I was a sysop back in the 80s into the 90s, and this really brings back memories. I'm going to spend the holidays thinking how I can bring these good times back. Much love!
@whitefolks telnet: bbs.alsgeeklab.com (port 2323). Mystic and Synchronet are the two most popular modern BBS server softwares out there these days. Check out part three of this documentary for more info on the various softwares available today. ▼
WE should build a new and better BBS I have 20+ years experience as a software engineer and YES I too was a sysop. For example we could do end to end user encryption so that communications are secure. I have a million ideas how we can take lessons learned from the last 30 years to totally replace centralized social media platforms with distributed networks like BBS.
I was a bit young to get into BBS the first time around. I was the age of geocities and AIM and ICQ. I've really missed the more nerdy times of the internet, and these really look right up my alley!
great video! i'm 19 years old and really interested in vintage tech. the thing about privacy concerns and disillusionment really hit home with me, i don't use much social media anymore and i'm starting to focus more on privacy. bbses look like a great experience! i love how simple they are, no extra fluff included. i'll have to try connecting to one this weekend. cheers!
that's really cool to hear! I love that you're 19 and getting into it! if you need any help, hit me up! I'm releasing part 3 very soon, which covers privacy, I. think you'll like that!
I used to be a sysop but I have been building systems for 20 years now. We could do so much better than resurrect vintage tech. if you know coders interested in launching a BBS remix technology we could make it so much better. We can use the internet, but we can do it securely and in distributed fashion to replace social platforms.
BBS are a little before my time, but the way they describe the feel of being on a BBS is the same as how I describe the "old Internet" of the 90s and early 00s. When I was getting into building computers as a kid, there was a forum I went to with my questions and a relatively small number of very knowledgeable people would likely respond, so I got to know them in a way. I also remember going to people's personal web pages which would sometimes be served from a computer in their house. These days, everything is served from AWS or similar cloud services.
I know this video is a few years old, but YT just uncovered this for me. I honestly, sincerely, whole heartily miss RUNNING a BBS. I saw them go away when DSL 5meg speeds were coming out to mainstream. I used to run a local-only (Meaning I didn't allow calls in) Renegade BBS because I was living with my grandparents, and they did NOT allow calls in on their single line. I co-sys'd on a TriBBS BBS (Pretty much ran it) then eventually moved it to Renegade. So much fun, so many good memories.
Congratulations on this series - a totally amazing, and insightful series going through what was my life back in the late 80's and early 90's. Simply stunning stuff!
Back in the day, long distance calls were very expensive, so I would only connect to BBS systems in my area code, as did most other people. What was really cool about this is I could go out for coffee with someone I met on a BBS because they lived in the same area. Met some good friends this way!
Cool, will watch! Me & my mate both bought modems in 1995 to play Rise of the Triad/Doom 2 against each other. My nerdy uncle heard this & gave me this dog-eared piece of paper with all these phone numbers scrawled on it - gave me some terminal program (can't remember) & said "try ringing these." Blew our minds. We soon found the naughty, underground ones offering porn, warez, bomb making txt files, eventually MP3s etc. Internet was too expensive, but rich people would upload their Internet loot on the local boards. Was such a fun time to be a teenager! Only a few short years later and computing lost all it's magic :(
@@AlsGeekLab i used to run with renegade -> synchronet back then so it’s either synchronet or perhaps mystic. Mystic seems like a modern callback to the cool renegade/obv2 boards of the time.
Nice documentary. I currently run a telnet bbs and the bbs era in the 80's and early 90's will always be an impressionable time in my life. Growing up in a very bad neighborhood, the bbs world was my only escape since going outside was a gamble with my life. Much love and respect for the bbs community.
@@AlsGeekLab The name of my bbs is The Arcade BBS bbs.thearcadebbs.xyz I am very happy to see the bbs community coming back to life in the internet era. Also, a HUGE thank you for doing this documentary as it was very well done and enjoyable to watch and to revisit an awesome era from my past. Kuddos to you my friend! Thanks again!
I literally searched for BBS's the day before yesterday, simply because of nostalgia. Found out many stuff, but this video goes above and beyond! Thank you so much! :-)
Thank you so much for your kind words! Im so glad that the timing of this video is ideal for your needs! You are exactly the audience this video is for ☺️
When I used to be 8 years old, it was actually a transitional period from AMIGA to PC, and Internet was already starting to become a mainstream thing. I didn't had access to it yet, so the best way to get new software was on shareware and magazine CDs. I could already appreciate the blocky interfaces, the ANSI art, and the tracker music using the Sound Blaster. Now, fast forward to this year, in an internet era that's not as exciting as it was in the late 90s, I found out the origin of all of this. It was kinda like becoming a kid discovering the beauty of connecting a computer to the world, so I started calling several boards. Some of my favourites are Absinthe, The Quantum Wormhole, 2o For Beers, and The Bottomless Abyss
I was lucky as a kid to have a father who was a computer science professor and we had two Mac Plus computers in our house and two phone lines so he could dial into the university internet connection, so I ran a BBS using the Hermes BBS software when everyone was in bed and would shut it down in the morning. I love the nostalgia. Maybe I should do it again?
Oh yeah! Writing 'doors'/extensions' (external apps for the BBS software that the online users could use like text-based games, upload handlers etc.) in Borland Pascal for RA (Remote Access) and Borland C++ for PB (ProBoard). That's how I learned programming lol :)
I used to be a Sysop for quite awhile. I started using Renegade BBS Software on a 14.4 modem. From there, I went to 28.8, then to 33.6, and then skipped 56K entirely and jumped straight into DSL (1.5mbps down / 768kbps up) to eventually arrive at my extremely fast cable internet connection that I've had for awhile now (100mbps down / 12mbps up). From Renegade BBS, I went to Telegard, then Mystic BBS, then Synchronet BBS. My BBS started in 1994 and in 2010 I shut it down. My reasons for shutting it down were, because it just wasn't the BBS Scene that I signed up for. The users were leaving left and right. Many of those who remained, egos were flying all over the place. Creativity, Community, Support and all of the fun productive social things that I enjoyed, started to become less and less and less. So one day in 2010, I ask myself "why am I even still running this thing if I'm not getting anything out of it anymore?". So, I took it down. So lets fast forward to present day. Has the BBS Scene made enough of a resurgence in those areas yet to make me want to throw my board back up? No. However, I do like what I've been seeing so far. Though I would probably never run Synchronet again for a variety of reasons -- Mystic BBS has made some impressive progress. Then there is Enigma 1/2 which though relatively new and not as fully developed as it really needs to be -- is extremely impressive with everything it can support so far, including not only echomail and various server functions, but also WebSocket and even BBSLink, Door Party and Exodus! So though I'm not quite ready yet to bring my BBS back from it's decade-long hibernation period, if progress within the BBS Scene keeps moving forward and does so with increasing speed -- I'll be a lot more tempted to give things another go. I honestly miss it. A LOT. But the Scene needs to return to being what I signed up for, before I'd be willing to make a full return. And of course no I don't mean the BBS Scene returning to the amount of people it used to have, that would be stupid. Regardless of how may people are in it, as long as the egos are dropped and the community spirit is once again rocking hard -- my temptation might very well turn to action :)
In the 90's when internet was starting to get big, my friends and I still hung out on BBS's because it was a toll free call and we would only connect to internet when we needed something. Later on but some of the BBS's were linked together over internet, and you could surf internet or use irc from the BBS, which was awesome cause it was still a toll free call.
Love this...you are making me want to dust off my old Wildcat! 4 floppies and sort out how to go back online! Now I need a tutorial from the Sysop perspective of getting back online!
Sysop back in the early 90s... The Eleventh Hour BBS in Virginia. Eventually hit 110 phone lines and then launched into East Coast Internet. Bailed out in the late 1990s when I could no longer compete with the telecoms getting into providing internet access.
Love it! thanks for doing this and for teaching with great detail how to connect to a BBS to people how don't know. Looking forward to part 2! (Don Rolo. The Vault BBS SySop).
Just starting to watch this. Looks great so far. Interestingly, given that your documentary is so regularly interrupted by YT's advertising is one of the reasons why I am looking to return to the BBS scene.
I remember going on my first BBS at 300 baud... it was a DDIAL chat line outside of Chicago. There was nothing like it. I was a little too young but there were late night meetups at 24/7 diners and other types of gatherings of all types of different people with common interests. Once the net took off, I never found anything else that had that sort of community feel to it, even with forums or the chatrooms that were more like sewage systems. I am kicking myself for not backing up my own board that I made just for fun, I never even got to run it, but I had a ton of fun staying up late and doing my own ANSI graphics and custom menus. I but a lot of care into it, and have no pictures or files at all. I think that's why I'm such a data hoarder now... re-using floppies and erasing one of my favorite eras. I have maybe 3 amusing log files of convos surviving. I still can't recall what went wrong with my zmodem setup, it always gave me trouble.
Hmmm... I ran KBBS back in my day of being a sysop nothing like hearing the modem screech at 3 in the morning and rushing to a dark room to see who's logging in that was fun 😊
This series is great.. - brings back some memories of running a 3 line bbs on a stack of machines networked with some gawd awful coax cables running 2400 baud modems and of course doing a "little" bit of hacking and phreaking! Anyone remember the alternative to Novell for networking? I can't for the life of me, remember what I used for networking - I just know it wasn't Novell.
The difference between social media and a BBS is that social media decides what you see based on algorithms and favors what is most effective and this turns out to be things that make you upset. Upset = more engagement. BBS's don't use algorithms and you choose who you talk to and what you see. As you say in the documentary, you can pick a BBS that shares your passions and ideals.
Great Documentary! Brings back so many memories when 14.4 was fast and wondering got by on less than 28.8.... Thank you for doing this! Looking forward to the next part.
This is super well done and informative. Thank you for this. I will show this to some friends who have never even heard of a BBS and see if it peaks their interest.
I created my own business back in the day. I still remember my parents getting passed off over the phone line. I used to have lots of people logging in all the time. I liked having that service for people to use. I was like 13 at the time.
Great series. Have to comment though... the security focused BBS has a Facebook page/link? What. Facebook and security are oil and vinegar.. it also has a screen about enhanced security but you are using telnet. There is nothing secure about using telnet. While I am back into using BBSs myself and am running one, no one should be under the impression that any BBS is safe and securing your data when they dont force Telnet. FTN networks are not secure in any way either and any sysop can read any messages going through their board. Its a lot of fun, but people should be aware of security, and there is little to none on almost all of the boards running. What you do there is not private and can be tracked and watched especially when using unencrypted methods like Telnet and posting messages without any kind of GPG/PGP while messages are transmitted inter-bbs without SSL, etc, etc. I'd like to see the scene make a nice effort into enforcing encrypted communications.
Excellent video, great job! Maybe there might just be some hope for the BBS Scene yet! Isn't it interesting that those who are trying to divide us (big tech, main stream media, cancel culture, outrage mobs, etc) are actually facilitating the rebirth of the BBS Scene! Irony!
I am old. I started using my Coleco Adam computer with a 300 baud modem. Ran a bbs on that as well. Graduated to the Amiga and ran a couple of them into 1996. Those were fun days.
I like connecting to BBSes from my IBM XT, but as I don't own a modem or telephone line or wish to pay for phone calls, dialling up a BBS doesn't appeal to me! I use the wi232 as if it were a modem. But mainly I use MTCP telnet - the telnet client works well and is designed for the PC Jr!
Just a note on telnet on MacOS: the most recent versions of MacOS actually don't come with a telnet client by default (I'm not sure if this was the case when this video was originally released). Thankfully, the homebrew package manager is easy to download and install, and you can use it to install telnet.
I'm running a BBS for 3 years now, many folks registered but now is silent. Oh well, at least I visit it from my micros for testing and a dose of nostalgia :-D
Is it listed on the telnet bbs guide? If yes, then make sure your bbs has lots of great ansi and doors that make it unique. If it's a stock board then people won't connect to it
@@AlsGeekLab It is but no extra ansii, just some I made. No problem for the traffic, just sayin that people will visit once or two, and then you have nothing to do these days there. Discord is the new bbs - irc I think.
Ahh.. No sir! Baud did not mean bits per second. Baud was symbol rate. A very common mistake. So far the only mistake you've made. I was a I was the sysop of an 8 line MajorBBS/WorldGroup until 2000. And I am really enjoying this series of yours! We'll all be back on the BBS someday once this whole world wide web fad finally fades out.
I really want to experience the PTT Taiwanese BBSes. Is there any walkthrough or... way to convert to English? I’d love a video on THAT. BTW, this doc is WONDERFUL!! Thankyou, hyjinx!
many thanks Paul! I don't really know much about PTT unfortunately, there's not much on google that's in English about it. as it's a bbs I doubt it'll be translatable
@@AlsGeekLab As live video capture translation continues to improve, it's conceivable that one could set up a live stream of the board and run it through the translation service as you interact with it. That would be a fun experiment.
Honestly, I think we're at a point now where BBS'sing is basically resurged but it became things like Discord. THe problem with discord though is that its got centralized encryption and control that isn't yours because it doesn't work on your machine. I've got a WWIV bbs, but I keep having chinese hacker bots connecting... which is amusing since they are too advanced for the bbs. That said its still annoying. Though, I'm a software engineer... maybe I'll do something about that...
Nice video! I received some feedback that Synchronet BBSes were not represented in this video (though notably, SyncTERM is). I'm totally cool with that. I don't think there's any question that in the 21st century there are are (or have been) more Synchronet BBSes than any other. So those that choose to explore the BBSverse today will inevitably encounter those systems (and their software). But for the curious, go to synchro.net/. It's not like we're hard to find. Thank you for the quality contribution to the BBS community and looking forward to more! :-)
Thanks for your comments! No particular BBS software was discussed in this part, Synchronet, Magika, Enigma 1/2, CNET, Image 3.0 all get a mention in the upcoming part 2 of the documentary where BBS software is introduced.
@@katmarie7102 Couldn't agree more! I'm currently finishing off the next bunch of videos for the documentary. One part of it discusses BBS software specifically, both Synchronet and Mystic are well represented, however I'd love it if their respective authors came forward for a quick soundbite
Never was a big BBS user - everything would have been a LD for me - but used a lot of modems and telnet for work in the 90s. I still have my ProComm Plus installation disk.
Anybody know if there's already BBS soft out there, preferably open source, with support for PGP encrypted traffic and crypto transactions? asking for a friend :P Oh, and some level of compatibility with RA doors would be nice too...
@@AlsGeekLab it's not horrible in most parts, just some of the guys being interviewed looks like have lower resolution cameras or something like that. Looking forward to see part two!
I don’t feel like it’s an authentic experience to connect on modern PCs. I’m using a Compaq all in one 486 running DOS 6.22, and using Terminate as my terminal program. Raspberry pi with usb to serial.
I agree! I use mTCP's Telnet on my IBM 5162 XT/286. I also have Terminate but I have trouble so far getting reliable serial connections above 9600/19200 bps, even though I have an 16550AF UART.
Works perfectly for me. Are you sure you are using Syncterm or Netrunner and you have set port 2323?. Try the website and use the web client if all else fails: alsgeeklab.com/bbs/ You might have a.blocked IP so the website masquerades that as it goes via a proxy.
@@marcello4258 haha no worries. Although I still strongly recommend using SSH in Syncterm or Netrunner rather than just in the terminal. Proper Cp437 display font support is probably not available in your terminal and may look garbled at worst as a result.
@@AlsGeekLab it works fine I am running on UTF-8 looks just right. I wasn't really interested in compiling another software if my terminal emulator just was fine handling it
I was a sysop back in the 80s into the 90s, and this really brings back memories. I'm going to spend the holidays thinking how I can bring these good times back. Much love!
Thanks for your comments! I'm glad that this has given you incentive to get back to it!
Ain't that the truth!
For my board or the OP? My board is currently Mystic
@whitefolks telnet: bbs.alsgeeklab.com (port 2323). Mystic and Synchronet are the two most popular modern BBS server softwares out there these days. Check out part three of this documentary for more info on the various softwares available today.
▼
WE should build a new and better BBS I have 20+ years experience as a software engineer and YES I too was a sysop. For example we could do end to end user encryption so that communications are secure. I have a million ideas how we can take lessons learned from the last 30 years to totally replace centralized social media platforms with distributed networks like BBS.
Glad to see interest building again about the golden years of the BBS's and the current status of the culture of BBS's
With the current war against the common man and free speech itself. I see this as a good idea during these dark times of 1984.
Great documentary. I was SysOp of Unauthorised Access BBS in the UK 1990-1995. Fun times. Phantasm
I was a bit young to get into BBS the first time around. I was the age of geocities and AIM and ICQ. I've really missed the more nerdy times of the internet, and these really look right up my alley!
Check out my BBS : bbs.alsgeeklab.com on port 2323. Hopefully you'll find it a good intro to BBSes!
great video! i'm 19 years old and really interested in vintage tech. the thing about privacy concerns and disillusionment really hit home with me, i don't use much social media anymore and i'm starting to focus more on privacy. bbses look like a great experience! i love how simple they are, no extra fluff included. i'll have to try connecting to one this weekend. cheers!
that's really cool to hear! I love that you're 19 and getting into it! if you need any help, hit me up! I'm releasing part 3 very soon, which covers privacy, I. think you'll like that!
I used to be a sysop but I have been building systems for 20 years now. We could do so much better than resurrect vintage tech. if you know coders interested in launching a BBS remix technology we could make it so much better. We can use the internet, but we can do it securely and in distributed fashion to replace social platforms.
Legacy/X (or whatever it's called now) is a new hybrid tech that is a total remix. All web based with fallback to terminal if desired
BBS are a little before my time, but the way they describe the feel of being on a BBS is the same as how I describe the "old Internet" of the 90s and early 00s. When I was getting into building computers as a kid, there was a forum I went to with my questions and a relatively small number of very knowledgeable people would likely respond, so I got to know them in a way. I also remember going to people's personal web pages which would sometimes be served from a computer in their house. These days, everything is served from AWS or similar cloud services.
I know this video is a few years old, but YT just uncovered this for me. I honestly, sincerely, whole heartily miss RUNNING a BBS. I saw them go away when DSL 5meg speeds were coming out to mainstream. I used to run a local-only (Meaning I didn't allow calls in) Renegade BBS because I was living with my grandparents, and they did NOT allow calls in on their single line. I co-sys'd on a TriBBS BBS (Pretty much ran it) then eventually moved it to Renegade. So much fun, so many good memories.
I used my dad's work IBM XT PC and Telix Terminal software to go on BBS's in the early 90's. I used to rack up a huge phone bill!!!
You and pretty much everyone else that used BBSes in the 90s! Myself included! Good times 😊
Congratulations on this series - a totally amazing, and insightful series going through what was my life back in the late 80's and early 90's. Simply stunning stuff!
Back in the day, long distance calls were very expensive, so I would only connect to BBS systems in my area code, as did most other people. What was really cool about this is I could go out for coffee with someone I met on a BBS because they lived in the same area. Met some good friends this way!
Yep! I even met my first girlfriend on a BBS!
Cool, will watch! Me & my mate both bought modems in 1995 to play Rise of the Triad/Doom 2 against each other. My nerdy uncle heard this & gave me this dog-eared piece of paper with all these phone numbers scrawled on it - gave me some terminal program (can't remember) & said "try ringing these." Blew our minds. We soon found the naughty, underground ones offering porn, warez, bomb making txt files, eventually MP3s etc. Internet was too expensive, but rich people would upload their Internet loot on the local boards. Was such a fun time to be a teenager! Only a few short years later and computing lost all it's magic :(
As an ex-SysOp from the 90's, this has inspired me to possibly get the board up and running once again! Awesome vid, looking forward to the rest!
So pleased to hear it has inspired you Ryan! Any particular software you are going to choose ? Part two covers BBS software fyi
@@AlsGeekLab i used to run with renegade -> synchronet back then so it’s either synchronet or perhaps mystic. Mystic seems like a modern callback to the cool renegade/obv2 boards of the time.
Yeah I have installed mystic before it was easy, used videos from Avon (mystic guy on YT) to follow the installation process
So cool to see these Sysops of these famous boards. Really appreciate you doing this!
Nice documentary. I currently run a telnet bbs and the bbs era in the 80's and early 90's will always be an impressionable time in my life. Growing up in a very bad neighborhood, the bbs world was my only escape since going outside was a gamble with my life. Much love and respect for the bbs community.
Thank you for sharing that story Elliot. What's the name of your BBS?
Thanks also for your kind comments!
@@AlsGeekLab The name of my bbs is The Arcade BBS bbs.thearcadebbs.xyz I am very happy to see the bbs community coming back to life in the internet era. Also, a HUGE thank you for doing this documentary as it was very well done and enjoyable to watch and to revisit an awesome era from my past. Kuddos to you my friend! Thanks again!
I appreciate your comments! They make all the effort I put into it worthwhile!
I literally searched for BBS's the day before yesterday, simply because of nostalgia. Found out many stuff, but this video goes above and beyond! Thank you so much! :-)
Thank you so much for your kind words! Im so glad that the timing of this video is ideal for your needs! You are exactly the audience this video is for ☺️
@whitefolks I will! Thank you
When I used to be 8 years old, it was actually a transitional period from AMIGA to PC, and Internet was already starting to become a mainstream thing. I didn't had access to it yet, so the best way to get new software was on shareware and magazine CDs. I could already appreciate the blocky interfaces, the ANSI art, and the tracker music using the Sound Blaster. Now, fast forward to this year, in an internet era that's not as exciting as it was in the late 90s, I found out the origin of all of this. It was kinda like becoming a kid discovering the beauty of connecting a computer to the world, so I started calling several boards. Some of my favourites are Absinthe, The Quantum Wormhole, 2o For Beers, and The Bottomless Abyss
All very fine BBSes!
I was lucky as a kid to have a father who was a computer science professor and we had two Mac Plus computers in our house and two phone lines so he could dial into the university internet connection, so I ran a BBS using the Hermes BBS software when everyone was in bed and would shut it down in the morning. I love the nostalgia. Maybe I should do it again?
modern BBS is one of the best ways to use Retro hardware, the experience is that much nicer in full screen on a traditional CRT monitor.
Absolutely! You should share some photos on my twitter! @alsgeeklab
Dude. Great vid. Flashback. I called the Bradley brothers bbs in the day in Toronto at 300 baud. Punter was one of the fathers of bbs.
Oh yeah! Writing 'doors'/extensions' (external apps for the BBS software that the online users could use like text-based games, upload handlers etc.) in Borland Pascal for RA (Remote Access) and Borland C++ for PB (ProBoard). That's how I learned programming lol :)
I used to be a Sysop for quite awhile. I started using Renegade BBS Software on a 14.4 modem. From there, I went to 28.8, then to 33.6, and then skipped 56K entirely and jumped straight into DSL (1.5mbps down / 768kbps up) to eventually arrive at my extremely fast cable internet connection that I've had for awhile now (100mbps down / 12mbps up). From Renegade BBS, I went to Telegard, then Mystic BBS, then Synchronet BBS. My BBS started in 1994 and in 2010 I shut it down.
My reasons for shutting it down were, because it just wasn't the BBS Scene that I signed up for. The users were leaving left and right. Many of those who remained, egos were flying all over the place. Creativity, Community, Support and all of the fun productive social things that I enjoyed, started to become less and less and less. So one day in 2010, I ask myself "why am I even still running this thing if I'm not getting anything out of it anymore?". So, I took it down.
So lets fast forward to present day. Has the BBS Scene made enough of a resurgence in those areas yet to make me want to throw my board back up? No. However, I do like what I've been seeing so far. Though I would probably never run Synchronet again for a variety of reasons -- Mystic BBS has made some impressive progress. Then there is Enigma 1/2 which though relatively new and not as fully developed as it really needs to be -- is extremely impressive with everything it can support so far, including not only echomail and various server functions, but also WebSocket and even BBSLink, Door Party and Exodus!
So though I'm not quite ready yet to bring my BBS back from it's decade-long hibernation period, if progress within the BBS Scene keeps moving forward and does so with increasing speed -- I'll be a lot more tempted to give things another go. I honestly miss it. A LOT. But the Scene needs to return to being what I signed up for, before I'd be willing to make a full return. And of course no I don't mean the BBS Scene returning to the amount of people it used to have, that would be stupid. Regardless of how may people are in it, as long as the egos are dropped and the community spirit is once again rocking hard -- my temptation might very well turn to action :)
In the 90's when internet was starting to get big, my friends and I still hung out on BBS's because it was a toll free call and we would only connect to internet when we needed something. Later on but some of the BBS's were linked together over internet, and you could surf internet or use irc from the BBS, which was awesome cause it was still a toll free call.
They were great times!
Love this...you are making me want to dust off my old Wildcat! 4 floppies and sort out how to go back online! Now I need a tutorial from the Sysop perspective of getting back online!
I'd recommend going with mystic, syncronet or enigma 1/2 these. They work with modern O/S's Ave give the best of both worlds
@@AlsGeekLab appreciate the reply. I love Wildcat so I’ll stick to that. I could also update my WIN Server but I’ve always loved 4
Came here from your interview on Retro Hour Podcast.
Thanks! Hope you enjoy the docu-series!
Miss those days!
Terminal programs and modem dialers. I miss this. The noise and text crawl. ANSI art and opening screens. This was fun.
It's still there if you want it!
The BBS years were the best before the internet came and ruined it. I ran Maximus BBS (a better OPUS clone) at the age of 11 and I loved it.
Good times!
Thanks for the videos. New to the BBS scene.
Awesome gonna check modern day bbses out. It was exciting as a teenager to go on them back in the day
Sysop back in the early 90s... The Eleventh Hour BBS in Virginia. Eventually hit 110 phone lines and then launched into East Coast Internet. Bailed out in the late 1990s when I could no longer compete with the telecoms getting into providing internet access.
Former SysOp (The DeadBeat BBS) checking in :)
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you like the video
Oh boy... I'm so nervous yet excited to see this!!!
can't wait to view this
Love it! thanks for doing this and for teaching with great detail how to connect to a BBS to people how don't know. Looking forward to part 2! (Don Rolo. The Vault BBS SySop).
Just starting to watch this. Looks great so far.
Interestingly, given that your documentary is so regularly interrupted by YT's advertising is one of the reasons why I am looking to return to the BBS scene.
Very interesting!! Thank you very much! We all gonna keep BBS`s alive.
Just remember: aNSt in red shirt=no sleep, black shirt= rested and absinthe poured.
I remember going on my first BBS at 300 baud... it was a DDIAL chat line outside of Chicago. There was nothing like it. I was a little too young but there were late night meetups at 24/7 diners and other types of gatherings of all types of different people with common interests. Once the net took off, I never found anything else that had that sort of community feel to it, even with forums or the chatrooms that were more like sewage systems.
I am kicking myself for not backing up my own board that I made just for fun, I never even got to run it, but I had a ton of fun staying up late and doing my own ANSI graphics and custom menus. I but a lot of care into it, and have no pictures or files at all.
I think that's why I'm such a data hoarder now... re-using floppies and erasing one of my favorite eras. I have maybe 3 amusing log files of convos surviving.
I still can't recall what went wrong with my zmodem setup, it always gave me trouble.
Great story, thanks for sharing!
Hmmm... I ran KBBS back in my day of being a sysop nothing like hearing the modem screech at 3 in the morning and rushing to a dark room to see who's logging in that was fun 😊
Current sysop of Sinners Haven, Great video. Jack Phlash posted about it on ZeroNet so I ran to watch it.
awesome! good to hear it's hitting the echos! glad you enjoyed the video!
This is gonna be sweeeeeeeeet
Damn straight :D
Love the ASCII art!
Very well done documentary! Great to watch.
This was so great to WATCH! I do look forward to see the rest of this series...
Thanks heaps for your kind words! I'm Looking forward to releasing the next parts soon!
This series is great.. - brings back some memories of running a 3 line bbs on a stack of machines networked with some gawd awful coax cables running 2400 baud modems and of course doing a "little" bit of hacking and phreaking! Anyone remember the alternative to Novell for networking? I can't for the life of me, remember what I used for networking - I just know it wasn't Novell.
Got into BBS as a fluke after seeing some random stream on TH-cam. HOOKED. I've already left "social" "media" and I am heading back to basics.
So good to hear
The difference between social media and a BBS is that social media decides what you see based on algorithms and favors what is most effective and this turns out to be things that make you upset. Upset = more engagement. BBS's don't use algorithms and you choose who you talk to and what you see. As you say in the documentary, you can pick a BBS that shares your passions and ideals.
Great Documentary! Brings back so many memories when 14.4 was fast and wondering got by on less than 28.8.... Thank you for doing this! Looking forward to the next part.
Part One was fantastic. Looking forward to the whole series.
This is an awesome documentary good work!
Thank you! Part two coming soon!
Oh this should be interesting! Can't wait!
Great job!! can't wait to see part 2 !!
thanks Bentley, I'm working on it!
Great video! Subbed. I can't wait for more :)
This is super well done and informative. Thank you for this. I will show this to some friends who have never even heard of a BBS and see if it peaks their interest.
I created my own business back in the day. I still remember my parents getting passed off over the phone line. I used to have lots of people logging in all the time. I liked having that service for people to use. I was like 13 at the time.
Well. That was fantastic. Thank you for your great work!
Thank you so much for your kind words! Means so much to me!
Great series. Have to comment though... the security focused BBS has a Facebook page/link? What. Facebook and security are oil and vinegar.. it also has a screen about enhanced security but you are using telnet. There is nothing secure about using telnet. While I am back into using BBSs myself and am running one, no one should be under the impression that any BBS is safe and securing your data when they dont force Telnet. FTN networks are not secure in any way either and any sysop can read any messages going through their board. Its a lot of fun, but people should be aware of security, and there is little to none on almost all of the boards running. What you do there is not private and can be tracked and watched especially when using unencrypted methods like Telnet and posting messages without any kind of GPG/PGP while messages are transmitted inter-bbs without SSL, etc, etc. I'd like to see the scene make a nice effort into enforcing encrypted communications.
Excellent video, great job! Maybe there might just be some hope for the BBS Scene yet! Isn't it interesting that those who are trying to divide us (big tech, main stream media, cancel culture, outrage mobs, etc) are actually facilitating the rebirth of the BBS Scene! Irony!
Ain't that the truth!
If you see a series of textfiles called the Diggy Philes on Agency BBS, that was me. :P
Not sure what they are, but feel free to cross post/upload to BBS.alsgeeklab.com:2323 !
2:43 that's where phone phreaking came in, heheh
I am old. I started using my Coleco Adam computer with a 300 baud modem. Ran a bbs on that as well. Graduated to the Amiga and ran a couple of them into 1996. Those were fun days.
I just setup a syncronet bbs. I used to run a 2 line wildcat bbs in the mid 90s. I also ran pcboard.
This is just encouraging my urge to make my install scripts for my open source software ansi art based.
Do it!
awesome stuff, cant wait for part 2
I’m one of the “resurgence” users. I like to connect to dial-up BBSes (yes they still exist) on retro hardware, like a PCjr.
I like connecting to BBSes from my IBM XT, but as I don't own a modem or telephone line or wish to pay for phone calls, dialling up a BBS doesn't appeal to me! I use the wi232 as if it were a modem. But mainly I use MTCP telnet - the telnet client works well and is designed for the PC Jr!
Just a note on telnet on MacOS: the most recent versions of MacOS actually don't come with a telnet client by default (I'm not sure if this was the case when this video was originally released). Thankfully, the homebrew package manager is easy to download and install, and you can use it to install telnet.
I'm running a BBS for 3 years now, many folks registered but now is silent.
Oh well, at least I visit it from my micros for testing and a dose of nostalgia :-D
Is it listed on the telnet bbs guide? If yes, then make sure your bbs has lots of great ansi and doors that make it unique. If it's a stock board then people won't connect to it
@@AlsGeekLab It is but no extra ansii, just some I made.
No problem for the traffic, just sayin that people will visit once or two, and then you have nothing to do these days there.
Discord is the new bbs - irc I think.
I hate discord. It's hard to use and it doesn't really have a sense of community like the b a scene. No retro aesthetic. No real privacy
Ahh.. No sir! Baud did not mean bits per second. Baud was symbol rate. A very common mistake. So far the only mistake you've made.
I was a I was the sysop of an 8 line MajorBBS/WorldGroup until 2000. And I am really enjoying this series of yours!
We'll all be back on the BBS someday once this whole world wide web fad finally fades out.
19:07 Norton Commander!
We should bring a similar way of bbs back. I’m thinking a web crowler that only searches bbs threw a terminal base browser
BBS' don't force you to watch stupid commercials. dBored BBS ruled!
That's the one! ,😉
@@AlsGeekLab ? The one what?
Did you manually add that entire list into the syncTERM client? I don’t want to add them one at a time. 😀
Yes I did, after visiting then one at a time. I'm sure that there is a downloadable phone book file you can get somewhere thought
I would love to bring back a BBS server and build a community with others.. I miss those days. 90s early 2000s
you definitely should! I just did it, it was great fun! I used mystic, check it out: BBS.alsgeeklab.com:2323
I remember the good old bbs days, and Fidonet. I ran a bbs for 4 1/2 years, using renegade. Bre leagues was my thing.
Fidonet
Sonet
Magnet
Infinet
I really want to experience the PTT Taiwanese BBSes. Is there any walkthrough or... way to convert to English? I’d love a video on THAT. BTW, this doc is WONDERFUL!! Thankyou, hyjinx!
many thanks Paul! I don't really know much about PTT unfortunately, there's not much on google that's in English about it. as it's a bbs I doubt it'll be translatable
@@AlsGeekLab As live video capture translation continues to improve, it's conceivable that one could set up a live stream of the board and run it through the translation service as you interact with it. That would be a fun experiment.
Here we go
15:15, that is an Adam.
Hi, central headquarters bbs has been offline for some time now, does anyone know what happened?
Thanks in advance.
This shall be interesting... hope to have at least 15 seconds of fame. LOL!
You do!
@HyperNode BBS Not only am I a Sysop, I also run the BBS Corner and the Telnet BBS Guide. I'm at 36:34 in this video.
Honestly, I think we're at a point now where BBS'sing is basically resurged but it became things like Discord. THe problem with discord though is that its got centralized encryption and control that isn't yours because it doesn't work on your machine. I've got a WWIV bbs, but I keep having chinese hacker bots connecting... which is amusing since they are too advanced for the bbs. That said its still annoying. Though, I'm a software engineer... maybe I'll do something about that...
BBSs are still hosted on classic Atari computers! Check out the following link for a current list of Atari BBSs:
sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php
So I saw!
Check out the final part of the documentary which shows it working on retro kit!
@@AlsGeekLab I'm not sure what you're referring to in your video. Can you provide a time stamp?
@@TheJohnPolka part 3 of the documentary covers this stuff. It will.be released in the new year
We all met at Perkins in real life
I'd like to get into BBS and am emulating a virtual machine running Windows98, any things that would work with that (it is connected to the internet)
I’m so into this! I hope I find a modem for my Commodore 64 at the 2nd hand shop.
So the main difference in user behavior stems from the intention of the users in seeking the bbs. Do bbs' have trolls?
We need a bbs that uses 4k ansi terminal windows and 5mbit sockets :) It would be glorious! lol
Nice video! I received some feedback that Synchronet BBSes were not represented in this video (though notably, SyncTERM is). I'm totally cool with that. I don't think there's any question that in the 21st century there are are (or have been) more Synchronet BBSes than any other. So those that choose to explore the BBSverse today will inevitably encounter those systems (and their software). But for the curious, go to synchro.net/. It's not like we're hard to find. Thank you for the quality contribution to the BBS community and looking forward to more! :-)
Thanks for your comments! No particular BBS software was discussed in this part, Synchronet, Magika, Enigma 1/2, CNET, Image 3.0 all get a mention in the upcoming part 2 of the documentary where BBS software is introduced.
Synchronet and Mystic have not only kept the BBS scene alive but also created what a modern BBS is in their own ways. They should be well represented!
@@katmarie7102 Couldn't agree more! I'm currently finishing off the next bunch of videos for the documentary. One part of it discusses BBS software specifically, both Synchronet and Mystic are well represented, however I'd love it if their respective authors came forward for a quick soundbite
Never was a big BBS user - everything would have been a LD for me - but used a lot of modems and telnet for work in the 90s. I still have my ProComm Plus installation disk.
Anybody know if there's already BBS soft out there, preferably open source, with support for PGP encrypted traffic and crypto transactions? asking for a friend :P
Oh, and some level of compatibility with RA doors would be nice too...
Great stuff - Still running The Trashcan BBS in Christchurch, New Zealand. The BBS has been online since 1988... bbs.thenet.gen.nz
call in to aBSiNTHE BBS today!
Would recommend!
Computers and the internet was better in the 80s and early 90s, before someone cam along and said "lets make this more like TV"
Never a truer word said, in my opinion!
How many parts do we have to look forward to?
3 parts in total
@@AlsGeekLab When's parts 2 and 3 coming out?
part two will be early in the new year. Some more (mainly ANSI) artists are wanting to interview so I am waiting on them
Im almost 15 and using bbs
Awesome! Have you checked out my BBS? bbs.alsgeeklab.com:2323
@@AlsGeekLab No i have not, but i will thank you will call it.
my eyes (and heart) hurt from seing parts of this being in 240p and compressed to bits. :(
I'm not sure why it's being compressed for you. It's all done in 1080p
@@AlsGeekLab it's not horrible in most parts, just some of the guys being interviewed looks like have lower resolution cameras or something like that.
Looking forward to see part two!
@@alltidmagnus ah, webcams ! Can't help that unfortunately!
I don’t feel like it’s an authentic experience to connect on modern PCs. I’m using a Compaq all in one 486 running DOS 6.22, and using Terminate as my terminal program. Raspberry pi with usb to serial.
I agree! I use mTCP's Telnet on my IBM 5162 XT/286. I also have Terminate but I have trouble so far getting reliable serial connections above 9600/19200 bps, even though I have an 16550AF UART.
@@AlsGeekLab Thanks for the response! I have been having similar issues with Terminate. May have to try something else.
Just tried to connect but your domain does not resolve on those ports :/
Works perfectly for me. Are you sure you are using Syncterm or Netrunner and you have set port 2323?. Try the website and use the web client if all else fails: alsgeeklab.com/bbs/
You might have a.blocked IP so the website masquerades that as it goes via a proxy.
@@AlsGeekLab I am sorry I was to dumb to use ssh properly and used a colon instead of a space
@@marcello4258 haha no worries. Although I still strongly recommend using SSH in Syncterm or Netrunner rather than just in the terminal. Proper Cp437 display font support is probably not available in your terminal and may look garbled at worst as a result.
@@AlsGeekLab it works fine I am running on UTF-8 looks just right. I wasn't really interested in compiling another software if my terminal emulator just was fine handling it
With the current war against the common man and free speech itself. I see this as a good idea during these dark times of 1984.
If you liked this movie you might also like this chat movie that we've just released: th-cam.com/video/CIgO1rgIh-0/w-d-xo.html
Way too much time spent on graphics and games! This should not be the point.