SmittyHalibutNov 7, 2022

I see a lot of people talking about how Mastodon "Feels like the Internet I remember from 20 years ago."

That's no accident. That's Federation. That's UseNet, IRC, Email, Message Boards, etc. What do they all have in common?

Federation: Users congregating around watering holes of common interest, but still being a part of a larger whole.

THIS IS HOW THE INTERNET WAS DESIGNED TO BE. And I am HERE for it.

Show threadSarbNov 7, 2022
@smitty hell yeh
Show threadSmittyHalibutNov 7, 2022
@sarb Right?! 🙂
Show threadSarbNov 7, 2022
@smitty I also lost about 6 months of my life to #undernet on IRC on the @cern server in 1992
Show threadSmittyHalibutNov 7, 2022
@sarb I actually mostly avoided IRC because I had another social forum that I ran: a Citadel/UX BBS with an active userbase dating from the 80s. But I know people who went DEEP into IRC, for YEARS. I remember talk of #heathers getting out of hand. 🙂
Show threadSarbNov 7, 2022
@smitty Crikey - yeah, I missed the whole BBS thing mostly. But I remember AOL arriving in the UK in the midst of trying to build a walled garden around all that (if I remember correctly). They got burned.
Show threadSmittyHalibut
@sarb I owe my entire career (and, lets be honest, LIFE) to BBSes. I got started when I was 10, was running my own by 12, and haven't stopped running it, even to today. It's what got me started in system administration and networking. I literally have no idea what I'd have done to make money if it weren't for BBSing when I was a kid.
Nov 7, 2022 at 6:06amWeb
Show threadSarbNov 7, 2022
@smitty FANTASTIC - what a skill to have to keep going though all this - and so many changes you'll have seen too. Like, from the BEGINNING OF INTERNET TIME