Who do you miss most from bbsing?
people that you knew and maybe were friends with who decided to hang
it up.

i'd have to say one of them for me was Frank Vest.
I know he's still around. I just miss bbs frank vest.
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Re: who do you miss most from bbsing
By: MRO to All on Tue Nov 11 2025 03:58 am

and jay hodges.
he passed away. the backalley lord igms, etc
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Re: who do you miss most from bbsing
By: MRO to All on Tue Nov 11 2025 03:58 am

Who do you miss most from bbsing?
people that you knew and maybe were friends with who decided to hang it up.

There were several guys that were instrumental in getting me into the BBS scene, one in perticular is still my best friend to this day but is no longer interested in the BBS scene and is sadly suffering from Parkinson's. I was working in the police garage as a mechanic when I bought my first PC circa 1990, an IBM generic 286. We had a Records Division at the PD that was headed up by Lt. Sam McDaniel and I knew he had computer experience. So one day I went inside the station and asked Sam, "what can I do with my new PC"? Sam said, "you got to get a modem and call my BBS". I said, "what the heck is a BBS"? So I go to the computer store and buy a 2400 baud US Robotics external modem and that opened up a whole new world for me. The thought of being on someone else's computer and downloading files, reading messages and playing games and competing against other users, well that some how made my PC suddenly seem a lot more useful. Wasn't long before I wanted to run my own BBS, which lead to wanting to create my own software for my BBS. Which lead to me becoming an eventual Senior Software developer for a Public Safety software company out of Dallas, TX. Another fella was George Lammers, he was sysop of Fireside BBS in Ft. Gibson, Oklahoma. George was big burly guy, but very patient and knowledgeable and would help me get my Remote Access BBS tweaked and running over many a phone conversation. George has since passed on and I now run my BBS under his Fireside BBS name in honor of George. I owe a debt of gratitude to these guys and BBSing in general all those years ago, as it gave me a reason to learn C programming which lead to earning a living in the software industry. I do truly miss talkng to these guys about BBSing.

Lonewolf
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Re: who do you miss most from bbsing
By: MRO to All on Tue Nov 11 2025 03:58 am

Who do you miss most from bbsing?
people that you knew and maybe were friends with who decided to hang it up.

With BBSing back in the 90s, I miss that pretty much all BBSes had a community of local users. Also, the BBSing community in general, including the developers making all the software (BBS software, doors, & tools) and sysops running the BBSes. I always thought it was really cool that you could run a little online service such as BBS from your home, and that it was fairly easy to get them connected together for message networks such as FidoNet. I've heard some stories that in some countries that like to censor things (like China), FidoNet has even helped doctors in those countries communicate outside the country & get information they needed, because FidoNet was under the radar and not monitored by their government.

Nightfox

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On 11 Nov 2025, Nightfox said the following...

Re: who do you miss most from bbsing
By: MRO to All on Tue Nov 11 2025 03:58 am

Who do you miss most from bbsing?
people that you knew and maybe were friends with who decided to hang up.

With BBSing back in the 90s, I miss that pretty much all BBSes had a community of local users. Also, the BBSing community in general,
including the developers making all the software (BBS software, doors, & tools) and sysops running the BBSes. I always thought it was really

i've found that even still there are a decent number of people who will seek out a (relatively) local bbs to call. i think that's cool.

as an aside..

i can't help but feel the general vibe of the "big internet" now is you're either 100% in it (tiktok, discord, ai, the whole shebang) or you're disillusioned by it and want out. those are the type of people discovering what the internet used to be i guess. though it's certainly easier to stop after you've found a decent web forum, probably something to do with emulators or old music.. heck even finding a hobby and replacing all of your "vapid" (?) youtube subscriptions with long form (relatively) educational content might mean you've retired from the big internet.

between those people and another group that will probably age out of the "big internet" as it is .. i think a few more little interesting communities might bounce back up again. that's an awful lot of people who do almost nothing currently.. they'll figure it out eventually when they're old(er) and bored.

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Re: Re: who do you miss most from bbsing
By: fusion to Nightfox on Wed Nov 12 2025 11:05 pm

i've found that even still there are a decent number of people who will seek out a (relatively) local bbs to call. i think that's cool.

Yeah, I've seen that sometimes, and I think it's cool.

i can't help but feel the general vibe of the "big internet" now is you're either 100% in it (tiktok, discord, ai, the whole shebang) or you're disillusioned by it and want out. those are the type of people discovering what the internet used to be i guess. though it's certainly easier to stop after you've found a decent web forum, probably something to do with emulators or old music.. heck even finding a hobby and replacing all of your "vapid" (?) youtube subscriptions with long form (relatively) educational content might mean you've retired from the big internet.

between those people and another group that will probably age out of the "big internet" as it is .. i think a few more little interesting communities might bounce back up again. that's an awful lot of people who do almost nothing currently.. they'll figure it out eventually when they're old(er) and bored.

That's an interesting idea. Although I use Facebook (and used MySpace before that), I've never used TikTok and haven't used Discord much. And there's a guitar forum I've used since 2013 (I like playing guitar). I only heard about TikTok in 2020, when I heard something in the news about the US government being concerned about it possibly having spyware included, since TikTok is from China.

Nightfox

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