Hello Aaron!

** On Saturday 30.01.21 - 15:55, Aaron Thomas wrote to All:

 AT> In 1990, I learned how to use BBSs.

[snip]

 AT> We had The Projects, The Sanitarium, Cascara Segrada,
 AT> Wicked World (mine,) but I don't remember who it was that
 AT> carried Fido - Fido was a rare thing for sysops in my
 AT> hometown.

I came on board to Fidonet in 1993 with Vis a Vis Communications  
BBS.  I offered internet email, and QWK for offline reading.

Prior to all that, I experimented with operating a low key BBS  
for about 3 years using RBBS-PC.  It was very tricky at the time  
since I only used an existing voice line that tied into the  
front-door intercom system to my apartment. Whenever I got a  
buzz at the door, it would interrupt the BBS session currently  
in progress.

 AT> I ran RG in the 90s, quit for 20 years, came back to it. I
 AT> just learned how to use echomail recently. It's always cool
 AT> talking with Fido people. There are a lot of nice people. I
 AT> bet that some of you guys have been at it for a while.

I dropped out of operating a BBS following a catastrophic crash  
of the HDD with my OS/2 system.  But I maintained some modest  
use as a point, but then eventually dropped out for 10 years  
until coming back as a point-user around 2018.

For the most part, it *does* seems that there *are* very nice  
people in this hobby.

In the early times, some sysops were very protective of their  
user base.  During the dialup days, I would just try to call any  
system that didn't have a busy signal. One tended to be easier  
to connect to than many of the others - it was some weird 40  
column wide thing and would only connect at 1200 bps.  I'd hang  
around and post messages to find out what other BBSes the users  
liked to visit.  I'd throw in a few promotional words about my  
own BBS. But during one later call I noticed that my messages  
were deleted and the sysop jumped into chat to tell me that he  
did not approved of advertising of other BBSes. I'll never  
forget that he used the term "persona non grata" to me.

It was just as well because at 1200 bps when by then 14000 was  
the norm, it wasn't worth lamenting over that one.
--
  ../|ug

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