Community in Online Systems reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- StevetheNPC · 2020-04-03 03:17 While reading [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/bbs/comments/evp0f2 /conscience_of_bbsing_or_why_are_we_reimplementing/) from a couple of months ago, I found myself reminiscing about the "good ole days", triggered by two key points in the post: 1) Multi-node boards entirely devoted to instant messaging/chat. 2) Local communities (via area codes, due to phone costs) with semi- anonymity. In Houston, Texas in the 1980s we had a system called Penny Net, which consisted of several custom built chat-only multi-line systems. I don't remember the exact details of the systems, but one was called Roundtable, another was Sanctuary, and another I think was Haven? Each system had multiple lines, and the per-minute cost varied from one to the next. The urban legend is that Jim Penny, the owner and creator of Penny Net, angered his neighbors when the phone company tore up the street for several days to install a 200 pair phone line trunk to his house! :) Anyway, the nostalgic bit for me comes from the community that was created by Jim. Even though you could login with a different name each time you called, most people tended to use the same usernames consistently. Even if someone decided to try a different name, after a while you could tell who someone was just by the way they were typing. We got to know each other well, having meetups at local restaurants, parties at people's houses and apartments, and outings to the local amusement park. You could tell how someone was feeling that day just by the way they were typing online. Friends were made. Romances were developed. It was a community. My question is, did anyone else have this kind of experience in their local BBS/online scene? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- syi2k20 · 2020-04-03 03:44 Yep, this was a common artifact of early internet :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-03 05:49 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mixedliquor · 2020-04-03 11:26 When I was 12/13 (‘94ish), i frequented a local MajorBBS. The Sysop was pretty personable. He held meetups so i went. I was the youngest but not by much. We had a couple meetups. Ended up “dating” a 20-year old from the BBS when I was 14. Yeah, that was awkward in retrospect but we didn’t mind at the time. That’s the only BBS I found that had a meetup. The Scene was slowly dying at that time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-03 12:34 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jonathanfs · 2020-04-03 14:01 Man, I wish I had been around for that. We did not have a computer at home until 1995, and then all I knew was CompuServe. The chatrooms were fun, but obviously not so localized as your experience. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- anras · 2020-04-03 16:51 Yeah I started the more "social" side of BBSing in with MajorBBS in 1994 as well (eventually Worldgroup). Met a lot of friends that way, a lot of weird people both good and bad. :D Still in touch with about 12 of them to varying degrees. Some are just Facebook contacts I don't really directly interact with much at this point. I did a ton of online gaming on there as well, mostly Doom II, Warcraft II and a bit of Duke Nukem 3D. Wound up becoming a Co-Sysop on that board, as well as on my friend's which was more of the single-line type of system for sharing files and playing door games like LORD. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dangolhuh · 2020-04-03 19:09 During the late 80s we had a system here in the Midwest called ExecPC which added a dedicated multi line chat system called ExecChat. Many users got to know each other quite well and we had numerous outings and group events. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- StevetheNPC · 2020-04-05 18:19 I remember hearing about ExecPC, maybe from magazine ads or ads on other BBSes. It was the "holy grail" of multi-user BBSes back then. I think I may have even tried to dial in once or twice with an AT&T calling card number that I found. *ahem*