[HN Gopher] Telnet BBS Guide
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Telnet BBS Guide
Author : jbledsoe2112
Score : 119 points
Date : 2021-11-21 11:49 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.telnetbbsguide.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.telnetbbsguide.com)
| contidrift wrote:
| Looks like it was temporarily slowed to a crawl by HNers. Will
| try again later.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I suppose we'll never see an iOS "terminal/modem" that calls out
| from the phone to dial-up BBS's.
|
| Anything like that for Android?
| dg246 wrote:
| Not exactly what you're asking for, but there's this for Linux
| - https://www.aon.com/cyber-
| solutions/aon_cyber_labs/introduci...
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| Take a look at the Quiet Modem [1] project, which has bindings
| for Android and iOS if you're looking for a softmodem. I'll bet
| there's telnet apps on iOS though if you just want to do some
| IP based BBSing.
|
| [1]: https://github.com/quiet
| jtvjan wrote:
| I don't think it's practical. The lossy compression that GSM
| uses is incompatible with the protocol used with modems, which
| assume the analog characteristics of real phone lines.
|
| If you want to reach a BBS on your phone, you could use a
| telnet app like Termius or Termux over 4G.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _The lossy compression that GSM uses is incompatible with the
| protocol used with modems, which assume the analog
| characteristics of real phone lines._
|
| People say this all the time on the internet, but in the
| 90's, I had a Nokia phone that could send faxes over GSM.
| mlyle wrote:
| Just to augment what the other poster said:
|
| The way this would work is that your cellphone would send
| the fax data over the digital cellular network connection;
| in turn, the actual cellular network itself would speak the
| V.29 fax protocol.
| xenophonf wrote:
| Fax connections over GSM required a special (read:
| expensive and inefficient) circuit-switched data service
| that was limited to 9600 bps, at least here in the U.S.A.:
|
| http://navasgroup.com/attwireless/gsm_data.htm
| anyfoo wrote:
| Same in Europe, HSCSD and all. Though at the time, I
| thought my Nokia 6150 was really "modem'ing" and the
| 9.6kbps were because GSM compression and available
| bandwidth would obliterate anything else, but nice to
| learn after all these years that it was actually digital
| and the endpoint with the actual modem was somewhere in
| the network.
| toast0 wrote:
| There's certainly practical issues, but not every call is
| stuck with the GSM codec anymore. G.722.2 (aka HD Voice) may
| be better than GSM at carrying modem noises (or it may not
| be).
|
| Of course, way back when, when mobile carriers had modem
| banks for outgoing calls, that worked a whole lot better.
| marcodiego wrote:
| I remember someone trying to port minimodem to run under
| termux. Nevertheless, it still not a HAYES modem, but I don't
| think it is difficult to build one using minimodem.
| [deleted]
| nope96 wrote:
| also worth checking out: https://old.reddit.com/r/bbs/
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| Here's a listing of over 1000 Telnet and SSH enabled BBSes. Even
| lists a few dial-up BBSes! Very good find!
| arsome wrote:
| Any way to sort this list by activity in some way? Seems kinda
| hard to figure out where to check out first.
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| Sadly no. The list just shows what's out there. It would be way
| too hard to show activity.
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| However the Diamond Mine Online (bbs.dmine.net) is a great
| place to start.
| freebreakfast wrote:
| "BBS: The Documentary" is worth a watch.
|
| http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/
| 01100011 wrote:
| It is, but I found it still missed out on large parts of what
| BBSing was like in the 80's and early 90's.
| ms123 wrote:
| If you're looking for a simple web-based one, have a look at
| https://midnight.pub. :)
| swayvil wrote:
| Now that is a tasteful design. So easy on my withered eyes. I
| may redesign my own balls-simple site to something similar.
| iCarrot wrote:
| Not for my withered eyes, I need to zoom 130% for it to be
| readable.
| kingcharles wrote:
| Is this content computer-generated?
|
| 'When we went for a new wife
|
| acquaintance, on the way I asked "What is she doing?" .. He
| replied,
|
| slightly embarrassed, "Yes, nothing at all."'
| hoppyhoppy2 wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Direct link to what appears to be the monthly list of BBS's (if
| you want to peruse just that):
|
| https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/bbslist/ibbs1121.zip
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| There's a daily one as well. Most up to date if you download
| the daily list.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| It's a bit sad that many OSes are dropping telnet. For some stuff
| it's still fine. No need to remove a 2 kilobyte tool that people
| still use :) Same with FTP.
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| Windows still has both, just need to activate them.
| simias wrote:
| I really dislike the www bloat so I was excited to browse the
| list, unfortunately so far I mostly see
| ancap/libertarian/declinist posts (or just people who seem very
| sad and/or angry) as well as many far-right dogwhistles I
| recognize from 4chan.
|
| Can somebody recommend more, uh, _uplifting_ BBS communities?
| narrator wrote:
| I spent a lot of time on BBSs back in the day. There were some
| moderated tech support communities that were extremely tame,
| but most of it was like 4chan if 4chan was restricted to just
| your local calling area.
|
| In person BBS Parties and later IRC Channel Parties were full
| of the greatest and most bizarre mix of people I have ever come
| across with a common interest. That's probably because with
| just the screen name and no avatar or graphics or profile info
| or anything, nobody divided into their usual social groups.
| BeetleB wrote:
| Quite different from the BBS Circles I was part of. They
| _required_ you to use your real name on the forums (
| "conferences"). If a BBS was discovered not to enforce that
| rule, they would be kicked out of the network.
|
| It was _very_ civil.
| tenebrisalietum wrote:
| The late 80's/early 90's when BBS's were probably at their peak
| were such a different time - politics were different and more
| civil, but also there was nothing like Facebook, no mass usage
| of cell phones, no streaming, you still made/received calls on
| your landline phone, you still went shopping at the mall, etc.
| A BBS isn't going to turn the whole clock back.
|
| What's amazing honestly is that 4chan started in '02 or '03,
| before most of the modern media-heavy Internet and is still
| around.
| jarcane wrote:
| Well, when 4chan started it was basically just a porn board.
| The idea of actually hanging around was akin to being someone
| who's really dedicated to their pornhub comments.
|
| It took a few years of those few dedicated weirdos bouncing
| off each other (and their Japanese equivalent boards) to
| fully metastasise into the face of modern neofascism.
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| Hm? From when 4chan was just a board with no other boards,
| it was a _lot_ of stuff. The original board distinction
| (/a/ and /b/) was made because eventually anime content and
| "other"/meme content collided in the interests of the board
| users, so they were separated. It's hard to see the
| viewpoint in our politically charged time, but the origins
| of 4chan were just about people interested in anime saying
| whatever. The frequency of the content often meant that it
| was mostly just kids with too much free time (as I suspect
| a lot of *net Fora tend to be). The board changed a lot
| over the years, but initially it was just a place for
| anime-oriented talk.
| api wrote:
| Back then people just didn't take the kind of edgelording the
| OP is talking about seriously. When you saw a Nazi white
| supremacist following the left hand path and quoting Michael
| Acquino you rolled your eyes for the most part.
|
| Same goes for wacky conspiracy stuff in the 90s. It felt (and
| mostly was) harmless and full of in jokes going back to
| discordianism and such fnord.
|
| It was before absolutely every popular sentiment, subculture,
| belief system, religion, ideology, etc. had been politically
| weaponized by big data driven propaganda farms in the employ
| of political parties and nation states.
|
| We thought the media was "controlling us" back then. We had
| no idea how much worse it would get.
|
| I thought of a good summary of our condition today: "culture
| is a dark forest." Any idea or culture that shows itself will
| be detected and invaded by the all seeing eye of the data
| driven propaganda machine.
|
| I really think the future is private enclaves, closed forums,
| etc. with strict rules to try to keep out not just trolls and
| idiots but more importantly bots. We are living in the
| twilight of the open Internet, at least as a medium of any
| kind of meaningful communication. All that will be left on
| the "clearnet" is a social media influencer hustle culture
| driven hellscape where half the participants are bots anyway.
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| > I really think the future is private enclaves, closed
| forums, etc. with strict rules to try to keep out not just
| trolls and idiots but more importantly bots. We are living
| in the twilight of the open Internet, at least as a medium
| of any kind of meaningful communication. All that will be
| left on the "clearnet" is a social media influencer hustle
| culture driven hellscape where half the participants are
| bots anyway.
|
| I think we're already starting to see this. Mastodon,
| Gemini, Discourse, forums, resurging interests in NNTP,
| FidoNet, etc. Even the public generally prefers group
| chats, Discords, TikTok, Snapchat, or to some extent IG
| because they're more private than FB or Twitter. I think
| creating a "global village" was interesting and empowering
| for most of humanity as a new thing that humans were
| capable of doing, but we all quickly realized that you can
| put a million people in a room together, but they won't
| have much to talk about together.
|
| I have no doubt that private communities are going to be
| the future.
| empressplay wrote:
| There were heaps of private BBSes in the 80s and 90, many
| of those were pirate sites but some were run by art
| groups for their members, churches and so on. So private
| digital spaces are not new by any means
| api wrote:
| > I think creating a "global village" was interesting and
| empowering for most of humanity as a new thing that
| humans were capable of doing, but we all quickly realized
| that you can put a million people in a room together, but
| they won't have much to talk about together.
|
| I have a much darker view. I think the global village was
| too easy a target for computer assisted large scale data
| driven con artistry.
|
| Like I said: dark forest. All open systems with free
| entry will be destroyed by spam and abuse. No exceptions.
|
| I feel like Qanon and January 6th was the end of the
| global village dream for many. The general public is just
| not ready to swim in a pool full of sharks using military
| grade psychological warfare on them. Why would they? Now
| it will only get worse since I'm sure every party and
| nation state is working on their own version.
|
| I see a future where open social media is basically just
| propaganda shills and bots with armies of brainwashed
| followers fighting trench warfare forever... like a
| partly human version of DDOS botnet wars.
| SubiculumCode wrote:
| Its may be hard to swallow, but I suspect you are 100%
| correct in your prognosis. The open internet is a
| national security threat whose days are waning...at least
| between geopolitical rivals.
| ineptech wrote:
| I think you're right and prescient, and I'm sad that it's
| happening now that I'm old. In my 20s I had hours and hours
| and hours to burn on forums and BBSes and muds and such,
| and found my way in to some cool communities. I loved
| participating in them, the in-jokes, and even some of the
| drama involved.
|
| But those places are all moribund now, and the modern
| closed equivalent of those communities on decentralized
| services that I would love to be a part of are, by
| definition, closed to me because I've got a demanding job
| and kids and stuff. I might have enough time to participate
| in such a community, but nowhere near enough to try out a
| bunch and find one where I'd fit in. And an invite is
| unlikely, because if I were a part of a great closed
| community I'd be very cautious about bringing in outsiders.
|
| But for younger people, with more time to join a group,
| participate for a while, realize it's not the right fit,
| try another one, etc, until they find a tribe they mesh
| with, I think what you're describing is spot on -
| meaningful online interactions will be driven out of the
| public eye, and traditional social media will grow to
| resemble Linkedin even more than it already does.
| ineptech wrote:
| ...and fake edit to add, part of the great thing about
| the 90s and early 2000s online communities is how
| unfiltered they were. A forum devoted to politics is a
| terrible place to discuss politics; the battle lines are
| already drawn and there's nothing to do but fight. But if
| you join a forum devoted to sailboats because you like
| sailboats, and hang around long enough to make friends,
| and end up discussing politics, a) you will hear opinions
| you've never been exposed to before, and b) since they're
| coming from people you already somewhat know and like,
| it's less likely to devolve into a flamewar.
| [deleted]
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| The Diamond Mine Online BBS (bbs.dmine.net) is a great place to
| start. :)
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| I don't see y'all on the Telnet BBS list! Also, does
| Synchronet syndicate NNTP?
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| The Diamond Mine also has some NNTP from what I've seen.
| Doubt they have all the newsgroups though.
| irq wrote:
| Is this [0] sort of post common or uncommon on dmine? It
| immediately made me leave the site but maybe I was too quick
| to judge.
|
| 0: http://bbs.dmine.net/msgs/msg.ssjs?msg_sub=local-
| locdebat&me...
| empressplay wrote:
| This is just one dude's experience / opinion -- if this
| sort of stuff bothers you, I don't think there's any BBS
| that you'll like, since people pontificating is kind of
| what they're for
| Coolerbythelake wrote:
| Figures! I'd be staying away from all that for the same
| reasons. When I was a kid, it sure wasn't right wing. At least
| the boards I cruised.
| anthk wrote:
| On BBS and MUDs, cyberpunk MUDs and the Dragon Ball ones are
| really cool :D.
|
| And Nethack/Slashem/Crawl over Telnet/SSH, OFC. A must have.
| ToddWBurgess wrote:
| sysop breaking in for chat:
| soitgoes511 wrote:
| Your comment made me feel nostalgic. Phreaking, 950's, 988's
| and warez.
| marcodiego wrote:
| Most important thing when using BBS through telnet: it uses no
| cryptography!
| reaperducer wrote:
| That's a feature, not a bug. If I'm using telnet, I'm on a
| machine that lacks the horsepower to encrypt beyond rot13.
| jbledsoe2112 wrote:
| Simple technology. Most newer ones support SSH if that's what
| you want.
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(page generated 2021-11-21 23:01 UTC)