Hosting Original BBS's reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stevebourg · 2020-07-08 22:27 In my imagination, there are several original BBS's from the 80s/90s, sitting on decaying drives and backup media. I ran a BBS during my highschool years, but I kept nothing. I wouldn't mind being a part of a project to restore, preserve and showcase the digital history of BBS's. Does anything like this already exist? Does anyone have interest in helping with it? Does anyone have original BBS files that they'd like to see preserved as a running BBS? I have resources for server hosting. I've dabbled with hosting DOS- based BBS's under a dos emulator in Linux and enabling connectivity over TCP connection (e.g. telnet, syncterm). I could provide an environment tailored to emulation based BBS hosting and connectivity. I know that some original BBS's are already restored and online but I'd like to help expand the community if there is any demand for it. Maybe some will want to bring a BBS back into day to day operation, and maybe some will just what to showcase a frozen state in time. Anyways - thoughts? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ilikeme1 · 2020-07-08 23:08 I’d be interested in helping. Could also help run a modem for it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- orion3311 · 2020-07-08 23:29 Heh I created a Twitter hashtag a while back for this I think, I should dig it up. Be awesome to see any of the old bbses in their original form. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stlalphanerd · 2020-07-09 01:14 Would totally participate/help/host/support this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Valdebrick · 2020-07-09 03:35 There is a really great archive of stuff you can reach via anonymous FTP at major.butt.care My advice is to download the "allfiles" file and browse/search through that to see what all is available. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-07-09 03:35 [removed] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- agster27 · 2020-07-09 03:37 I’d be very interested ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I-baLL · 2020-07-09 03:40 Talk to Jason Scott who did the BBS Documentary ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stevebourg · 2020-07-09 16:13 I'm encouraged by the responses to this. I guess I'll write something down about what we could build and solicit some feedback. If we end up with a concept that everyone can rally around, maybe we can then carve out different chunks of work and see who can help where. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stlalphanerd · 2020-07-09 16:14 Does anyone have their original 80's or 90's-era board archived in full that they would be willing to provide? I would be up for hosting an ecosystem to represent any and all of the major paradigms of local/pd/social-centric boards, h/p/a/v, warez (apple/c64/amiga/pc/console), art , etc - would be cool to see the ecosystem of wwiv, telegard, vx, v2, celerity, LSD, , AE, /x, pcexpress, etc up and online for historical purposes if nothing else with their message bases, file systems, etc everything in-tact. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bleuge · 2020-07-09 17:48 Also check Archive for some BBS mirrors uploaded, some are complete backups with bbs installation and configuration, not just the collection of shared files. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- richorr70 · 2020-07-09 18:50 There are a bunch of folks doing this. Look up the FB groups for BBS'es. I am in the midst of bringing up Pyroto Mountain as an example. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lucidphreak · 2020-07-13 13:03 I think this guy is referring to archived bbs's that were actually running back in the day. Not just an archive of bbs software. Thats been done and done over and there really isnt a reason to do it again. And if he is just talking about putting together a group who runs old BBS software, then yea thats been done and done agian too.... But archiving active BBS's thats a totally different story. When you think about how huge some of those MSDOS bbs's with the CDROM collections etc were, that could get rather large eventually - plus I doubt too many archived and kept their shit... Then again, I know there are complete active boards archived on The Internet archive - so I guess some did.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2020-07-14 06:00 >from the 80s/90s, sitting on decaying drives and backup media. I ran a BBS during my highschool years, but I kept nothing. I wouldn't mind being a part of a project to restore, preserve and showcase the digital history of BBS's. Does anything like this already exist? Does anyone have interest in helping with it? Does anyone have original BBS files that they'd like to see preserved as a running BBS? > >I have resources for server hosting. I've dabbled with hosting DOS- based BBS's under a dos emulator in Linux and enabling connectivity over TCP connection (e.g. telnet, syncterm). I could provide an environment tailored to emulation based BBS hosting and connectivity. I know that some original BBS's are already restored and online but I'd like to help expand the community if there is any demand for it. > >Maybe some will want to bring a BBS back into day to day operation, and maybe some will just what to showcase a frozen state in time. can you give me some links? all i see are bbs file areas. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bleuge · 2020-07-16 19:33 Check here for a PCBoard backup of Closed Society BBS, [http://www.roysac.com/roy- sac\_downloads\_links.html#svr](http://www.roysac.com/roy- sac_downloads_links.html#svr) I think I have another one, but can't found now. If I find it I'll drop it here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2020-07-18 01:54 oh i was wondering about full bbses on archive.org. i'm against this type of stuff, though. those bbses belonged to the sysops and his users. not good to have any clown be able to take it and run it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- richorr70 · 2020-07-23 21:23 Gotcha. I wish I still had my Rodime HD's from '86 with some solid gold BBS content. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JohnPolka · 2020-07-24 02:40 On a related note, it would be cool to have a list of retro BBSs that are online today that still have a lot of their original content (e.g., messages, files, games, menus, etc.) from the 80s and 90s. The telnet bbs guide has plenty of BBSs that mention being around in the 80s and 90s, but they don't necessarily say whether they are running original versions of their BBS or whether it's a reboot with all new content. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stevebourg · 2020-07-24 14:29 My own thoughts and interests are narrowing towards preservation of original content / configuration / experience. At least in the case where we're hosting, I was thinking of a curated doorway/portal BBS where information is provided about the BBS's founder(s), origination story, serving area, etc. Even where BBS's are unaffiliated but have original content, we could still provide this information and information about how to access. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JohnPolka · 2020-07-24 21:38 With regard to unaffiliated BBSs with original content... that sounds good and can only add to the usefulness of your site.