In a previous 'BBS nostalgia' post from 2002, I predicted a trend toward "smaller online groups where communities are more intimate and specialized". Continuing to miss BBS culture and getting tired of waiting for the 'intimate and specialized' communities to emerge, I decided to go ahead and re-create one for myself.
A few weeks ago I began fiddling with Synchronet BBS software. Synchronet allows for easy telnet access to the old-school ANSI BBS experience. It's got all sorts of advanced features too, like built-in web, FTP, email, and Usenet servers. It really is an impressive bit of business from author Rob Swindell (digital man). Even better, he's graciously made it entirely free to use.
Needless to say, I completely geeked out with it (which explains my complete absence from this site). What started as innocent fooling around has turned into a dedicated server, full-on custom menus, ANSI graphics, and linking up to FidoNet/several other QWK message networks. The screenshots here represent some of that work. Don't laugh -- those graphics would have been hot as hell in 1989!
In any event, I'm not sure where it is going to go from here. I may make it public but haven't yet decided. If anyone is interested in checking it out in the meantime, please let me know and I'll provide connection details.
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