"So, what’s the lesson for today? Many monetized systems push for more and more users, but the history of BBSs and other early online networks shows clearly that quality is more important than quantity in building authentic online communities."
But what about those #MS_Windows users out there? How about a gzipped tarball, all nicely packaged up so you can distribute around, of a custom built #PuTTY client that will securely connect people to your #Synchronet_BBS over telnet?
Hehehe.... I suppose this is my opportunity to plug Joshua's free domain name service here that's been a trusted mainstay for over 20 years :p
Perhaps one of the best parts is that you can see how many days (years) the domain has been part of the service, to dissuade concerns over whether there's a likelihood of it suddenly disappearing :)
Aside from lotech #Sneakernet schemas, there's also several FOSS based community driven initiatives. There's been a lot of real-world, ad-hoc development since my years of participation in the IRTF/IRSG DTNRG. Full disclosure, I was also formerly employed by Semtech. The notion that there's a use case for communications that can take months, even decades to arrive (or never at all) is a valid concern for many practical applications.
More immediate, and relevant communications systems for most folks here on Terra Firma include projects like Lokinet, which has some great info HERE, and also aspires to the same level of, um... disconnectivity (sneakernet-like) or operability that @silverpill mentions above - the value of having a client/server architecture that is prepared to exploit this out of the box is much relevant that one might think.
Some of these semi-production or production ready real world initiatives and communities are:
CellSol - It is noteworthy to mention that Texas is the only state in the USA that sports an (actually only mostly) autonomous electricity grid (not dependent upon the national grid), although it's not publicly managed, and has been criticized as such due in part to nearly 1000 deaths occurring in the winter of 2021. The repo is HERE. Here's a PoC for one such use case from the PoV of a native Texan: Apologies for directly linking to an article in the monolithic silo space.
During my years living quite literally off-grid in the wilderness of the forested mountains in Northern California, I had the privilege of meeting and contracting for several farms and individuals deeply steeped in what is generally referred to as the prepper movement. These weren't cray cay militants (at least not most of them) or paranoiacs calling for revolution or believing the end is nigh, but rather, farmers and families who were, rightfully so, extremely concerned with security and safety for their small communities and loved ones. To survive in places like that, which exist all over the world, one must begin with self-sufficiency that covers 4 seasons; beyond that, protecting the 'me and mine' aspects of your assets and property are very real considerations.
The work I focused on led me to developing microwave surveillance systems using inexpensive, solar powered Ubiquiti Nanostations with ranges capable of exceeding 10KM, strategically placed in almost inaccessible locations overlooking entire valleys as well as within small perimeters of their farms and households. This included off the shelf PTZ cameras, many of which were capable of license plate and facial recognition, but more importantly, being able to determine the difference between things like Bears, Deer, and Humans - false positive intrusions detected are quite frustrating, lolz.
All of this was coupled together with Shinobi, which can be monitored and controlled from anywhere, on any device. The repo is here.
With the extreme threat levels of thievery and other concerns in those regions, and continuous incidents of such, a comprehensive #FOSS based, #solar powered communications and surveillance system is an in demand market. Internet access is of course, problematic in such regions, which creates the market for WISPs operating in the unlicensed microwave bands a high demand commodity as well.
This is merely demonstrative of the need for another niche type computing arena - community networks completely unconnected to the Internet:
All of these projects, protocols, and initiatives have solution based choices for the various kinds of Delay Tolerant Networking standards and communities actively developing for connectionless, intermittently connected systems, or autonomous networks that aren't neccessarily interdependant upon a classic, traditional, Internet connection.
Not sufficient to just eschew the deprecated, privacy disrespecting monolithic silos, it's also not prudent to depend upon clearnet aspects of the Internet either. In practice, it's possible to take pretty much any platform technology that listens for packets and fashion the ability to be accessible and available via I2P, Tor, IPFS Yggdrasil, and other IP routed constructs, yet moreover, the majority of people only consider intercommunication in terms of the IP routed packet switched network we call the Internet (powered almost entirely by Cisco IOS and the like), without due consideration given to the fact that this single common denominator is also a single choke point - kludgy platforms like masto that can't even keep up with the contemporary movements in the social networking landscape aren't going to fare well when it comes to the expanding horizons opening up with movements like those above, while others like Sreams, Mitra, and perhaps protocols such as Nostr that exhibit the ambitions to explore and exploit emerging technologies in communication will fare much better, adapting (and embracing layer 1 & 2 networking) along the way.
TL;DR: I have launched my #BBS!
Find a suitable Telnet client (syncterm works reasonably well), or connect from your favorite retro machine with whichever serial-to-telnet contraption you might have. The address? Why, floppy.museum
of course! Or bbs.anduin.net, if you prefer. Welcome to the fabulous world of Bulletin Board Systems!
An important part of BBS history (as described in the fabulous documentary*) is how some of them became safe spaces for the LGBT community, allowing them to connect and, for many, discover that they were not alone. In my very tiny way, I want to honour that incredibly beautiful story and dedicate my BBS to those pioneers of on-line community building.
I also need to share a picture of the machine it's running on. The custom RAM with LEDs is provided by Siliconinsider (look them up on Tindie!), and it looks ... stunning.
The BBS is connected to #DOVE-Net, a message exchange with other BBSes around the world. I don't have a lot of files there yet (mostly old #OS/2 software), but I plan to add more in the coming weeks and months.
Connect and join the BBS community! Also, poke me if you have any problems - either here or on the BBS.
(Note: The Guest account is currently disabled due to .. can you imagine .. spamming!)
Rather, it's the space full of little #telnet#BBS, #gopher, little websites, game servers, mumble servers, IRC servers, NNTP servers, etc running on home boxes and such.
It's underneath all the cruft. Blinking and chugging along and existing nicely.
Finally got the new instance working so now I need an #introduction
I'm a retired former Facilitator, Writer and worked in community service organizations for 11 years. A long time ago I also used to DJ on radio and in Vancouver clubs.
I now create Signal Thirteen, a project based around the small and haunted town fictional of Fall River. There is a website, radio station and even a 90s style #bbs. It's very much a WIP, but nothing's ever "finished" on a project like this... 1/2
...so if things don't look finished that's part of the plan. I thought it would be interesting to have folks able to follow the project as it continues to grow.
I am a firm progressive, #antifa, and a believer in compassion, kindness as well as concrete representation of those values such as #UBI and Housing for all.
I'm against federation with Threads (one of the reasons for my instance). Other interests are #BBS, #AIArt, #cycling, and of course my lovable Housewolf. 2/2
(1/7) Since it's apparently "baud day" in a wonderfully American fashion in dates (3/12/24), let me tell you a bit of something I did in the 90s.
i saw my dad use a modem for the first time in the late 80s and I was extremely intrigued by the concept of just "calling" onto another computer. It wasn't until 91 or 92, when I got my first own modem and started foraging for information in the BBS world.
It was however something that literally changed my life.
(2/7) I was using a beaten up old 8088, for which I got a 2400bps modem. I saved up for a long time to get that. Naturally I went wild and called every long distance BBS I could find.
The first phone bill was big enough to be delivered with a fork lifter. Parents weren't exactly impressed. But the concept of reaching out to other people outside the little bubble I lived in was kind magical. It's hard to describe it to people who have lived in the connected world all their lives.
(5/7) FinBox got a 2nd line at some point and as Internet connections appeared, it also got multiple telnet "lines" aswell. It was a pretty well equipped BBS: a lot of file storage, local and echo-mail discussion areas, networked games, free e-mail for users and so forth.
In its heyday I was among the big ones in Finland. As you can probably guess, people slowly migrated to Internet for things they'd call a BBS for and eventually I had to downscale until I had only one line left.
Back in 1991, the sysops of the "STaTus BBS" in New Zealand created a #GUI for their board.
The system was powered by "Instant Graphics and Sound," a plain-text vector graphics scripting language for the Atari ST similar to RIPscrip, but predating it by several years.
Here's a video showing an IGS demo they made to give an idea of their impressive "GEM Desktop" #BBS interface:
Spurred by my inquiries, Larry Mears has resumed development of IGS in the past few years. I made this Star Trek-themed login sequence for my BBS using his latest IGS v2.19 format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymii4HSuqt0
the first rule of making games (and programming in general) is to downscope your ambitions by a factor of five, make a prototype, then divide that design again by a factor of three, and you'll have a project that's manageable and can be done in a reasonable time frame
and then there's projects like these, which began with "i wanna make an adventure game/art experience where a player connects to a bbs in a distant land". i called it Shima no Shima.
which meant, of course, that i had to simulate a BBS. and then simulate a software modem so the player could connect to it. and then design a filesystem so the player could download files. and then .. naturally design an operating system to manage the files.... 😬
two years later... i ended up with... a macintosh with a simplified macpaint and its own graphical terminal client 🤣
as of today, pretty much anything can be dragged and dropped, and it even has its own resource fork-like data so it understands which applications can run which data files.
edit: a few people have asked - this is made in Adventure Game Studio/AGS Script. 😅