[zeugma]

I remember the days of dial up Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) where only one person at a time could call into the BBS. If you got a busy signal, you’d have to keep trying until you got the modem tone.

Once we got software that would download all the posts from a given 'forum', it became a lot easier. You'd do all your reading and posting offline then just connect to upload any comments, and new packets. Since I'm old and forgetful, I don't even remember the name of the programs I used to use.

Gopher sites were also the bomb at one time, but I liked the ease of BBSes

[bert]

Jack Rickard........ a major source of truth

[Yo-Yo]

Once we got software that would download all the posts from a given 'forum', it became a lot easier. You'd do all your reading and posting offline then just connect to upload any comments, and new packets. Since I'm old and forgetful, I don't even remember the name of the programs I used to use.

Now that you mention it, I think I had that as well. My "online" setup was a 1200 baud modem and an Amiga 500. There was some sort of software you could buy that you could use to create games, and I downloaded a ton of those homemade games.

There was also a crude "email" system that allowed you to address messages to someone across the country, and the message would hop from BBS to BBS until it reached the recipient, so you didn't have to make a long distance call to a BBS out of state.

This was the mid to late 1980s so my memory is a bit fuzzy...