Subject: Old School Internet Stories   
   @VIA: DIGDIST   
   @MSGID: <55F1F6B3.1883.dove_dove-int@digitaldistortionbbs.com>   
   @REPLY: <55F1E02F.34.dove-internet@deckersheaven.com>   
   @TZ: c1e0   
    > I was wondering if you guys had any stories with doing BBS in the 80s and   
    > 90s before the world wide web was public.   
      
   BBS stories aren't really internet stories, as your subject suggests. ;)   
      
    > My family didn't have internet   
    > until '96 and we used WebTV for most of our surfing before using a    
   computer   
    > so BBS were out of the question .   
      
    > I didn't even know what a BBS was until after high school. I'm wondering   
    > what it was like and if you guys did anything like warez or trading other   
    > such files back and forth over baud modems. I'm fascinated by this stuff.   
      
   I grew up around computers (my dad always had at least 1).  I eventually got   
   my own computer, along with a modem, as a gift in 1992 (I was 12 years old),   
   and that's when I got into BBSing.  I stayed up late many nights that summer   
   calling local BBSes and exploring what they had to offer.  I mostly enjoyed   
   finding new games & other software to download, multi-node chat on BBSes that   
   had more than 1 node, and occasionally liked reading & posting messages.   
      
   I started my own BBS in 1994 using a second phone line that we had, and I   
   really enjoyed running it.  I ran that until 2000, when BBS use had declined   
   severely, and I thought nobody would really want to use a BBS again.   
      
   I started using the internet in late 1995.  I thought the internet was pretty   
   awesome when I started using it - Lots of information and files were    
   available very easily.  As opposed to BBSes, which might not always have the   
   latest version of a particular program, the internet made it much easier to   
   find and download the latest version of something.   
      
   I eventually decided to get back into BBSing in 2007, and I started my    
   current BBS at that time.  I discovered the documentary "BBS: The    
   Documentary" around that time, which is what inspired me to get back into   
   BBSing (now on the internet though, of course).   
      
   Nightfox   
      
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