MSGID: 2:221/1.58@fidonet ecf5e438   
   REPLY: 1:275/99 ef079c6c   
   PID: OpenXP/5.0.48 (Win32)   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   TZUTC: -0500   
   Hello Aaron!   
      
   ** On Saturday 30.01.21 - 15:55, Aaron Thomas wrote to All:   
      
    AT> In 1990, I learned how to use BBSs.   
      
   [snip]   
      
    AT> We had The Projects, The Sanitarium, Cascara Segrada,   
    AT> Wicked World (mine,) but I don't remember who it was that   
    AT> carried Fido - Fido was a rare thing for sysops in my   
    AT> hometown.   
      
   I came on board to Fidonet in 1993 with Vis a Vis Communications     
   BBS.  I offered internet email, and QWK for offline reading.   
      
   Prior to all that, I experimented with operating a low key BBS     
   for about 3 years using RBBS-PC.  It was very tricky at the time     
   since I only used an existing voice line that tied into the     
   front-door intercom system to my apartment. Whenever I got a     
   buzz at the door, it would interrupt the BBS session currently     
   in progress.   
      
    AT> I ran RG in the 90s, quit for 20 years, came back to it. I   
    AT> just learned how to use echomail recently. It's always cool   
    AT> talking with Fido people. There are a lot of nice people. I   
    AT> bet that some of you guys have been at it for a while.   
      
   I dropped out of operating a BBS following a catastrophic crash     
   of the HDD with my OS/2 system.  But I maintained some modest     
   use as a point, but then eventually dropped out for 10 years     
   until coming back as a point-user around 2018.   
      
   For the most part, it *does* seems that there *are* very nice     
   people in this hobby.   
      
   In the early times, some sysops were very protective of their     
   user base.  During the dialup days, I would just try to call any     
   system that didn't have a busy signal. One tended to be easier     
   to connect to than many of the others - it was some weird 40     
   column wide thing and would only connect at 1200 bps.  I'd hang     
   around and post messages to find out what other BBSes the users     
   liked to visit.  I'd throw in a few promotional words about my     
   own BBS. But during one later call I noticed that my messages     
   were deleted and the sysop jumped into chat to tell me that he     
   did not approved of advertising of other BBSes. I'll never     
   forget that he used the term "persona non grata" to me.   
      
   It was just as well because at 1200 bps when by then 14000 was     
   the norm, it wasn't worth lamenting over that one.   
   --   
     ../|ug   
      
   --- OpenXP 5.0.48   
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