My first connection to the online world was Prodigy in 1991 on my Tandy 1000 EX with a 1200 baud modem. Later that year I was dialing into local BBSes, and by 1992 I'd started my own. After a brief experiment with WWIV BBS software, which I found a bit lacking in form and function, I ran Telegard and Renegade, eventually connecting to FidoNet (1:273/741, holla!) and becoming a hub for a couple of smaller Fido-style networks.

My board was focused on social interaction on the message boards, though the door games were pretty popular as well. We did a bit of warez trading in the file section, but I tried to keep that to a minimum to avoid the line being tied up 24/7 with file transfers.

I have many very fond memories of those days. Being part of the local BBS scene gave me a creative outlet, as well as a level of social interaction that I couldn't get in school. I made many great friends from local BBSes, including some that went to my school, but who I never got to know well until we started interacting online.

It was really fun because it all felt very cutting-edge and new at that time, and we were all part of this exclusive club (or at least we thought it was exclusive.) BBSing defined much of who I was as a teenager, and undoubtedly pushed me in the direction of a career as a software developer.

I connected to a few Internet-connected BBSes before I went off to college, but I think I liked BBSes more at that time because they had a local feel to them. Aside from the few folks who could afford unlimited long distance plans, a vast majority of BBS users were from the same area code as you were, which means you had a lot more in common with them, and you could go meet them in person if you wanted to. The internet felt too "big" to me at that time, whereas dialup BBSes had that Cheers "everyone knows your name^[[D^[[D^[[D^[[Dhandle" feel to them.

Going off to college and getting on the Internet more, I started to see the writing on the wall for the BBS scene as I knew it, but I still kept mine running for much of my freshman year. After I euthanized it, I kept a floppy disk backup of the BBS in the hopes of keeping it as a time capsule, but of course the disks went bad and it was irrevocably lost. I'd love to be able to peek at some of those chat logs and forum discussions some 15 years later.

I still haven't seen the BBS documentary, but I've seen some clips from it and it looks like something I'd enjoy watching. Thanks for reminding me about it and bringing back some good memories.