Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
mathstodon.xyz is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A Mastodon instance for maths people. We have LaTeX rendering in the web interface!

Administered by:

Server stats:

2.9K
active users

mathstodon.xyz: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.7

#bbs

13 posts12 participants1 post today
Public
Jamie T

Going through old warez scene BBSes is so much fun and a really great distraction from life at the moment. The best things I've found (aside from the ascii art of course) have been the messages they send to each other when they find out that an informant is lurking their boards. Surely one of the originating moments of what it means to identify a poser online. #warez #bbs #hacking #thescene

Public
Ice Breaker

Board was very, very, slow today. That's just weird but I guess it's the time of year? I wasn't sure so I rebooted all the things. Was there an issue I didn't know about? If there was, my bad, I didn't see it. #bbs

Public *
vga256

back in the early 90s, there were many, many different options for running a bbs on IBM/DOS compatibles. many were descendants of source code that had been written, and re-written, and modded by various authors. arguably, the most beautiful of all of them (in terms of built-in ansi menuing) was iNiQUiTY by mike fricker. iniq was a rewrite of Telegard, which itself was a rewrite of WWIV's source code.

in the late 90s, the web was already going full tilt and i started to feel a pang of nostalgia for ansi and dial-up. i found out that mike released the software into the public domain, and iniquity had a new website, and new owners were rekindling development. it died after that, and the website and all knowledge of the site disappeared into obscurity

tonight, after trying to remember an url for 20 years (because I misremembered it), i finally found the original url for iniquity's website. i really miss this era - it was trying to reconcile ansi, ascii and web graphics in a single design:

web.archive.org/web/2003032223

mike went on to an incredibly successful career in game development, and is now the technical director at epic games

A screenshot of the Iniquitybbs.com site, circa 1998. It shows the splash page which reads 'my god, it's full of stars'. The main page shows a letter from the original author of the software, Mike Fricker. Mike writes, Hey man. I've been trying to keep up with Iniquity related stuff for the last few years, but I don't have the free time that I used to have. Anyhow, I took some time today and downloaded your team's Iniquity version 2, and I've gotta say that I'm very impressed with your work. As soon as I saw the WFC I got tingles from the memories of my BBS scene days. Also, it's pretty damn cool of you to leave credit to me for the work I did up until a26. Removing the original author's name and replacing it with their's would have been one of the first things that certain people would have done. That was really my only fear of having the code PD. It made me proud to look at a pumped up version of something that I started years and years ago. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for keeping the interest flowing in Iniquity and the BBS scene in general. For what it's worth, you've got my full support. Great work iDT!
#bbs#webPreservation
Public *
vga256

today's archival/software preservation work -

i noticed that PCBoard BBS software's wikipedia article mentioned something kinda weird - that just before clark development went bankrupt in 1997, it was building a server called MetaWorlds... an attempt at bridging the ansi-based BBS with the WWW.

sadly, the software never made it out of beta, and was nowhere to be found.. until today it seems! i managed to dig it out of the glorious ibm wgam-wbiz collection, and i've uploaded a copy to IA:

archive.org/details/metaworlds

i honestly don't really understand what MetaWorlds does, so i'm hoping a PCBoard wiz manages to get it talking to their pcb instance, and lets us know how it all works.

update: located a newer beta. uploaded here: archive.org/details/metaworlds

final update: version 1.02 (final) found!
archive.org/details/pcb-metawo

Internet ArchiveMetaWorlds (Beta) Interactive Information Server for PCBoard : CDC : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveFrom PCBoard.be:Metaworlds was an attempt by CDC to establish a BBS-like environment on the Internet, basically a closed, mailbox in HTML format online.Access...
#bbs#softwarePreservation#retroComputing
Public *
vga256

if you were bbsing in the 90s, you probably heard of Rusty n Edie's BBS. i used to run across nfo's and file_id.diz's advertising their (long distance for me) board all the time. if you came across porn gifs or PCXs in the 90s, it was almost always a scan from their board

how many boards could say they had 128 nodes? 😓

recently i looked up an old street view of the location in youngstown OH, and amazingly, the sign still mentioned the old BBS - decades after its closure

i loved their old logo, and managed to dig up their original bbs homepage - prior to their FBI raid:
web.archive.org/web/1998120510

they also ran a web-based bbs for a very short time:
web.archive.org/web/1996111403

A screenshot from Google Maps, showing a street view of a strip mall sign in Youngstown Ohio. It reads, R&ECentre: Home of Rusty & Edie's BBS
A screenshot of Rusty N Edie's web BBS circa 1997. It shows a login page with two owls for a logo.
A screenshot of Rusty n Edie's BBS boxes. There are over 100 286 computers in desktops stacks all over the floor. It is being serviced by 128 phone lines.
#bbs#retrocomputing
Public
Clean Design

I was reading a story today about #theoldnet and how if you leave an “&” symbol at the end of an #email , it means you want the recipient to reply back. Does anyone remember this or still do this today? I don’t recall that being a thing or maybe it was and I didn’t notice. Gonna tag below with adjacent words in hopes of response.

#aol #bbs #vintagecomputing #retro #retrotech @ActionRetro #dialup #486 #windows95 #prodigy #netscape #icq #compuserve #angelfire #geocities #irc

Public *
Wintermute_BBS

Out there, in the worrying world of today is a little #Zilog #Z80 computer with a mere 64KB of #RAM and running the #1970s CP/M operating system.

This little machine is connected to the #intertubes and it's serving a #singleuser #bulletinboardsystem for you, the worrying souls of #yesteryears to visit.

Take a break from today, connect like it's 1985 - here on RC-BOX BBS, the world's first and (currently) only #rc2014 based bulletin board system in the world!

Check out the #alttext or my #profile info for information on how to connect.

#bbs
#rc2014bbs
#rcbox

This screenshot features the ASCII Art welcome banner of RC-BOX BBS. The technical specs of the system are listed as well as an ASCII UFO which is sending a beam down to the specs listed. All in plain ASCII text. If you want to visit, use a VT100 capable Telnet client and connect to: rc2014.ddns.net:2014
Public
fraggle

Before the modern internet, Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) were the backbone of online communication. Emerging in the late 1970s, BBSes were text-based systems accessed via dial-up modems, where users could post messages, share files, and even play primitive online games. These digital meeting places became hubs for underground communities, tech enthusiasts, hackers, and early software distribution networks.

Despite being largely replaced by the web, BBSes never truly died. Today, a dedicated community keeps them alive using telnet and modern technology, ensuring that the spirit of decentralized, independent online spaces lives on. Whether through retro computing nostalgia, hacker culture, or a desire for an internet free from corporate control, BBSes continue to thrive in small but passionate circles.

#BBS#RetroComputing#HackerCulture
SearchLive feeds
About