25 years online

Twenty-five years ago today, I opened my BBS to the public. It had one telephone line, so when one person was on it, everyone else got a busy signal. It was 2400 baud. Woo! So fast! I think I used to get about 30 hits a day, and I knew nearly everyone who called, especially after we started having our BBS get-togethers every month or so. The site was all message threads, with various topics, ranging from politics to storyboards (I cannot tell you how much fun it was to write Cap’n Claws, the pirate who had an adamantium hook and hated the French) and beyond. I stayed online with Through the Looking Glass for seven years, then went into the GEnie network and other online services until blogging came to my attention in 2000. And of course, in the spring of 2001, I started Yourish.com.

Twenty-five years online. (Twenty-six, when you count in the year I spent BBSing myself before I started the BBS.) I believe that’s longer than the millennials have been alive.