Kinda funny that we’ve gone full circle. Used to be, in the olden days, you’d dial into your buddy’s BBS over 9600 baud modem dialup. Boop beep beep boop beep beep boop. You’re in! It’s a goldmine, filled with interesting discussions, the most niche possible, nothing like you could ever find in the mainstream flesh.

Then we went commercial. The ISPs, search engine portals, and big websites funneling people into massive groups of random amalgamation communities. No real cohesion or commonality, just a trough to feed from for ad monetization. Followed quickly with walled gardens of all sizes and shapes, and also questionable allegiances to community vs. commercial interest. Soon even these groups were torn asunder, and needed to find a way back…

And now here we are. Logging into our buddy’s federated instance with an AP protocol. At Toot toot toot at toot toot toot dot net. You’re in! It’s a goldmine, filled with interesting discussions, the most niche possible, nothing like you could ever find in the mainstream flesh.
#oldtimeystories #wheniwasyourage #bbs #9600baudmodem #micronet #fediverse #reflections