260 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
260 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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...::::....::::::::........::.........:::..
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| : ø ø : ~,~~
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- (.) - : ø ø ø ø : /-)(
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| t-file : ø Hallucinatory Oyster Burrito ø : ()=
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assault : ø ø ø : HOOKA!
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.:.....:......::::........:::........:::.:.
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21 December 1995 Issue #42
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As the old cliche' goes, "All good things must come to an end". The
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fact is, however, that the forces of entropy effect all things with
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equal measure - both good and ill. Perhaps then we must thank those
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same entropic forces for finally putting an end to the Stark County
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Modem community.
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The Stark County Modem Community is now officially dead.
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You may wonder why it is I would say such a thing, or better still,
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just who the hell I think I am to be making such a statement about local
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telecom. Well, i'll tell you.
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My name is The Dark Jester. I received my first modem in December of 1986.
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The modem was a Commodore 1660 300 baud modem. For the time it was quite
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advanced. 1200 baud modems were a bit less than a year away. With the
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exception of Gary Cox, the system operator of CanCom, I am the oldest
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surviving modem user in the county. There are one or two people who were
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on the scne before I was, but they dropped out of the community for some
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time where I did not.
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I've run three incarnations of a BBS called The House of the Rising Sun.
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All three were run on a Commodore 64 and ranged from a limited hour (nightly)
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BBS at 300 baud and one disk drive to a 24 hour BBS with a 1200 baud modem
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and three disk drives. I was a sysop of a system called The Forgotten Realm,
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which I ran with a friend of mine named Mike. Most recently, I was a sysop
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of a BBS called Radio KAOS. The owner of the BBS, Kevin Amstutz, asked for
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my help in running it. Kevin himself had run several BBS systems in the past
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with various names and using various equipment.
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I've used several handles over the years - some silly, others just rather
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amusing or atleast reflecting a current interest. Some of the more memorable
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ones are: The Ninja Master, Subatomic Particle, Mourngrym Amcathra, Elminster,
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and most recently - The Dark Jester.
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Over my almost 10 year modeming career i've seen many people - both good
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and bad - pass through the local modem community. Some great people i've met
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and are worth mentioning: Buckwheat (Dante), The Prophet (Shane), Cassandra
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(Dawyn), Amberle (Jenni), Grizzly (Rick), Sorc/Amphetamine Gobbler/Gott
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(Ryan), Albanara (Eric).
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Some "interesting" folks: Jian the Mystic/Moonshadow (Kevin), Reign of
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Terror (Dave), The Terrokian (Junior), Cal Edain (Jane), Thy Magician
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(Steve), S.S. Sigue/The Density Knight (Kyle), The Human Computer (Mike),
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Allia, Muad Dib (Paul), Long John Silver (John), Enchanter/Enchantress &
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family, Lady Mercury (Julie), Shadowspawn (Dan), Shadowhawk (Troy),
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Hubcap, ... and so many others, it's incrediably hard to remember them all.
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I should write a book!
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There are a few people I can think of who were really very sad and pathetic
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people who obviously didn't have a lot of love in their lives growing up and
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wanted attention anyway they could get it. We'll just skip over them.
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Some innovations I brought to the community include: the all-text BBS
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concept, successful creative writing message bases, various message base
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concepts, the introduction of the Telegard BBS system to the community
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(Telegard was the forerunner of Renegade), and various other ideas and
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projects including the revival of the Modem Wrestling Federation text file
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series and the creation of the Underground Alliance - a group dedicated to
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quality telecom in the mid/late 80's. At that time, most BBS systems were
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affiliated with a users group that was very authoritarian in nature. Many
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sysops wanted an alternative.
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Some people have spread rumors that I was somewhat involved in hacking
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in my youth and was heavily involved in phone phreaking (the illegal use
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of long distance services). As such activities are illegal I would of course
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NEVER participate in any of them. (stares at ceiling, crosses fingers)
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You may be asking yourself, "Well, this strole down memory lane is
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pretty interesting ... but what does it have to do with telecom in the
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local community?" I'm glad you asked.
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In the beginning, there was the computer. The computer was difficult to
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use and had few applications (software) for people to use. Then, came the
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truly home computer - the Commodore 64 series and the Atari 800 series
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8-bit computers. They were user friendly (I speak from a Commodore view
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point. I know little about Atari), there were games available, and it was
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easy to buy hardware for them and connect it. Just a plug here or there.
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Modems became available.
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Early telecom revolved around the bulletin board system. People who used
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BBSs tended to be fairly intelligent people or atleast devoted to their
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hobby. Modems were expensive, so people who used them were really involved
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in the hobby.
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With the advent of the IBM clone, modems started showing up in every
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PC. While this is good in the sense that new people were getting connected -
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it was bad for the over all quality of the user base. People who were not
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very interested in participating (ie. posting/reading messages) started
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to appear. They would download software, play games, but do little else.
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There were at first few of these people. As time went on, their numbers
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increased. Today most BBS users devote themselves to the door games available
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or to a teleconference if the BBS system they use has one. Intelligent,
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though provoking conversation has fallen by the wayside for most.
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As I said, the early days of telecom had people who were very dedicated
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involved. As time went on, local telecom began to experience declines and
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gains in quality of users and activity. Every so often a band of really
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interesting and intelligent people would show up on the scene and there
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was usually a sysop somewhere with the insight to create a BBS for them to
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use.
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The last BBS system of what we can call the "Classic" era of modeming
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was Forgotten Realms BBS, which I helped to run with a friend. It had a
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great deal of activity.
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The beginning of the modern age began with the Dragon's Lair BBS. Former
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Forgotten Realms user Ryan Baguerous wanted to run his own BBS and continue
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some of what he saw on FR. His system was set-up for conversation, and that's
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what it got. Meanwhile, I went off to college. Dorm life didn't agree with me,
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so I came back home to commute to school. Ryan and I chatted and I gave him
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a suggestion for a new BBS name: The Necropolis. I ever wrote a little story
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about the board's background based upon some fantasy books by Raymond E.
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Feist. While the modem community itself went into decline, the Necropolis
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was fanning the last embers of what was left of the classic age of modeming.
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Friendships, quality conversations, creativity.
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Wildcat software marked a steady decline in telecom. The ability for someone
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who had no experience as a user to suddenly place a BBS system online spawned
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some of the worst systems in the community's history. The Ultimate (Hardly),
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Wildthing, Wizard's Castle ... these were some of the names. With the except-
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ion OF those names the systems were all the same. I coined the phrase
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"xerox syndrome" for these sorts of systems that were devoid of creativity
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and innovation.
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The final blow to the community came with the rise of the Canton Connection
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bulletin board system. While the system at first was fairly unpopular
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(it first ran on a Commodore 8-bit when such systems were no longer cutting
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edge) it grew in popularity as it grew in size. Users who had never posted
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a message in their lives found the teleconference function to be a dream
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come true.
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It would be a mistake to think that I blame TCC for the destruction of
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local telecom. Certainly, sysop Larry Smith (Loveless) was only trying
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to create a popular and cutting edge system. It is simply unfortunate that
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he choose to appeal to the least common denominator instead of stressing
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participation in the message areas and creative thought in general. While
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a core few people became almost fanatical in their devotion to the
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Necropolis BBS most other users chose to become members of TCC. Differences
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in philosophy when it came to the purpose of a BBS and free speech issues
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flared into conflict between the two boards when Necropolis sysop Ryan
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Baguerous discovered certain facts concerning the true identity of the
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TCC sysop Larry Smith (Loveless) as well as uncovering allegations of
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illegal activity involving pornography and minors. At this time I had been
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banned from TCC for some time for reasons that were never made clear to me
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and so was willing to help Ryan discover more about the behind the scenes
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action at TCC. A dislike and acute paranoia seems to exist to this day on the
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part of Mr. Smith (Loveless) towards me ... even more so than toward Ryan,
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although my involvement with Ryan and his investigations was minimal at best.
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The reason for this is unknown, although I suspect I was blamed for things
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that may have been engaged in by other parties. My true role in the
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investigations was usually little more than a source of advice for Ryan
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or as a sounding board for ideas.
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The Necropolis went down and Jerith, a former Necropolis user, placed a BBS
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online as a replacement - the Virtual Underdark. VU never really became a
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replacement for Necro. because Jerith didn't have Ryan (Sorc's) vision and
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interests to help to create the atmosphere needed for intellectual/debate
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oriented discussions. Shortly after VU, I was asked to help run Radio KAOS by
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an old modeming pal named Jian the Mystic. Radio KAOS was a very stressful time
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for me. I had a vision of what I wanted to do with the system, but I often
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had a difficult time expressing what I wanted in terms Jian could understand.
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Jian often wanted to do things that I knew would not work ... but that I really
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had little choice but to let him attempt. Although the system was in my
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estimation successful ... it could have been more so. I was often frustrated
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by the fact that much of my users log consisted of people who were gripped
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by today's apathetic mood. The new user message specifically would tell users
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that participation was a part of the system raison etre and that users
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who didn't post messages would be deleted. Many users were outraged by this
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requirement and its enforcement. They were used to TCC and multi lines. They
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weren't used to being asked for something. How DARE I insist that people who use
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my FREE BBS abide by the rules I create? How DARE I delete users who either
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just ignored the new users message or who DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO READ IT!
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Ryan, Jian and I joked that it might be fun to put a clause inthe message
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that said that signing up for an account was an acceptance of the system rules.
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One rule was to be that the user should send in $1,000 in cash for a lifetime
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membership. People who didn't read would be called and asked for the
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money and threatened with a lawsuit if they didn't comply! :)
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Finally, early in 1995, Ryan Baguerous placed his last BBS system online -
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The Seinsfrage. Using the handle Gotterdammerung, Ryan attempted to re-create
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his system in a new image complete with brand new software no one was using
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(everyone in the community had joined his bandwagon and had switched to
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Renegade) and internet access in the form of e-mail and newsgroups. It also
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had netmail.
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Problems with the software and a lack of intelligent and interesting users
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eventually led to the system's demise. Ryan had tried to plant the seed of
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creativity but the ground was no longer suitable for such things. The
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user base was mostly teenaged and they hungered for video games and
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easy, quick, innane chatter ... not serious discussions where they would have
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to THINK and use their minds!
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So, that was the end. There are other local systems besides TCC ... but
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but they're not used much in comparison to the juggernaut of local telecom.
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People rarely post, instead calling whenever they can't get on an open
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TCC phone line to log on.
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So ended the classic era, and the modern era which was the remnance of
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classic. Now begins the future era! The INTERNET! That's where I am. I fled
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to it when I couldn't stand the stagnation of the local scene anymore. I speak
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to people on IRC chat ... about things that are interesting and matter. I've
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met some wonderful friends - one of which who actually visits me when she
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can. I've used the World Wide Web and read about things ... and there's
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so much out there. I've even connected to BBS systems accessable through
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the net, although most of them are pay - another sign of the decline of
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telecom in general.
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The 'net is the new realm for the telecom hobbiest. The nit-wits can sit
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around in chat rooms and chat about absolutely nothing. The perverts
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can sit in rooms and wait for women who will never arrive. The rest of us
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can get together and meet new friends and learn more about our world.
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The net is the future and while the local scene may be dead and gone, a
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new scene is out there waiting for those who wish to embrace it.
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You can obtain Internet access through your local university or school
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system. Check with administration from either for details. It's often possible
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to avoid paying a provider. After all, the net is based in large part in
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University computer systems and universities are funded by tax dollars. Why
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SHOULD you pay to access the Net?
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Here ends the last Hallucinatory Oyster Burrito, a `zine that was a
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continuation of the Distorted Digital Erection 'zine which was a product of
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the creative minds at the Necropolis BBS. Check out these 'zines on the
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BBS systems listed below. They're great.
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We've come full circle. I've loved almost every minute of my time
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involved in modeming. I'm sad to see the end of something I enjoyed so much,
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but I know nothing can truly last forever.
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Good-bye local modem community. Hello Global Village!
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- The Dark Jester
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`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
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Hallucinatory Oyster Burrito
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An AUFHEBEN Production! support: tyrant: numbah:
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"Why, I don't know much of Mission: TBx2 .. Skyhawk ... 330.837.5839
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anything!" - Eraserhead
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_Submission Policy_: Hallucinatory Oyster Burrito is into subs!
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If you write something - anything - send it to us and we'll get it
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to press. For contacting HOB, see below.
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Want to be a support board for HOB? Download ALL the HOB's and DDE's
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create a file sig on your board, and let me know. Your BBS will
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be listed. To contact us, send e-mail to the internet address
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listed. E-Mail: bp648@yfn.ysu.edu
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`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
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-eof-
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