Tell us about your first time...
Tuesday, August 28, 2001 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
..that you were in an on-line community.
I started with this whole "virtual community" stuff back in 1987 when I ran a Commodore 64 BBS. We had about 200 to 300 members on the BBS. You used your phone modem to call the number of the BBS and connected to it. It was run on C-net 12.0 and later Image 1.0
That was how I met Pat (T-man). He ran a BBS called King Arthur's Court. I ran the BBS "Stardock".
All these BBSes had multiple access groups (0 through 9) and when we posted, our access rank was put in front of our name. So when I posted on Pat's BBS, I would be Lord Macros (that was my handle). On my BBS it would be Admiral Macros.
We tried to focus our BBSes to mainly be about the message boards. In order to download, you had to have X number of points and the only way to get those points was to post and respond in the message boards. This system worked pretty well. It was a really fun way to meet people in the local area who had like interests.
Not much has changed, as the "community" got bigger, the usual sorts of squables one sees here and on other websites would pop up. But most posts had to do about talking about "stuff" like the meaning of life, finding out what girls wanted in guys and vice versa. There were only a handful of girls versus a ton of guys.
Now, 14 years later (good gawd it's been that long?) not too much has really changed in terms of on-line communities. Sure, the people are from all over the world and they can all be on at once (as I type this, there are 295 other people currently on this website) but the message boards are almost all the same as they were then. Right down to the "what song are you listening to right now?" stuff.
So what place did you first learn about on-line communities?
I started with this whole "virtual community" stuff back in 1987 when I ran a Commodore 64 BBS. We had about 200 to 300 members on the BBS. You used your phone modem to call the number of the BBS and connected to it. It was run on C-net 12.0 and later Image 1.0
That was how I met Pat (T-man). He ran a BBS called King Arthur's Court. I ran the BBS "Stardock".
All these BBSes had multiple access groups (0 through 9) and when we posted, our access rank was put in front of our name. So when I posted on Pat's BBS, I would be Lord Macros (that was my handle). On my BBS it would be Admiral Macros.
We tried to focus our BBSes to mainly be about the message boards. In order to download, you had to have X number of points and the only way to get those points was to post and respond in the message boards. This system worked pretty well. It was a really fun way to meet people in the local area who had like interests.
Not much has changed, as the "community" got bigger, the usual sorts of squables one sees here and on other websites would pop up. But most posts had to do about talking about "stuff" like the meaning of life, finding out what girls wanted in guys and vice versa. There were only a handful of girls versus a ton of guys.
Now, 14 years later (good gawd it's been that long?) not too much has really changed in terms of on-line communities. Sure, the people are from all over the world and they can all be on at once (as I type this, there are 295 other people currently on this website) but the message boards are almost all the same as they were then. Right down to the "what song are you listening to right now?" stuff.
So what place did you first learn about on-line communities?
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faders
Reply #22 Wednesday, August 29, 2001 4:52 PM
Reply #22 Wednesday, August 29, 2001 4:52 PM
been online for two years...all the time i was on cable...
misterME
Reply #23 Wednesday, August 29, 2001 7:22 PM
Reply #23 Wednesday, August 29, 2001 7:22 PM
I spent about a year interning (er, assisting, as it was only a one-man operation besides myself) at a local BBS in Charleston, SC dedicated to local Star Trek fans. (Yeah, so I was a geek; what of it?). I had no idea what I was doing; I just pressed whatever buttons and typed whatever lines I was told to by my [boss] (who looked amazingly like Santa Claus). There was no pay involved.
A year or so later I got my first PC, with a fresh copy of the revolutionary Windows 95, and started using my 9600bps modem, hitting sites, playing MUDs, and hanging out in IRC. MUDs were perhaps my first online community, old ones like "Legend of the Red Dragon Inn." I eventually spent far too much time in MUSH.
MUDs and MUSHs have lost their appeal to me now, I hate IRC with a passion, and the sites I visit daily can be counted on my fingers. And the whole IM thing passed me by (I never use any sort of IM; I hate them as much as IRC).
These days I come here, and I'm an active member on a couple of email-based communities and a scant number of other messageing sites and newsgroups. The end.
A year or so later I got my first PC, with a fresh copy of the revolutionary Windows 95, and started using my 9600bps modem, hitting sites, playing MUDs, and hanging out in IRC. MUDs were perhaps my first online community, old ones like "Legend of the Red Dragon Inn." I eventually spent far too much time in MUSH.
MUDs and MUSHs have lost their appeal to me now, I hate IRC with a passion, and the sites I visit daily can be counted on my fingers. And the whole IM thing passed me by (I never use any sort of IM; I hate them as much as IRC).
These days I come here, and I'm an active member on a couple of email-based communities and a scant number of other messageing sites and newsgroups. The end.
plainsong
Reply #24 Thursday, August 30, 2001 3:26 AM
Reply #24 Thursday, August 30, 2001 3:26 AM
My first initiation into an online community was at GlobalMUSH. Anyone remember Mushing? It's way cooler than IRC ever was. 
That was back in 93 or so, on a Tandy with no HD and a borrowed 1200baud modem. It's also where I first met Juni.
It can still be found at telnet://tarsier.domain.net 4201, but it's kinda dead nowadays.
That was back in 93 or so, on a Tandy with no HD and a borrowed 1200baud modem. It's also where I first met Juni.It can still be found at telnet://tarsier.domain.net 4201, but it's kinda dead nowadays.
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Reply #21 Wednesday, August 29, 2001 4:19 PM
When I first knew that customize.org existed, the site was dying. I never really got into it. I was actually there for about 2 months of its last existance.....
Then customize died and skinz and deskmod got started. Was there for both of them...from beginning to death. Was here when wincustomize got started.
I'm still rather new to the community compared to the time some of you have already spent..but you all have taught me a lot