Subj : The BBS Documentary To : All From : Grymmjack Date : Wed Jun 08 2005 08:46 am Anyone ever wondered what Rob Swindell (your one and only Digital Man) was like in person? He's a movie star :) and he has cameo appearances in a documentary film about BBSing called "The BBS Documentary"... Unfortunately his drumset wasn't in the shots :) Anyway, I finally found the time to watch the BBS Documentary DVD I had pre-ordered months ago. It showed up about 2 weeks ago and I was very excited. The packaging was great, and the product is very professional. It's good that it turned out so well, and I give big kudos to Jason Scott (the producer/editor/creator) for the entire project. I have several issues with the way the story was told, and I am sure anyone else who watches it will also have a very passionate opinion to share as the story as it was told was good but left gaping holes. Of course a comprehensive and complicated timeline such as that which was the BBS evolution, was covered very well. Jason Scott tried to cover the big bullet points, but he missed out on alot of it. Included, for example are; * The first BBS (CBBS) * The evolution of CBBS to other BBS's * The different microcomputer systems which BBS's ran on (apple/c=64/atari /ibm/amiga/etc) * The different 'camps' of users -- public domain, and elite/underground * Hacking/Phreaking/Anarchy/Cracking (HPAC) * The Art Scene (got a good amount of attention and I was glad for this, and JED[ACiD] was in it! (JED is my hero and always has been)) * The movement to commercialize BBS's * Tradeshows/Coventions * FIDONet (fascinating and very cool - the founder is one of my favorite geeks now that I have seen his passion and skills and so on) * Compression race (ZIP/ARC -- stupid and not really good) * A chapter on "the Death of the BBS" (offended? you should and shouldn't be.. to presume such a thing is offensive, but the content is contrary -- you will see when you watch it) The basic way it works is typical documentary style. Interviews, backstory, etc. I found that it was very disconnected in parts, and the flow was a bit on the ameteur side, but all in all this is a great thing (the DVD) and I am very glad I purchased it. If you are interested in getting a copy goto http://www.bbsdocumentary.com and order one, I can vouch for the guy who made it as my copy was delivered eventually (I had thought for a long time I was getting rooked because I never recieved my copy after months of waiting)... If for no other reason, than to see Digital Man, Rob Swindell, on the silver screen. Rob, why didn't you appear in the "Death of the BBS" section? Synchronet is the only remaining software (well the only one worthy I feel) that is actually doing what those who appeared in that chapter "said" they were doing/is happening.. I think that your altruism, and selflessness by opening the source and maintaining it for free with the help of your coding companions (deuce/et al), is a great thing and I am not kissing your ass when I say this, but "synchronet did not get enough credit" ... Quite frankly if it were not for yourself, the guy who did EleBBS, g00r00 (James Coyle / author MysticBBS) and a few other key players, we'd not even have the ability to do this stuff through the internet. While I know that you guys did not exactly make the COM port emulation through the VXD stuff, you atleast have embraced the new protocols that the internet offers and put synchronet to the top by doing so. The glaring omission of this in this DVD not only upset me but made me question exactly what kind of statement the product was making to who would watch and not know. I know that time must have been a factor, and the documentary is 3 DVDs, which is pretty great but costly, sure.. I think if he spent a little more time on the bigger issues, and divided it like 2 discs to the oldschool/history and 2 discs to the newschool/scenes he would have been a better story teller. Anyway, everyone should watch it. I would say that at the very least, it's neat to see the guy who made zmodem, and qwk, and even synchronet.. :) - grymmjack .