gone are the days

...or are they just re-formed? A long, long time ago - I feel like breaking into song - before the Internet was invented by Al Gore ;-), there were BBSes. I spent some brief time in 1985-1986 as a SysOp and Co-SysOp of two different BBSes in Oklahoma. I think I was also the mascot of another, but I can't be sure. The one of which I was Co-SysOp was of some note here and the other one only had one or two users. Most of the time I spent writing and responding to forums or discussions which is much the same as I do now. I also dabbled a bit into ASCII art which was amusing. Today I noticed that there is a discussion going on at metafilter about this very same topic. One trend that I hadn't picked up on, I'm a little slow sometimes, and someone else did was the fact that BBSes and Blogs have quite a bit in common (they also have quite a bit in common with dicussion boards and the like - but we'll stick with this topic). I think they have a very valid point: "I've recently become interested in the parallels between the BBS scene of the early 1990s and the blog scene of today. I used to run a BBS in the 314 AC, and was involved in the scene for a number of years. In particular, I spent a lot of time on BBSes that had a regular user base and a focus on message boards. These BBSes make me think of blogs, most notably for the types of relationships that they foster." In my opinion, blogs do foster relationships and can help revive old ones (I have briefly gone off on this tangent before here and here). I also noticed a link to BBSmates that I will have to check out when I get a chance. Could it be that the BBSers of old have just found a new voice? Technorati tag: bbs relationships and memories