For the BBS sysops out there, what motivates you to keep running a BBS?

I've always enjoyed it as a way to provide a service people like using. I like customizing my BBS and setting things up on it that people want to use. I have also created some BBS add-ons and little software tools that I've shared, which I enjoy. I also like the networked message groups that are available.

At the same time, sometimes I get into a mood where I feel like there are other things that are more important to me, and my attention to my BBS drops a bit. I'm going through some things right now and I feel like my motivation to work on BBS stuff right now isn't what it once was, but I still like keeping my BBS running.

Also, running a BBS is a fairly obscure hobby. It seems there aren't many people these days who know what an old-school BBS is, and they might not totally understand it if you try to explain it to them.

Nightfox

For the BBS sysops out there, what motivates you to keep running a BBS?

Well, in the beginning (1988 to 1993) I was a User. I loved the idea of
BBSing, door games and files. I was disappointed in the fact that where I
lived there was only 3 BBSes that were local to me (local meaning they were
not a Long Distance phone call from me) and the local calling area was small. From Woodstock, ON to call London, On (City with a population of 300,000+)
was long distance even though it was lest than 20 miles away. Also Kitchener, On was long distance and it was 25 mikes away.
Bell Canada just came out with Call Forwarding for your landline. That gave
me a great idea. What if I setup a headless system in a town that was local
to both London & Woodstock? And local to Kitchener & Woodstock? These systems would have a basic BBS setup (Mailer D'Bridge and BBS software JetBBS, thank you Jet!) in where they would take advantage of Call Forwarding.
D'bridge would answer and based on who was calling (user or My system(s))
and start the appropriate task.
To break it down:
User in Woodstock called my system in Ingersoll. On the Ingersoll system they can choose a BBS system in Londo thay want to call.
Ingersoll system logs them off and then starts the Call Forward process.
After about a minute the user calls the ingersool system back and behold!
They are connected to the BBS they chose in London. Mean while the Ingersoll system reset the call forwarding. As long as that user did not hang up, they would stay connected.
This worked great even for London users calling Kitchener boards with NO long dstance charges.

And then came the Internet. User activity fell greatly. Shut the board down
in 1996.

Social Media was getting to be a house of Trolls, misinformation, and
personal attacks if you had an opinion that differs from others.
I thought in 2013, what if I start up a BBS again and offer an alternative to the Social Media junk that was out there. So I did. Worked out well too. You got to talk with people who would respect your opinion or background and
could have meaningful conversations with out fear of bullying, personal
attacks and the like. Play games and everything that came along with the BBS world.
Then had a catastrphic hardware failure and monetary set back. Could not
repair the BBS so had to remain shut down.

Then thing looked up in 2021. Even though covid decemated a lot of things I
was fortunate to have my job. Saved money because we could not go anywhere. Then thats when I replaced all the hardware and started again.

I just want to give back to those who also feel the same way about Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest.

That keeps me going

Sorry for the ramble. I thought you would need to hear the whole story.

Anyone else?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Mystic Realms (46:10/189)

Re: Re: What do you get out of running a BBS?
By: Vorlonze to Nightfox on Wed Apr 07 2021 10:09 am

Bell Canada just came out with Call Forwarding for your landline. That gave me a great idea. What if I setup a headless system in a town that was local to both London & Woodstock? And local to Kitchener & Woodstock? These systems would have a basic BBS setup (Mailer D'Bridge and BBS software JetBBS, thank you Jet!) in where they would take advantage of Call Forwarding.
D'bridge would answer and based on who was calling (user or My system(s)) and start the appropriate task.
To break it down:
User in Woodstock called my system in Ingersoll. On the Ingersoll system they can choose a BBS system in Londo thay want to call.
Ingersoll system logs them off and then starts the Call Forward process. After about a minute the user calls the ingersool system back and behold! They are connected to the BBS they chose in London. Mean while the Ingersoll system reset the call forwarding. As long as that user did not hang up, they would stay connected.

That's cool :)

And then came the Internet. User activity fell greatly. Shut the board down in 1996.

I ran my original BBS from 1994 to 2000. In 2000, it was rarely getting any users.

Nightfox

For the BBS sysops out there, what motivates you to keep running a BBS?

The wirrr of the fans help me sleep at night :D

but for real I don't really know. Can't say what I did years ago.
"There is not a logical reason to turn that machine off."
since that machine I have been through several, now the thing is on a VPS.
Also I am adding another board the the bunch but I know why Im doing that.
That is to offset the sterness and monotony of running a traditional
system.

-lux

--- Renegade vY2Ka2
* Origin: Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? (46:1/109)

For the BBS sysops out there, what motivates you to keep running a BBS?

For me running a BBS going back to 94 I enjoy the people that log on to the
board, Playing on it, working on it and waiting to see what comes out
of the next release that comes out.

Every once and a while a door game or two or a league door.

|08Thanks|04...

|04Greg |12Youngbl|04ood aka |04Hav|12ok|15

... Help! I can't find the "ANY" key.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/10/25 (Linux/64)
* Origin: After Hours BBS|ah-bbs.com:2333 ssh:2020 (46:10/110)