Computer BBSs & Fidonet Network Archives

Computer Bulletin Boards And The Fidonet Network Live On Today

07/08/2022 FidoSysop

Computer Bulletin Boards and the Fidonet Network Live On today. Doc’s Place BBS first went online in 1991 and still is online 31 years later. It is running Wildcat version 5 with the new Internet Connect Pack from 1998. The front end is running Platinum Express from Santronics Software which bought the Wildcat BBS lineup from Mustang Software and renamed it to Winserver. It’s sitting here running on an old Dell Optiplex computer under Windows 7 Pro connected to my local network that runs for months at a time without…

Randy Suess Computer Bulletin Board System Inventor Dead At 74

12/22/2019 FidoSysop

Randy Suess the co-inventor of the computer bulletin board system passed away at 74. Suess and another man Ward Christensen worked together to invent the computer bulletin board system (BBS) as they were called back in the mid 198o’s. Soon afterward the Fidonet network allowed worldwide communications. Together they were a great combination In late January 1978, Suess was part of an early home computer club called the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange. He and another club member, an IBM engineer named Ward Christensen , had been discussing an idea…

Doc’s Place Fidonet Computer Bulletin Board System

05/26/2018 FidoSysop

Doc’s Place Computer Bulletin Board System (BBS) Fidonet Access Since 1991 and Still Going in 2018. No censorship with this network operated by hobbyists 😎 Before the net became a part of our lives there were bulletin board systems. Volunteer hobbyists ran BBSes on old slow personal computers. The Fidonet network soon followed. System operators (sysops) relayed public Echomail around the world. This process copied each message to all the BBSes in the network. This was all done with old slow dial up modems. In 1994 a company called Planet…

Forum Timeline Of Personal Electronic Communications

03/26/2018 FidoSysop

We’ve came a long way since the 1st computer bulletin board system in the 80’s. Bulletin boards were taken over by Internet forum’s. Then along came Facebook that turned internet forum’s into ghost towns. It’s time to step back and look what has happened to our lives since then, and find new places to hang out online. The recent revelations that Facebook was mining and selling our personal information to Government and corporations has everyone talking. High profile Facebook users such as Elon Musk has deleted their accounts. Elon Musk…

How Valuable Are Support Forum User Contributions?

04/08/2016 FidoSysop

Just how important are support forum user contributions to a community forum? Recently we posted a Google AMP specific question on this WordPress.org support forum . Another WordPress webmaster asked a question and was chastised by a WordPress moderator. Immediately afterword another moderator chimed in and closed the topic. As a rule, if i am experiencing a problem it’s best to first Google it up and go from there. Google AMP is new and searching “amp validation errors” brought up a lot of results. There were several results posted in…

GeoCities Making A Comeback On The Web

01/08/2016 FidoSysop

GeoCities is making a comeback. Looking at our referrers log today i see two backlinks coming from a GeoCities domain and checked them out. One of our old time bbs users had a bunch of pages on there that are live today through GeoCities.ws domain. The two pages i looked at auto refresh and are heavily loaded with advertisements including auto starting videos that made scrolling the page difficult. Gotta generate revenue to fund the project somehow i guess. But none the less someone is attempting to revive those archived…

When Pioneering Fidonet Bulletin Board System Operators Ruled

02/14/2014 FidoSysop

An educational trip back in time when Computer Bulletin Board System Operators (SysOps) and the Fidonet Network dominated early personal communications worldwide. Many of those BBS’s still exist into 2018 and hopefully beyond. 😉 Doc came across this article on ZDNet and were reminiscing the good old Computer Bulletin Board System days of the 80s-90s. After reading ZDNet’s article he decided to publish a more in-depth informative article about the BBS Scene of yesterday. Click Here to access the login menu. Note this BBS is about as old school as…

Doc’s Place BBS Online Fidonet Since 1991

02/11/2014 FidoSysop

Fidonet Internet BBS Screen Capture Sysops View

Celebrating over TWO Decades Of Fidonet Bulletin Board System Access! Back before the Internet was available to the general public there were computer bulletin board systems (BBS.) To access a BBS callers used a modem and terminal program to dial up and exchange messages. Doc’s hobby for the last 26 years had been computing and communicating online. He started Doc’s Place BBS Online as a community bulletin board system providing auto repair advice to consumers in 1991. Click the Wildcat Logo to your left to access the BBS which is…