Subj : Re: SSH on BBSes
To   : echicken
From : boraxman
Date : Sat Apr 02 2022 13:19:13

 ec> Thank you for pointing this out; I've harped on it before and it needs
 ec> to be said on occasion.
 ec> 
 ec> People who think that they're achieving privacy by using a typical BBS
 ec> are sorely mistaken. It's a common belief BBSs are "private",
 ec> "underground", and somehow "not the internet", but few are configured
 ec> accordingly. At best we've got obscurity.
 ec> 
 ec> This isn't to say that people can't or shouldn't try to set up BBSs so
 ec> that they're less discoverable, not searchable from the web, etc., but
 ec> I'm not a fan of this medium being sold wholesale as some safe haven
 ec> from prying eyes.   
 ec> ---  
 ec> echicken   

I've had someone who didn't use BBS (never used them in fact) come to me and ask whether it was something more private, as he was under the impression it was.

There is justifiable reason for this.  BBS's WERE private in the 90s.  You couldn't find out what was on a BBS without dialing in, creating an account, and getting that account removed.  For inter BBS messaging, you still had to do that, though you had to join any other BBS on the network.  Point was, no one who wasn't part of a dial up BBS saw what happened on them.

Today, the same mentality holds.  The fact it is accessed via TCP/IP doesn't change anything.  Now, I can see how a 'net' might be public, if it is known it is rebroadcast, but this so called misconception is justified.

BBS's were NOT searchable from the web in their heyday, and by default are NOT searchable unless someone takes very, very specific steps in order to rebroadcast that information.

That is my point of contention, or should that be, soreness, that sysops are choosing to make text which remains within the net, more public by their actions.  That is the behaviour and action, that I believe doesn't have a place in todays climate.

There is no need for this at all.  Some people are happy putting their entire lives and everything to do, say, eat on public record by means of Instagram/Twitter,FB, let them do so, but others who don't want this should have options.  Those people should find haven here.

--- 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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