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Running a FidoNet-connected BBS meant I had direct access to read every EchoMail group I could subscribe my BBS to. At the time it was a great source of real, i
by magoon 7y ago
Running a FidoNet-connected BBS meant I had direct access to read every EchoMail group I could subscribe my BBS to. At the time it was a great source of real, insightful written conversation. Because the readers were text-based, and it was all on my hard drive, I could consume postings at such great speed. (spacebar, spacebar, spacebar...)
The memories.
- throw0101a 7y ago> Because the readers were text-based, and it was all on my hard drive, I could consume postings at such great speed. You didn't have to run a BBS to do this. Using an offline mail reader like Blue Wave [1] and downloading QWK files [2] allowed anyone to do it—and helped keep the lines, as downloading was (relatively) quick compared to reading 'online'. I initially got "on" Usenet by downloading SOUP files from a local free-net [3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Wave_(mail_reader) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWK_(file_format) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-net https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-net
- BeetleB 7y agoThose offline mail readers were awesome - I preferred OLX. In fact, when I finally got email, I wrote a QB program to convert my inbox to QWK format. I would then use OLX to read/reply to emails. I don't recall, but I probably used OLX's Save As to store my replies to text files which I then uploaded to my online mail server. I used OLX for emails until at least 1999.
- throw0101a 7y ago> I used OLX for emails until at least 1999. Seems you can still get it: * http://www.santronics.com/products/olx/index.php http://www.santronics.com/products/olx/index.php
- 6c696e7578 7y agoThanks for the blast from the past. You've just reminded me how awesome mail was back then. Do you remember IceEdit?
- myth_drannon 7y agoBlueWave was such a great way to read mail comparing to Gmail for example. Got me thinking about building an online clone if it just for fun.
- EricE 7y agoOh how I wished online forums supported QWK or OLX for offline reading. Most online forum software are an abomination of animations, clicks and excessive waiting for crap to load.
- sedachv 7y agohttps://github.com/CyberShadow/DFeed https://github.com/CyberShadow/DFeed the forum software behind https://forum.dlang.org/ https://forum.dlang.org/ offers NNTP feeds. More web forum software should do that.
- yakk0 7y agoBlue Wave was the first piece of shareware I registered. I still have the floppy.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]