Re: Re: Good to be back
By: poindexter FORTRAN to hollowone on Thu Mar 06 2025 07:00 am

300 baud was about the speed you could read text on the screen. No offline readers, minimal graphics. It sorta worked. Most message editors were line editors, meaning you didn't have screen re-writes.

1200 baud seemed like heaven, and 2400 baud was where I started seeing full screen editors and graphics.

Sharing files was painful, I remember downloading a C compiler overnight. Surprised I had the credits and could keep the line up that long!

"300 baud is reading speed. Why would you need faster than that?" ;)

Nightfox

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þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: Nightfox to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri Mar 07 2025 08:50:02

"300 baud is reading speed. Why would you need faster than that?" ;)

I remember being told in a university networking class that there was some resistance from business around moving to speeds higher than 300 baud because "why spend more money when my secretary can't type that fast anyway"?

Maybe there's some grain of truth in that somewhere... who knows?

BobW

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þ Synchronet þ My Brand-New BBS

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: hollowone to Snobsoft on Fri Mar 07 2025 12:30 am

Hehe - 1200 Baud? You speedy
racer
-
if you want a real patience
test,
log in to the snail mail
Snobsoft
at 300 Baud:

telnet://snobsoft.de:6401.

Oh gosh.. thanks! I'll do so.. when
I
secure enough free time :D

Great, check this out...

How to post on Snobsoft:

https://quipzz.bplaced.net/how_to_post.txt

Then quick posting shouldn't be a
problem. Also as a guest, as was
common in German BBSes in the 80s.
So feel free to leave a comment.
There in AL (General Board),
several visitors from the USA have
already been posting. One is even
quite well-known ;)

In general, BBSing has really picked
up momentum for me at the moment.
As I've hinted here before, I often
currently have more desire to go to
the Partybowl BBS than to the usual
other internet forums.

---
þ Synchronet þ PartyBowlBBS - partybowlbbs.ddns.net

BF2K+ wrote to BOGOMIPS <=-

I have also found this to be true. Seems like a lot of my sysop buds from the 80's don't want anything to do with BBSes anymore.

Many people have a fear of the command line interface and 16 colors.

... ... A little rebellion now & then is necessary medicine for a healthy
ummin
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ wcQWK 8.0 ÷ Inland Utopia * iutopia.duckdns.org:2323

Matthew Munson wrote to BF2K+ <=-

I have also found this to be true. Seems like a lot of my sysop buds from the 80's don't want anything to do with BBSes anymore.

Many people have a fear of the command line interface and 16 colors.

"kids", the same ones that rediscovered vinyl records and film cameras
are moving on to early 2000s digicams and BBSes, it'll be cool for a
while. I suppose they'll move on to making their own web pages next.

Most of the old callers I spoke to felt like calling BBSes belonged to
a time and a place in their history - we were all in our 20s, single,
working those first jobs, going out to bars, and BBSes were a part of
that time. As a sysop, keeping everything running kept me into the
scene -- even when I didn't have any callers.


--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Great, check this out...
How to post on Snobsoft:
https://quipzz.bplaced.net/how_to_post.txt

Thanks for the hint. I just tried and I was worried it may be worse.

Not that bad experience actually. Reminds me one of the Atari 8bit board regarding speed.

You got David Murray on your board nice. I have X16 myself but keep failing to connect it online with Kevin Williams' ESP32 based networking card.

Anyway, Danke Schoen! [can't type umlaut on my keyboard]

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: hollowone to Snobsoft on Thu Mar 06 2025 00:12:00

I though 14400 was slow then... but you beat my patience by far if you stood up to 1200. I presume delay on just simple ASCII typing and text receiving was a norm then.. can't even imagine how could you share something more than simple messages at that speed.

All I seem to remember was the transfer of a single sexy nude chick jpg would take a half-hour so. :-)

Mick Manning
..........
Central Ontario Remote Synchro
centralontarioremote.net:2323
<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

---
þ Synchronet þ Lok your well-being - Join HealthNET

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: Gamgee to MRO on Thu Mar 06 2025 08:04:52

Maybe *YOU* don't. It's not like it was in the 90's, but there are still callers.

Ya that's right. I get oh.. about.. oh 1000 callers a day, mostly from China, and I'm sure they're all entertained by the 8 or 9 doors that everyone else does.

Mick Manning
..........
Central Ontario Remote Synchro
centralontarioremote.net:2323
<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

---
þ Synchronet þ Lok your well-being - Join HealthNET

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: hollowone to Snobsoft on Sun Mar 09 2025 10:42 am

You got David Murray on your board nice. I have X16 myself but keep failing

He called mine once :).

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: Mickey to Gamgee on Sun Mar 09 2025 07:40 pm

Ya that's right. I get oh.. about.. oh 1000 callers a day, mostly from China, a d I'm sure they're all entertained by the 8 or 9 doors that everyone else does.

1000 a day? Real callers? Some days I might get 1000 connections which are bots connecting quickly..

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Mickey wrote to Gamgee <=-

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: Gamgee to MRO on Thu Mar 06 2025 08:04:52

Maybe *YOU* don't. It's not like it was in the 90's, but there are still callers.

Ya that's right. I get oh.. about.. oh 1000 callers a day, mostly from China, and I'm sure they're all entertained by the 8 or 9 doors that everyone else does.

Well, I get a few callers every day, and none of them are from China. I
get zero calls from there, as the entire country is geo-ip blocked.
Along with about 40 other countries.



... Gone crazy, be back later, please leave message.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: Nightfox to Mickey on Sun Mar 09 2025 18:14:35

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: Mickey to Gamgee on Sun Mar 09 2025 07:40 pm

1000 a day? Real callers? Some days I might get 1000 connections which are bots connecting quickly..

Yup, thats what I was eluding to. My cheap sarcasm. :-)

Mick Manning
..........
Central Ontario Remote Synchro
centralontarioremote.net:2323
<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>

---
þ Synchronet þ Lok your well-being - Join HealthNET

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: hollowone to Snobsoft on Sun Mar 09 2025 10:42 am

Great, check this out...
How to post on Snobsoft:
https://quipzz.bplaced.net/how_
to_
post.txt

Thanks for the hint. I just tried
and I
was worried it may be worse.

Not that bad experience actually.
Reminds me one of the Atari 8bit
board
regarding speed.

Ah, that was you. I was about to
call you, 'Don't panic, hier ist der
sysop,' but you were already gone.
In any case, it's nice that you found
your way around. And thank you very
much for the new user entry. Feel
free to post something the next time
you log in. English is welcome.

By the way, the phenomenon is that
most people who register as new
users since the Snobsoft comeback
after 40 years don't show up in the
BBS again afterward. But I'm not
saying that has to be the case with
you. Many probably just want a quick
nostalgia kick, and that's it.

You got David Murray on your board
nice. I have X16 myself but keep
failing to connect it online with
Kevin
Williams' ESP32 based networking
card.

Anyway, Danke Schoen! [can't type
umlaut on my keyboard]

Yes, it was a nice surprise that
the 8-Bit Guy not only visited the
Commodore 64 BBS but also wrote
something in AL (General Board) with
his X16. Speaking of the Commander
X16: Snobsoft user Dgeoffri has also
successfully posted on Snobsoft with
his. I'll ask him about which
network card and so on he's using.

In general, I find BBSing
particularly brilliant again right
now as I'm writing these lines. At
the moment, my 'computer room,'
where my main computer is located,
is currently 'blocked' by a guest,
meaning I can only use my BBS
mini-PC and can't do video editing,
which is what I would otherwise be
doing. But BBSing is currently much
more fun for me than visiting the
usual internet forums. Synchronet is
still a new discovery for me, and
it's a beautiful mix of modern
elements (at least for me as an
old 300 baud guy) and old-school BBS,
as I remember it from the 90s and
early 80s."

---
þ Synchronet þ PartyBowlBBS - partybowlbbs.ddns.net

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: hollowone to Snobsoft on Fri Mar 07 2025 12:30 am

<cut>

In short - some things were
better
back then.

Agreed, and I think we were more
capable of self-regulating.
I remember when I started being
online
one of the first thing I discovered
was
the power of netiquette.

Here in Germany, there were never any
problems with censorship in the 1980s
and early 90s. Hey, we live in a
democracy. So, during the BBS era and
later with the Newsgroups in the 90s,
everything was as it should be in
terms of freedom. We shouldn't even
have to talk about it. If it weren't
for the last five years, starting
with Covid, things got really bad
in Germany, but also elsewhere.
I believe Zuckerberg (SP?) has just
admitted in the USA that correct
information was clearly censored at
his company, as it was labeled
"disinformation" or similar 1984-
style speech under pressure from
government agencies. Maybe someone
thought the book 1984 was a manual
and not a warning.

I believe you in the USA currently
have much more freedom of speech
than we do in Germany. See also
the fiery speech by JD Vance, who
hit the nail on the head in Munich
(?). It's crazy that nowadays it
takes someone from the USA for
something like this, because the
wimps here of the "Lifestyle/Woke
pseudo-left" (because IMO not real
leftists) don't notice (or don't
want to notice) that they are
achieving the exact opposite with
their "democracy-saving" efforts.
They are tearing down everything
we have built up in terms of
freedom over the decades.

I believe there was already
modem
swapping in mid 80s, even
across
the big pond for C64 games, for
example. You had to have
patience
and someone
else who paid the extremely
high
phone bill :D But good hackers
could achieve such things back
then.

So I heard, I think all the blue box
and other phreaking/free calls was
primarily demanded by the need to
pirate for less phone bill call than
5
mins phone call order, payment and
shipment for the physical product.

Yes, when it comes to pirate stuff,
it was clearly beneficial to save
phone costs through hacking.
In the mid-1980s, the pirate C64
disks probably came fresh from
overseas. With 300 baud? BTW: I
tried to capture the mood of the
time (computers, music, fashion,
girls) with this music video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAtYzGr
fqjo

It's the Neue Deutsche Welle
(New German Wave) piece "Joystick
Fieber" by the band Ladefehler.
Of course, BBSing also appears in
the music video :D The lyrics are
probably not so understandable for
you Americans, but they are under
the video, easy to translate, in
this modern internet that everyone
is talking about now :D

---
þ Synchronet þ PartyBowlBBS - partybowlbbs.ddns.net

Ah, that was you. I was about to
call you, 'Don't panic, hier ist der
sysop,' but you were already gone.
In any case, it's nice that you found
your way around. And thank you very
much for the new user entry. Feel
free to post something the next time
you log in. English is welcome.

I'll come back. I only had 5 mins so I wanted to give it solely a speed test so I can respond to you within the same time frame on DOVENET :)

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

Here in Germany, there were never any
problems with censorship in the 1980s
and early 90s. Hey, we live in a
democracy.

I'm Polish, living in Poland and appreciating democracy and freedom is part of our DNA... to the rebellious state of defending it, if needed!

but as I lived in US as well and my parents in Law live in Aschaffenburg,Bavaria and I'm in Germany quite often for last 5-6 years. (Bayern as a whole privately; Munich, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin/Potsdam for business) ...

I believe you in the USA currently
have much more freedom of speech
than we do in Germany.

... I'd say you'd be surprised.


No direct comparison is possible as culturally Germans and Americans come with different social traits.

Americans are significantly more straight forward in their communication.

Germans (Western, East is different story) are more polite and cooperative in communication than confrontational. That political correctness is part of the agreed social habit rather than something that needs to be censored in Germany.

But that's my subjective observation being foreign to both of you.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

Re: Good to be back
By: Snobsoft to MRO on Fri Feb 28 2025 09:32 am

I've also seen a number of people who sign up and visit just once and never again. Or maybe they'll play a door game like LORD for a little bit and then stop.

During the BBS heyday, BBSes and dialup modems was the technology we had at the time. I think most people probably don't care as much about the technology, but more about there being ways of connecting online in general somewhere, and being easy to do so.

I still think BBSing is pretty cool though, and it was pretty cool that we had modems, which allowed computers to communicate with each other over phone lines, which enabled a lot of things. And as others have said, there is significantly less spam & ads on BBSes compared to social networks, which is nice.

Nightfox

---
­ Synchronet ­ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Same here. I have an average of 6 calls per day. Someone downloads messages via NNTP several times a week, a few file transfers during the week, a couple local messages posted per week, and LORD and TEOS are the dominant doors being played. I enjoy playing scrabble daily via my BBS and 2 other boards. I think late 2001 is when I ended dial up and took board from power BBS to synchronet and telnet. Some of my regular users have been with my BBS since the late 80s. For a few years I just ran the BBS for messages and got back into door's more recently. I enjoy reading these message boards a lot. Thank you all for still being here.
Rixter
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080
Madison,NC

---
­ Synchronet ­ Rick's BBS telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23

Re: Good to be back
By: Rixter to Nightfox on Wed Mar 12 2025 02:37:22

Hi, Rixter.

Same here. I have an average of 6 calls per day. Someone downloads messages via NNTP several times a week, a few file transfers during the week, a couple local messages posted per week, and LORD and TEOS are the dominant doors being played. I enjoy playing scrabble daily via my BBS and 2 other boards. I think late 2001 is when I ended dial up and took board from power BBS to synchronet and telnet. Some of my regular users have been with my BBS since the late 80s. For a few years I just ran the BBS for messages and got back into door's more recently. I enjoy reading these message boards a lot. Thank you all for still being here.

Yeah, I know not that many people use BBS but that's half the appeal for me. It's very "intimate".

In fact when I go on MRC and there are more than half a dozen people I find it a bit much and usually bail out :)

BobW

---
þ Synchronet þ My Brand-New BBS

Re: Good to be back
By: Bob Worm to Rixter on Wed Mar 12 2025 07:36 pm

Re: Good to be back
By: Rixter to Nightfox on Wed Mar 12 2025 02:37:22

Hi, Rixter.

Same here. I have an average of 6 calls per day. Someone downloads messag via NNTP several times a week, a few file transfers during the week, a couple local messages posted per week, and LORD and TEOS are the dominant doors being played. I enjoy playing scrabble daily via my BBS and 2 other boards. I think late 2001 is when I ended dial up and took board from pow BBS to synchronet and telnet. Some of my regular users have been with my since the late 80s. For a few years I just ran the BBS for messages and g back into door's more recently. I enjoy reading these message boards a l Thank you all for still being here.

Yeah, I know not that many people use BBS but that's half the appeal for me. It's very "intimate".

In fact when I go on MRC and there are more than half a dozen people I find a bit much and usually bail out :)

BobW

I use Facebook messenger for some older family members, but most of my family uses my BBS to send mail back and forth to each other and share family photos and other files. It works for us and we stay out the wild shouting match the internet has become these days. When something goes hinky with the BBS and I need something repaired they are quick to help out. It is all I ask for. I am semi-retired these days and enjoy making these old 'door' games work again, so that is my hobby. I need to get into MRC more. Sometimes it is busy and sometimes you might wait a while for someone to chat with. Do you run a BBS Bob? If so what is the address. I am slowly going around to BBS's on the Synchronet BBS list. Have a good day and thanks for writing back to me.
Rixter
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080
Madison,NC

---
þ Synchronet þ Rick's BBS telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23

Re: Good to be back
By: Rixter to Bob Worm on Thu Mar 13 2025 09:52:59

Hi, Rixter.

Do you run a BBS Bob?

I'm one of the tiny minority who use BBSes daily but don't have one of my own.

I have thought about setting one up but what would I bring to the party? I'm not any kind of artist, I only code when there's a job to be done and I don't really have a unique theme I could offer to the world.

BobW

---
þ Synchronet þ My Brand-New BBS

Re: Good to be back
By: Bob Worm to Rixter on Thu Mar 13 2025 06:51 pm

Re: Good to be back
By: Rixter to Bob Worm on Thu Mar 13 2025 09:52:59

Hi, Rixter.

Do you run a BBS Bob?

I'm one of the tiny minority who use BBSes daily but don't have one of my ow >
I have thought about setting one up but what would I bring to the party? I'm > not any kind of artist, I only code when there's a job to be done and I don' > really have a unique theme I could offer to the world.

BobW

I was curious. If I didn't run one I would be here reading these messages and playing door games still. I tried some of the social media games but never really liked them. I have been playing LORD and TEOS for almost 30 years now and never get bored with them. I have found new pleasure in playing games on BBS's like scrabble and hangman style games. I think everyone has 'something' to offer our BBS community whether we run a BBS or just participate in it. I hope you have a good weekend Bob.
Rixter
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þ Synchronet þ CJ's Place, Orange City, FL - cjsplace.thruhere.net

Re: Re: Good to be back
By: hollowone to Snobsoft on Tue Mar 11 2025 12:33 am

I believe you in the USA
currently
have much more freedom of
speech
than we do in Germany.

... I'd say you'd be surprised.

I'd really like to try that out.
However, of course, I can't just pop
over to the USA.
But I'll ask the former Sysop of
Snobsoft, who has been living in the
USA
for a long time, what he has to say on
the matter.

BTW: When's your next Snobsoft visit?
:D

---
þ Synchronet þ PartyBowlBBS - partybowlbbs.ddns.net

BTW: When's your next Snobsoft visit?
:D

I'll, it's just little bit hectic for me last days and I need to release the burden to find time for new discoveries that require time to learn.

Until that it's just easier to make a quick look into places I already understand. But you're not forgotten buddy :)

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

Hello Tiny,

28 Feb 25 07:06, you wrote to Mro:

people left bbsing behind for good. there's other things they'd
rather do.

I didn't think I'd shut my system down, but when I realized I was just running it for myself it was an easy decision.

i'm running your doors on my bbs :)

ByEbYe
--
Daniel

telnet://bbs.roonsbbs.hu:1212 <<=-

... Uptime: 35d 6h 9m 28s
--- GoldED/2 1.1.4.7+EMX
* Origin: Roon's BBS - Budapest, HUNGARY (723:371/52)
þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP

You guys are talking about history far beyond my generation ;)
I started shortly with modem to have dialup for the internet in the mid 90s.

I though 14400 was slow then... but you beat my patience by far if you stood up to 1200. I presume delay on just simple ASCII typing and text receiving was a norm then.. can't even imagine how could you share something more than simple messages at that speed.

I presume all that was before people invented files could be shared?

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

I got a RS-232 Adapter for my C=64 so I could get a 2400 modum.
That only raised my speed to 1200, never could get a2400 connection even after I got a 28.8k external modum.

But HEY! 1200 is four times the speed of 300.
It wasn't until I had a 486 system that I saw that modum get to its top speed.

As much as I tried to see if the C64 would do 2400 nothing I tried allowed the Commodore System to connect at 2400.
But I lived with it.
Ed
---
­ Synchronet ­ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP