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Darius Kazemi

There is an episode of BBS The Documentary from @textfiles that is about FidoNet, which was... almost, kind of, like an early federated forum thing (basically it let people on BBS server 1 could talk to people on BBS server 2). The tech details don't line up exactly but I was struck watching it a few years ago at how the social dynamics of admins of different BBSes mapped pretty perfectly onto fediverse admins.

Anyway if you want to feel like time is a flat circle: youtube.com/watch?v=Ng0NE4lDP2

22 Nov 2022 at 0:01 | Open on friend.camp
19 comments
Darius Kazemi

Also struck by the description text for that video, which says FidoNet "may have been the single-largest 100% amateur organized and run computer network of all time". Reminds me a bit of what we've got going on here. Exciting, scary, exhilarating.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:02 | Open on friend.camp
Pedro Giglio :astro:​

@darius Man, FidoNet does bring some memories - that and how it found a way to connect with your favorite Usenet groups. Good times, good times.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:04 | Open on peoplemaking.games
Arrrrrrrgh
Aaron Huslage

@darius FidoNet was life changing for me. This does feel similar.

24 Nov 2022 at 20:03 | Open on hachyderm.io
Bryant Durrell

@darius @textfiles An awfully long time ago when I managed email for Netcom, an awful lot of my time was spent on debugging FidoNet/UUCP gateways. I suppose that maps to Twitter/ActivityPub gateways.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:03 | Open on dice.camp
DJ Sundog - from the toot-lab

@darius @textfiles as an Old, I can confirm that all my folk who were into the BBS scene way back when, particularly the networked BBSes like fidonet and citanet (my fav from the day), feel it too. cc @Ricardus who was my citadel sysop back in the 1980s.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:06 | Open on toot-lab.reclaim.technology
Dr. Fyzziks

@darius @textfiles yup. I ran a #FidoNet node on my #BBS back in the day and the #Mastodon network reminds me of it *very* much. Almost a 1:1 mapping of admin considerations and concerns.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:12 | Open on makervine.net
Darius Kazemi

@drfyzziks @textfiles glad to hear my very strong suspicion checks out from someone who's participated in both of these things

22 Nov 2022 at 2:08 | Open on friend.camp
qdot

@darius @textfiles Heh I hadn't really considered this but yeah. Growing up with FidoNet in Oklahoma meant having to pull feeds from multiple BBSes depending on the beliefs/politics of the sysadmin and what groups they relayed.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:17 | Open on mastodon.social
Apicultor 🐝

@darius @textfiles Holy shit, what a blast from the past; I mean a BBS in the early 90s which was a point node on FIDOnet.

22 Nov 2022 at 0:50 | Open on hachyderm.io
Josh Braun
Gosha

@darius @driscoll @textfiles @nancybaym @josh This popped up in my feed without immediate context, and from the title I thought this might be a book about bad kerning πŸ™ˆ

Looks really good though, thank you for sharing!

22 Nov 2022 at 4:36 | Open on merveilles.town
Gosha

@darius @textfiles @nancybaym @josh @driscoll Ended up getting the book, opened a random page and saw Commander Keen mentioned πŸ‘Œ Very looking forward to reading!

A hardcover copy of The Modem World by Kevin Driscoll
A spread of The Modem World, a finger pointing to a line mentioning Commander Keen
13 Dec 2022 at 16:19 | Open on merveilles.town
alans

@darius I was thinking about this recently and reflecting on my experience running a BBS as part of WWIVnet in the early 90s. That documentary has been on my list for a while, and I guess it’s time I got to it.

22 Nov 2022 at 1:38 | Open on social.lol
Melissa Woo

@darius @textfiles I used to be a Fidonet BBS sysop, and even ran the local Fidonet hub for a while. Yes, each sysop had their own personality (should I say quirks? 😁), but that was the nature of the Fidonet BBS network.

22 Nov 2022 at 1:42 | Open on edumasto.org
tallship

@darius @textfiles

If you'd like to chat about it over netmail you can reach me at :

SysOp@1:102/107

β›΅

22 Nov 2022 at 2:39 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
Maverick

@darius @textfiles Yes. Another former Fidonet user here and my exploration of the Fediverse has brought back many memories. I kinda wish we were still there, actually.

22 Nov 2022 at 3:12 | Open on mastodon.social
Alan Langford

@darius @textfiles RIP 1000BBS and the lost friends I made there!

22 Nov 2022 at 5:38 | Open on mindly.social
That Jeff Guy

@darius @textfiles FidoNet was amazing for the time period. I ran a BBS that had multiserver games that ran off it. #solarRealmElite

22 Nov 2022 at 6:00 | Open on cirrus.social
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