#bbsing — Public Fediverse posts

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#atari #atarist #vintagecomputing #retrocomputer #history #longreads #bbsing #textmode #computerhistory #gamedev #localnews #news

#BBSing from my local coffee shop, this week. Exploring old and interesting #Telnet destinations. I love that more and more USB-C power is being offered — super convenient for #cyberdecks on the go. (#rgb frontlight for the vibes)

On a #hike. #BBSing from a stump.

@tqw
#hiking #bbs #solarpunk #touchgrass

Image BBS Account Setup On Commodore 64
#ImageBBS #Commodore64 #C64 #BBSing #RetroComputing #ImageBBSOnAStick #CommodoreBBS #joezomby1
https://theoasisbbs.com/image-bbs-account-setup-on-commodore-64/?fsp_sid=6278

In the decade after Ward Christensen and Randy Suess created the first BBS, there was a growing tension between commerce and the common good.

BBSes were born in a spirit of openness and sharing, but it wasn't just a hobby anymore, according to folks like Jack Rickard and Phil Becker. It was "an emerging growth industry of unprecedented opportunity."

https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/16/business-of-bbsing-ansi-art-and-webcomics-part-4/

#retrocomputing #ansiart #textmode #ansi #bbs #bbsing #computerhistory #history #mastoart #comics #digipres

In the early 1990s, as BBSes turned into businesses, some sysops and developers started making real money.

Could ANSI artists and publishers do the same?

https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/16/business-of-bbsing-ansi-art-and-webcomics-part-4/

Part 4 of my series "ANSI art and webcomics" is here!

#retrocomputing #ansiart #textmode #ansi #bbs #bbsing #computerhistory #history #mastoart #comics #digipres

Feb. 16, 1978 -- forty eight years ago today -- the first public dial-up bulletin board system or BBS went online.

Wired: "1978: Ward Christensen and Randy Suess launch the first public dialup bulletin board system. The two unleash the kernel of what would eventually spawn the world wide web, countless online messaging systems..."

https://www.wired.com/2010/02/0216cbbs-first-bbs-bulletin-board/

I got my first modem in the summer of 1986, a Prometheus ProModem 1200A (modem on a card) for the Apple II. The first BBS I logged in to was OxGate, an RBBS/RCPM system the phone number of which I still can remember (my earliest BBS software -- firmware-based on that modem card -- had no phone book). I used BBSs avidly until sometime in 1994, when I subscribed to a local ISP's (Widomaker of Williamsburg, VA) dial-up modem-based PPP service that brought TCP/IP to my 486 PC with Windows 3.1. I could then browse the web from home, and that was basically the end of BBSing for me -- for the moment, anyway.

For those interested in experiencing this early form of online community, there are many BBSs online right now, accessible via telnet on systems old and new. I've enjoyed getting back into BBSing this way, especially when using vintage systems to login.

Most any computer can do it, today. Tips on how: https://bytecellar.com/bbsing

#BulletinboardSystem #BBS #BBSing #telnet #dialup #modem #online #terminals #terminalprograms #computinghistory #history #computers #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #retrocomputers #nostalgia #ATDT #onlineforums #preinternet #internet #communication #RBBS #AppleII #CRT #memories #Wired #tech #technews #technology

"Dialed" into the Mac Studio wirelessly across the room for some IRCing on old hardware, here as the snow falls. ❄️

I had to modify the plist and shell config scripts I'd setup on the Mac since "upgrading" to macOS 26 Tahoe to get this working without gripes in the terminal.

#Mac #macOS #terminal #serialterminal #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #retrocomputers #computinginthesnow #AppleII #AppleIIe #MacStudio #ProTerm #BBSing #IRCing #BBS #IRC #WiFi232 #login #telnet #WiFimodem #computers #CRT #floppydrive #ByteCellar #BASH #photo #UNIX

DCTelnet Amiga BBS Gets a Fresh v1.7 Release for Classic Hardware
#Amiga #AmigaBBS #Telnet #ZModem #RetroComputing #Aminet #AmigaOS #CommodoreAmiga #BBSing
https://theoasisbbs.com/dctelnet-amiga-bbs-gets-a-fresh-v1-7-release-for-classic-hardware/?fsp_sid=596

It's snowing outside, so...good time for some BBSing.

https://bytecellar.com/2022/01/11/bbsing-in-the-snow-is-the-best-way-to-log-in/

#BBS #BBSing #BulletinBoards #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing #dialup #telnet #internet #tech #vintagetech #blog #blogpost #techblog #nostalgia #AppleII #CRT

ah yes, before we posted pictures of food we had to simply describe it

i absolutely remember that room

Citadels attracted a mature literate crowd, a clear forerunner to modern twitter-like micro-blogging, that none the less reveled in irrelevant shitposting 😆

from a eulogy for three citadels by Michael Finley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press circa 1996?? now there's something to track down a scan of

https://lwr.wtf/citadel/Newsletters/news9604.html

so there you go, from top of the world in the early 90s, to rapid death around '96 along with the rest of the BBS scene...

as the large for-profit multi-line boards pivoted to full ISP service, the amateur sysops looked at their phone bills and began eyeballing DSL connections instead of second phone lines...

#BBS #Citadel #Citadel86 #Minneapolis #retrocomputing #bbsing #dialup #dialupdays

A few big names even ran Citadels

hometown hero PC Tech Inc ran a Citadel-86 before being absorbed into Zeos/Micron (and still has a Minneapolis office!)

Atari Corp ran a STadel circa 1988!

Bad Sector became Visi.com, a pivotal early Twin Cities ISP, and long since absorbed into god knows what...

#BBS #Citadel #Citadel86 #Minneapolis #retrocomputing #bbsing #dialup #dialupdays

@orc (hi!) famously implemented a UUCP gateway for STadel, bringing usenet groups (and email?) into CitaNet for a time, but got in to a bit of a row with Hue Jr and had left the 612 scene by the time i got online in 1994

a CitaNet overview, from December 1992

the original Test System, run by Hue Jr in Minneapolis was the beating heart of the CitaNet

i often called it as it was a good place to pick up most of the networked rooms 😀

a good ~25 nodes in MN alone

maybe half were still running in `94 and memories are shaking loose of a number of them...

#BBS #Citadel #Citadel86 #Minneapolis #retrocomputing #bbsing #dialup #dialupdays

there's a stash of CitaNews at https://lwr.wtf/wiki/Newsletters

Citadel history thread LETS GO!

been racking my brain trying to remember what all the networked rooms were, here's a list from an amiga board in August 1991

Citadel style BBSs may not have been that popular overall, but they maintained pockets of rabid popularity in a variety of major cities

Citadel-86 gained its own federated networking as early as 1986, (a mere few years after FidoNet began!) quickly becoming a mainstay of many Citadel BBSs

#BBS #Citadel #Citadel86 #Minneapolis #retrocomputing #bbsing #dialup #dialupdays

Citadel-86 v3.49-hax deployed live 🫡

has Y2K fix, removed some pauses waiting for old modems which are not necessary in emulation, and i've got it idling using HLT, which keeps it from burning CPU in VMs new and old, such as a Win95 dos window 😀

connect via ssh to [email protected]

#BBS #Citadel #Citadel86 #Minneapolis #retrocomputing #bbsing #dialup #dialupdays