I've been going down memory lane, these past few days. I've been watching a
Documentary film about computer Bulletin Board Services (BBS's).
BBS's were what we computer geeks had before the Internet exploded with the World Wide Web, around 1994. It's been particularly fun hearing these people's recollections, because not only was I a BBS user, I also ran a BBS from 1986, until 1992.
I remember making my first call with a modem around 1982 or 1983, in high school. The Data Processing lab had an Apple II+, and a 300 baud
modem. Why they had the modem was a little confusing to me, because when I asked the teacher what good it was without a phone line in the class, he didn't have a good answer. Well, we were resourceful lads, and there was a phone wire just hanging out of the wall somewhere near the DP Lab, and I brought some phone wire to school, and hooked it up to that lonely wire, and imagine my surprise when I found a live phone line.
The only number we could find that had a modem attached to the other end, was the Library Of Congress, in Washington DC, so we called it.
I don't really remember what we found. Probably some sort of rudimentary BBS system, or something similar. All that I truly remember was that it wasn't very interactive. If it
was a BBS system, we wouldn't have known it, because none of us had even been on one of those before, and had no online experience.
This was all happening after school hours, while the DP teacher was away doing something else, of course. To paraphrase a line from the movie Animal House, "he screwed up... he trusted us." To this day I still wonder if the school ever figured out where those long-distance calls to Washington DC were coming from.
After high school, I didn't do too much with computers until around 1985. My friend Matt had a loaner Commodore 64, with a 300 baud modem, and he started telling me about this Bulletin Board System that he was calling, and on which he was leaving messages. I didn't quite comprehend what he meant, but it sounded very intriguing, because by that time, we had all seen the
Matthew Broderick film, War Games, and being online seemed very underground and subversive. Given that, I was in!
One night, I went to his house, and had my first BBS experience calling a local BBS, called The City Zoo, which ran the
Citadel BBS software.
From that moment on, I was hooked. I went out and bought a Commodore 128 computer from Sears, just so that I could start calling more of these BBS systems. In time, I learned that we had several in the area, but none were as interesting or as exciting as The City Zoo. There were several reasons for that, but perhaps the best reason was the Citadel BBS software that it was running, which was designed from the ground up to revolve around conversation. The great thing about Citadel, the undisputed king of all BBS software, was that you could access every feature of the BBS, by issuing a single letter command, at what was essentially the command-prompt of the system, which was always available. All other BBS software was what we used to call menu-driven. You went from one menu, to another, to another, ultimately having to issue several commands to get where you wanted. That didn't happen with Citadel, and consequently, Citadel users and
system operators (Sysops), were very loyal.

It wasn't long after being an addicted BBS caller, that I decided I had to run a BBS of my own. Coincidentally, the Sysop of The City Zoo, who was a loyal Kaypro user, had a coupon, which gave a substantial discount on a new Kaypro system, and offered it first-come-first-serve, on his BBS. I snapped it up and purchased a brand new Kaypro 1, at the local Kaypro dealer, shortly thereafter. I also purchased a new Hayes 300/1200 baud modem, to go with it. The modem alone was in the $400 range, and I don't really remember how much I paid for the Kaypro.
The choice for what BBS software I would run was obvious. Citadel, of course. Fortunately, the guy who gave me the coupon, also had a copy of Citadel, and after ordering a phone line, just for me, I put up my BBS, the KAOS Citadel, in 1986, running in my bedroom.
Even in 1986 when I initially put my BBS up, the Kaypro's
CP/M operating system was something of a thing of the past, with
MSDOS then on the scene. After about two years, I bought my first IBM PC clone, and began running the DOS version of Citadel. This was a good thing, since the DOS version was under constant development, and allowed for networking between multiple systems. Computers that talk to each other? UNHEARD OF!

I ran the MSDOS version of my BBS until around 1992, at which time I took it down. I don't really remember quite why, but I can only imagine that the reason was financial. You see, in addition to running up my phone bill by calling other BBS's, some of which were long-distance, I had also acquired a new online interest. This interest was a new nationwide BBS system, called Quantum Link.
Quantum Link, also known as Q-Link was a Commodore-specific, multi-user online system that could be accessed from most cities in the US. This was revolutionary! You see, the whole time when I was doing the BBS thing, my biggest wish was to be able to contact any system, from anywhere in the world, at any time of the day, for a reasonable cost. Sure, we have that today with the Internet, but in 1986, it was almost unthinkable. The Web didn't exist yet, and just about the only places that had online access to the early Internet were colleges. To be able to access a system, with thousands of users online at the same time was almost magical, but that magic came at a cost. Quantum Link had a basic monthly fee, plus a per-minute cost, so as you can imagine, it was pretty easy to rack up a big bill.

The interesting thing about Q-Link, was that after a while, they realized that they needed to open their system up to non Commodore computer users, as well, and it ultimately was re-branded as America Online, and the rest is history.
It was only about two years after I took down my BBS, that the web started to take off, and I started spending lots of time online, again. The good news, this time however, was that it was all available for a reasonable monthly fee.
You know, every now and again my old BBS friends and I will chat about the good old days, and most of us agree that despite the fact that we can do what we want, when we want, as quickly as we want, in full multi-tasking color, on our modern, fancy computers, nothing was more fun than those early calls we made with our 300 baud modems, and monochrome monitors.
Oh, and about that BBS Documentary that I've been watching? It was directed by a guy named Jason Scott, who used to run a BBS in my very city. When he was a student at a local college, he ran the BBS out of his dorm room. When he graduated, and left, he gave the computer to one of the professors, and then the college started running the BBS. I never called the BBS while Jason ran it, but I was a regular user of the college BBS. However, after Jason left the area, he put up a Citadel, and my system was a part of the same regional Citadel network as his. Cool eh?
I am still amazed at just how small this world is, sometimes.