live in Edmonton, so I think it was long distance for me... Hard to remember.
Who remembers using QModem?
I ran my own board for 2 years, strictly gaming and lite fidonet back in 1990.... Good old days.
It was called Micro-City BBS... we had THE best games at the time, with people paying us for a chance to dial in at 1200 and play Operation Overkill ][
Miss that game the most, probrably...
Peace!
-Chris Simmons,
Avid BeOS User.
The BeOSJournal
----------------
http://www.beosjou
Re:*Holds head in hands* (Score:1)
Ahh... the good ol' days (Score:5, Funny)
In certian respects, the golden age of BBSs was better then today's Internet. For example, no logging on at 3.30 in the morning only to find 20+ posts by clueless Europeans bitching about how some website didn't include them.
Re:Ahh... the good ol' days (Score:1)
Re:Ahh... the good ol' days (Score:2)
11/9 ribbon. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Or is it just me..
Re:11/9 ribbon. (Score:2)
Few BBSs I remember in OH (Score:3, Interesting)
Starfleet Academy
Rusty and Edies (the place to go for porn in OH)
BBSing was fun. The wildest thing was when we'd all get into TC (MajorBBS was the greatest) and then we'd chat about of all things, the weather. Tc was better then IRC cause it had actions. You could drop a nuke on someone or send someone flowers.....it was pretty neat! Then there were my legendary BBS parties where I would get snockered and then get online and try and find folks to get snockered with, or to go to Waffle House or Tee Jayes and have breakfast and get sober. Fun fun! MajorBBS dropped the ball when they went to that weird GUI thing. They did not make it a requirement to get in, but after being text based so long, it just seemed, well, weird.
Messaging at the Speed of Overnight (Score:2)
One BBS I was on (Boston Bullet) was kept alive with a provision that the account of a luser ("Skull Bearer") was kept open and available to everyone. His infrequent ramblings were sometimes more entertaining than some of the Discussions/flamefests, and was the source of much NC-17 parody.
Re:Few BBSs I remember in OH (Score:2)
Is this really a good thing? (Score:1)
Re:Is this really a good thing? (Score:1)
Re:Is this really a good thing? (Score:1)
Scott.
Re:Is this really a good thing? (Score:1)
Not if they were plotting murders. Or using the modems to create an electrical surge to actually murder people.
What? I watched too many movies in the 80's? Damn.
Re:Is this really a good thing? (Score:1)
On topic question (Score:1)
The only reason I this surfaced in my memory is because I remembered the contest and was wondering if it ever was solved.
I wonder what handle i used back then.. (Score:1)
However, there were some BBS:s I used to something like 1995, Deaf Leopard and MITS and CofD.
I cant remember what nickname (handle) I used back then..
And you can go on to... (Score:2)
(My apologies if this doesn't seem funny. It did to me, but that may have something to do with my lack of sleep, and it being 04:30. Enjoy!
paid for by the FBI (Score:1)
Let this sleeping dog lie. One can always drum up old BBS mates another way.
Re:paid for by the FBI (Score:1)
like i said, i hope this was just a joke...
BBS's and the internet.. (Score:3, Insightful)
the biggest thing I miss most is tradewars.. Yeah you can download it and play it now, but it meant more and made the game more when you not only had your limited turns that day but you were sucking down your precious last few minutes alloted on that board for that day. Couple that with the fact that you knew that most of the players were within a 20 mile radius of you and it really got exciting... your friends were players so you could yack about it at school.
I dont miss 300bps, 1200bps or even the rich kid 2400bps modem days... It was horrible.
TradeWars is alive and well (Score:1)
Well, you're in luck. TradeWars has been ported to a Win32 app, and there's still lots of games around. Just telnet [davidyaw.com] to any of the games listed here [tw2002.biz].
Re:TradeWars is alive and well (Score:2)
BRE had a few problems, but all in all it was the best strategy game I've ever played. Interplanetary, of course. Strategy games should be about sending messages to the players to organize attacks, alliances, allegiances, etc. even more than building units; and that's something that only BRE seemed to master.
I still have fond memories of, some 6-7 years ago, I told everyone on my planet I was going to try to infilitrate the enemy planet (two planet world) by letting them think I would be willing to turn on my home planet if they reinforced me, and I told everyone on my planet that I was going to convince the other planet that I was working for them and then take advantage of them.
In the end, I was receiving countless tanks and money from the populations of both planets, and nobody attacked me. Good times.
Re:TradeWars is alive and well (Score:2)
The Geek Version (Score:1)
FIGURES! (Score:5, Informative)
And for those of you saying this is a US-only site, there is a country field (in the advanced search page), however i will add better world-wide support in the near future.
-nullvalue
Re:FIGURES! (Score:2)
But it sounds like a great idea. There are plenty of people who I've lost contact with when their local BBS access went under.
BTW our dialup BBS is still alive and well, if very small
Re:FIGURES! (Score:1)
Tired of Slashdot "BBS==past" attitude (Score:4, Interesting)
BBS's still provide the greatest sense of a cohesive online community out there. Better than "blog" type nonsense, and certainly better than what the likes of MSN and AOL have to offer.
I've run UNCENSORED! BBS [citadel.org] for 14 years and I'm not about to stop now. And the 200+ users aren't going to stop logging in, either. Modern BBS's offer access via telnet/ssh or web, your choice. And the Internet-connectedness of it all has made it possible for BBS communities to attain geographic diversity, something which was not possible when you had to deal with long distance modem calls.
Please, people, let's get the perspective straight. The BBS is alive and well, so stop pushing this "bygone era" myth.
Re:Tired of Slashdot "BBS==past" attitude (Score:1)
The good times were when BBSs were new and cutting edge, which, I'm afraid, they no longer are.
I do like your comment about the sense of a cohesive online community - that is so true and really cannot be disputed.
To draw an analogy: BBSs and Talkers are however, caves, generally small sites hosting 30-100 concurrent connections, compare that to the cities of IRC or web-based chat forums hosted by yahoo.com and the like.
Some of the best places to go are the hardest to get to.
Re:Tired of Slashdot "BBS==past" attitude (Score:2)
Why?
Because one of the best things about BBSing was the fact that not everyone was doing it, corporations hadn't discovered it, and Hilary Rosen was still kicking kickballs in the playground.
Any web-based BBS is insane. It misses the point. Maybe you or your 200 users don't feel that way, but now we're all in the shadows of the hegemon(s): Microsoft, Amazon, you name it.
Even in podunk Ames, Iowa -- where I spent a couple years in graduate school -- the BBS scene was alive and well. (I have fond memories of a bbs called GolfSucks...)
True, I didn't exactly want to participate in the numerous "Meet and Greets" for fear of actually, um, meeting some of the people in person I met online, but still: the scene was pretty interesting.
But now?
We all play in the playground under the watchful gaze of Rosen, Valenti, Ballmer, and Gates.
It ain't fun no mo', friend.
You might want to check it out first... (Score:2)
It may be that what you're saying is true, but you seriously diluted the impact of the claim by that little missing detail in your argument.
Re:Tired of Slashdot "BBS==past" attitude (Score:1)
The only reason you would think that is because you don't still use them. I used to be a SYSOP of a BBS in Nashville, TN, but shut it down when I moved. I still call a BBS up in Nashville, to chat with my friends that I met both online AND at "meet and greets".
I am also getting ready to set up a Citadel/UX system of my own. WHY you ask? Because more and more people I chat with are getting tired of the crap in chat rooms. You can't really chat in them anymore, for all of the spam. BBSes offer a SPAM FREE zone in which to converse and make new friends. I already have 15 people who used to use my old CP/M Citadel BBS that are eagerly awaiting my Citadel/UX system.
The BBS DOES LIVE ON.... It may be "old school" to you kiddies, but the BBS "scene" is making a comeback. The World Wide Wasteland is making sure of it!
Beta Mountain BBS.... Coming soon to a URL near you!
Re:Tired of Slashdot "BBS==past" attitude (Score:1)
Re:Tired of Slashdot "BBS==past" attitude (Score:2)
BBSes LIVE, daddy-o!
Shocked to see my BBS listed (Score:1)
Yes, this does bring back the good old days. I was in high school (you can imagine what a hit I was with the ladies running my own BBS). So this was the early 90's. I can't remember what years I ran it. It was kind of popular. I started out on 2400 baud and upgraded to 14.4. I was considering adding a second node and was working with another local bbs, Widomaker (who is now an ISP in Hampton Roads) on adding internet e-mail right before I bit the dust. I ran a VBBS system and created my own message network. From what I remember it was called AfterNet or DelightNet. one of the two. We had about 3 participating BBSes. One local and one in the midwest.
And I had a dumb nick. I Am What I Am. That was it. People got tired of /whisper"ing" to I Am What I Am (too much to type) so I shortened it to IaWIa. My little brother I named as co-sysop, CiscoKid.
VBBS was a great BBS program. And the programmer, Roland DeGraaf (sp?) was a great guy. I didn't deal with him too much, but he was legally blind. He had a special monitor rigged so he could program
I also ran VGA Planets which is why a majority of the people were calling in (that and LORD). I'm glad to see this game is still going [vgaplanets.com]. I need to check it out.
Looking for Sysop ;) (Score:1, Funny)
Related Slashdot Story (Score:1)
Every BBS That Ever Was [slashdot.org]
Just like the old days.... (Score:2)
Try again
and again
Okay, turn on the war dialer... Wget do your job...
Hackers... *sigh* (Score:2)
"Crash Override" and "Acid Burn"
Re:Hackers... *sigh* (Score:2)
"Heywood Jablome"
"Pikov Andropov"
"Marge N. O'Error"
"Chuck U. Farley"
"Hans Upperblauz"
And they need a good group name like "Hackers of Dark Chowder".
The "other" BBSLIST (Score:2)
Thanks, Mark. (Score:2)
BBS = Talkers = Muds = MMORPG (Score:1)
BBS User Browsers (Score:1)
BBS Documentary (Score:2)
jesus (Score:1)
Computer Shopper (Score:2)
Anyone remember what that BBS game was that involved you taxing peasents and training lords and taking over other people, but you could only play once a day? It was on a whole bunch of BBS's...
Re:Computer Shopper (Score:1)
Re:Computer Shopper (Score:2, Informative)
Exitilus? BRE?
The Enterprise BBS (Score:1)
Those were the days...only 10 people on at once... Playing LORD.... right before he left for college and shut it down, we even had e-mail to the outside world. I thought it was so cool at the time...
Locutus of 805 (Score:1)
Oh the good old days. I sometimes wonder what happened to some of the more respected 805 BBSers like G.Washington, Crushed Ice, Uncle Ivar (you stupid canadian, how dare you move back to
Old BBS door (Score:1)
You'd buy a ship, food, arms, etc. and run around making deliveries. On occassion you'd get attacked by pirates. If you destroyed the ships, you'd get some extra booty to buy more guns/bigger ship with. You could also choose to attack one person per day. I loved the game, but can't find it anywhere. Anyone got a link?
For Sysops... (Score:2, Informative)
For those of you still running BBSes.. let's not forget the bbs archive [thebbs.org] where you can find every utility, door game, and bbs package ever created (well, almost).
Also there is the BBSnet IRC chat server [thebbs.org] where a lot of BBS authors and sysops, including the current maintainer of LORD, frequently hang out.
For more BBS Stuff... (Score:2, Informative)
Cheers, Orange
Re:Title should be "Find Your US-ONLY-BBS Buddies" (Score:1)
And? [slashdot.org]
History always repeats (Score:1)
True, more advanced then before, but the same basic concept will prevail.