94 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
94 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
IceNEWS
|
|
______________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
IceNEWS was the official news-letter of the IceNET BBS network.
|
|
IceNET was a BBS network based around the BBS software package
|
|
WWIV. WWIV was first written by Wayne Bell (Random) in BASIC in
|
|
the early 1980's. In the mid-1980's he rewrote it in Turbo Pascal
|
|
- it first became popular around the Turbo Pascal v2.x and v3.x
|
|
versions. In the late 1980's Wayne Bell taught himself C using
|
|
Turbo C and rewrote WWIV in C, giving the world WWIV v4.x. Around
|
|
version 4.06 (if I remember correctly) Wayne Bell introduced the
|
|
concept of networking into WWIV. It was loosely based on the
|
|
networking model you see in Usenet Newsgroups.
|
|
|
|
It was around this time that WWIVnet came into existence. Due to
|
|
internal strife in the WWIVnet world, a revolution occurred and
|
|
several systems broke away to form WWIVlink. Then, in the Buffalo,
|
|
NY area Jim Nunn was setting up a BBS of his own. He decided to
|
|
use WWIV as his BBS software. But due to Western New York BBS
|
|
politics he couldn't get his Great White North BBS into WWIVnet.
|
|
So, Jim set up IceNET so that he could learn WWIV based networking
|
|
while trying to navigate the world of BBS politics to get into
|
|
WWIVnet. In that process... IceNET became a real rival to WWIVnet
|
|
in its own right.
|
|
|
|
IceNET normal perceived as above the fray of normal BBS politics
|
|
quickly grew. It then grew from a mid sized local network to a
|
|
small national network. That occurred when a local network in New
|
|
Orleans, LA asked Jim Nunn to merge IceNET with their local
|
|
network. So, it went from about 13-15 boards in WNY to about 25-30
|
|
boards in both WNY and the New Orleans, LA area.
|
|
|
|
I am not sure of this, but I think it was about this time that
|
|
IceNET became the 3rd largest WWIV based BBS network around. Every
|
|
area had its WWIVnet systems. A lot of areas had their WWIVlink
|
|
systems. Those were the national networks. Every area, from what
|
|
I have seen now, had its local WWIV based network. For a long
|
|
time, in WNY, that network was Trident<>Relay setup by Adam Lambert
|
|
(Eh ????). But Adam let that network go. He tried to make it grow
|
|
every now and then, and would asks a board or two to join it... but
|
|
then it would die again.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, to cut this story short... WWIVnet had a WWIVnews
|
|
news-letter. So, Jim Nunn thought that IceNET should have an
|
|
IceNEWS newsletter. JIm got Louis Hall (LouHal) at the The Forest
|
|
BBS in WNY to put something together. He put the first issue
|
|
together in September 1992. That first issue was not very long and
|
|
contained a few items that were local to the WNY area and to
|
|
LouHal's board itself. But there were a few folks who read it on a
|
|
regular basis and enjoyed it.
|
|
|
|
* September 1992. The first issue. LouHal was the original editor.
|
|
* October 1992.
|
|
* November 1992.
|
|
* December 1992.
|
|
* February 1993. This issue was put together by Jim, myself and
|
|
Zeus because LouHal stopped doing them.
|
|
* March 1993. This issue was the first edited by Spelunker and
|
|
Deacon Blues/The Fez.
|
|
* April 1993.
|
|
* May 1993.
|
|
* June 1993. This was the first issue done by Special Agent.
|
|
* July 1993
|
|
* December 1993. This was the first issue put out by the
|
|
reorganized team. The team was originally
|
|
Deacon Blues, Will, Ima Moron, and Jack Ryan.
|
|
I joined the staff about a month later.
|
|
This was the way it was done until Deacon and I quit.
|
|
* Jan. 1994. This was the month I joined the staff as an editor.
|
|
* February 1994.
|
|
* March 1994.
|
|
* April 1994.
|
|
* May 1994.
|
|
* June 1994.
|
|
* July 1994.
|
|
* August 1994.
|
|
* September 1994.
|
|
* November 1994.
|
|
* December 1994. This was the first issue put out primarily by Will
|
|
alone. Deacon Blues and I quit the staff this month.
|
|
* January 1995.
|
|
* June 1995. This was the last issue of IceNEWS ever done that I
|
|
know of.
|
|
|
|
I just think that the Internet should remember the BBS networks
|
|
that were what the average computer geek used before the Internet
|
|
came into every home in the world.
|
|
______________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
This page was created by and is the responsibility of
|
|
dnr@frontiernet.net. Please direct all comments toward
|
|
dnr@frontiernet.net.
|