Using BBS with my Amiga 3000 in 2021
epsilonsworld.com
epsilonsworld.com
BBS's were my introduction to networking and I love them, but I think I'm too spoiled by advances in user experience. I'd love some kind of a modern hybrid.
I'm working on it. A BBS with a built-in ANSI art + MIDI music editor, accessible from terminals and web browsers, all unicode, no telnet. Ready later this month most likely.
It's hard to replicate the local feel of BBSes though. You can't really enforce local usage on the modern internet, and it wouldn't be great for privacy if you could. But the rest we can do.
The local usage / community aspect is what I miss most about local BBSes. I remember having gatherings, BBS picnics, that sort of thing. That world is gone.
I think the best chance you'd have of getting the local aspect is to not run it on the public internet. Maybe use a local mesh network, packet radio, etc. But the community you end up with, if any, will be quite different than the one that formed around BBSes, i imagine.
Yeah, I agree about the difficulties of enforcing local usage.
Honestly, it was probably a matter of long distance fees that kept the BBSes I loved well-used and local.
Something similar could be like charging nothing if you sign up providing a valid credit card with its zip code within a list of local zip codes, and charge a much higher rate if it's not.
I do wonder if a copper based serial port driver would have been able to overcome this particular deficiency of the OCS...
On the A1200, I prefer Term.