Re: XySearch -- Status Report

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:

> so I'd like to indicate which material we're still requesting:
>
>    STILL MISSING:
>   ----- -------
>   XyQuest Information Line/XyQuest Exchange BBS
> (aka XyWrite Information Line/XyWrite Exchange):
>     any and all messages, but especially message
>     numbers 1 through 8487, from 1989-1993
>   Word Processing BBS (SysOp: Henry Kisor):

> Compuserve

I'm struggling to remember just what the presence was on CIS.
Possibly some occasional threads in a _general_ word-proc. forum ?
(But nothing ongoing or continuous.) I dimly recall messages amongst
some folks like Ed Mendelsohn (of PC Mag.), Ernie Wallengren (of
CAPTURE fame), and a guy I worked for briefly in the 80's who wrote
some XPL and was instrumental in getting me into Xy, Jay Brent. Much
of that traffic would pre-date my subscribing to CIS, but I may still
have at least a smattering of it.

Are you going to compartmentalize a lot of these things ? It's not
all created equal, and a lot of it is strictly Xy-3 stuff -- maybe not
even 3+. The era and venue is relevant info, when you're considering
what to prioritize in a list of hits.

>   RelayNet
>   RIME
>   Wicked Scherzo local WP forum

This is a case of multiple personality. I'm pretty sure that RIME was
simply the formal name for RelayNet (which, like FidoNet, and
doubtless some other such nets, was a rather large confederation of
affiliated BBS's all over the country -- and probably some in other
countries as well; in joining a particular net, they had agreed to run
the same BBS software, and abide by a set of guidelines governing
acceptable online behavior; forums and messages were echoed all over
the system, but a given member BBS was not obligated to carry anything
approaching all possible forums. {*} ) The Wicked Scherzo happened to
be one of the most prominent L.A. area BBS's that joined RelayNet,
*and* happened to carry a XyWrite forum, which probably the vast
majority of the RelayNet members did not. WS was a rather -- shall we
say -- piquant destination, frequented by a nexus of mostly W. Coast
Xy users, whose lobbying had a lot to do with the carrying of that
forum in the first place.

Just incidentally, not too long after the BBS era receded into
history, WS moved to the web, as probably quite a few other BBS's must
have. It was still there, around 3 years ago, the last time I checked
-- though I doubt it bore much resemblance to the way it was in the
Relaynet days.  That sort of gets me waxing nostalgic. In many ways,
the old BBS's were kind of like that favorite neighborhood pub where
"everyone knows your name," . . . or substitute coffee house, if your
beverage preference leans in another direction. What has taken its
place -- the Web -- is more like Times Square on New Years Eve,
multiplied by a factor of 100,000, with the addition of tons of crud
and advertising. Newsgroups are no real improvement on that. A List
like this one seems like the last vestige of the BBS era.

{* Strictly as a matter of curiosity: do any standalone or
confabulated BBS's continue to exist ?  You wouldn't think so, but
we do still have the Amish . . . . }

> Re XyQuest Exchange BBS:

> Joe Solla wrote:
>
>   I was the first person to log on to this BBS when
>   it opened in Billerica. There were no "new" messages
>   then - just as there are no new messages today.
>   It was August of 1989.
>
> So August 1989 may be a helpful terminus ante quem, if
> you're rummaging among your disks for old files.

Wait a minute -- didn't the Xy BBS move *to* Billerica from somewhere
else ? In which case it would not be the start date. Or did it move
somewhere else *after* Billerica ?

Jordan