This looks like fun. Please allow me to introduce myself…
...I’m a man of no wealth and questionable taste.
My name is Dave Hitt. I’ve been active on online forums since the days of single line dial up BBSs. I started a multi-line BBS in the early 90s, and grew it to 21 lines before browsers came along and destroyed the business model.
You can find me at davehitt.com, my digital playground since 1999.
I started the Quick Hitts Podcast in 2005, and recently rebooted it after a four year podfade. It’s designed to be short and pithy - each show is about twenty minutes long. With just one episode every two weeks, it won’t take up a lot of your time. Recent episodes discuss trigger warnings from a different perspective, a plea to atheists to turn away from statism, the inevitable results of police violence, trolling street preachers, how to lie about gun statistics, and wasting your vote. Search for “Quick Hitts” in iTunes or on your favorite podcatcher.
I’m the author of Blood Witness, a novel about a Jehovah’s Witness who becomes a vampire, and World of Tanks - The Missing Manual, the definitive guide to the popular game. Both are available for your Kindle, on Amazon.
This place looks interesting, although, like many other people, I’m skeptical. Paying out $25k for a makeup video isn’t a sustainable business model. While I like the fact that this is mostly anarchists and libertarians for now, I worry that it will become an echo chamber, where well written posts espousing ideas and opinions that aren’t liberty-oriented get downvoted into oblivion instead of discussed and debated.
Could this be the Facebook Killer? FB’s banning polices are ridiculous and getting worse by the day. More and more people are getting disgusted with them. With their huge userbase they’ve got a lot of inertia going for them, but if this place can get their interface working smoothly, and keep things interesting, it could be a FB killer. Eventually.
I see a lot of potential here. It’s going to be fun seeing how it works out.
Oh man, nice to see another old BBSer, those were the days - I spent many a night occupying our phone line while strategizing my moves for Trade Wars 2002 :)
Loading up Procom to dial your favorite boards in sequence, listening to the shhhhhh---hisss--bong bong when you got your 1200 baud connection, trying to get every game played or message answered before your 30-45 minutes ran out.
I had a second line installed just for dialing BBSs.
Then I started my own multi-line subscription BBS and just as it started turning a profit, browsers came out and it was game over for BBSs.
@davehitt Oh god I know that feeling. I remember US West charging $75 per line for our BBS, and we had 10 lines with 100 subscribers one day, then suddenly 10 lines and 2 subscribers the next month.
UP ALL NIGHT FTW!
You seem interesting. Upvoted and following you. Welcome to steemit!
I started with 8 lines and got it up to 21 when browsers hit. The phone company had to rewire my entire village because they only had eight spare lines when I started. My phone bill was $625 a month. (Sounds like you were paying three times more per line than I was.) There is still a thick 25 pair cable running from a telephone pole to my house, unused for 20+ years.
The internet was around, of course, but it was clumsy and ugly and hard to use. I figured people would use local BBSs for local things, and the internet for research, and I'd make a killing. One of the most popular features was your own internet email - people subscribed just for that.
The slogan was "The BBS for Grownups." You had to be 18 to sign up, and had to mail me proof you were 21 to get into the adult section, where you could spend an hour downloading two or three dirty gifs. Some subscribers spent all day downloading porn.
It was a great party. Every weekend there were two or three meets - some private, some public. I'd be monitoring chats on a Friday night, with nearly all the modems were flashing and getting hot, when someone in chat would say "Hey, let's all go to Fenders," a popular club in the area, and most of the modems would go dark as people headed out to meet up, which I thought was very cool.
There were at least three divorces and two marriages as a result of the place. A LOT of people got laid. It was a hell of a party for the four years it lasted.
Wish i could tell a story like that.
I got a one liner byline in boardwatch and had to upgrade in a hurry. US West wasnt in a big rush.
Anyways once the lines were in it was a nonstop dl session for most people.
We started with the concept of upload download matching which is where the name "up all night" came from.
Im right there with ya on the internet thing. Assumed it would be used for research. Figured bbs's would dominate forever.
We were wrong i guess. Might be fun to bring those days back though :)
That's about the best opening line i've seen in an introduce yourself so far.
The echo chamber problem is one of my concerns about the site, but we will see how it adapts to it.
I think the massive payouts are a think because of how new the system still is, i can envisage it stabilizing with a bit more popularity, and the dynamics evolving into something more sustainable. In the meantime, may as well make hay while the sun shines.
Agreed! I have to admit it was that opening line that sucked me in....but worth it too!
Welcome @davehitt . Steem has its fair share of issues but lets see where this concept goes.
Ciao! Ciao!
Greetings!
Exciting to have ya!
I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.
Welcome to Steemit!
Great post!
Why did the elephants get kicked out of the public pool? -THEY KEPT DROPPING THEIR TRUNKS!