Tuesday, November 30, 2004

The Internet as it has evolved.

I do not know where to start. So, ususally the best place is to start at the beginning.

During the fall of my sophmore year in college. 1992, I found a way to talk to people at other schools. I went to an all womens college and by going over to the computer science dept and signing up....you could email midshipmen! The USNA was our brother school. I went to a "snotty all girls school" called Hood. --sidenote: Hood went coed recently.

It was during the exchange of emails that i learned a lot about the internet as it existed in that days form. Email, Talk were standards for every Hood girl who had a vax account. But as I started talking to one midshipmen, Baldo; He introduced me to another feature. Telnet.

He had a list of BBS's for me to use. I was able to talk to people at all different schools. BBS's are ancient chat programs. you could log in, post your thoughts, share a poem, play a game of online truth or dare, make some pretty good friends and waste 100's of hours a month. Good times.

My first BBS was freedom BBS out of NMSU. There was a 10 person limit and ususally a 2 hour que to get on. We "moved" to Auggie BBS as a group because even though they had more members they had more slots. More people could be online at a time. From there of course, we lurked on other BBS's. Badboy, ISCA, etc.. I remember hiding on a brazil board to chat with one person so that I was not getting beeped every 2 mins.

From Auggie BBS I have met over 160 people face to face. That BBS changed my life in so many ways. Those people changed me. I will never forget those people I met there. Some of the most amazing poets I ever read posted there. I met one of my best "on campus" friends... on that BBS. We didnt know each other until we posted to each other online.

But the most amazing thing is, I met my husband on that BBS. For 6 years we were just best friends. Now, we have 3 children.

The internet is no longer the small community I once knew. As we have all drifted apart over the years, a small group of us still meet and chat at an ezwebsite.

I miss many of the people who over the years I have lost contact with. Every once in a while, I still run into someone from there. Most recently I met an old Auggie person at this website. I do not seem to fit in there very well and tend to have gotten on the wrong side of most of the users there. There are others that now and then I get an email from.... But as the internet has grown, I have lost my place there.

People now are easily offended when you tell them what you think. Maybe I am just too much of a cynic. But I miss the days of Muds and telnet BBS's. When the web was not a city..but instead a small town. Where just about every where you went, you ran into the same people.

I miss my "bbs family". Dragons are hard to find now a days. They are still out there though. lurking, pillaging and eating virgins. The Shadow Dragon gave me my window to the world. So, that I never felt lost. Only, lately....my window is in a whole different building then everyone elses.

I have always lived in my own world, but I was not the only one living in thier own world back in the early days. Change happens, but it is not always good. The sense of community is no longer there. No, the internet was not safer then. But the people you met were more true to who they were. More accepting of thier differances. Maybe it is because we were all geeks. Maybe it was because we all had finally found a place that we belonged. But it was a different place, then what it is today.

We lived in a world where sig files were filled with ascii art. Where most people were either computer sci majors or poets...some were both. When mudding was good fun and knowing how was a skill you needed to communicate. Where festing meant driving as far as you could afford to meet and drink a lot of alcohol with people you had already shared all your deep dark secrets with.

It was an amazing time. Thank you for the all the memories to those who were there.