[kwlug-disc] a present for the older guys here...

[jekerr at sdf.org]

> https://bytecellar.com/bbsing/
> _______________________________________________
> kwlug-disc mailing list
> To unsubscribe, send an email to kwlug-disc-leave at kwlug.org
> with the subject "unsubscribe", or email
> kwlug-disc-owner at kwlug.org to contact a human being.
>

When I was fresh out of Sheridan College with my Library Techniques
Diploma I obtained my first library position partly due to my diploma, but
mainly because I knew how to establish an online database, and back in the
days of DOS and 1200 baud modems, few people had any idea as to how to do
that. How? every BBS had a file download component that gave the ability
to search the file collection by keyword or file name and in the case of
text files, keyword search within a file. There you have it! An online
database.

My curiosity of BBSing won the day for me. PCboard was my software, and
then when the Major BBS came out with the graphics ability I went with it.
But when I purchased the software they had just released an Internet
connectivity component. Since I was based at the University of Guelph
attaching my BBS to the Internet was easy.
Excehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Major_BBSpt that....
It also came with a web server component. So I presented our information
on a web server and within a few months there was no activity on the BBS,
everything was accessed (and accessed by a much wider audience) on the web
server. That was in 1994.

Not too long after that, the commercial BBS software companies went
bankrupt. This included companies that created the software and the BBS
sites. Canada Remote Systems, one of the most popular BBS vendors made a
gallant effort to stay relevant but they too bit the dust to the WWW.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCBoard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Major_BBS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Remote_Systems

It was around 1994 that the world changed but by 1996 it was all over for
the BBS .

Cheers
John
Cheers,
John Kerr