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#############################################
#Issue 4 - For the week of 9/15 - 9/21/19   #
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#Date Published - 9/15/19 #
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#A Different Kind of Place#
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Index:
Foreward
Alien Alcove
Aleco Experience
The emerging Gemini protocol
Raspberry Pi and BBSes
Game of the Week
Links
Outro
Contact
Next Issue Preview


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#Foreward#
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We're already in the 4th issue, and we've only covered 6 BBSes out of, according to the Telnet BBS Guide, 500 I believe. Who knows how many of those BBSes will be down by the time we get to them and how many new BBSes will arise? 

I've been trying to get through them in alphabetical order, but I realize that's kinda boring. To that end, I plan to now pick 2 random BBSes at a time in order to spice things up a bit. Also, while I hang around on BBSes, I want to try to see more of the community there. I feel like most of the time I'm just there to look at the same things everytime, which doesn't really set every BBS apart.

What I've gathered is that most of the time BBSes have games, email, intra-network messaging, files and ascii art. Rarely do I see anything deviate from that, but given that I don't have much experience interacting on BBSes still and the fact that I've never run one, I want to fix that. I'm really happy to be learning more about BBSes as go along for the ride, and I want to hear more stories from BBS veterans about what they've found on BBSes, if they met fellow BBS people in real life, and so on and so forth. I hope you'll continue to come with me on my journey!


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#Alien's Alcove#
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Alien's Alcove, I could certainly call it an interesting place. It's very minimalist and bare, as I could only see art on the login page. I didn't check to see if there was any other art anywhere else. 

I checked the games menu and there was a list of a ton of games. Very cool on that front. I could always use more door games to try. I think this is one aspect you should definitely go there to check out.

I didn't talk to the SysOp or any members because I didn't go to the chatroom, but the next time I visit, I might cover this BBS again and tell you what I think about the community.


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#Aleco Experience#
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This BBS was honestly similar to the one above, with many games and I assume, many files, but not too much in the way of art. Aleco Experience seems to be mostly about messaging and such, and the interface feels a bit cramped to be honest. But I'm sure one could eventually get used to it, especially if there's a vibrant community just waiting to be discovered. 

If you love BBSes like Alien's Alcove, also give Aleco Experience a shot.


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#The emerging Gemini protocol#
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If you spend your time in Unix-like communities, sometimes you hear about things like the Gopher protocol, although that is once in a blue moon. The gopher protocol was a protocol before the web. The main thing about the gopher protocol is that it is purely text-based. In today's world of constant images, ads and malware and so much other things, it's nice to see something so pure in execution. The Gemini protocol is, from what I understand, more complex than gopher but less complex than the web. 

The specifications of the gemini protocol are still being discussed at this time, so it's something to look out for, for fans of mostly text based net browsing. I have no idea what the final specifications will look like, but I am hoping that it will help to stir a better, safer and more informative net. 


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#Raspberry Pi and BBSes     #
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Raspberry Pi's have come a long way. The Pi 4 series apparently has enough power to be able to function as a low-end desktop, although, since it's ARM, there are obviously caveats to that. The Pi, all of the series, however, are good for home hosting. For instance, in my case, I run a SAMBA server to host files to easily get from any computer on the network. It makes sense that BBS software has followed suite with the trend of being ported to ARM, or at least able to run under a DOS emulator on the Pi. 

I'd say in 3/5 cases, the BBSes I've connected to say that they're being under Linux on a Pi. I think that this is a especially good trend, as Pi's are cheap and easy to use, it allows anyone to get into the BBS game. I hope with the Pi 4's power, more BBS software will end being ported to it and that we see many more BBSes pop up over time.


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#Game of the Week#
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Stack 'Em

Basically a Tetris clone, still fun though. Tetris never gets old in my eyes. If your BBS has this door game, get to the highest score! I think what would be good would be a shared BBS score system, so that people from all BBSes could see how they stack up not only their own BBSes, but others as well that have the same game.


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#Links#
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https://www.raspberrypi.org/ 

The Raspberry Pi website, features tutorials and more.


https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki?action=tag;id=Gemini

Alex Schroeder's blog. This is the tag concerning the Gemini protocol, which is being worked on by solderpunk. 


#######
#Outro#
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I hope you enjoyed this BBS Zine! I'm looking for a guest columnist for the next issue, so if you'd like to contribute, see my email address below.


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#Contact#
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For questions, concerns, comments and anything else, please contact me at the following:
mhj@sdf.org

Thank you.


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#Next Issue#
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BBSes:
Alpha Centauri
Amiga City
Columns:
Guest column
Linux and BBSes
The DOS era
Game:
LORD II





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