Monochrome (www.mono.org) is a #TelnetBBS which is still active after over 30 years.
Giving it a little boost here to see if there's interest. So if you were a fan of the #BBS and the communities that they fostered, have a look.
The Mono community grew in the 90's as people shared computer space in the unviersity labs, showed their mates around etc. It lasted because we made friendships in IRL locally, nationally and internationally, that persist today.
There's an barrier to entry now, in that telnet/SSH was the default way of accessing a lot of internet services including email. Outside of devs and CS students, I doubt many would know their way round an SSH client nowadays.
We discussed the idea of moving to a web-based system many times, but the unique interface is still superfast for reading, navigating and posting.
More on the history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochrome_BBS
Thinking about the history of #MonoBBS, I realise we've got a huge archive of data and (hopefully) some interesting comments from the MicroVotes section. This was started in 2003 and remains one of the most active sections, with 1672 votes over the years.
It's a jolly friday and amazingly there are 8 users on at the moment!
@davoloid I think this undersells it.
Mono birthed life-long friendships; relationships; marriages; eh, births. 😁 I initially met my own wife via Mono.
Today it may be old but it was unique back in its heyday. That it's still going is astonishing, not many BBSes (or MUDs) can boast that.
@Cougar Same here, and that just shows how those friendships existed offline. Didn't know her online, but knew her IRL friend online and we got together at a big meetup. Probably about 30+ nerds taking over various Wetherspoon's and a nightclub over a weekend. Oh the joys of youthful freedom.
Bit of social history that's just not going to be well documented.
@davoloid Well, maybe it should be. 😁
Whatever happened to the History Project?
@Cougar Wikipedia was best we got, needs a proper historiography and someone who can structure it.
@Cougar Just checked now, *worm* did a great job of setting that up, but not sure what happened to the write up. Will ping to ask, but that could be some time for a response, unless I can get hold of another contact for them.
@davoloid hi Dave 👋 Mono meant a lot to me and always will. I left when the shape of my life changed and so I wasn't sitting in front a screen all day, but I do miss it.
I miss having an online communty that is also an IRL community. Mono having meets was what made it so influential in my life. Plus the fact that we were all young then probably helped :o)
@xanna I think that was the case for most people, or at least what we did on the screen changed and that window into the community was not typically on PCs.
Was it you that did the work on gender representation in online communities, or am I confusing names?
@davoloid no, that wasn't me. Sounds interesting though!
@davoloid Hell, I still log in from time to time.
@davoloid I was there back when I was at uni in the 90s, and again when I had my first job in the late 90s. If anyone remembers the users 'qyv', or 'necros' those were me (:* $8)
Mono was started as a student project at #CityUniversity in London, then became an internal social network, before being opened up to externals and the wider world.
Makes great use of colour, fast to navigate, read and post, and included it's own ASCII animation language to allow for rich utilities, games and dynamic topic sections.