now that i've got a lot of the core parts of #tomo working, i have an open design question for you fellow amateur architects of social communities:
the #internet of the #90s was seen as a means for replacing regionalism with globalism. we gained a lot - mostly a high volume of people with shared interests, but i think we lost something vital in that transition.
the #bbs of the 80s and 90s was unique in that most were inherently geared to local use within a 5-20 km radius, often due to telco long distance fees. users already had locality in common by the time they began a conversation.
local user meetups were commonplace. people would spontaneously invite everyone in an area code to a "403 gathering" or a "667 meetup", have beer and coffee, and chat for the sake of chat.
i'd like to facilitate letting users weave their local social fabric into tomo's design, and i'd like some examples of how that has worked elsewhere.
have you ever seen an online community that had a unique way of creating a sense of locality for its users? what did you like about it?
Soundgarden's 'Superunknown' still sounds just as amazing as it did when I bought the CD from Circuit City in 1994 when I was 14. Easily one of the greatest albums of all time. That day, I bought my first 3 CDs ever -- the others being Jar of Flies and Versus. What a YEAR for music 1994 was.
I hadn't heard of cranes til I stumbled across them on Bandcamp the other day. Their new stuff is too light/airy for my tastes, but these Peel Sessions from 1989-1990 that release in a few days-- the two songs up so far.. wow. I LOVE her voice.. the great kinda minimal music behind it, reminds me of Björk a little sometimes, but maybe with SLIGHTLY more edge and more 80s-ish guitar. Check it out, let me know what you think.
Still have no idea how to get followers on #mastodon. Teach me your ways! Follow me if you like #retrogaming, #80s / #90s#nostalgia, #tech / #cyber related stuff, and #dog pics! Keep me away from Twitter, I beg of you.
🧵 those who grew up in #canada in the #90s might remember something called the Canada SchoolNet in their classrooms and computer labs.
if you don't recognize the name, the SchoolNet was a canada-wide attempt at computerizing and networking together canadian classrooms from K-12. (the US-equivalents of this were EdNet and Global SchoolNet)
in my redneck farmtown, wiring us up to the SchoolNet meant connecting a 28.8kbaud modem to a macintosh FirstClass #BBS Gateway 40 km away, and letting us kids post messages to other kids across canada. these messages were store-and-forwarded via gateways until they reached their destination, often thousands of km away.
as it turns out, the schoolnet forums were peered by #usenet, and dejanews archived them all in the late 90s... which means they're all on google groups now.
in a fit of "i can't put this shit down" at 1am, i spent hours digging out posts i found of myself, and other kids in my grade, starting flame wars, discussions, and pen-pal requests in 1995...
Today of course marks the 30th anniversary of nine inch nails' legendary record The Downward Spiral. This masterpiece of an album was released March 8, 1994, and was a pretty intense thing for 14 year old me to hear.
This photo is from Instagram - Trent just posted it, saying what 28 year old him had to say still excites him but breaks his heart. It's a dark album, man. All the pigs are still lined up.
Does anybody recognize this wallpaper? I'm helping my friend solve a #mystery . It's taken from the Finnish translation of Windows 95 for Dummies, which was published in 1998. We're thinking it's probably from the #90s or late #80s .
One of the open windows is Paint Shop Pro, so it may be related to that. For example, it might be a sample image from an old version of Paint Shop Pro. We don't have much else to go on.
The caption of the image translates to:
"The Windows wallpaper, which remains in the background when you open windows on the screen, can match the mood of the day."
(Not my set up btw. Stole the picture from a friend)
Edit: This is from an eBay listing and it seems that has already finished but it is all in German so if you are curious about what all the stuff is, check it out here: https://www.ebay.de/itm/145149706202
As a teen I listened to a ton of Sonic Youth. They were my best friend's favorite band, too. I saw em at Lollapalooza '95- 🤯 by '95 they already had a bunch of 80s albums (ok, not my favorites) Dirty in '92 (classic), Experimental Jet Set in '94 (my fave?) & did songs from '95's great Washing Machine too.
I think my favorite SY song is this one, "Starfield Road" - this show is from '96.
Ah lunches in the 90s… 🤪 well… ah the #90s generally. I’m just grateful I was there, and that I survived and that there’s very limited photographic evidence