Showing My Age Now.
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Showing my age now.
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OMG!!
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I used to run/host a 6-line BBS system for LGBTQ (just "gays and lesbians" back then!) on the Space Coast of Florida.
The best part of it was that I didn't have to download the images - they were right there on my system!
I had some problems with it when I had a BF though - he would login and do things (read other people's messages, approve memberships, etc) without my knowledge. He let a couple of kids join (I always required ID - he was more interested that they were cute!), and that nearly got me shutdown!
The BBS (I named it Space Coast MOTSS after the UseNet group MOTSS - for Members Of The Same Sex) long outlived my relationship with my ex (he was actually my first ever boyfriend!)... but I closed it down when I moved to the west coast of Florida ca. 1992.
Six modems back in the day (14.4kbps - v.32bis!)!
We were one of only 2 in the area that had multiple lines, so you might - might - actually be able to chat live with someone!
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I never had the patience for that stuff. When I saw the work involved........ And the load of configurations... OMFG! Those configurations. Hell no! I'll just login to other people's BBSes. In many ways, those days were the best. You couldn't get much more private than a BBS.
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@anythingold said in Showing My Age Now.:
You couldn't get much more private than a BBS.
That is somewhat less true than you know. We were just individuals - and sometimes the cops came calling... different sysops handled things differently.
I actually helped organize other local sysops (gay, straight, non-sexual BBSes all together) to help standardize how we did things (learn from each other). Many of us (BBS Owners) would get requests by police from time to time! They were NOT oblivious!
Brevard County Sheriffs knew me and knew I was happy to help when it was a case of violence, or theft, or the like... but NOT willing to help in (the thankfully rare) case of "outing someone" (mostly they didn't care if you were gay, but sometimes I'd get subpoenaed in a divorce case (trying to prove infidelity, esp same-sex infidelity) or some lame indecency suit... we did NOT comply with those, and I had some limited ACLU support in that.)
Honestly, the only cases where we (BCSD and I) truly butted heads were the prostitution cases... I wouldn't support giving up data for that.
So, by way of examples:
- Is/Was Bob Smith a member of your system (will not answer)
- Is the user aaa actually Bob Smith (will not answer)
- Is Bob Smith actually the user aaa (will not answer)
- We already know Bob Smith is user aaa - is he of legal age? (IF TRUE, we provide copy of ID. IF NOT, we did not - and we wouldn't allow "fishing" either...)
- We believe Bob Smith is engaging in prostitution, can we read their messages and confirm? (will not answer)
- Bob Smith was attacked, and we believe he was setup by users on your BBS... (We had this happen: We got Bob's permission* - then WE (not police) perused "Bob"'s messages and determined that he WAS setup. We provided ALL copies of his messages to/fro the attacker & I testified in court. Lawyers wanted ALL of their (perp's) messages, but I declined to provide that. I DID, however, send a note to ALL PERSONS the offender messaged on our system, giving them the scoop and providing a police number to report any additional offenses to.
The point is, though, some SysOps would comply completely with the police, and in some jurisdictions, those were fishing expeditions - trying to "out the queers" and charge them with indecency for posting nude pictures!
(Remember: at dial-up speeds, you got PICS, not VIDEOS!)
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Yeah, but I think you where in an entirely different situation. For me, I think I indirectly discovered BBS through my relationships with groups such as NYMUG and NYPC. I also had a few close friends that ran a few BBS. They were very exclusive, my friends wasn't playing any games. We understood we didn't have any high-level security back then (in terms of software), so the forums we had were very vulnerable. In fact we were still using D.O.S. back then.
