Subj : Re: Notice that...
To   : boraxman
From : tenser
Date : Fri Feb 18 2022 07:32:54

On 17 Feb 2022 at 10:53p, boraxman pondered and said...
 
 bo>  Du> The WELL is still up and running.  They require real names, and a mon
 bo>  Du> subscription fee, but their interface is really old and bizarre (ahem
 bo>  Du> and there isn't much activity.
 bo> 
 bo> Is that a BBS or an other-net?  Never heard of it.

The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link.  Stewart Brand's experiment with
building virtual communities based around computer conferencing.
Originally a VAX running 4BSD, now an AWS instance running Linux,
but still using the Picospan conferencing software they started
with back in 1985. https://www.well.com/

The WELL is significant in the history of computing as the place
where John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore, and others formed the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.  They hosted an online "conference"
on hacking back in the late 80s that attracted Mark "Phiber Optik"
Abene and Elias "Acid Phreak" Ladopoulos among others.

https://www.eff.org/pages/crime-and-puzzlement

(The WELL is still active; Picospan isn't that weird if you're
used to it.)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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