Oh the nostalgia

If you think online "communities" are new, all Web 2.0 and such, it might worth noting this year is the 30th anniversary of CBBS, generally agreed to have been the first online community ever. CBBS (Community Bulletin Board System) was run by Ward Christensen and Randy Seuss somewhere on the south side of Chicago and was full of messages like this:

N/JAN;KLODNER/R/265/W//W/R/264//G/Y/FI'\'\^U
FINALLY ABALE TO G\G\^U/FINALLY ABLE TO GET INT^ THE SYSTEM AFTER MUCH
TRYING./RUNNING A TELETYPE 43 HERE AND USIGG A M^DEM. VERY DIFFICULT
/RUNNING A TELETYPE 43 HERE AND USING A MODEM.VERY DIFFICU
LT TO YPE AS THE ECHO BAKC IS SLOW..REALLY SLOW..IS THRS
NORMALY THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO FUNCTION?? I A\A\CANNOT
GET IN ON 300BAUD, ONLY 110....OTHEI THAN THAT WILL LO^K
FORWARD TO USING THIS BULLETIN BOARD!//

110 baud is so slow you can easily read a text file as it downloads.

By the time I logged in to CBBS, about a year later, Chicago's suburbs were studded with other bulletin boards, mostly run by hobbyists from home. There was no network - each required a direct phone call and only a handful of people could be logged in at any one time. But they were the ultimate in geeky goodness, and you just had to be there.