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There is an episode of BBS The Documentary from @textfiles that is about FidoNet, which was... almost, kind of, like an early federated forum thing (basically it let people on BBS server 1 could talk to people on BBS server 2). The tech details don't line up exactly but I was struck watching it a few years ago at how the social dynamics of admins of different BBSes mapped pretty perfectly onto fediverse admins.

Anyway if you want to feel like time is a flat circle: youtube.com/watch?v=Ng0NE4lDP2

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Darius Kazemi

Also struck by the description text for that video, which says FidoNet "may have been the single-largest 100% amateur organized and run computer network of all time". Reminds me a bit of what we've got going on here. Exciting, scary, exhilarating.

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Bryant Durrell

@darius @textfiles An awfully long time ago when I managed email for Netcom, an awful lot of my time was spent on debugging FidoNet/UUCP gateways. I suppose that maps to Twitter/ActivityPub gateways.

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DJ Sundog - from the toot-lab

@darius @textfiles as an Old, I can confirm that all my folk who were into the BBS scene way back when, particularly the networked BBSes like fidonet and citanet (my fav from the day), feel it too. cc @Ricardus who was my citadel sysop back in the 1980s.

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Dr. Fyzziks

@darius @textfiles yup. I ran a #FidoNet node on my #BBS back in the day and the #Mastodon network reminds me of it *very* much. Almost a 1:1 mapping of admin considerations and concerns.

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qdot

@darius @textfiles Heh I hadn't really considered this but yeah. Growing up with FidoNet in Oklahoma meant having to pull feeds from multiple BBSes depending on the beliefs/politics of the sysadmin and what groups they relayed.

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Apicultor :verified_paw:

@darius @textfiles Holy shit, what a blast from the past; I mean a BBS in the early 90s which was a point node on FIDOnet.

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Josh Braun

@darius @textfiles @nancybaym See also @driscoll’s amazing book on the subject. modem.world/

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alans

@darius I was thinking about this recently and reflecting on my experience running a BBS as part of WWIVnet in the early 90s. That documentary has been on my list for a while, and I guess it’s time I got to it.

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Melissa Woo

@darius @textfiles I used to be a Fidonet BBS sysop, and even ran the local Fidonet hub for a while. Yes, each sysop had their own personality (should I say quirks? 😁), but that was the nature of the Fidonet BBS network.

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tallship

@darius @textfiles

If you'd like to chat about it over netmail you can reach me at :

SysOp@1:102/107

⛵

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Maverick

@darius @textfiles Yes. Another former Fidonet user here and my exploration of the Fediverse has brought back many memories. I kinda wish we were still there, actually.

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Alan Langford

@darius @textfiles RIP 1000BBS and the lost friends I made there!

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That Jeff Guy

@darius @textfiles FidoNet was amazing for the time period. I ran a BBS that had multiserver games that ran off it. #solarRealmElite

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