Twenty Years of Ben on JC!!!

[bryanb]

Happy Benniversary everyone, and thanks for everything, pinback! We can't even begin to cover all the classic threads, hilarious bits, and venomous throwdowns you've so generously gifted the board over the years, but we do appreciate each and every one of your 16,395+ posts deep in our hearts. Granted, we're also a little bitter over all the friends we can no longer easily communicate with because you ran them off the board at one time or another, but hey, no one's perfect. Odyssia's wrong about your contributions here: you've done more for this board than anyone other than Robb, and you're probably a big reason Robb has kept it up all these years and continues to put up with us all. For the record, I also consider you to be the second most important poster in Pinback Web Central board history after al-Muntaqim, and you're also easily top 5 when it comes to the old Dencity RFTK forum depending on where we rank that punk rock chick that posted that one time.

I've been working on an RFTK review in honor of this momentous occasion, but I'm not sure I'll actually get the dang thing finished tonight. I'm blaming one or more leap years for this coming chronological mishap. If we all manage make it to the 40th Benniversary unscathed, I want to broaden RFTK's focus to include not just text adventures but also adult incontinence products and reverse mortgages as well. I plan to review one product in each category on April 27th, 2042 and probably give myself a fatal heart attack in the process. At least I'll go out entertained, protected, and well-financed. What more could a guy ask for?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I guess the 20 year anniversary of this BBS was, yes, April 27, 2002. Thanks for remembering, Bryan!

I remember getting the modem sometime in 1989. By Halloween, 1990 the dial up BBS was up. I was running that until 1998, so I guess there were four years or so where I was free from all of this. Hahah!

20 years. Man.

I wish I had more sentimental words for you all. Regardless of what brings you back, I hope you all.enjoy your time here.

[bryanb]

Woah now, let's not conflate the Benniversary with the true anniversary of the BBS. Do we have an exact date for when the dialup BBS started or when the first message was posted? I guess we can use the October 31st date if we have to, but that's like when Paul's birthday coincides with Thanksgiving and no one pays any attention to it as a result. (We're sorry about that, Paul.) Halloween is killing the JC BBS birthday thread before it even got started.

I remember back in 1999 or so when we last talked about this it sounded like you had a nearly complete archive of the dialup BBS. Do you still? Imagine how much cold, hard cash Retro would drop for THAT hard drive!

[Casual Observer]

Wait, Ben didn't join until 2002? I always thought he was part of the original RaChaCha group.

[AArdvark]

RobB was kind enough to let me dig through the dial-up files a while back. I was looking for an ascii graphic. I was mildly embarrassed by the stuff I wrote back then. Now I'm glad I never kept a diary. Some of the things that were so important back then just sound shallow and trivial now. Things like car tires and computer keyboards caused arguments, can you believe it?

[pinback]

Woah now, let's not conflate the Benniversary with the true anniversary of the BBS.

Yeah, get your own thread!

Thank you all. Yes, I was a latecomer. But I came, and came again.

I dunno what it's been, but it's been somethin'.

[pinback]

RobB was kind enough to let me dig through the dial-up files a while back. I was looking for an ascii graphic. I was mildly embarrassed by the stuff I wrote back then. Now I'm glad I never kept a diary. Some of the things that were so important back then just sound shallow and trivial now. Things like car tires and computer keyboards caused arguments, can you believe it?

I remember the general theme of my posts from 2002-2003, and cannot bear to go back and find them because of how embarrassing they were. If only I could talk to 20-years-ago Ben. I'd tell him how life really is. And to tell ICJ to ban odyssia76.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

BryanB - the dial up went live October 31, 1990, I'm pretty sure. I didn't go out in a costume, I did nerd BBS stuff.

With few active posters, it is unlikely this BBS will be around for another 20 of phpBB time, but what a time we have had.

Well, mostly we yelled at each other.

[ChainGangGuy]

Is there some sort of mechanism in place to forever preserve the BBS beyond our demise, sort of like the History Rings from that old Time Machine flick?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Is there some sort of mechanism in place to forever preserve the BBS beyond our demise, sort of like the History Rings from that old Time Machine flick?

If I get sick with something I'll pay for 10 years of hosting in advance. But also if I die, you guys can contact Jason Scott and I am sure he would be able to archive the site and forum.