random dentwhat was your first social network?
(plz boost for sample size) 
bbs/fidonet
usenet/mailing lists
irc
myspace
fb/tw/ig & later
Poll ended at .
Catbus@randomdent local BBS's
@ancient_catbus that would be fidonet then? or was that before bbs-es exchanged messages through fidonet?
@randomdent these were stand-alone servers hosted by one person
A. Lizard@ancient_catbus @randomdent standalone local BBS systems rapidly morphed into regional BBS systems via call forwarding (electric blue covered most of SF Bay Area) and national networks (WWIV) via various ad hoc infrastructures
BBS also used door software internet gateways to connect to smarthosts
Bang path email example: pacbell.com!boo!tweekco!alizard
BBS also used door software internet gateways to connect to smarthosts
Bang path email example: pacbell.com!boo!tweekco!alizard
@alizardx @randomdent i live in a small town and nobody was connected to anywhere else lol
@ancient_catbus @randomdent when did you get on the internet?
@alizardx @randomdent people were still using acoustic modems =)
@ancient_catbus @randomdent late 1991... 14.4k internet.
David Talley@ancient_catbus @alizardx @randomdent the first connected computer I used had a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem. I could call some Unix computer (called gandolf) at my Dad’s work to play Collosal Caves adventure game. I ran a BBS (Southern Maryland RBBS) during high school, eventually connecting it to FidoNet
Mildly Ornery Meatsuit@alizardx @ancient_catbus @randomdent blast from the past! Mine went through !itivax for sure, possibly umich. I came across the bang path in a sketchbook not all that long ago and had a smile.
It's Just Jenn 🏳️⚧️@alizardx @ancient_catbus @randomdent I ran the WWIV BBS software and was connected to a couple of different networks. My BBS connected to the larger network and would receive message updates over modem. The fediverse kind of reminds me of those days.
Sander Datema@ancient_catbus @randomdent I remember being a 'point' at a BBS. The fidonet addresses looked like this: 1:170/918.10. The 10 is the point, the 918 would be the BBS. That was how mail was distributed. And since I didn't have a modem back then and the BBS was three doors further, I collected my mail on a floppy drive. 😂
Radio Tulsa@sanderdatema @ancient_catbus @randomdent I was on the bbs a lot but I don't remember doing fidonet. I do remember the logo.
I think I was mostly lurking and stealing files and proto-games. I wasn't cool enough to talk to anyone over fidonet. So that made me so very much uncool.
@WA5PSA @ancient_catbus @randomdent I didn't talk to a lot of people either, but Fidonet had newsgroups like the usenet we know now and I was subscribes to those.
グレェ「grey」@randomdent Hi, as a former BBS (Co)SysOp:
BBSes were typically single instantiations with internal messaging (& email). Some ran FidoNet echos (basically FidoNet messaging) as well.
I participated/(Co)SysOped some Citadels which had their own networking (including anti-vortexing [aka message de-duplication]).
I was also a Co-SysOp of VisionSoft which eventually got UUCP & limited NNTP access. Surak (one of the other SysOps) eventually founded mbay.net (an early 408 ISP).
@ancient_catbus
@randomdent Other BBSes (if they had multiple phone lines) even had realtime multi-user instant messaging (similar to ICB or IRC or XMPP). VisionSoft had such things.
Trivia: the first (unreleased) buffer overflow exploit I wrote targeted Monterey Gaming System (408 area code) which was a proprietary multi-line/chat system. I wrote it in Hayes Smartmodem ]['s macro scripting language.
I used it to grab the equivalent of ops & disconnect/hang up the op. Only tested it once. ;)
The trigger itself was gleaned when attempting to transfer a file to a friend via private messaging.
Apparently the Z-modem start sequence was mis-interpreted & crashed a buffer, disconnecting the friend (thankfully, he misunderstood it as line noise, but we tried again: it was REPEATABLE! I scripted it up not much later and tested it once, but never used it for anything malicious. I also never disclosed it to the MGS operators though, who IIRC, were later implicated as child molesters? Yikes.)
I created a similar bugdoor type script against VisionSoft some time later (though that sploit I am pretty sure I wrote in Terminus' macro script language). Basically, VisionSoft/CNET BBS had some functionality to display a text file using on-the-fly decompression.
I found a file that crashed the board when I tried to read it.
So, I created a script to *read* that file if I got connected to the 300baud modem and wanted to xfer files faster.
That was wrong of me. I should have informed Surak.
Basically, if I connected at 300baud, I would launch the script, it would crash the board, and then redial rapidly until it re-connected (and since the board had crashed, and I was redialing so fast, I was usually able to get connected to one of the faster modems).
I used it maybe two or three times?
Still a dick move, it probably caused disruption and instilled distrust.
In my defense, I was just a minor and unpaid, but I should have been holding myself to a higher standard & helping more.
Rev SnappyTwig 
@randomdent @ancient_catbus I’m not entirely sure what fidonet is. It sounds like it might have been a collection of BBSs but BBS predates it probably
Colorblind Cowboy@randomdent @ancient_catbus Oh yeah, Fidonet!