Dialed in - a history of BBSing

I woudn't necessarily say "reigned supreme". Usenet preceeded the BBBs
and Plato Notes preceeded usenet.

2024-04-01 17:49:45 UTC

I woudn't necessarily say "reigned supreme". Usenet preceeded the BBBs
and Plato Notes preceeded usenet.

What was/is plato notes?

Scott Lurndal

2024-04-01 18:22:04 UTC

I woudn't necessarily say "reigned supreme". Usenet preceeded the BBBs
and Plato Notes preceeded usenet.

What was/is plato notes?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

2024-04-01 20:35:45 UTC

I woudn't necessarily say "reigned supreme". Usenet preceeded the BBBs
and Plato Notes preceeded usenet.

What was/is plato notes?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

Thank you! Nothing new under the sun. ;)

Lynn Wheeler

2024-04-01 21:50:30 UTC

TYMSHARE ... online commercial service bureau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tymshare
and its TYMNET with lots of local phone numbers around US and the world
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tymnet
In Aug1976, Tymshare started offering its CMS-based online computer
conferencing free to (user group) SHARE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHARE_(computing)
as VMSHARE ... archives here
http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare

I cut a deal with tymshare to get monthly tape dump of all VMSHARE (and
later PCSHARE) files for putting up on internal corporate network and
systems (biggest problem was lawyers who were concerned that internal
employees being contaminated being exposed to unfiltered customer
information).

In the late 70s and early 80s, I was also blamed for online computer
conferencing on the internal network (larger than arpanet/internet from
just about from the beginning until sometime mid/late 80s), it really
took off the spring of 1981 when I distributed of trip report to see
Jim Gray at Tandem (although only about 300 participated, claims were
that upwards of 25,000 were reading). Also supposedly when corporate
executive committee was told, 5of6 wanted to fire me.

From IBMJARGON ... copy here
https://comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf

Tandem Memos - n. Something constructive but hard to control; a fresh of
breath air (sic). That's another Tandem Memos. A phrase to worry middle
management. It refers to the computer-based conference (widely
distributed in 1981) in which many technical personnel expressed
dissatisfaction with the tools available to them at that time, and also
constructively criticized the way products were [are] developed. The
memos are required reading for anyone with a serious interest in quality
products. If you have not seen the memos, try reading the November 1981
Datamation summary.

... snip ...

linkedin post
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/

early 70s, IBM CEO Learson tries (and fails) to block bureaucrats,
careerists, and MBAs from destroying Watson culture/legacy. Then decade
later, "tandem memos" references some of the problems with non-technical
management. And then two decades after Learson's failed effort, IBM has
one of the largest losses in the history of US corporations and was
being re-orged into the 13 "baby blues" in preparation for breaking up
the company
http://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
had already left IBM, but get a call from the bowels of (IBM corporate
hdqtrs) Armonk asking if could help with breakup of the company.
However, before getting started, the board brings in the former AMEX
president as new CEO, who (somewhat) reverses the breakup.

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

Lawrence D'Oliveiro

2024-04-02 03:06:08 UTC

... a fresh of breath air (sic).

Sounds like another name for mouth spray.

Lynn Wheeler

2024-04-03 02:39:05 UTC

early 80s, the scientific center wide-area network and corporate network
technology was used for the corporate sponsored univ "BITNET" (which was
also larger than internet for a period)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET
and EARN (bitnet in europe)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Academic_and_Research_Network
https://earn-history.net/technology/the-network/

which spawned something that had some of the features of the internal
network online computer conferencing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISTSERV

--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

D.J.

2024-04-03 18:07:29 UTC

Post by Lynn Wheeler
early 80s, the scientific center wide-area network and corporate network
technology was used for the corporate sponsored univ "BITNET" (which was
also larger than internet for a period)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET
and EARN (bitnet in europe)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Academic_and_Research_Network
https://earn-history.net/technology/the-network/
which spawned something that had some of the features of the internal
network online computer conferencing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISTSERV

Ah yes. BITNET was my first use of off-campus communication.

--
Jim

Scott Alfter

2024-04-02 16:14:46 UTC

Post by Scott Lurndal
I woudn't necessarily say "reigned supreme". Usenet preceeded the BBBs
and Plato Notes preceeded usenet.

What was/is plato notes?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

My first exposure to Usenet was either through a PLATO Notes gateway or a
separate system designed to mimic it. This was in 1989 at the University of
Illinois, the home of PLATO. I was using an Apple IIe with a borrowed
300-bps modem in my dorm room, or a dumb terminal or a Mac in the basement
computer lab. I got an Applied Engineering DataLink 2400 while I was home
for Christmas and upgraded my dorm-room connection to that.

Maybe a couple or three months in, I was trying to grab software from
comp.binaries.apple (?) and someone suggested that a real newsreader would
be a better option for the purpose. rn was available, so I switched to that
and never looked back.

I only started calling around to BBSes after I'd already had exposure to the
Internet.

--
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

2024-04-02 20:49:14 UTC

Post by Scott Alfter

Post by Scott Lurndal
I woudn't necessarily say "reigned supreme". Usenet preceeded the BBBs
and Plato Notes preceeded usenet.

What was/is plato notes?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system)

My first exposure to Usenet was either through a PLATO Notes gateway or a
separate system designed to mimic it. This was in 1989 at the University of
Illinois, the home of PLATO. I was using an Apple IIe with a borrowed
300-bps modem in my dorm room, or a dumb terminal or a Mac in the basement
computer lab. I got an Applied Engineering DataLink 2400 while I was home
for Christmas and upgraded my dorm-room connection to that.
Maybe a couple or three months in, I was trying to grab software from
comp.binaries.apple (?) and someone suggested that a real newsreader would
be a better option for the purpose. rn was available, so I switched to that
and never looked back.
I only started calling around to BBSes after I'd already had exposure to the
Internet.

My BBS days started with a 9600 bps Hayes modem. A friend father worked as
a programmer at a bank and he was very encouraging when he discovered I
was interested (my friend, his son, was just into music and was never
interested in his fathers work) so he lent me the modem, and gave me a
Pascal book and that was the "real" start of my career in IT.

I had a soft start as well at around age 8 when I had an 8-but Nintendo
and inherited a C64 from my brother, so I did a bit of basic programming
but never anything serious. The C64 was mostly about the games.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro

2024-04-02 03:04:55 UTC

Post by D
What was/is plato notes?

A proprietary system only ever available on expensive CDC mainframes.

Scott Lurndal

2024-04-02 14:54:24 UTC

Post by D
What was/is plato notes?

A proprietary system only ever available on expensive CDC mainframes.

A useless answer. You could have referred to the wiki page.

There were hundreds of remote terminals[*] at colleges and universities
from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. Many thousands of students used
it for both computer aided education and to learn programming and to
play games. DnD and Empire were notable games of the era. It influenced
the creation of Usenet, email etc.

[*] The CDC host was located in Champaign/Urbana in the state of Illinois.

2024-04-02 20:46:40 UTC

Post by D
What was/is plato notes?

A proprietary system only ever available on expensive CDC mainframes.

A useless answer. You could have referred to the wiki page.
There were hundreds of remote terminals[*] at colleges and universities
from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. Many thousands of students used
it for both computer aided education and to learn programming and to
play games. DnD and Empire were notable games of the era. It influenced
the creation of Usenet, email etc.
[*] The CDC host was located in Champaign/Urbana in the state of Illinois.

Thank you very much Scott. Ahh... I actually visited that place for a
party in my youth when I was studying in Chicago.

Peter Flass

2024-04-03 23:16:16 UTC

Post by D
What was/is plato notes?

A proprietary system only ever available on expensive CDC mainframes.

A useless answer. You could have referred to the wiki page.
There were hundreds of remote terminals[*] at colleges and universities
from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. Many thousands of students used
it for both computer aided education and to learn programming and to
play games. DnD and Empire were notable games of the era. It influenced
the creation of Usenet, email etc.
[*] The CDC host was located in Champaign/Urbana in the state of Illinois.

Thank you very much Scott. Ahh... I actually visited that place for a
party in my youth when I was studying in Chicago.

There seems to have been a lot going on there at one point. They were also
building the ill-fated ILIAC-4.

--
Pete

Lawrence D'Oliveiro

2024-04-04 00:20:27 UTC

... they were also building the ill-fated ILIAC-4.

You mean the ILLIAC-IV <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILLIAC_IV>, built by
Burroughs?

Hard to see how a research machine could be described as a “failure”,
particularly when so many of the ideas it pioneered were subsequently
adopted elsewhere.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro

2024-04-03 00:39:20 UTC

Post by D
What was/is plato notes?

A proprietary system only ever available on expensive CDC mainframes.

A useless answer. You could have referred to the wiki page.

Which they could have found themselves. So clearly they were not after
that.

Pluted Pup

2024-04-23 21:05:33 UTC

Post by Kurt Weiske
(as someone still running a BBS in 2024, I'm definitely interested in
this event...)
https://computerhistory.org/events/dialed-in/
April 25, 2024 - 7pm online and in person at the Computer History Museum
in Mountain View, CA.
DIALED IN - the Prehistory of social media
Long before online forums and communities like Reddit and Discord, and
even before the World Wide Web, bulletin board systems (BBSs) reigned
supreme. During their heyday in the 1980s and '90s, millions of people
dialed their modems into more than 100,000 BBSs, and their impact can
still be felt in today's digital world.
Join us to hear Kevin Driscoll, author of the award-winning book The
Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media, and technology and society
expert danah boyd discuss the innovative world of BBSs and how they
shaped the ongoing evolution of social media and the internet.
What You'll Experience
Hear untold stories of regional and general-interest BBSs, and those for
groups like HIV/AIDS activists and ham radio users. Learn how BBS
operators and users developed early forms of community moderation,
governance, and commercialization. Reflect on the evolution of social
media and consider lessons for a more inclusive future.

I hated the software that BBSs used. They restricted access
to the many thousand byte text files that seemed interesting,
to 0-5 downloads and then hang you up about Sharing Ratios,
and not being a "leech" (as if there were the same number of
writers as there is of readers). They had many boondoggles
which made you tie up the phone line a long time instead of
serving files which would have taken seconds even on a slow
modem.

I noticed when a few BBS's made a website they did not
restrict how many files you downloaded (or read) from the web,
nor required starting an account to see the webpage.

The restrictive boxed in set up of the BBS was engendered
by the BBS software while the openness of the Web was
engendered by the www software.

So I liked the privacy of using phone lines with BBS,
versus the internet, I hated the obscurantism.

In other words, I didn't find the good BBS's.

Dennis Boone

2024-04-24 16:18:21 UTC