[HN Gopher] The Birth of Rusty N Edie's BBS
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The Birth of Rusty N Edie's BBS
Author : bilegeek
Score : 75 points
Date : 2022-01-16 12:04 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (web.archive.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (web.archive.org)
| acheron wrote:
| I remember regularly driving past the computer store in Boardman
| or Youngstown or whatever with the "home of Rusty n Edie's BBS"
| sign out front.
|
| I called it a few times but it was never one of my regular ones,
| despite being active on several other BBSs in the area.
| dccoolgai wrote:
| It's really an ironic shame that the region - which had various
| flavors of corrupt politicians always promising to "bring back
| the jobs" it lost from the Steel Mill Days had this
| concentration of activity in this nascent explosive industry:
| there was a huge concentration of BBS numbers in the
| Cleveland/Youngstown/Akron area code and rather than trying to
| grow the industry they just let it float away... While
| clutching their pearls about "the jobs".
| pessimizer wrote:
| 95% of the porn I downloaded when I was 12 was watermarked with
| these two names.
| thanatos519 wrote:
| Don't forget Event Horizons! :-P~~~
|
| I don't BBS anymore but I was in the 519 area code and my
| handle was Thanatos (still my IRC nick).
| pan69 wrote:
| > 128 (one for each node) 16Mhz 286's.
|
| Geez. I wonder what their electricity bill was in those days.
| icedchai wrote:
| I remember seeing ads for this BBS in "Boardwatch" magazine, back
| in the day (early to mid 90's.) I was really into the BBS scene
| but didn't do much long distance calling.
|
| We had several local warez boards, many of which masqueraded as
| more legitimate operations. Typically you registered with a
| regular account, then sent the sysop a private message that so-
| and-so referred you and mentioned the warez.
|
| I ran a BBS myself but was more into the H/P scene.
| [deleted]
| mwcampbell wrote:
| I wonder what the equivalently large-scale home server
| installation would be today. Maybe piping a 10 gigabit (or
| higher) connection into one's home, transferring out terabytes
| per month, and hosting hundreds of terabytes of files?
| dccoolgai wrote:
| Rusty N Edie's was perhaps the biggest and most well-known BBS of
| the era. Iirc it had declined somewhat before the fact, but "the
| raid" kinda marked the end of the "BBS era".
| cyberge99 wrote:
| Oh man. I remember Rusty N Edie's. I was a pre-teen just
| exploring the online world. The Demo scene was being born, music
| and was collecting MOD files and of course, the games. There were
| wholesome fidonet on-ramps and BBSes too.
|
| I'll never forget those first modem days of a teenager
| discovering the world.
|
| Back then you had something in common with anyone on the BBS just
| by virtue of being on a BBS.
|
| Young me would be proud of the geek I still am today.
| dang wrote:
| Anybody know what year this was written?
|
| A related past submission:
|
| _Rusty and Edie 's BBS seized by the FBI (1993)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27007938 - May 2021 (1
| comment)
| bilegeek wrote:
| More info:
|
| They were raided by the FBI[1][2] in 1993 and sued by Playboy[3].
| It was later settled in 1998[4].
|
| [1]http://textfiles.com/bbs/r&estory.txt
|
| [2]https://web.archive.org/web/20050922215812/http://www.pixi.c..
| .
|
| [3]http://www.internetlibrary.com/pdf/Playboy-Russ-
| Hardenburgh-...
|
| [4]https://ia802900.us.archive.org/1/items/gov.uscourts.ohnd.43..
| .
|
| Some vintage splash screens:
|
| https://defacto2.net/g/rusty-n-edies-bbs?
| EarlKing wrote:
| Yeah, kinda amazing they didn't cover that part, isn't it? :D
|
| That case was actually kind of groundbreaking since it came
| about in a time long before the Communications Decency Act and
| the Section 230 carve-out that we all know and enjoy today.
| Inhibit wrote:
| I wonder when the writeup is from... rne.com was online in
| 1997 pulling from wayback. So this post must've been earlier
| than that.
|
| Fifth gen x86 processors were around 1994. So I'd guess
| earlier than that from the age of the machinery they're
| using.
|
| But the 486 was seeing use in 1990. So after that but before
| 1994 would be my guess.
|
| It's possible it was ongoing litigation at the time.
| kbouck wrote:
| the post advertises hosting 15GB which puts it somewhere
| around mid-1992 based on the progression seen in the splash
| screen history [0]
|
| [0] https://defacto2.net/g/rusty-n-edies-bbs
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I only just now realized it's Edie and not Eddy. My Berenstain
| Bears moment here. I swore it was "Rusty and Eddy's", and I never
| called it because it just didn't sound as cool as something like
| "The Hell Pit" or "Nun Beaters Anonymous".
| EarlKing wrote:
| > "Nun Beaters Anonymous"
|
| Go on. Give in to the urge.
|
| (Watch no one get that.)
| nope96 wrote:
| Guido Sanchez! One of the most extroverted people I've met. I
| heard he became a gourmet chef!
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Only time I met him was the early 90s, he came
| skateboarding into the hall in Chicago's Union Station
| wearing this ridiculous getup with goggles on his head like
| some character from "Hackers". Amazing.
| mjbraun wrote:
| "Go on: kick the habit", I thought?
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(page generated 2022-01-17 23:01 UTC)