234 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
234 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
######################
|
|
#TRANMISSION RECEIVED#
|
|
######################
|
|
|
|
|
|
L
|
|
O
|
|
A
|
|
D
|
|
I
|
|
N
|
|
G
|
|
.
|
|
.
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
############### # # ########### ########### ######## ######
|
|
# # # # # # # # ### #
|
|
# ######### # # # # # ### #
|
|
# # # ########### ######### ####### ###
|
|
# # # # # # # # # ###
|
|
# # # # # # # # # ###
|
|
# # # ########### ######## ####### #####
|
|
|
|
################ ################## # # ############################
|
|
# # ## # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # ###########################
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
# # # # # #
|
|
################# ################## # # ###########################
|
|
|
|
|
|
#############################################
|
|
#Issue 2 - For the week of 09-01 to 09-07-19#
|
|
#############################################
|
|
|
|
###########################
|
|
#Date Published - 09-03-19#
|
|
###########################
|
|
|
|
|
|
############
|
|
#New Spaces#
|
|
############
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Index:
|
|
Foreward
|
|
A2K4.com
|
|
Acid Underworld
|
|
Guide to BBS clients, part 2
|
|
Modern BBS-like communities
|
|
Links
|
|
Outro
|
|
Contact
|
|
Next Issue Preview
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
##########
|
|
#Foreward#
|
|
##########
|
|
|
|
Community. What is a community, exactly? Is it one individual guiding and creating spaces for other individuals to thrive? Or is it multiple
|
|
individuals working together, leaderless, towards a common goal? In the BBS world, it seems to be the former.
|
|
|
|
Now, this happens to have repercussions, but also makes sense, as it gives the scene a greater deal of individualism. This individualism,
|
|
wanting to stand out from the crowd, resembles the web of old. It can also make or break a community, depending on how that individual acts and
|
|
reacts to changes which are ever-present in the tech world.
|
|
|
|
The last big change in the tech world was the introduction of the GDPR, but that mostly concerned big web sites and European users. Nevertheless,
|
|
SysOps are responsible for their community and their content. What I am getting at is that corporations and governments are nowadays cracking down
|
|
on subversive content, possibly because of authoritarian regimes or "for the good of the people." I feel SysOps and the greater BBS community have
|
|
a responsiblity to ensure the future of the net remains open for all.
|
|
|
|
With that said, lets begin our journey into the world of BBSes!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
##########
|
|
#A2K4.com#
|
|
##########
|
|
|
|
A2K4.com is an interesting place. I didn't poke around too much though, to be completely honest. It had an ample assort of files, games and messageboards
|
|
to interact with, in any case. When I tried to go into the Door games menu, it said that the Door games were closed for that day. I will go in tomorrow
|
|
and see if the SysOp has put them back on.
|
|
|
|
The BBS itself didn't seem to have a lot customizations present, as far as I could tell. Hopefully I'm wrong. Another thing was that, despite there
|
|
being no door games, there was a seperate games menu. I don't know if the games present in the menu could be classified as "Door" games, however.
|
|
|
|
Overall, I did find the BBS to be pleasant, just a bit underwhelming compared to other BBSes that had loads of screens of ANSI art, Door games
|
|
and lots of chatting/msgboard activity. I think it would be great for a newbie to come to, though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#################
|
|
#Acid Underworld#
|
|
#################
|
|
|
|
This BBS was really overwhelming, in many senses of the word. It seemed to mostly focus on horror figures such as Freddy Kreuger, Elvira, zombies and
|
|
lots of other fun Halloween/horror film staples. You don't see that kind of theme, as far as I know, with a lot of other BBSes. It also seemed to be
|
|
more adult orientated than other BBSes I've been to.
|
|
|
|
There were a lot of customizations present in this BBS, from the opening screen which scrolled through with Elvira, to the second loading screen with
|
|
Freddy Kreuger, a lot of time and effort makes this BBS into something one should see at least once.
|
|
|
|
I would really like to meet the SysOp of the place, just to understand their reasoning for the theme. I would say that everyone should definitely
|
|
check out this BBS and try the various Door games, chatting and whatnot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
##############################
|
|
#Guide to BBS clients, part 2#
|
|
##############################
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you didn't know it, most systems, even nowadays come with a BBS client. It's not very good, but it's passable. The client is simply
|
|
the Telnet command. You can usually find it by either going into Command Prompt/PowerShell in Windows, the Terminal in Linux and finally
|
|
the Terminal.app in MacOSX. I assume that if you're a user of an older system, such as an Amiga, you know your way around the net with
|
|
a BBS client fairly well.
|
|
|
|
So lets talk about the Telnet command. Since it is a given that comes with most operating systems, the syntax is fairly simple as well.
|
|
Usually, lets say that you wanted to go A2K4.com. With telnet, all you would have to do is type "Telnet A2K4.com" and you should be
|
|
instantly connected to the BBS server.
|
|
|
|
The downside is that most system terminals can't interpret ANSI art well or at all, so everything will look scrambled. I suppose that if
|
|
it's a BBS without much ANSI art at all, it could work, but again, I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think you would be able to download
|
|
files either, and I'm sure chatting would be a huge mess.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#############################
|
|
#Modern BBS-like communities#
|
|
#############################
|
|
|
|
OK, so say you didn't like the general attitude of most BBSes or the method of connecting to most BBSes, since the majority still use an
|
|
insecure protocol for connection(Telnet). Good news is that there many alternatives out there. I'll list the 2 most popular.
|
|
|
|
1. SDF
|
|
2. Tilde Town
|
|
|
|
SDF started as a BBS, amazingly enough. Now, it runs as a Public Access Unix System, specifically the operating system NetBSD. NetBSD is known
|
|
to run on many, many different types of hardware. Reportedly they used to use the Linux operating system, but due to a number of breaches,
|
|
they switched the hardware from the standard x86 to some other architecture, and as Linux didn't support it well, they chose NetBSD.
|
|
|
|
I personally have an account there, and have had lots of good experiences just chatting to the myriad of users who reside on there. They
|
|
also have webmail, gopher and other assorted features for free and paying users. I would greatly recommend them. You could learn a lot
|
|
about Unix and how a community, virtually without any sort of presence on any social media nowadays, runs and feels.
|
|
|
|
You can find them at sdf.lonestar.org.
|
|
|
|
Tilde town is relatively recent compared to the likes of SDF. Nontheless, the community is very friendly and has many users. I wouldn't hesitate
|
|
to say that if you're looking for an inclusive community that will welcome you with open arms, tilde town is that one.
|
|
|
|
There is a lot to do on tilde town, from chatting to posting the msgboard. They also have an internal email system, which makes it easy to send
|
|
email to anyone on the system with the program called 'Alpine'.
|
|
|
|
I've learned a lot from there and so encourage you to join as well.
|
|
|
|
You can find them at tilde.town.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#######
|
|
#Links#
|
|
#######
|
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.telnet.org/
|
|
|
|
Features telnet how-tos, places to telnet to and more!
|
|
|
|
https://tildeverse.org/
|
|
|
|
Place to find tilde.town and many other modern BBS-like communities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#######
|
|
#Outro#
|
|
#######
|
|
|
|
I hope you've enjoyed this issue of the BBS Zine. I would like to thank my friends and others in their respective communities for their
|
|
helpful comments and contributions in order to make this happen. Without you folks, I wouldn't have the energy to do this!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#########
|
|
#Contact#
|
|
#########
|
|
|
|
For questions, concerns, comments and anything else, please contact me at the following:
|
|
mhj@sdf.org
|
|
|
|
Thank you.
|
|
|
|
############
|
|
#Next Issue#
|
|
############
|
|
|
|
Subtitle:
|
|
Here and Now
|
|
|
|
BBSes:
|
|
After Hours
|
|
Afterlife
|
|
|
|
Columns:
|
|
FIDONet
|
|
Decentralization and BBSes
|
|
|
|
More coming soon...!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
####################
|
|
#TRANSMISSION ENDED#
|
|
####################
|