• IT Pros and BBSers

    From Dumas Walker@VERT/CAPCITY2 to TRACKER1 on Fri Oct 7 23:31:00 2022
    While it is a very small segment of an overall workforce... I think it's
    fair to assume that there would be a larger overlap of those who might
    want to run a hobby BBS that professionally work in IT than the general population.

    I think that is true now for sure. Looking back, I can remember when it
    was not always true. I can remember some of the more popular BBSes back
    in the late 1980's/early 1990's where I lived that were run by other professionals outside of IT. One was a surgeon. Some were run by
    technically proficient HAMs or other hobbiests who were not IT
    professionals but had at least hobby tech background. A couple were run by engineers, another by a member of the local Astronomy Society. There were a lot of Commodore boards that would come and go that were run by kids who
    may have gone on to become IT professionals (they liked to act like
    hackers). One or two were run by businesses that sold computers, another
    by the computer department at a local magnet high school.

    I was working in retail when I first started mine. I went from there to working at a library before eventually getting into various IT jobs.

    Now usually when I am entering a message on a BBS, I figure the person
    I am responding to is either a long-time BBS hobbiest from back then, and/or someone who likely has some sort of professional IT background.


    * SLMR 2.1a * About as useful as a chocolate teapot.

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    þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP
  • From Moondog@VERT/CAVEBBS to Dumas Walker on Sat Oct 8 20:58:00 2022
    Re: IT Pros and BBSers
    By: Dumas Walker to TRACKER1 on Fri Oct 07 2022 06:31 pm

    While it is a very small segment of an overall workforce... I think it's fair to assume that there would be a larger overlap of those who might want to run a hobby BBS that professionally work in IT than the general population.

    I think that is true now for sure. Looking back, I can remember when it
    was not always true. I can remember some of the more popular BBSes back
    in the late 1980's/early 1990's where I lived that were run by other professionals outside of IT. One was a surgeon. Some were run by technically proficient HAMs or other hobbiests who were not IT
    professionals but had at least hobby tech background. A couple were run by engineers, another by a member of the local Astronomy Society. There were a lot of Commodore boards that would come and go that were run by kids who
    may have gone on to become IT professionals (they liked to act like hackers). One or two were run by businesses that sold computers, another
    by the computer department at a local magnet high school.

    I was working in retail when I first started mine. I went from there to working at a library before eventually getting into various IT jobs.

    Now usually when I am entering a message on a BBS, I figure the person
    I am responding to is either a long-time BBS hobbiest from back then, and/or someone who likely has some sort of professional IT background.


    * SLMR 2.1a * About as useful as a chocolate teapot.


    The BBS owners i knew had a common HAM radio hobby, and were pc gamers.
    Other than that, they were a sprinkling of various factory and customer servic e workers. When the internet became locally available, several BBS owners swi tched over to websites hosted by their local ISP's or sites such as
    Geocities. other than posting pics, they would share links to their Qwake servers and other hobby sites.

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    þ Synchronet þ The Cave BBS - Since 1992 - cavebbs.homeip.net