-=> Quoting PETER COGGON to NANCY BACKUS on 30 Dec 09  12:01:00 <=-

 PC> Hello Nancy and Sean and even Jean....
 
 JP>>     I am still and always will be amazed at you guys, Ross,Shawn and
 JP>> you, when I see your dedication to our satisfaction. I am one who
 JP>> remember and I thank you for carrying it on.
 SD>> Eh, it's the old school in us.  I've been running a BBS for so long I
 SD>> can't imagine my life without running one.
 NB>> It gets in the blood.  Sysops find that they can't live without
 NB>> running a BBS, users find that they just need to get their
fix... 
 NB>> Besides.  It's a family... a community...  :) 

 PC> How amazing to read this from people that seem to echo what people I
 PC> knew in the BBS days, pine for a return to those days...somehow.

Some of us never left.  I hear the same, though, from those that did. 
In my case, I stayed dialup as long as I could, then I had to learn
telnet so that I could find a bbs to keep going.  And that's when I
expanded my sights from local bbses to ones all over the world.  I was
even "calling" one in the UK for a while, until the sysop took it down.

 PC> I was a sysop from 1991 to 2005 when death stalked my family and
 PC> friends and even a few really good BBS friends, or should I dare say,
 PC> my BBS family.    The Internet really buried us,   30 strong until mid
 PC> 1990s and then only mine until 2005, and yet ....  my neighbour a ham
 PC> and another ham and a few of my ex-bbs family, and new ones have
 PC> re-started my old BBS with a donated IBM 300GL .

It's a family.  :)

 PC> It is a family and a community, no matter how they participate.
 PC> All our events are or were attended, and even after 4 years of
 PC> me being offline, and out they still carry on the events, which
 PC> led to the BBS coming back.    

Yup...  it's a family.    There's even some locally that have "moved
on" from the bbs scene, but that still fondly remember the days of yore. 
And that reminisce about the good sysops we used to have, and all the
things that they'd do, over and above what one would expect of them...

 PC> The problem is now with members of 40 going up ... and the BBS located
 PC> in the city I have lost control of it.     I sort of miss the presence
 PC> in the radio room, and it activating when I am there, and seeing
 PC> someone getting their fix of QWKmail or a file or a game...or a 
 PC> trip tru the door for other things like radio packet.

It's definitely in your blood...  

 PC> In 2010 they are planning to raise money and have a better site
 PC> dedicated phone, etc... and then perhaps at a meeting change the
 PC> name and move from there, to a form I might see as not what I
 PC> left on this board.    The voting is underway now with a result
 PC> in middle of the next month.

Now that's exciting!  :)

 PC> I would like also in 2010 submit an offer to re-locate from
 PC> Toronto back here to it's original home here....have a dialup
 PC>  and as well attempt to get it
 PC> available via a Telnet for those well outside our area, the
 PC> majority in Toronto etc... and add again the Packet Radio gate
 PC> etc... to our super node covering the province of Ontario.
 PC> My problem is limited knowledge about Telnet and getting the
 PC> Wildcat V4.20 on Telnet.    I don't want to bog down and
 PC> leave it dialup only, as most of the ex-users or family have
 PC> moved, and now waste their time emailing an email address
 PC> to get their QWKmail.    I would prefer they Telnet direct
 PC> and be able to chat, and page me, and enter the other menus
 PC> denied by this manner now employed for obvious reasons.

I like your thinking... and planning...

 PC> I wonder ALSO if I am ready to do this again and how long?
 PC> I know other sysops who have washed their hands and are glad
 PC> but then....why the heck am I feeling this dino feeling 
 PC> coming back?

It's clearly in your blood.  

 PC> Happy New Year 2010 to you all and your familys....

And to you and yours... :)

ttyl    neb

... Perfectionist: Takes great pains - and gives them to someone else!
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20