If you currently run a BBS, what inspired you to run a BBS (or start one again)? reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RolandMT32 · 2018-09-25 20:23 I originally ran a BBS from 1994 to 2000. I took it down in 2000 because the number of callers had dropped off quite a bit, due to the internet, and at the time I figured there wasn't much point in running a BBS anymore. I figured with the internet, there was probably no reason someone would want to call a BBS, so my interest in running a BBS had dropped too. I had heard of BBSes that you could connect to via telnet, but at the time I didn't really see why someone would want to telnet to a BBS when there is a whole internet of sites & things you could use instead. Then in 2007, I was just curious of the state of telnet BBSing and did a search online and found that there was still a community of BBSes running via telnet. And I discovered Jason Scott's BBS: The Documentary and watched it (I bought a copy of it on DVD), and that brought back a lot of memories for me and is what inspired me to start running a BBS again. I found some modern BBS software and settled on Synchronet. I even thought it was fun setting up a BBS from scratch and making it look as close as I could to my old BBS before I put it online publicly. I'm still running my BBS now, and I think the funny thing is that I've been running my current BBS longer than I ran my original BBS in the 90s. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zerosouls · 2018-09-25 20:38 I ran a BBS back in the mid-late 90s so I do not currently run a BBS. But the reason why I got into it was because all the BBSs in my area code were using the default settings, scripts and themes (if you can call them themes) on their BBSs. Mostly the boards were VBBS, Virtual, WWIV or PCBoard with only a few slightly customized Renegade BBSs. So they are just basically looked the same to me. I just couldn't understand why they would just throw a board up with all the default settings, no modifications. ​ Seeing the slightly customized Renegade boards is what did it for me... I wanted to make the most unique and customized board in the area code, and for a good time I succeeded in just that. ​ Also, I was a bit younger and wanted the power... to be a sysop, and in control. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RolandMT32 · 2018-09-25 21:29 Some people have complained about stock BBSes these days, at least with Synchronet. I don't understand that either.. I think one of the fun things about running a BBS is customizing it and seeing it work, and seeing people use it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CiREdrol · 2018-09-26 00:01 Cool handle man. I have a sound canvas though too many hobbies and no time to use it. It would be neat to somehow trigger some midi to play through that thing when someone connects to your board! Like integrated with the WFC screen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gstandard00 · 2018-09-26 03:31 what yer bbs address ? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RolandMT32 · 2018-09-26 04:07 digitaldistortionbbs.com (digdist.synchro.net also works) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- temotodochi · 2018-09-26 04:47 Back on the mid 90s it was the phone bill. Caused such trouble that my parents got me a private phone line to mess with. Got into a demoscene group and we needed HQ. I didn't code, so it was naturally my job. Loved it. 5 years, got a 100 users, 50 active, busy most of the time during a day. Local fidonet, email, the works. Didn't have money for backups though. Started my career with it. Still a sysop, but for some millions at a time instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2018-09-26 13:23 I kind of have the same story. I ran a WWIV board in New Orleans from about '93/9'4 until January 1, 2000. It was pretty popular with almost no files and an active message area until about '98 when the internet took off. I remember looking at the logs and saw I didn't have a single non-network call in 6 months so I decided to take it down at the end of the year (also end of the decade... end of an era, etc.. hehe) ​ Every once in a while, I'd look into the status of WWIV and other software, just out of curiosity. I know I checked out synchronet at some point, but didn't like that it was windows based. I didn't bother to check to see if there were any BBSs around until a few years ago when I found [sixteencolors.net](https://sixteencolors.net) and saw a few current BBS advertisements. I was floored. I searched on facebook and found some BBS groups and decided to put up a board again. ​ Back then and now I love(d) the idea that I created this "thing" that I spent hours modifying and making my own, that others access and enjoy. Now there's a bit of nostolgia at play as well. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- areyouafraidofthedor · 2018-09-27 04:49 I met Jason Scott at a few different "rubi-con" hacker conventions in Detroit. (It went 5 years from 1999 to 2003?) I was there for the later four years, a staff member from the third on. (The organizer, Jim and I used to explore abandoned buildings together. Even got interviewed by NPR because he dropped his cellphone as we were breaking in to the "Motown Building" before they tore it down to make room for the "Little Caesar's Arena" on Woodward.) All I can say about him is he is a stand up guy and an amazing person. If you never get the chance to meet him, you're at a loss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- deebeaux · 2018-09-27 15:20 So much of my early "online life" was BBS'ing. My Dad ran a Commodore 64 based BBS out of our house when I was a kid. Eventually we moved to a PC based system. Went through a few software packages: Renegade, Wildcat!, WWIV. I also helped another friend run a Citadel/YAWC Linux- based BBS for years. Around 91-92 I became very good friends with a local Sysop and ended up helping him run a 6-line MBBS out of the New Orleans area. It stayed running for many years, but eventually went down as the owner moved. When he was moving he called and asked if I wanted "all the BBS stuff" under the condition that I took "ALL the BBS stuff." I took it. Tried to restore our old backups but was unable to and re- setup the whole thing from scratch. It's been online almost continuously (with some breaks after hurricane Katrina and later with me moving across the state) since about 2000. Before that I believe it was running from the early 90s to about 1998. I keep it going because I enjoy the nostalgia of BBSing and I still like to play the old text games. I still get a decent amount of users passing through, out of curiosity I suspect, and a few even call back regularly and play games. It's fun to chat with them from time to time when they're on. Brings back the old days. I miss when it was difficult to get on-line. It basically assured nearly everyone you ran into was at least slightly interested in the same stuff. Worked out fairly well for the social awkwardness that came with being the kind of kid who liked logging on to BBSes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- z80org · 2018-10-01 05:30 I run a BBS for 4-5 years now, and I used to run one back in the 90s. I missed the conversation, I was fedup with Facebook and Twitter and I also missed the simplicity of the whole thing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- YserviusPalacost · 2018-10-02 23:12 Especially Synchronet, which was designed to be extremely customizable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- YserviusPalacost · 2018-10-02 23:23 I used to run a BBS back in the early 90's in the good ole Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had some callers and have always loved cresting things, but the major benefit from having my own BBS was being a FidoNet node, who h basically meant that I had access to FidoNet whenever I wanted. One of the things that really set the online community apart in those days was *intelligence*. Just to be able to connect online you needed a computer with a modem, a phone line, a number to a BBS, and parents that would allow you to fiddle around inside of their computer as well as mess around with their phone lines. If you managed to fulfill those requirements, you still needed to figure out how to make it all work, which sometimes involved the use of AT commands. The result was a much smaller and elite community of individuals who all shared, at least, a comparable baseline level of intelligence. Today, I have a bucket of kids and we home school. I started developing my own technology curriculum, and decided that I was going to mimic my own education since there was obviously something that computer science has in the 80s/90s that has been lost today. So my kids are all going to learn how to at least utilize a BBS, and they're going to learn, in part, the great depths that people had to take to be online a mere 20 years ago. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RolandMT32 · 2018-10-02 23:32 Yes. I think one downside to Synchronet is that you need to have or develop programmer skills to change the menu behavior because it doesn't have a menu editor like other BBS packages. That might put off some sysops. There is a menu editor script that echicken made though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RolandMT32 · 2018-10-02 23:39 I've noticed the same thing - Back in the day, when you talked to people who were into computers, they generally knew what they were talking about regarding computers. These days, almost everyone has a computer or tablet or similar, and many people seem to not know how to use them very well. Also, some people these days might be able to set up a wi-fi range extender or something but still not really know much beyond the basics of how to access their email & such on their computer/tablet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Kirkman14 · 2018-10-14 02:18 My [BBS](http://guardian.synchro.net/) started five years ago as a private place where my kids could get a taste of being online. Since I was using Synchronet, I started to get interested in writing doors and ANSI experiments in Javascript. Some of these turned out pretty cool (parallax scrolling ANSI animation), so I eventually opened it up to the public. Earlier this year I had a few months where there were regular callers every day (thanks in part to being featured here in /r/bbs), but usually it's just me. And I'm fine with that. I work on the BBS because it's fun for me. If other folks come and check it out, that's icing on the cake, but I realize there aren't many "callers" out there anymore. Most folks just want to be sysops. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- arcade_bbs · 2018-10-17 02:29 Ahh the BBS Documentary. I finally was able to watch it a few years ago and did not realize that such a documentary existed. I have watched it since a few times and found memories of the past came flooding back each time. It was this documentary that eventually caused me to get back into the bbs world!