Subj : origins of QWK
To   : All
From : andrew clarke
Date : Wed Jan 21 2004 09:27 pm

From http://slashdot.org/articles/03/02/16/2028220.shtml?tid=95 :

Re:Don't Forget Message Networks (Score:2, Informative) 
by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17, @01:33AM (#5317606)

Just to set things clear at the beginning, I'm "Sparky", the Sparky in 
"Sparkware", and I'm the "father" of the QWK format.

How did I create it? Simple. Jim Key ran the "Radio Free Memphis" BBS and gave 
me the file formats to PCBoard 10.0. He did this because Dan Mascheck, a local 
user who moved to Wharton, Texas, wanted a cheap and easy way to catch up on 
the messages posted on RFM without getting into trouble with his wife. So I 
took the PCBoard 10.0 formats, created the QWK standard with them, and volia! 
That's how it happened.

PCBoard moved on to PCBoard 12.x formats but QWK had to stay at PCBoard 10.x 
format because of the number of clients in use (strange, we never called them 
clients way back then!). PCB-ECHO grew out of QWKmail and QWKreaders and was 
indeed an easy way for QWK-enabled systems to exchange mail.

Did I ever envision it'd grow that way? NEVER! It was a quick hack that grew 
way beyond what I ever thought it would fit. I was more than pleased that it 
took off and today can look back with some satisfaction. I like to tell my 
contemporaries that we all (all BBS users) were "the Connestoga Wagons of the 
Internet". While that might not be 100% correct technically, I feel we were the 
pioneers socially.

Back in 1985, I had an opportunity while vacationing in Gatlinburg, TN, while 
my wife was taking a noon nap, about how two future perils might influence my 
BBSing hobby. The first was known as "measured service", where I remembered my 
ARRL history of relay radio and thus begat the beginnings of QWK mail packets. 
The second realization was of universal access, where it was as easy to connect 
to a BBS across town as it was to connect to a BBS half-a-world away.

We have that now in the Internet. And it amazes me to no end how once we've 
achieved that universal access, how impersonal my (and probably others) 
sessions with the connection have evolved to this day. I RARELY ever get into 
the interaction I once enjoyed while navigating the carriers of the Wonder of 
the Age - BBSing.

No, today, the Internet is quite impersonal, all but websites - and I do my 
best to keep up with all of the technology therewith (I'm a manager of an 
Applications Group for those who are curious) - but I miss the old days. They 
were better - flame wars and all - and I miss them tremendously.

One by-product of my creation is that it turns out that QWK packets are 
fantastic snapshots into the history of Bulletin Boards. I have QWK packets 
from my own "Sparky's Machine" dating from December, 1988 and those of other 
systems, and they capture perfectly the tone and voice of what those systems 
were at that moment in time.

Someday, I'll publish the QWK packets I've managed to acrue over time. It'll 
almost be an archeological look back at the beginning of it all.

For anyone who wishes to contact me, you can reach me at 
mark_herring@hotmail.com.

We made the world's best buggy whips.
Sparkware (1979-1996)

-- mail@ozzmosis.com

--- timEd/Cygwin 1.11.b1
 * Origin: Blizzard of Ozz, Mt Eliza, Victoria, Australia (3:633/267.1)

.