IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

Post a reply


This question is a means of preventing automated form submissions by spambots.
Smilies
:smile: :sad: :eek: :shock: :cool: :-x :razz: :oops: :evil: :twisted: :wink: :idea: :arrow: :neutral: :mrgreen:

BBCode is ON
[img] is ON
[url] is ON
Smilies are ON

Topic review
   

Expand view Topic review: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:29 am

This took way longer than I intended, but I finally remembered to join Den of Iniquity today. Setup is easy and you seem to get full access on your first call so there's no reason not to join in the fun. I had hoped to use DoI as a testing point for one or more of the fake identities you guys suggested in this thread, but Robb only asks for name and city so I only ended up using Butner, NC. Sadly, no federal or law enforcement officials were impersonated during the account creation process.

Who is up for a virtual BBS event this weekend? It's not like anyone's doing anything due to stupid coronavirus so we might as well sit back and play some Trade Wars.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:50 pm

bryanb wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:37 pm Are you still planning to bring back the original JC as a telnet BBS eventually? It'd be really cool to browse the old messages and file bases. I'll be sure to check out Den of Iniquity soon, but please tell me it isn't a stock Synchronet board. Those things are the bane of my online BBSing existence. Nothing against Synchronet as software -- it's great -- but way too many people set up Synchronet boards as a project and proceed to do absolutely nothing with them. There's just board after board that looks exactly the same and has absolutely nothing going on -- no messages, no files, no games. Synchronet by default also asks for way too much information from new users. I basically stopped visiting new BBSes when I couldn't answer the question, "Why did I just give some random French guy the ability to dox me anytime he wants?" I think I need to create a synthetic identity just to BBS with. My fake birthday is probably going to be July 7th, 1977 (7-7-77 would be easy to remember), but if anyone has some fake names, locations, addresses, and phone numbers to suggest I'd love to hear them.

The main problem with modern BBSing isn't that BBSes don't still serve a purpose and aren't still fun. They're great at what they do and are still totally fun to use. No, the problem is actually that everyone wants to be a Sysop and no one wants to be a user. I think that's kind of what happened here too...didn't Jonsey start his telnet BBS first only to have Pinback and Flack proceed to start their own? So you went from a situation where there was one BBS, one Sysop, and two potential users to one where there were three BBSes, three Sysops, and no users. Sysops can be users on other BBSes to be sure, but you know deep down they'd always rather be on their own BBS and running the show. Unfortunately, a BBS that doesn't have active users has empty forums, empty chats, and no one playing door games which is pretty sad and all too typical. By the way, we should totally start a Trotting Krips telnet BBS. We could have text adventures as door games and text adventures as downloads and text adventures as topics for discussion on the forums. No way that'd be another virtual ghost town, right?
This is literally what happened, by the way. Not being sarcastic, not that I would be this time of year. But yes, you 100% nailed it. :/

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Ice Cream Jonsey » Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:48 pm

Gimme two seconds to take my shoes off from work and I'll reset those passwords.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Jizaboz » Wed Oct 02, 2019 6:04 pm

"Never been to jail" is near the top of my list of Things I Am Thankful For.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Casual Observer » Wed Oct 02, 2019 4:51 pm

bryanb wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:15 pm When you write to a prisoner, I don't think you generally include a cell number, but it would be awesome to put a cell number on the apartment number address line during the BBS signup process.
I know the answer to this: you include their inmate number. You can easily find the prison/jail roster online and pick out a fun sounding inmate to get their number and also what they did.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:18 pm

Flack wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:00 am A few fictitious addresses to choose from (via Quora). (I removed some of the instantly recognizable ones. Nobody's going to believe 1313 Mockingbird Lane.)
This is an absolutely phenomenal list -- thanks so much! This is definitely the best forum on the Internet for building alternative identities...you and TDarcos totally came through for me here. I now have absolutely no excuse for not setting up on account on every stock Synchronet board accessible via telnet.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:15 pm

Tdarcos wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 6:38 am Someone once suggested "Dog Natas", as a potential login name asi it is "Saran God" spelled backward. Especially appropriate for Christian-themed BBSs.
When you've got a name as awesome as Saran God, you don't even need to spell it backwards. I was also considering Kash Hoggy as my new BBS name in honor of a murdered journalist, but that might be a little disrespectful. Plus MBS probably already uses it on all the Saudi BBSes.
Tdarcos wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 6:38 am But if you go to Wikipedia's List of United States federal prisons you'll see a list of dozens of prisons, Federal Correction Centers, and Federal Camps (the names define security levels, randing from ADX's (the equivalent of a SuperMax prison, reserver for the worst of the worst), all the at down to very minimum security facilities without even fencing.

Either the Wikipedia articles for each facility have their address or the Bureau of Prisons web page for that facility does. There's a federal prison or similar facility in almost every state. But not always. When Lenny Bruce got busted on an obscenity charge sometime in the '50s in the Territory of Hawaii, he was sent to serve out his sentence at the FCI at Terminal Island, near Long Beach/San Pedro in California.
Interesting ideas here. When you write to a prisoner, I don't think you generally include a cell number, but it would be awesome to put a cell number on the apartment number address line during the BBS signup process. Or maybe I just need to find a prison-themed apartment building that calls apartments cells.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:07 pm

Jizaboz wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:19 pm No one cares about Butner so you should be good.
Do you happen to know if Butner pronounced Butt-ner or Beut-ner?

THE
HOPING FOR BUTT-NER
BRYAN B.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Flack » Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:00 am

A few fictitious addresses to choose from (via Quora). (I removed some of the instantly recognizable ones. Nobody's going to believe 1313 Mockingbird Lane.)

Doc Brown (Back to the Future)
1640 Riverside Drive, Hill Valley, California

Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, CA

Cheers
84 Beacon Street, Boston, MA

The Huxtables (The Cosby Show)
10 Stigwood Avenue, New York City

Griffin Family (Family Guy)
31 Spooner Street, Quahog, Rhode Island

Tanner Family (Full House)
1882 Gerard Street, San Francisco, California

Jon Arbuckle (Garfield)
711 Maple Street, USA

The Dursleys (Harry Potter)
4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, UK

Sirius Black (Harry Potter)
12 Grimmauld Place, London, UK

Taylor Family (Home Improvement)
510 Glenview, Detroit, Michigan

Ricardo Family (I Love Lucy)
Apartment 4A & 3D, 623 East 68th Street, New York, New York

Bundy Family (Married... with Children)
9764 Jeopardy Lane, Chicago, Illinois

The Munsters
1313 Mockingbird Lane, Mockingbird Heights, USA

Conners (Roseanne)
714 Delaware, Lanford IL

Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld)
Apartment 5A, 129 West 81st Street, New York, New York

Clark Kent (Superman)
344 Clinton St., Apt. 3B, Metropolis, USA

Fox Mulder (The X-Files)
2630 Hegal Place, Apt. 42, Alexandria, Virginia, 23242

Dana Scully (The X-Files)
3170 W. 53 Rd. #35, Annapolis, Maryland

Xavier Institute for Higher Learning (X-Men)
1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, New York

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Tdarcos » Wed Oct 02, 2019 6:38 am

Someone once suggested "Dog Natas", as a potential login name asi it is "Saran God" spelled backward. Especially appropriate for Christian-themed BBSs.

Anyone remember how I actually spent $25 to register the name "Tensin A. Darcos" as a ficticious name with the State of Maryland? Many places do registrations at the County level, (Texas, Virginia and California are three I know of), but Maryland and Colorado register them at the State level.

But if you go to Wikipedia's List of United States federal prisons you'll see a list of dozens of prisons, Federal Correction Centers, and Federal Camps (the names define security levels, randing from ADX's (the equivalent of a SuperMax prison, reserver for the worst of the worst), all the at down to very minimum security facilities without even fencing.

Either the Wikipedia articles for each facility have their address or the Bureau of Prisons web page for that facility does. There's a federal prison or similar facility in almost every state. But not always. When Lenny Bruce got busted on an obscenity charge sometime in the '50s in the Territory of Hawaii, he was sent to serve out his sentence at the FCI at Terminal Island, near Long Beach/San Pedro in California.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Jizaboz » Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:19 pm

No one cares about Butner so you should be good.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:39 pm

Tdarcos wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:24 pm Well you'll love this one, as it's a real address, and you can't get any lower than this.

Zero King Street, Alexandria VA 22314

It's the address of the Robinson Terminal, where the Washington Post (which owns it) gets their newsprint delivered when shipped.by barge up the Potomac River.
You're right -- I do love it! Could I possibly combine Zero King Street with Butner, NC? Or maybe I'll need multiple fake addresses, just in case one gets burned.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Tdarcos » Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:24 pm

bryanb wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:04 pm I suppose 666 Park Avenue and 1599 Pennsylvania Avenue would be too obviously fake for addresses.
Well you'll love this one, as it's a real address, and you can't get any lower than this.

Zero King Street, Alexandria VA 22314

It's the address of the Robinson Terminal, where the Washington Post (which owns it) gets their newsprint delivered when shipped.by barge up the Potomac River.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:12 pm

Tdarcos wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:15 pm I'd suggest 1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613, but anyone who's seen The Blues Brothers knows that's Wrigley field.
Great idea!
Tdarcos wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:15 pm Gary Settle
1426-A Columbia Pike, Arlington, Virginia 22204
Telephone: 703-845-6300
(This is the name of the Superintendemt of the State Police (whose office is in Richmond), the address and phone number are the Arlington office for State Police Division 7.)
Maybe not a great idea! Couldn't impersonating a person employed in the area of law enforcement get me into some kind of legal trouble? I mean you're the expert here, but this makes me a little uncomfortable.
Tdarcos wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:15 pm Kathleen Sawyer
4700 Bureau Rd S, Terre Haute, IN 47802, 812-244-4400
3000 Old 75 Hwy, Butner, NC 27509, 919-575-5000
3600 Guard Rd, Lompoc, CA 93436, 805-736-4154
(Kathleen Sawyer is the head of the Bureau of Prisons, and these are federal prisons in those cities.)
Maybe not a great idea! Couldn't impersonating an employee of the federal government get me into some kind of legal trouble? I do like Butner as a city name, though, so thanks for that!

For phone number, I was thinking I might use one of those free horror hotlines, if any are still up. Do any Sysops still use call back verification? If so, they'd better be prepared to DIAL EVIL! That's 1-800-DIAL-EVL, folks.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:04 pm

Flack wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:29 am I typically use my sister's birth date, which is close to mine and a real date so it's easy to remember.
I like this idea especially considering I actually do remember the birthday of my favorite sister. The downside to this is you know the two of you will end up being listed as twins in some database somewhere and you never know how that could affect you somewhere down the line.
Flack wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:29 am As for addresses, I tend to use 9001 NW 23rd street in Oklahoma City. As a kid, I remember the Blues Brothers used 1060 W. Addison as their address (which is actually Wrigley Field). I wanted to come up with something similar that I could remember, and so 9001 NW 23rd is right in the middle of a lake near my old house. It has an added bit of fun -- if you're actually in the area and enter that address into your GPS, it will continually route you back and forth around the lake forever. I'm sure many pizza delivery drivers have figured that out already.
Great ideas here! Do you mind if I borrow the 9001 NW 23rd Street address? We could be virtual roomies! I can remember some news coverage about some guy's address totally breaking Google Maps for some odd reason so if I could find that again that might be worth considering too. For cities, anything with Butte in the name seems like a good idea. I suppose 666 Park Avenue and 1599 Pennsylvania Avenue would be too obviously fake for addresses.
Flack wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:29 am When I realized that was the case and what I had done, I shut mine down. I'm not a great user, but I'm a worse sysop.
I'd really like us to reach the point where each of us could have an independent telnet BBS that could have a lot of users, but we're just not quite there yet. I think we'll have to breach the 263 simultaneous user mark to make it happen.

I don't really have the Sysop bug any more because my own dialup BBS wasn't particularly successful. I never had a dedicated phone line for it so I'd have to tell people when they could call. Some would inevitably call when the BBS wasn't set up while others would forget to call when they said they were going to call. This wasn't a good system, but as a result I do have a lot of sympathy with Don Rogers' difficulties booking guests who will actually show up. I did have a lot of fun messing around with Remote Access though. BBS software in general was a lot of fun to use.

This is pathetic, but I do sometimes have fantasies in which I live through the BBS era with unlimited funds at my disposal. Thus, I could effortlessly set up my own hundred node MajorBBS mega system and also call out to any board I wanted to across the country and around the world. It's interesting how my idea of heaven could easily turn into someone else's hell. "Permanently trapped in the world of BBSes, John Picardie has no choice but to read the same Fidonet flame wars multiple times on multiple systems, while ever yearning for some sort of escape."

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by pinback » Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:57 pm

Tdarcos wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:15 pm I'd suggest 1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613, but anyone who's seen The Blues Brothers knows that's Wrigley field.
Wow, that's a really fun little piece of trivia, Paul! Thanks for bringing it to us!

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Tdarcos » Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:15 pm

bryanb wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:37 pm but if anyone has some fake names, locations, addresses, and phone numbers to suggest I'd love to hear them.
I'd suggest 1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613, but anyone who's seen The Blues Brothers knows that's Wrigley field.

Gary Settle
1426-A Columbia Pike, Arlington, Virginia 22204
Telephone: 703-845-6300
(This is the name of the Superintendemt of the State Police (whose office is in Richmond), the address and phone number are the Arlington office for State Police Division 7.)

Kathleen Sawyer
4700 Bureau Rd S, Terre Haute, IN 47802, 812-244-4400
3000 Old 75 Hwy, Butner, NC 27509, 919-575-5000
3600 Guard Rd, Lompoc, CA 93436, 805-736-4154
(Kathleen Sawyer is the head of the Bureau of Prisons, and these are federal prisons in those cities.)

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Flack » Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:29 am

bryanb wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:37 pmI think I need to create a synthetic identity just to BBS with. My fake birthday is probably going to be July 7th, 1977 (7-7-77 would be easy to remember), but if anyone has some fake names, locations, addresses, and phone numbers to suggest I'd love to hear them.
I typically use my sister's birth date, which is close to mine and a real date so it's easy to remember.

As for addresses, I tend to use 9001 NW 23rd street in Oklahoma City. As a kid, I remember the Blues Brothers used 1060 W. Addison as their address (which is actually Wrigley Field). I wanted to come up with something similar that I could remember, and so 9001 NW 23rd is right in the middle of a lake near my old house. It has an added bit of fun -- if you're actually in the area and enter that address into your GPS, it will continually route you back and forth around the lake forever. I'm sure many pizza delivery drivers have figured that out already.
bryanb wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:37 pmI think that's kind of what happened here too...didn't Jonsey start his telnet BBS first only to have Pinback and Flack proceed to start their own? So you went from a situation where there was one BBS, one Sysop, and two potential users to one where there were three BBSes, three Sysops, and no users.
When I realized that was the case and what I had done, I shut mine down. I'm not a great user, but I'm a worse sysop.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by Casual Observer » Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:08 pm

I mostly used dial in bbs's to download warez at 9600 baud, now that's a useless endeavor.

Re: IRC, muds and telnet BBSs. What you need to know.

by bryanb » Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:37 pm

Are you still planning to bring back the original JC as a telnet BBS eventually? It'd be really cool to browse the old messages and file bases. I'll be sure to check out Den of Iniquity soon, but please tell me it isn't a stock Synchronet board. Those things are the bane of my online BBSing existence. Nothing against Synchronet as software -- it's great -- but way too many people set up Synchronet boards as a project and proceed to do absolutely nothing with them. There's just board after board that looks exactly the same and has absolutely nothing going on -- no messages, no files, no games. Synchronet by default also asks for way too much information from new users. I basically stopped visiting new BBSes when I couldn't answer the question, "Why did I just give some random French guy the ability to dox me anytime he wants?" I think I need to create a synthetic identity just to BBS with. My fake birthday is probably going to be July 7th, 1977 (7-7-77 would be easy to remember), but if anyone has some fake names, locations, addresses, and phone numbers to suggest I'd love to hear them.

The main problem with modern BBSing isn't that BBSes don't still serve a purpose and aren't still fun. They're great at what they do and are still totally fun to use. No, the problem is actually that everyone wants to be a Sysop and no one wants to be a user. I think that's kind of what happened here too...didn't Jonsey start his telnet BBS first only to have Pinback and Flack proceed to start their own? So you went from a situation where there was one BBS, one Sysop, and two potential users to one where there were three BBSes, three Sysops, and no users. Sysops can be users on other BBSes to be sure, but you know deep down they'd always rather be on their own BBS and running the show. Unfortunately, a BBS that doesn't have active users has empty forums, empty chats, and no one playing door games which is pretty sad and all too typical. By the way, we should totally start a Trotting Krips telnet BBS. We could have text adventures as door games and text adventures as downloads and text adventures as topics for discussion on the forums. No way that'd be another virtual ghost town, right?

Top