Whatever happened to Australian BBS computing ????
( besides the internet killing it off )

Memoirs by SysOp : "Magic" ( Marty ),
The Meeting Place BBS, Victoria, 1990-2000
Created: Feb 2010.

Ex-SYSOPS & USERS.... Feel free to : EMAIL ME !!!

Since i live in Victoria, this will be heavily focussed on local VIC BBSing ...
I welcome anyone from all states across Oz to share there BBS memories as SysOps or Users, I'll happily post your comments here if you like ...

My humble Beginnings ...
Although i completely missed the early 80's computer scene, (could never afford a PC), i started relatively 'late' in the BBS scene
and i'll backtrack as much as i can from 1990-2000....

In a way, it was lucky for me that i missed the 80's BBS scene with 300baud modems and/or Viatel with a massive 1200/75 baudrate...

My entry to BBSing was somewhere around 1989/90, armed with a 2400baud modem and a 486 PC.
After being shown what a BBS was (by a work collegue) i was amazed how easily a bikini girl .Gif could be downloaded to my screen ;-)

256 colour-shading was absolutely mind blowing, and it didn't take long to continue downloading every girly pic in the state, plus
the odd Apogee game or art-scene 'demo'...

CONNECT 2400 ...
OK
Once i was given a copy of the ever-popular TELIX terminal program, i sat at home one Friday night with the latest BBS-phone list,
and dialled away the night.
I must have rang 200-300 BBS' over that weekend, logging in, having a look around to see what each BBS had to offer me, and either Leech
whatever i could as a new-user, or hangup never to return again.

After keeping notes on the more favourable BBS', and culling my Telix phone-list down to about 50 BBS', i started building
quite a collection of .Gifs and games....
Later, I started finding some BBS actually had 2 phone lines, and i could send messages to the user on the other line...amazing !!!

I got to know one guy fairly well, let's call him Fred, and i used to see his name on several BBS'...
Fred told me one day to ring his BBS that he'd just been setting up.
He needed someone to dial-in and checkout the menus & features, making sure eveything worked from the user-side of things.

So, i rang Fred's BBS, and each time i was in a menu he would break-into live SysOp chat, and tell me which bit to test next...
I was stoked to learn that a BBS could be setup at home, for some reason i thought they were all run from business' and shops.

He explained all i need is some BBS software, a phone line, and several hours (more like 100 hahaha) to configure everything.

Starting My Own BBS ...
At the time, i noticed a LOT of BBS were running "RA"(Remote Access), so that's what i installed and setup for myself.
Using my file collection, i starteted creating file categories, and topical message areas to get things started.
I asked Fred to dial into my BBS, and test it out....a few glitches here'n'there, but overall it was working as planned.

I dialled-in to many of the 2-line BBS's and messaged anyone else online to come and try my BBS out.
From memory i ran my BBS as a 1-line system for most of 1990/91.
I only ran limited hours from 11pm to 6am, as i was using my parents phone line at the time which was an inconveniance for all of us ;-)

It didn't take long for me to book a new phoneline to be installed for my bedroom, and my 24/7 BBS was born....

Looking back at an old BBS-VIC listing, i registered my BBS on the VIC BBS Registry in 1992, although i'd unofficially been running
since 1990/91.

Discovering "Multi-Line" BBS' ...
Sometime in early 90's, i dialled into a BBS called "Talk Channel", it boasted something like 3 lines (or maybe 5?).
It had an unusual concept that the chatroom featured 'channels' like a CB radio, and you'd find a user online, both agree to go to
channel X, and meet in there for a 1-to-1 conversation.
Once inside the channel (or 'room', as we know it nowadays) you had the options to prevent visitors popping in, or inviting other people into your channel.
Around the same time i found Talk Channel, i also discovered 'Suburbia', which also featured 4 (or maybe 6?) lines too..

The BIG "Multi-Liners" ...
Further to the above BBS', i stumbled across a giant in the scene, named Nemesis BBS (SysOp=Riddler), which boasted a whopping 8 lines !!
My first visit there nearly knocked me off my seat.
Nemesis (using Major BBS software) was very different from what i saw on Talk Channel and others.
You'd simply enter the chatroom, and there on the screen would be upto 7 other names appearing online, as everyone typed madly to eachother.
Different coloured text for each line really helped sort 'who-said-what' when things were speeding up in there.

Along similar lines was an almost duplicate-looking BBS named "The Diamond Mine"(SysOp=Diamond/Robyn) also boasting 8 lines of chat....

At the time, those 2 BBS' were the main ones to be on, always busy, hard to get into at night, and lotsa fun !!!
Both of those BBS' didn't seem to have much in the way of files or messaging areas, their prime focus was LIVE CHAT !

Social Meets & Gatherings ...
I spent a lot of time during 1993/94 on these multiline BBS' and as time went on, i was going to their 'meets'.
The meets would be anything from a night at the movies, 10pin bowling, pinball/arcade night, movie nights, and the endless amount of
weekend BBQ/pissups ;-)

Meeting the BBSers was either fun or scary at times, it brought all kinds of people together, from professionals to dole bludgers,
and everyone in between.
Many friendships/Relationships were formed, just as easily as they were parted hehehe.

The beauty of BBSing was the fact that everyone you talked to was LOCAL, giving us the advantage that we actually COULD meetup, unlike
the Internet chatrooms today (IRC, MSN, ICQ etc) where you just can't meet 'anyone' you like.

As i look back at BBSing, it was simply an extension of the old CB-Radio days, having 'eyeballs' (meetups) with people i'd
talk too on CB, and also had the same benefits of social meets & events that BBSing had.

RA Pro (10 node)
Login:
It was around 1994 when i decided to upgrade my own BBS to multi-line, as i loved the chat-scene so much on the other BBS'.
I bought an offical version of RA PRO BBS Software for $455 in 1994 which would allow me to operate 10 dial-in lines (if i had the hardware)..
After buying a bunch a 14.4k and 28.k modems in the trading post and booking some lines from Telecom, i was up & runnning with 4 lines.
( i couldn't afford to populate the entire 10 lines at that stage ).

I continued to run 4 lines from 1994 to 1998, when i was almost going to buy a further 6 lines, making it a 10-line BBS.
I sat back and studied the numbers of users loggin in, which was rapidly dropping as this "internet thing" took off, for home users.
As much as i kept users happy by downloading all the latest games, drivers, Demo's & Pictures via my own internet account, i still couldn't
keep them coming back to the BBS for too much longer.

I'd been lucky that the user membership had covered costs of my modems, PC upgrades and phone line rental for 6+ years.
From 1998-2000, the $$$ was coming out of my own pocket and i couldn't justify it any longer.
During 98/99 i had maybe 10 users a week login, (compared to 50-200 users per DAY in previous years).
My BBS limped along until 2000/2001 when i had maybe 2-3 users per week (or per Month), and decided to shut it off.

Damn you, internet !!! ;-(

Hope you enjoyed the insights of a tiny Sysop from the 90's ... - Marty .

+++ATH
NO CARRIER <--------------------------- only a true BBSer would understand this ;-) hehehehe