Post #87762 by Humuhumu on Fri, Apr 23, 2004 1:01 AM

Back in 1993, a new roommate introduced me into a wonderful, mysterious world -- the world of the local dial-up BBS.

Back then, in the free weekly local computer-user periodical, there was a long column of local phone numbers for computer Bulletin Board Systems. There were several dozen of them in Seattle, each of them run on a computer with its own bank of dedicated phone lines (remember, this is before the advent of the World Wide Web, it was not yet common to have a computer at home, much less have a dedicated phone line for it). The computers weren't connected to each other -- that technology existed in the Internet before it we got the graphic interface of the World Wide Web, but it was used mostly for universities & the government back then. A few people were dialing into Prodigy and the old pre-web AOL.

Imagine if to check Tiki Central, you had to have your computer (probably running DOS) dial this local phone number on a 1200 baud modem (2400 if you were lucky), and hope you didn't get a busy signal because all the phone lines were used up. Then, with an interface that was nothing but a command line taking simple one-character commands, you had to navigate through "rooms" (we call them Forums now), by typing "G" -- all you'd get was text feedback with the name of the room you'd just entered, and then you'd type "N" to start the process of slowly scrolling every new message past to read. No clicking, no pictures, no skimming past posts that don't interest you.

The other people posting on the boards were also all locals, and it was a pretty tight scene. Most people would post on a number of different BBSs, but I only posted on one run by a guy who went by the name Alpo, and looked not unlike the Fraggle Boober, right down to the hair & floppy hat:

There weren't very many people posting on Alpo's board, maybe 18 or 20, but that was enough for his to be one of the more popular boards back then. Eventually I started joining in when these guys were meeting up in local coffee shops, and then my dirty secret was out: I was a GIRL. There were maybe only three girls who were part of the whole Seattle BBS scene back then (one of them actually ran her own BBS, and it still runs today!). Back then, the types of people you'd meet from online were pretty serious computer geeks.

Quickly, these guys became a huge part of my life, they were my dearest friends, and I hung out with them pretty much every single night, in various 24-hour coffee shops. When we weren't hanging out, we were getting each other's busy signals as we competed for access to Alpo's phone line to post. Alpo and I in particular were very close, pretty much best buddies. The two of us would ride around in his junky car that had a goofy rigged up transmission, and required sometimes to be started with a hammer. I would pretend to flirt with him in an attempt to make him more attractive to the ladies; sometimes it worked, usually it didn't. We had some great adventures together.

Eventually, I got a boyfriend. This was ultimately what would end someone's presence on the BBS -- they would get a girlfriend and not be heard from, sometimes never again. The classic joke was really quite true. I would still run into them in coffee shops, but eventually I drifted away from the pack.

Fast forward 10+ years -- same old shit, different BBS. I wouldn't have it any other way.

So, tonight I was googling for my friend Alpo, to see what he's been up to. Turns out, on a whim, he just started up the old BBS. It runs pretty much the same, you can just telnet into it, same horrible interface, and a handful of the old guys are on there. Alpo has a wife & three kids now. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Did anyone else here spend time on a local dial-up BBS?