Pimm Fox
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 .
Michael Bacon@randomdent Dial-in local BBS systems such as Wildcat!, QBBS, MajorBBS, Citadel, etc.
Howlin’ HobbitI ran a TriBBS for a while, complete with EchoMail for forums and private messages. it was set up like a phone tree, in that you had a scheduled time to contact your “hub” and swap message packages. it was automated and, unless you had a multi-line BBS your board would go offline during the swap.
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.
@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!
Greg Harvey 🌍@randomdent I put Myspace, but it was probably really ICQ. Apparently it's still going!? 🤯
grahamsz@greg_harvey @randomdent Is it really!?
I still know my ICQ #
@grahamsz @randomdent Heh, I found mine in a keepass database and tried it, but the login didn't work any more and I think the password reset email was my old university one, which won't have worked since 1999, so that was that. 😂
evilmiera
Logan@randomdent @greg_harvey @grahamsz I was alive for BBS and maybe posted a few things but I feel like that shouldn’t count.
Perhaps that’s why ICQ excluded? I remember it being more of a Messenger and not a Network.
What’s the difference?
A network allows for people to create and share content publicly within the network. 🤔
@llbbl @randomdent @grahamsz Makes sense, I only mention it because IRC was on there. Which I discovered shortly after ICQ. 😎
@llbbl @randomdent @greg_harvey Yeah I'd tend to agree. I'm still friends with a few people I met on IRC a quarter century ago :)
Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣If you haven't logged-in to your ICQ since it was bought by a Russian company, don't. Once you do and you don't login for 1 year, they'll delete your account without any warning, and they won't recover it.
But accounts which were not logged-in before they took over remain in the system, in case the owner returns. (I think it was part of their acquisition condition.)
I lost my account that way. It was UIN: 17787180.
@youronlyone @greg_harvey @randomdent I tried to log into 7299123 and was 90% sure I knew the password but couldn't figure it out. More just curiosity than anything else
You have to reset with the email that was last attached to it. At least that's what I did when I first tried to reactivate it. But once you do, you'll have to log in at least once a year. They'll also migrate your account to the “new ICQ”.
Then again, no one in my ICQ contacts are using it anymore, everyone were offline last time I had access. ^_^;;
It's surprising the new owner is keeping it alive, when AIM, YM, MSN messengers were long gone.
@youronlyone @greg_harvey @randomdent Alas I no longer have that email, so i guess that's the problem.
My parents have remarkably not changed ISP in 27 years, but they changed the format of their email addresses so I doubt I can get in to reactivate it.
Isla_Wren@greg_harvey @randomdent Noooooo way! ICQ, that was late '90s wasn't it?!
Satan@randomdent no BBS? Pfft
Not really social network I suppose.
It'll be IRC or Newsgroups then, I can't remember what I used first in this life
Michèle SharikBBS is the 1st option. "bbs/fidonet"
@ladysun1969 @randomdent I'm blind!
I blame my human
@satan @ladysun1969 you're not. i edited it soon afterwards. sorry for confusion!
@randomdent @ladysun1969 it's okay. You can blame my human as well 😈😈
Eve@randomdent don’t forget MUDs and the chat websites! I think I was on chatterbox the most.
Delajor🍞@randomdent America Online Chat rooms.
@Onsequitur @randomdent And Prodigy too.
fogs☁️
@Onsequitur @randomdent 🫰🫰🫰The X-Files AOL chatrooms & message boards were where it was *at*
joy larkin 🌺✨@randomdent BBS - I was primarily on hacks.arizona.edu
Sunflower Björnskalle 🌻@randomdent I was on some Taoist and Buddhist usenet groups, but I don't know if that was before or after I discovered IRC... probably before but who knows. Mailing lists were last because that had to have come after I discovered UNIX which I learned about from IRC.
Aurynn Shaw@randomdent voted for IRC, but it was ICQ that really started it for me
isabel 
@aurynn @randomdent is icq based on irc? i used it when i was 6 to send my brother keyboard smashes and then forgot about it so i never learned mich about how it works
@dxciBel @randomdent ICQ was the first instant messaging protocol ... app ... thing.
Ada@aurynn @dxciBel @randomdent I still remember my ICQ number off the top of my head for some reason...
@ada @randomdent @dxciBel Me too.
Me too.
@ada @aurynn @randomdent man i had like 3 because i kept forgetting passwords (and the number itself) but i remember my last one started with 348? i was in elementary school? why is this a core memory??
Christopher@ada @aurynn @randomdent @dxciBel I still have access to my account! None of my contacts have been online since 2004...
@aurynn @ada @randomdent @dxciBel Nope. They're still limping along. Some Russian company bought it off of AOL quite a few years ago now and have been trying to position it as a mobile messenger and, more lately, video conferencing platform.
One should very much not use it.
zahl