Old BBS's

[bandit957]

Anyone else remember the computer bulletin board systems of old?

I frequented the Cincinnati BBS's as a teenager in the late '80s and early '90s. Did anyone else live in an area where people on BBS's would constantly accuse each other of software piracy, when they had no proof? That was the worst thing you could accuse someone of around here. It was worse than being called a fascist or a communist.

One afternoon, a sysop of one of the BBS's called me personally (not my parents) impersonating a Cincinnati Bell security employee and falsely accused me of trashing his BBS. Later, he was busted for wire fraud for distributing pirated software (which he had accused everyone else of doing).

Never had I encountered so many self-righteous, whiny losers wrapped up in aggrieved privilege as I did on local BBS's. It was like Facebook, only worse.

I remember a lot of colorful flamewars too. I remember parts of their messages verbatim, like the one that started, "HELLO ALL YOU SNOT-FACED ASSES."

It all came crashing down in the mid-'90s when a corrupt sheriff raided a bunch of BBS's (some of which were in other counties and states) and accused them of distributing porn. It turned out that the cops on his task force ran BBS's that sold premium services that competed with those sold by the BBS's that were raided.

[roadman]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

[Max Rockatansky]

That's a good portion of what early Prodigy Online was.  Good luck trying to get any factual information on those gaming boards, there was nothing but constant web trolling that couldn't be factually verified without trial and error.

[ozarkman417]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

I thought this would be about the blue signs they use on European freeways.

[Max Rockatansky]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

I thought this would be about the blue signs they use on European freeways.

Heh...I knew exactly was since I was around for the nether ages of online social media.  My Dad was a marketing guy for Prodigy and used "BBS"  as an acronym all the time.  I'm kind of surprised the term fell out of use since forums like this are eventually an evolution of the concept. 

[ozarkman417]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

I thought this would be about the blue signs they use on European freeways.

Heh...I knew exactly was since I was around for the nether ages of online social media.  My Dad was a marketing guy for Prodigy and used "BBS"  as an acronym all the time.  I'm kind of surprised the term fell out of use since forums like this are eventually an evolution of the concept.

That couldn't have been too surprising coming out of me given my age. Windows XP was released 2 years before I was born. Technology sure gets better quickly.

[Max Rockatansky]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

I thought this would be about the blue signs they use on European freeways.

Heh...I knew exactly was since I was around for the nether ages of online social media.  My Dad was a marketing guy for Prodigy and used "BBS"  as an acronym all the time.  I'm kind of surprised the term fell out of use since forums like this are eventually an evolution of the concept.

That couldn't have been too surprising coming out of me given my age. Windows XP was released 2 years before I was born. Technology sure gets better quickly.

I don't know about that.  Things were usually far less buggy back then and didn't require constant patches or updates.  DOS code was way easier to work with and make reliable changes to.  Now the problem is that there are so many advances in software and operating systems that it's almost impossible to reliably bug check them.

[kphoger]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

[MNHighwayMan]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

This thread is in Off-Topic. It's going to be about anything but that, really.

[kphoger]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

This thread is in Off-Topic. It's going to be about anything but that, really.

I hardly ever pay attention to what sub-forum a particular thread is in before I click on it.  So I literally didn't know this was in Off-Topic until I just now read your post.

[US 89]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

I thought this would be about the blue signs they use on European freeways.

Heh...I knew exactly was since I was around for the nether ages of online social media.  My Dad was a marketing guy for Prodigy and used "BBS"  as an acronym all the time.  I'm kind of surprised the term fell out of use since forums like this are eventually an evolution of the concept.

That couldn't have been too surprising coming out of me given my age. Windows XP was released 2 years before I was born. Technology sure gets better quickly.

I don't know about that.  Things were usually far less buggy back then and didn't require constant patches or updates.  DOS code was way easier to work with and make reliable changes to.  Now the problem is that there are so many advances in software and operating systems that it's almost impossible to reliably bug check them.

We've gotten to the point where nobody actually understands how their technology works...and that's a bad thing, in my opinion. I remember learning the basics of how a VHS or a CD worked, for example. Almost no one has any idea how the iPhone in their pocket works.

[Max Rockatansky]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

I thought this would be about the blue signs they use on European freeways.

Heh...I knew exactly was since I was around for the nether ages of online social media.  My Dad was a marketing guy for Prodigy and used "BBS"  as an acronym all the time.  I'm kind of surprised the term fell out of use since forums like this are eventually an evolution of the concept.

That couldn't have been too surprising coming out of me given my age. Windows XP was released 2 years before I was born. Technology sure gets better quickly.

I don't know about that.  Things were usually far less buggy back then and didn't require constant patches or updates.  DOS code was way easier to work with and make reliable changes to.  Now the problem is that there are so many advances in software and operating systems that it's almost impossible to reliably bug check them.

We've gotten to the point where nobody actually understands how their technology works...and that's a bad thing, in my opinion. I remember learning the basics of how a VHS or a CD worked, for example. Almost no one has any idea how the iPhone in their pocket works.

Exactly I used to be able to tinker with my computer, car and pretty much any household device until I got it working properly.  Everything these days pretty much requires an expert to under, diagnose and repair.  For me it's actually part of the reason I find modern tech so unappealing, I like to be able to fix my own stuff if need be.  It seems like with computing these days all I'm interested in is updating stuff on my own site, looking at maps and figuring out how to get Doom 1 & 2. 

[Henry]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

Yeah, if the acronym does not mean "Big Blue Sign", then what the hell else could it be?

[vdeane]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

Or the original Thruway signs.

[index]

I found out about the wonderful world of BBSes a year ago or so. There's still a good number of them up and active on niche communities for vintage computing.

[OracleUsr]

I surfed those all the time in 9th grade, much to the chagrin of my parents.

[1995hoo]

I knew exactly what it meant when I saw the subject line, though I wondered why the possessive form of "BBS" was used.

[MNHighwayMan]

Grocer's apostrophe.

[1995hoo]

Grocer's apostrophe.

Heh, I was trying to be semi-subtle because someone on this forum believes an apostrophe is sufficient to pluralize "BGS" and I was trying not to draw attention to that.

[kphoger]

I would have typed "BBSes" instead.

[inkyatari]

Oh man.  I miss those days.  In the Joliet, IL area, we had Revelations (First it was King Diamond themed , until the sysop, who is still a good friend of mine, found jesus,) Plainfield High School's Sherwood Forest, and the trio of atari BBS's in joliet, Alcatraz (ST based), SAC Base (8- bit, RIP, Gen. Jack D. Ripper,) and The Bullpen (8-bit). 

Once I bought all of The Bullpen's sysop's Atari ST computers.

The Alcatraz BBS had a game called Space Empire Elite, and one of the users in the forum was one by the handle of "The Dragon." Kid was an arrogant jerk.  He was a regular player of SEE, and me, and the sysops of Alcatraz and SAC base had enough of his bullshit, so we took matters into our own hands.  I went over to The Warden's house (sysop of Alcatraz,) and hung out there at 11:00 PM.  The warden was monitoring the BBS at the time.  Gen. Ripper called in, and trained all his forces on Space Empire Elite on the dragon. I connected locally, then the warden connected locally and did the same.  Midnight hits, giving all three of us our new 20 turns for the day.  I connected, the warden connected,and Gen. RIpper dialed in.  We CRUSHED him decisively.  'twas a glorious thing.  Dragon accused us of cheating, but we did things fair and square.

[bandit957]

BBS's in Cincinnati included Law Talk (run by a lawyer), Information Loom, Electronic Magazine, CinchBug, Annie's, and Stardust Hotel. Annie's was the first one I was ever thrown off of. There was something called FidoNet that linked message boards of BBS's all over the world, and Cincinnati got cut off from it because there was so much abuse on Cincinnati BBS's.

Later, in the mid-'90s, the BBS's were completely shot to hell.

[roadman]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

Or the original Thruway signs.

Also the original Connecticut Turnpike signs.

[bandit957]

Also, some of the BBS's on the north side of town were very popular and would have been useful, but they were long-distance calls from northern Kentucky. Cincinnati Bell dumped on Kentucky a lot. Those were toll-free calls from Ohio, but they were long-distance from Kentucky - even though you could drive there and back within 40 minutes.

If anything was hurting business in Kentucky, it was that.

[PHLBOS]

Raise your hand if you thought this thread was going to be about services signs.

Or the original Thruway signs.

Also the original Connecticut Turnpike signs.

Couldn't the 2nd B stand for Brown (used on tourist signage) as well?