So back in the day (for me that would be around the early to mid 90s) I used to frequent the BBSes in my local city of Nottingham in the UK.

This is probably the first time I have posted on a board like this in decades, yet it feels oddly refreshing (I have no desire to post on Reddit, but BBSes just hit different, at least for me)

I was curious to know just how many people are still in this community, or even if there is one? Would be amazing to get back into this hobby.

Anyway, just thought I would say hi :)

Rich

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bagwaa to All on Wed Jul 02 2025 23:39:48

Hi, Rich.

So back in the day (for me that would be around the early to mid 90s) I used to frequent the BBSes in my local city of Nottingham in the UK.

I think I just missed the (original) BBS scene - I think I first got on the Internet in 1995. So, go on, what were the good BBSes in Nottingham back in the day?

This is probably the first time I have posted on a board like this in decades, yet it feels oddly refreshing (I have no desire to post on Reddit, but BBSes just hit different, at least for me)

Oh, yeah. I refer to it as the slow net - in the good way. No flashing multimedia ads to distract your attention, no infinity pool doom scrolling... And to enforce that I usually BBS using an old Acorn A3020 via a serial to telnet dongle. Couldn't click a link if I wanted to :)

I was curious to know just how many people are still in this community, or even if there is one? Would be amazing to get back into this hobby.

I'd be lying if I said it's a huge number, but now that BBS nets are much more common you will always see action from all over the place. There are also a lot of "pockets" where different people hang out in local echoes. The Venn diagrams overlap quite a bit but there really are different communities in the different places.

For example, Magnum is my daily driver where most of my BBS stuff happens (MRC, door games, inter-BBS echoes), but there are a couple of Commodore boards I use which are not inter-connected and have a totally different group of regulars.

As I mentioned in my reply to Dindjarin, there's a multi-relay chat on this board and there are usually quite a few people on there Saturday evenings. Worth dropping in on.

Anyway, just thought I would say hi :)

Hello!

From sunny Wales...

BobW

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bob Worm to Bagwaa on Thu Jul 03 2025 09:05:18

I think I just missed the (original) BBS scene - I think I first got on the Internet in 1995. So, go on, what were the good BBSes in Nottingham back in the day?

Oh there were quite a few, Diamond Line BBS, Maxima BBS, PUBBS, Fonty Towers BBS, is was loads of fun! the most amazing days ever tbh

Oh, yeah. I refer to it as the slow net - in the good way. No flashing multimedia ads to distract your attention, no infinity pool doom scrolling... And to enforce that I usually BBS using an old Acorn A3020 via a serial to telnet dongle. Couldn't click a link if I wanted to :)

Ha, I like the idea of the slow net for all those reasons :) -- back in the day I started on an old Amiga 500 using a 300bps modem (who would need anything faster, since it's about reading speed anyway ... right?) I then quickly moved onto PC where most of my time was on a 286, I even setup my own board using PCBoard :)

I'd be lying if I said it's a huge number, but now that BBS nets are much more common you will always see action from all over the place. There are also a lot of "pockets" where different people hang out in local echoes. The Venn diagrams overlap quite a bit but there really are different communities in the different places.

For example, Magnum is my daily driver where most of my BBS stuff happens (MRC, door games, inter-BBS echoes), but there are a couple of Commodore boards I use which are not inter-connected and have a totally different group of regulars.

As I mentioned in my reply to Dindjarin, there's a multi-relay chat on this board and there are usually quite a few people on there Saturday evenings. Worth dropping in on.

Ah that's good to know, I've just setup my own little board using this same software, got it up and running and working on a domain but I still need to relearn how to configure thing like FidoNET and DOVE Net? (DOVE Net is new to me)

Are there any other UK (or otherwise) BBSes I should look at? I like the idea of a UK based BBS scene (as small as it might be) but could still be a bit of fun.

Rich

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bagwaa to All on Wed Jul 02 2025 23:39:48

So back in the day (for me that would be around the early to mid 90s) I used to frequent the BBSes in my local city of Nottingham in the UK.

I used to regularly call BBS's in the West Yorkshire region in the old days, mainly due to the local call cost and in those days cheaper local dial codes like 91 instead of 0532 for Leeds for example.

We also used to do local meets too, both for sysops and BBS users - I do miss those days!

This is probably the first time I have posted on a board like this in decades, yet it feels oddly refreshing (I have no desire to post on Reddit, but BBSes just hit different, at least for me)

Ditto - although I keep meaning to register on stardot (BBC Micro) and haven't got around to it yet.

I was curious to know just how many people are still in this community, or even if there is one? Would be amazing to get back into this hobby.

There are definitely lots of communities about for both BBS software and users alike.

I think the whole BBS scene died off after the internet became popular, but the BBS seen seems to have had a resurgence in recent years.

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bagwaa to Bob Worm on Thu Jul 03 2025 14:11:28

Hi, Rich.

Are there any other UK (or otherwise) BBSes I should look at? I like the idea of a UK based BBS scene (as small as it might be) but could still be a bit of fun.

Hmmm, now there's a question!

UK wise, I'm sure there are people who know better than me but here are the ones I'm aware of:

Magnum (of course) is my go-to BBS

The Quantum Wormhole is along similar lines but is more ANSI art heavy. The sysop (MeatLotion) is almost always in the MRC get-together.

BeeBS is actually another Synchronet BBS but it is set up for BBC Mode 7 (teletext) which is pretty unusual, including a couple of door games. A BBC computer or Syncterm will render that for you.

Night Owl is unique and cool - it's a Viewdata BBS so you'll need a proper client (Syncterm can do it) but it's packed with teletext-style art, interviews, etc.

The Jolly Roger is another UK based one - pirate themed BBS running on ARM BBS (I think?) which they've made a lot more reliable than stock.

Should keep you busy for a bit.

Are you into word games at all? I play Wordle & Bubble Boggle every day on here and the door game servers.

BobW

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bagwaa to Bob Worm on Thu Jul 03 2025 14:11:28

Hello Rich!

It's interesting to see that you, Bob, and I arrived here the same sort
of way - looking for different internet. I got here via checking out
text-only sites and gopher as a way to get info outside social media platforms and ads.

I missed BBSes the first time around, and it's been really interesting.

UK BBSes: ipingthereforeiam has a good list, you can filter by location.
Off the top of my head, there's Fat Cats in Wales, that has an
interesting interface a bit like Nethack. There's also Toxic Laboratory which is in Birmingham (I think), and Dial-Up Nights, which is dialup only.

Plume, also in the Me Duck Zone :)

Re: It's been a while!
By: Plume to Bagwaa on Fri Jul 04 2025 19:35:42

Hi, Plume.

there's Fat Cats in Wales

I can't believe I never thought to look up Welsh BBSes - I'll have to check that one out. Cheers for the tip :)

It always made me chuckle that internationalised Acorn software always seemed to have English, some Scandinavian language and Welsh. Not that I speak the language to any useful degree.

BobW

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bob Worm to Bagwaa on Thu Jul 03 2025 22:12:30

Should keep you busy for a bit.

Ha indeed mate, thank you for the list, I shall take a look into these :)

Are you into word games at all? I play Wordle & Bubble Boggle every day on here and the door game servers.

I do enjoy them, not that I am very good at them really :) used to play wordle "online" a fair bit and had a "huge" streak (almost 9 months) and then one day it popped up with a word I knew nothing of, decided to throw my toys out of the pram and stop playing lol

Maybe I should pick it back up here :)

Re: It's been a while!
By: Plume to Bagwaa on Fri Jul 04 2025 19:35:42

It's interesting to see that you, Bob, and I arrived here the same sort
of way - looking for different internet. I got here via checking out text-only sites and gopher as a way to get info outside social media platforms and ads.

I missed BBSes the first time around, and it's been really interesting.

I would love to see a resurgence in the BBSes, I work on the internet all day as a web developer, so obviously I see every day that it's just a playground for people just trying to make money out of everything, gone are the days of just doing stuff out of interest, the corporate life is not for me haha

UK BBSes: ipingthereforeiam has a good list, you can filter by location.
Off the top of my head, there's Fat Cats in Wales, that has an
interesting interface a bit like Nethack. There's also Toxic Laboratory which is in Birmingham (I think), and Dial-Up Nights, which is dialup only.

Oh that's super handy to know, I shall take a look at these for sure!

Plume, also in the Me Duck Zone :)

Haha, nice one me duck! I grew up in north Notts in a town called "Hucknall" and then moved to south notts which is where I am now, small world

bagwaa

Re: It's been a while!
By: Bagwaa to Plume on Sat Jul 05 2025 18:36:08

Hi, Bagwaa.

I would love to see a resurgence in the BBSes, I work on the internet all day

I hear you - I definitely treat BBSing as a totally distinct sport from Internet.

However, in my heart of hearts, I don't think I'd find BBSing anywhere near as interesting if more people did it. I like the "village" feel it has at this popularity level :)

BobW