SH>   MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Gtalk, ICQ, AIM, IRC, etc.  Chat is everywhere.
SH> 

SH> 
SH>   File transfer areas?  The internet is great at this!  There's tons of FTP
SH> sites, limewire, torrents, etc. etc. etc.
SH> 

Well, yeah, the INTERNET can offer everything (or at least an acceptable 
substitute) that a BBS can...that's why there was a BBS crash to begin with.  
Nowadays most BBSes are a part of the Internet anyway, so there's not much 
point in acting like the Internet and the BBS are still competing species.  My
point was that there are few places on the Internet apart from BBSes which
offer such a wide variety of features in a consistent environment.  In a 30
minute period, you might post on a forum, download from an FTP site, and chat
on IRC but those actions are likely to be disconnected.  The forum, FTP site,
and IRC channel all probably have different operators and probably different 
audiences, and the "feel" of each will likely depend on what
client software
you are using to access each one.  I'm not trying to argue computers have no 
purpose if BBSes don't exist or anything like that...all I'm saying is that
BBSes still have their place, and they're still COOL!  Yeah, Shawn, you can 
get by with your new-fangled web forums and messengers, but don't you want to 
be cool?  C'mon Shawn, come back to the fold; BBSing hasn't closed its doors 
to you yet.  If you get started on making a new Qmodem right this instant, all
will be forgiven.

--- Renegade v04-12.6/Alpha r2-1