_ _ _ _ _ ____ ____ ____
_ __ ___ __ _| (_) |_ _ _ ___| |__ ___ ___| | _| __ )| __ ) ___|
| '__/ _ \/ _` | | | __| | | |/ __| '_ \ / _ \/ __| |/ / _ \| _ \___ \
| | | __/ (_| | | | |_| |_| | (__| | | | __/ (__| <| |_) | |_) |__) |
|_| \___|\__,_|_|_|\__|\__, |\___|_| |_|\___|\___|_|\_\____/|____/____/
|___/
http://realitycheckbbs.org
http://radio.realitycheckbbs.org
via telnet/web/ftp/gopher
vintage h/p/a/c text files
local/bbslink/coa online games
agoranet/fsxnet/dovenet/fidonet/araknet/usenet/spooknet/survnet
realitycheckRADIO /dark/ambient/lo-fi music streams 24/7
[eom]
A brief history of realitycheckBBS
June, 1991:
I inherited a 6 MHZ AT clone
with 1 megabyte (!) of RAM and 2 20 meg hard drives from my current
employer. I started the BBS off as Left Field BBS running on Opus
software. I changed the name to "realitycheckBBS" and moved to Telegard
2.4 BBS software and FrontDoor mailer, connecting through an Anchor
2400 baud modem. Work tossed out a box of those modems, and I
occasionally handed them out with a comm program (with realitycheckBBS
in the #1 spot in the dialing directory, of course...)
July 1991:
realitycheckBBS joins NIRVANAnet(tm)
as node 9:900/7. NIRVANAnet was a free speech network started by
Ratsnatcher, Dr. Strangelove, and Jeff Hunter to network messages
between BBSes that valued anonymity and appreciated the power of
information. The BBS is busy close to 24 hours a day, I get used to
waking up to seeing people from halfway around the world dialed in.
1992:
RealitycheckBBS joined FidoNet as 1:125/57. At this point, there were
over 100 BBSes in my local area.
1993:
realitycheckBBS moves to Albany, CA and switches to Fidonet 1:161/418.
I upgrade the BBS to a 386SX. Cast-off Lantastic hardware becomes
realitycheckBBS' first network. I upgrade to a Telebit T3000 modem and
enter the high-speed realm. The number is (510) 527-1662. I feel sorry
for whoever got that number when I moved, as it was embedded in the
description file of over 3000 text files at this point.
NIRVANAnet(tm) undergoes a renumbering, and realitycheckBBS becomes a
hub for peninsula and east bay nodes. Get-togethers were common as we
were all reachable by car or public transit. I lived next door to a PUB
that housed many formal (and many more) informal get-togethers.
realitycheckBBS joins GaSPNet, a local telegard support network, and
upgrades to Telegard 2.7.
1994:
Michael Liedtke blows the lid off of the BBS information.scene with a
scathing article titled "Modem Operandi: Tips on Crime Go Online".
RealitycheckBBS is implicated for having the same information available
as most public libraries or the Library of Congress. The article
elevates the Contra Costa Times to the pinnacle of journalistic
excellence. Article is later reprinted in the National Enquirer. If you
have back copies, look for the issue with Fabio and Rosanne Barr in bed
together on the cover.
NIRVANAnet(tm) gettogethers continue. I have vague, font memories of
dinners at La Rondalla in San Francisco, a blue drink at Trad'r Sam's,
a jukebox playing Ozzy Osbourne, Patsy Cline and Boz Scaggs, and buying
bulk loose beer by the case at the Marina Safeway.
1995:
RealitycheckBBS moves back to San Francisco, but remains in net 161. I
upgrade to a USR Sportster 14.4 modem.
realitycheckBBS has over 5000 files at this point, and participates in
CCinet, XpresitNet, and JustaXnet.
There's a chill in the air as people start spending more time on
shell accounts and less time on BBSes...
1996:
The BBS moves to a cast-off 486 server the size of an end-table with 16
megabytes of RAM and 2 320 MB drives, I switch the BBS to OS/2 Warp and
Maximus CBCS. The BBS number is (415) 666-0709.
1997:
Another hardware switch, this time to a Pentium 166 with 48 megs of RAM
running Windows95. realitycheckBBS moves to Oakland, and I move the BBS
to Windows 95 and the 32-bit DOS version of Maximus.
1998:
High tech comes to realitycheckBBS! realitycheckBBS is now running on
an ISDN line - one telephone line handles incoming calls fulltime, the
other line connects to internet-based message feeds using an
application called Internet Rex. Fidonet feeds without relying on local
networks, toll recovery programs (aka shakedowns) and polling multiple
times a day changes the look and feel of Fidonet. 
1999:
A slow decline for realitycheckBBS. realitycheckBBS drops out of
NIRVANAnet(tm) after as long struggle with content quality. The net
atrophies and eventually Taipan Enigma pulls the plug on a chapter of
our lives. realitycheckBBS re-invents itself briefly as Channel Z, then
returns as realitycheckBBS with a variety of othernets including
XpresitNet, CCi, JustaXnet and InfiNet.
2000:
realitycheckBBS migrates to a single analog line with DSL. The BBS is
now running on a P233MMX with 128 MB of RAM. The BBS has 5-10 calls per
day, which isn't bad considering the state of BBSing.
May, 2001:
I took the BBS private in order to re-use the modem line as an office
line. At this point, I had 1-2 calls a day, consistently.
Jan, 2004:
I've got a garage full of hardware and no use for it. Firing up a
Windows98 desktop system I inherited from a client, I loaded Synchronet
on it and started playing around. realitycheckBBS soon comes back to
life as an internet-only BBS, with telnet, web, FTP, Gopher, NNTP and
mailing list access. Synchronet has become a one-stop shop for
communication across several media. realitycheckBBS rejoins Fidonet as
1:161/418.
2006:
There's a resurgence in BBSing, with a couple of othernets showing
promise and Fidonet Not Dead Yet. Synchronet allows for communication
via the web, NNTP, plain ol' telnet, and via email. I register
realitycheckbbs.org and start streaming music through the BBS via
radio.kataan.org. The BBS moves to a 1.4 Ghz P4 system donated by Dr.
Strangelove of "Just Say Yes"/NirvanaNet fame.
2007:
The BBS moves, comes back up in Redwood City, CA, sharing my desktop
box. 
2009:
The BBS moves to Belmont, and email services go away. Comcast blocks
SMTP traffic, and while it's nice to provide email notification of
messages, it's not critical.
2010:
Still going strong - looking for new message networks. The BBS is
running via wireless link from a cast-off HP Pavilion running XP, SBBS
3.14, and Radius for mailer duties. I find a way to provide email
services and continue offering @realitycheckbbs.org email addresses to
users.
2012:
I take over as RC10 for Fidonet, and add Agoranet, a thriving art/BBS
othernet to realitycheckBBS. The BBS is running on an old Celeron 1ghz desktop with 512 MB of RAM.
It runs surprisingly well, handling a small web site, a music streamand
Fidonet message traffic from my garage. I miss being able to chat with
callers from the BBS console, although one lucky caller caught me by
requesting a chat when I was cleaning up the garage.
2014:
The BBS is hummng along; I add more file echoes and join
Survnet, a survival/prep network, and Center of
Awareness, a group of
BBSes taking Synchronet in a new direction.
2015:
The BBS moves back to hardware from this century, with the
addition of games via bbslink.net,
Center of awareness games, and local games.Physically, the BBS moved as well, to
Aptos on the California Pacific Coast.
2016:
The last old desktop died when I turned the power off for the
aforementioned move. The BBS
moves to a solid old laptop - built in battery backup to combat the
sometimes dodgy power that comes with living in a wooded area. It's
running unattended in a storage space, quietly humming along. I rarely
have an issue with it, save for a noisy fan I didn't know was a problem
until I did some re-arranging. A $5 replacement fan from eBay and some
thermal paste took care of it for the next few years.
2018:
Still running on the laptop I set up in 2016; the battery is
still holding enough of a charge to keep the BBS going through power
outages, and things have been stable for some time. I've upgraded the
web interface to ecweb v4, which has a decent web forum feature, and
have started to see people registering via the web instead of telnet!
2020:
BBSing is continuing to flourish, despite all indications to the
contrary. realitycheckBBS is now a part of the following networks, each
with their own following, member boards, and areas of interest:
Agoranet: The official distribution
point for ACiD productions ANSI artwork and a hangout for ANSI artists
and modders
ArakNet: A BBS modder network
focused on Mystic BBS and ANSI artwork.
DOVEnet: A BBS network with a
variety of message areas and the home for Synchronet BBS support
Fidonet: The network that started
them all. It's not dead yet.
FSXNet: A friendly network, one of
my favorite hangouts these days. All range of topics.
Micronet: A small, friendly network
with general topics, online since 2000.
Spooknet: Bad informartion and
conspiracy theories abound here.
SurvivalNet: Prepping, wilderness
survival, security and information sharing galore.
realitycheckBBS includes irc (internet relay chat) on the
synchro.net irc network, and Mystic Relay Chat. MRC has started weekly
chat meetups on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, bringing back
memories of drinkalong chat sessions in the 1990s. We start earlier
nowadays, because we're much older. :)
2021:
I built a homelab to experiment with tools and services I need for my
job. I run Proxmox VE,
a bare-metal hypervisor built on
Debian, KVM and qemu, all tools I'm familiar with. A Synology NAS
provides secure storage via NAS and NFS, and a cheap appliance router
running OpenWRT provides VPN and VLAN for my network. I retire the BBS
laptop and replace
it with a broken Thinkpad from Craigslist, missing keys and with dents.
Upgrade the memory, blow out the fan, replace the thermal paste and you
have a server with a built-in UPS!
Synchronet was relatively simple to virtualize - I created a Windows
10 virtual machine, copied the c:\sbbs directory to the virtual
machine, and that was pretty much it.
2023:
The
Fediverse is here. People are tired of the manipulation and profit
mongering of the commercial social networks and looking for something a
little more personal, more connected. Mastadon is getting a lot of
publicity, and raising awareness of other decentralized and
non-commercial networks like BBSes, Tildes and even usenet. I'm
seeing an uptick in new users, and while bbsing isn't for everyone, a
few stick around.