[vcf-midatlantic] The good old days of user groups.

[Bill Degnan]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 3:05 PM Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:

> >  As someone who did grow up with them, I can tell you that this is
> > absolutely the case.  The Internet is presented to people as a "you can
> GET
> > this, you can GET that!"  "Get get get!"  ...not "participate", not
>
> Oh no way. There were leaches on BBSes too. Heck, they had their own
> protocol! LeachZModem. It would complete the entire transfer to disk then
> tell the remote side that the xfer wasn't successful, back up... back
> up... back up... abort. So user wouldn't get dinged for the download.
>
>
 I used to feel guilty if I did not upload something in exchange for
downloading something worth it to do so.  A lot of the BBSs kept track of
uploads and gave you access to more areas of the BBS if you uploaded
something first.  It had to be on topic.    Back then it was not out of the
question to get a call from a sysop asking who you were, too.  I remember
once I signed up for a Star Trek-themed BBS as "Q" and when "Captain
Picard" called my apartment phone to see who I was, my girlfriend took the
call and called to me in a mocking tone, "um Captain Picard is on the phone
looking for Q, nerd".

Bill