From:  "Borneo" 
Date:  Mon Apr 9, 2001 0:23am
Subject:  Re: [80sBBS] Digest Number 60

 
Reply follows bellow...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Scott" 
To: <80sBBS@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 1:10 AM
Subject: Re: [80sBBS] Digest Number 60


> I think there is a dearth of single-line, dial-in BBSes available today
> for the same reason there is a dearth of horse-and-buggy combinations.
> Things just got better. You can do more in a smaller amount of space, and
> reach many magnitudes more folks.

Well if you call the decimation of personal freedom and choice things
getting better I will gladly call for a harking back to the good ol' days
when you were not a slave to some ISP's ToS or some corporations
whim.  When you could still design your interactive environment as you
saw fit.

While the technology that we use to present our digital worlds may have
indeed improved, the environment from which within we present those
worlds has most assuredly downgraded.  There was a point in time where
one did not have to worry about losing there connection to the world(phone
line then, Net access now) simply because they had content that someone at
the phone co. didn't like... (Save for the days of sun devil) never the less
you
could place on your BBS what you saw fit simply because you deemed to do
so.  Where as now if *ANY* of your content violates your ISP's ToS then
you can kiss your connection goodbye if they discover that your not playing
by there rules.  Now I ask how exactly is that an improvement?

Lastly you speak of the magnitude or volume of people now being able to
access your system...  This has both positive and negative aspects to it...
Positive being that people no longer have to call LD to reach a system
they like... And you could now have people from all over the planet
connecting to your system...  However the down side to that is you lose
any community feeling your board had and you lose your individuality
becoming just another cog in the vastness that is the Net...  And unlike the
real world where you can tell people about your BBS up close and personal
as well as advertise it... On the Net advertising is despised and 99% of
the people out there will wonder why they should bother calling a BBS when
the various forms & forums of the Net offer so much more.  Theirs no way
to show them what kind of history or interconnected community exists within
the Tiny World of the BBS.

So while there are many positives to Telnet and even Web-BBS's ... It seems
that the Net is more likely to swallow our hobby rather than to help
perpetuate
it.  As the man said we are now in the belly of the beast, whether it
digests us
is now upto the fates, since the BBS community seems to have no direction
or organization left to it... Unlike the old dial-up days.

> I do field a lot of mail from people who say that the new technology and
> websites don't have the intimate and honest feel of the old BBSes.

I would have to say I whole heatedly agree with them...  The Web is a
cold faceless world.  Though it does provide a kind of global information
connectivity that the BBS can't, it also strips away any and all of the
humanity aspect that the BBS had going for it.

> I just don't agree. It's just a different place we came in.

As is your right to do so... It is your opinion.  However if a good number
of people are telling you something over and over again, do ever even for
just a moment entertain the idea that they could be correct and might
acttualy know what there talking about?

> I'm sure that whatever comes after Slashdot, people will pine for
> Slashdot's glory days.

I some how doubt that...  Those who only ever knew the Net are geared
to think New is Great and Old is Crap...  There will be no great mourning
of the passing of the SlashDot era...  It will just be another transition
into an
even more idiot friendly operating environment... I am pained to see a world
that so despises ideas, free thinking, personal identity and rising to meet
a
challenge that is unfolding before us in the NetAge...  We used to have to
actually know what we were doing and work towards goals to get by back
in the days of the BBS and early era of the personal computer... Now any
fool with a PC a Modem and WinBlows can jack in and play around.  Now
this is a positive in such that it connects the world... It however is a big
negative in that if you never learned how the technology works you will
never
respect it.  Never have the desire to learn more, but to just follow along
with
the status qou instead of marching against the grain to meet and conquer new
challenges... And without that the digital world we inhabit will stagnate
and die.

> - Jason Scott
>   TEXTFILES.COM

-Borneo

# The Dream -/- FTM 208-321-9188 (WanderNet 1:09/0) JetBBS v5.0g


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