Demand for a BBS?

[Rabbi]

odin wrote:
Ah, the magical days of 14k4 long distance calling and huge phonebills.

Heck, I started out dialing at 300 bps on a Timex/Sinclair 1000 (U.S. equivalent of the Sinclair ZX81) & saving on cassette tapes.  I progressed to the Timex/Sinclair 2068 (U.S. equivalent of the Sinclair Spectrum) with the 3" CF2 Portuguese disk system (FDD3000) which I used more often than not in the CP/M 2.2 mode.  It had a 3rd mode with a cartridge that would emulate the Spectrum almost perfectly to run Spectrum games & programs.  With the 2 serial ports on back of the FDD3000 disk system, I was running it at 19.2k first into a 1200 baud modem, then into a 2400 baud modem, then onto a 14.4k baud modem using the late Irv Hoff's IMP (Improved Modem Program) with the Zebra h/w overlay (Irv misspelled it Zerbra).  Zebra marketed the Portuguese disk system here in the states.  I had also attached an Amdek Amdisk III to the FDD3000 to get 4 disk drives online at once.  

I even ran a piece of software called "CasBoard" that was a bbs server for it using the T/S 2050 modem @ 300 baud!  What a hoot!  It was the first Jewish-oriented BBS in NYC at the time.

[Starrunner]

I miss my old BBS days.  They were some of the best.  I got into the BBS scene towards the end in the early 90s before the Internet was anything.  The first modem I ran was a Commodore 1670 (I think that was the model number.) at 1200 baud on my A500.  I had a Supra 2400 baud and then graduated to a Supra 14.4k on my A500 and my Tandy TL 1000 286.

I helped a friend run a CNet BBS.  I also helped several friends run Renegade BBSes as well.  I tested all kinds of BBS software back in those days as well.  In point of fact, on my old Tandy TL1000 286 is a fully fuctional copy of the May 96 version of Renegade.  I had it completely setup for my own BBS, and was working on trying to setup a small message network along the lines of FidoNET.  My old personal webpage was styled along the Renegade BBS look.

I would love to see an old school BBS, no matter how I had to connect to it.  I can still remember all of the BBS types, from the good (Renegade and VBBS, and I have an archive for VBBS 6.14 as well.) to the bad (Opus and PCBoard).

[McVenco]

omnicron10 wrote:
You can use telser device to make a serial based bbs work over Telnet. I have done it and it works.  I had it working with cnet amiga.

It is the telser.device  You should be able to find it on Aminet.

Tim

Great! That sounds just like what I need.

Maybe I should speed up things to get my A4000 up and running, and start trying to find out how TrionBBS worked again. Maybe The Missing Channel BBS will be online again this year then (after a 12 year break :lol: )

Anyone know a good ANSI editor? I really can't remember which one I used back in the days.

[Giana]

Question 1 & 3. Answer : YES !!

[James]

@McVenco look for The Draw on google, it's freeware and it rocks.

[cv643d]

Sorry if I appear as a jackass in this post, but this is my honest answer.

1. No
2. If it could offer something that is not available on the net, can not think of anything that will motivate me to use a text based system again.
3. No
4. Nothing, it is far more easier to download things directly from the net without a textbased interface behind the things you want access to.
5. No thanks, HTML - Yes.

From a different point of view, amiga.org is like a BBS with a graphical user interface and no file transfers omg.

[Starrunner]

Since I menitioned it...I should just drag out the Tandy and see if it still works, then see if the Renegade Install still works and/or see if I can find a way to extract the archive from it.  It would be great just to see it and see if I remember any of the controls.

I can see c643d's point by the way.  It mnight be hard to get people to login to an old school BBS.

[novaburst]

1- Would you use a telnet BBS?
Sure, I would definitely like to use it. I miss ANSI and would love to use a BBS like this again.

2- What would make you use such a system?
I would check back often. As long as there is activity, it would be good fun.

3- Would you contribute to keep the site up?
I don't have the time because of other projects I'm involved in.

4- What do you expect in terms of file transfers?
N/A

5- Doors?
No time for this one.

[trilobyte]

[Doors]
Trade Wars 2002, Legend Of The Red Dragon, Barren Realms Elite. These are the doors I used to play way back when. I don't know of any other fun doors... so place suggestions!

Those are all PC doors!  Are you running a PC BBS software?

[Colani1200]

If you have the time to experiment I'd say go for it. For the nostalgia, I'd surely like to check it out. I remember using BBSs back in the days with my A500 and an old sorted out 300 bps modem I got for free. However, my time online was quite limited because my parents would kill me for the phone bill :lol:
So now there would be some possibility to catch up with everything  ;-)

[Hodgkinson]

I accesss a BBS nearby via my A1200 and its still going strong.
Having said that, I access it over Amateur radio at 1200 baud via AmiCOM, so unfortunatly no pictures whatsoever, and downloading a file via 7Plus, even a small file in 10-100k range can take hours.

Having said that its a good source of information and I have downloaded files from the BBS sucessfully in the past.
Theres also a "Humor" section on there with jokes, etc, as otherwise the talkes always amateur radio related.

Just thought i'd add to the coversation.
Hodgkinson.

EDIT...I've got a maplin CCITT 300 Baud modem floating around somewhere looking sorry for itself...

[trilobyte]

James wrote:
I was wondering...as I am presently setting up a little BBS.

Is there any demand for an oldschool BBS at all? I know we've moved forward to this internet thing here...but still. Personally I never quite got the feeling of community I had back in the days of the BBS.

In any case.. here are my questions:
1- Would you use a telnet BBS?
2- What would make you use such a system?
3- Would you contribute to keep the site up?
4- What do you expect in terms of file transfers?
5- Doors?

There are already some very good Amiga telnet BBSes out there running C-Net and telser.device.  If I were at home right now I could come up with some of their names.  I haven't logged into them as much as I should...

1- Yes, I have, but I find that I don't connect regularly
2- Door games, message boards
3- not money, but messages and files
4- Rare stuff you can't find on Aminet
5- Yep!  Hacker!  ...and some sort of Wheel of Fortune or something which can earn you file board points or time points...

[steve30]

As I have never really used a BBS properly, I would be alll for someone setting one up, as long as it gets used by plenty of other people.

Preferably one that doesn't use the internet as a method of connecting to it as I'm getting bored of the internet.

[James]

My first topic to reach two pages. *sheds a tear*

Seriously though. I'm pretty excited about the response. I though I would have more of the "look bro, we's gots the interwebs" replies Although I can totally understand the point of view, I think BBS's and forums are quite different, if only for the fact that a BBS is semi-private.

[Files]
Someone suggested no ratio. Although I'm very tempted by this as I don't believe in 'charging' people....I don't want the BBS to become just a copy of Aminet where ppl download but never contribute. I'd keep a low ratio, but I'd like users to send in files once in a blue moon.

[Messages]
I won't be making too many messages boards at first. When a BBS is running in the ~20 users zone, you can't have 30 message sections or it'll feel quite empty. I'd rather add as we go along then try to set up the uber-bbs where everything is already there.

[Doors]
Yes... I am using a PeeCee for the BBS. So I can only run PC doors. Although running a CNet BBS is tempting, I use my 1200 too much to sacrifice it entirely for a BBS. Furthermore, I reboot the machine way too often for it to hold a BBS. My PC can run the BBS in the background with nearly no speed loss, and I don't have to configure 70 different things for it to work.

[McVenco]

James wrote:

@McVenco look for The Draw on google, it's freeware and it rocks.

That's an ms-dos program. Why would I want to use that?

Anyway, I did a short search on Aminet and immediately recognised the name of the program I used 10 years ago: HyperANSI. I remember it being a true WYSIWYG editor, which was very good. I'll download it again and give it a try again, although I doubt my ANSI-art skillz are still existing :lol:

[James]

I dunno... last time I tried to make ANSIs on Amiga... they didn't show up very well on other computers. There were quite a number of compatibility problems back then.... But I'll give it a try.. see if that's fixed.